A day in the life of ‘busy’ is causing me to find ‘the rest of God’. So whenever I come upon portions of scripture that speak of rest, I listen up. Today I was reading Psalm 62. I love this portion, verses 5 through 8, as they are life giving in the midst of constant doing. But when I reflected on this passage I became riveted on the word Selah.
Psalm 62: 5-8 says:
5 Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.
6 He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.
7 My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge.
8 Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.
Selah
Selah. Interlude. Time out. Take a breath.
I don’t know about you but when I read a Psalm I tend to gloss over that word Selah. Yet today as I read over these verses I realized that the word Selah is well placed.
The song at this point in David’s Psalm is about finding rest in God alone. I believe that this word Selah is metaphorically placed as a sign of rest. Musically, it was a break, or perhaps a breakout of interludal singing to God from the depths of souls with no organized chorus at this juncture.
I am imagining a scene where the crowd is worshiping together, singing the words together in choir form. And when they come upon the word Selah, they pause, perhaps a harpist continues, or a few begin to sing from their heart in their own words back to God or some may silently wait, taking a cleansing breath or two until the musical director gives the downbeat to continue on as a choir.
Traditionally, the word Selah was strategically placed in order to stress the importance of the preceding passage, to pause and reflect, to weigh or determine the value of that passage.
So too, finding rest in God alone, requires us to pause and reflect, to create an interlude in our day, a time out from activity, from our active minds, to take a breath and orient ourselves back to God.
An interlude. Time out. Take a breath. Rest.
Ahhh…Selahhh.
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