Silence is often unrecognized as an act of worship. However, it is an important element in the biblical attitude of awe before the majesty and mystery of a holy God.
The biblical worshiper encounters God in the first instance as the Holy One, whose being cannot be encompassed by the categories of the human intellect (Isa. 55:8–9; Rom. 11:33). The communication of the presence of the holy comes intuitively, in the sense of awe and mystery before a reality that transcends the normal or mundane plane of human experience. The response of the biblical worshiper is like that of Jacob (“How awesome is this place!” Gen. 28:17), Isaiah (“Woe to me! … I am ruined! … my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty,” Isa. 6:5), or John the Revelator (“When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead,” Rev. 1:17). Such a response issues from a process in the human personality that operates at a level deeper than that of rational reflection. Where this element of the numinous is missing, worship fails to approach the intensity and depth of biblical worship.
In the presence of the mystery of the being of God, silence is an appropriate act of worship. Silence is the recognition that human utterance is often presumptuous in the face of divine self-revelation. Before the Creator, the creature must confront his or her finitude. The worshiper is as nothing before him who is all. The biblical worshiper understands that to occupy oneself with verbal products of the human mind is an act of pride, in effect a denial of God’s place as sovereign Lord (Ps. 131:1; Job 42:3). Thus, when God speaks, there is nothing for the argumentative Job to do but repent: “I am unworthy—how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth” (Job 40:4). Sounds of human origin—speech, music, or other noise—can be idolatrous creations, like images of wood or stone. “But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him” (Hab. 2:20). In the sanctuary of Zion, there is silence before there is praise (Ps. 65:1). As the recognition of the kingship of God, worship is the revelation of his judgments; and when his judgments are so manifested, an awesome and suspenseful silence must fall even on the saints. In the book of Revelation, at the breaking of the seventh seal releasing the outpouring of God’s wrath, “there was silence in heaven for about half an hour” (Rev. 8:1).
Many churches have incorporated periods of silence into their orders of worship, usually for “silent prayer,” although there is little biblical basis for such a concept. The silences of biblical worship are not for prayer, which is always vocal, but rather are for a response to the manifestation of the majesty and mystery of God, and therefore a part of his praise. Silence used dramatically at high moments of celebration, is an aspect of worship in which there is much room for creative development according to scriptural models.