Rev.8:1 – When the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.
Ps.65:1 – Amp – TO YOU belongs silence (the submissive wonder of reverence which bursts forth into praise) and praise is due and fitting to You, O God, in Zion; and to You shall the vow be performed.
Revelation 8:1 has a very real sense of mystery and expectancy. John has experienced sounds of worship in heaven from angels, seraphim, elders, and crowds of believers but now everything stops and stands in utter silence. This is not a time of void but a presence permeated with holiness, majesty, and a terrifying expectancy of things to come. This silence is often missed in our worship times, especially public congregational worship.It seems as if we always have to be doing something, saying something, or playing something; sometimes a holy dreadful silence is more appropriate. Something great and terrible was about to happen as harvest and judgement were being released on the earth. There were no words to express what was about to happen; everyone stayed silent in awe of His majesty. Here is how Alexander Carmichael describes this moment.
“The believer sometimes seems to want words to exalt God, and stops, as it were, in the middle; his thoughts want words. Thus praise waits, or is silent for God; it is silent to other things, and it waits to be employed about him. The soul is often put to a nonplus in crying up the grace of God, and wants words to express its greatness; yea, to answer the elevation of the thoughts; the heart indites a song of praise, but it cannot tune it. The psalmist is stopped, as it were, through admiration (which is silentium intellectus), for when the mind can rise no higher, it falls admiringly; hence some say, God is most exalted with fewest words.”
In David’s Psalm 65 he describes this moment, David knew the overwhelming majesty of God that demands silence. There are times like this when His presence falls strongly on His people when there are just no words that can be found, actually silence describes exactly what is happening. I can remember a service like this in Bulgaria many years ago, during worship the fear of God fell strongly on the congregation. It was time for me to preach but saying anything in that holy atmosphere would be inappropriate, The only thing I could do that day was to be still and know that He is God.