One of the soul-refreshing joys of living in Northern Ireland is being able to walk in the Mourne Mountains. There, with the crunch of my footsteps stilled as I pause to enjoy the views, I have often remembered Elijah’s experience of God in the sound of sheer silence (1 Kings 19:12). External silence is hard to come by in today’s fast-paced world, internal silence perhaps even more so among the strong currents of our frenetic thoughts and fraught feelings. Yet that is what this psalm invites us into with beautiful brevity: a calm and quiet soul.

Three themes interweave: being humble (v 1), being held (v 2) and being hopeful (v 3), each leading into the next. Do you notice from verse 2 that we have a part to play: we calm and quiet ourselves? As we reject arrogant, controlling attitudes that preoccupy us with what’s not ours to oversee, we discover a contented peace. No longer reliant on small feeds of milk, a weaned child is sustained for longer periods by more substantial solid foods and has learned over time to trust the reliability of the one who feeds them, attaching securely in the process. What if we could experience this confident, steadying attachment with God? Surely, our hope for both present and future would be firm and enduring.