---
title: 'J.A. Alexander: Be Still and Know That I am God'
type: post
author: 'R. Andrew Myers'
date: 2021-09-16
url: https://confessional.org/blog/2021-j-a-alexander-be-still-and-know-that-i-am-god
---

# J.A. Alexander: Be Still and Know That I am God

[Joseph Addison Alexander](/authors/joseph-addison-alexander), the remarkable Biblical scholar who was skilled in 25 languages, was also a prolific poet. In 1833, while on travel in Europe, he wrote what his biographer, [H.C. Alexander](/authors/henry-carrington-alexander), called “one of his noblest productions.”

**Be Still and Know That I am God**

I.

> When fortune smiles and friends abound;
> When all thy fondest hopes are crowned;
> When earth with her exhaustless store,
> Seems still intent to give thee more:
> When every wind and every tide
> Contribute to exalt thy pride;
> When all the elements conspire
> To feed thy covetous desire;
> When foes submit and envy stands
> Pale and abashed with folded hands;
> While fame’s unnumbered tongues prolong
> The swell of thy triumphal song;
> When crowds admire and worlds applaud
> ”Be still and know that I am God.”

II.

> When crowns are sported with and thrones
> Are rocked to their foundation stones;
> When nations tremble and the earth
> Seems big with some portentous birth;
> When all the ties of social life
> Are severed by intestine strife;
> When human blood begins to drip
> From tyranny’s accursed whip;
> When peace and order find their graves
> In anarchy’s tempestuous waves;
> When every individual hand
> Is steeped in crime, and every land
> Is full of violence and fraud;
> ”Be still and know that I am God.”

III.

> When to the havoc man has made
> The elements afford their aid;
> When nature sickens, and disease
> Rides on the wing of every breeze;
> When the tornado in its flight
> Blows the alarm and calls to fight;
> When raging Fever leads the van,
> In the fierce onset upon man;
> When livid Plague and pale Decline
> And bloated Dropsy, form the line;
> While hideous Madness, shivering Fear
> And grim Despair, bring up the rear;
> When these thy judgments are abroad:
> ”Be still and know that I am God.”

IV.

> When messages of grace are sent,
> And mercy calls thee to repent;
> When through a cloud of doubts and fears
> The Sun of Righteousness appears;
> When thy reluctant heart delays
> To leave it’s old accustomed ways;
> When pride excites a storm within,
> And pleads and fights for every sin;
> Be still, and and let this tumult cease;
> Say to thy raging passions, “Peace!”
> By love subdued, by judgment awed:
> ”Be still and know that I am God.”