# Quieting Day 7 > Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God. > *Uncrowd my heart, O God, until silence speaks in your still small voice; turn me from the hearing of words, and the making of words, and the confusion of much speaking, to listening, waiting, stillness, silence.~Thomas Merton* #### Psalm for the Week: Psalm 23 #### A Psalm of David. *23 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures.* *He leads me beside still waters.[a] 3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness[b] for his name's sake. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,[c] I will fear no evil,* *for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.* *5 You prepare a table before mein the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.6 Surely[d] goodness and mercy[e] shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell[f] in the house of the Lord forever.[g]* #### Scripture for the Day: Isaiah 30:15-18 *15 For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning[a] and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” But you were unwilling, 16 and you said, “No! We will flee upon horses”; therefore you shall flee away; and, “We will ride upon swift steeds”; therefore your pursuers shall be swift. 17 A thousand shall flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you shall flee, till you are left like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain, like a signal on a hill.* #### *Reading for Refle*ction: **Silence is nothing else but waiting for God’s Word and coming from God’s Word with a blessing. But everybody knows that this is something that needs to be practiced and learned, in these days when talkativeness prevails. Real silence, real stillness, really holding one’s tongue come only as the sober consequence of spiritual stillness.* *But this stillness before the Word will exert its influence upon the whole day. If we have learned to be silent before the Word, we shall also learn to manage our silence and our speech during the day.* The silence of the Christian is listening silence, humble stillness, that may be interrupted at any time for the sake of humility. (Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer)* #### Reflection and Listening: silent and written #### Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself #### Song for the Week: Be Still My Soul *Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side.* *Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.* *Leave to thy God to order and provide;* *In every change, He faithful will remain.* *Be still, my soul: thy best, thy heavenly Friend* *Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.* *Be still, my soul: thy God doth undertake* *To guide the future, as He has the past.* *Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;* *All now mysterious shall be bright at last.* *Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know* *His voice Who ruled them while He dwelt below.* ### Closing Prayer: *O God of peace, who hast taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be our strength: By the might of thy Spirit lift us, we pray thee, to thy presence, where we may be still and know that thou art God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (The Book of Common Prayer)*