A Note from Pastor Doug

We have been invested in the psalms this past month as our sermon series on stewardship. I don’t know about you, but I’ve really appreciated delving deeper into the Psalms each week. Now, I’ve been invested in the psalm for quite some time. I find them to be so rich with emotion and words describing our relationship with the Lord God and so full of honest prayer. Someone once said that the Psalms are God’s words to us to pray back to God. Each week I spend some time with the appointed Psalm and translate it from the Hebrew looking into how the words bring alive the Psalmist thoughts and even what at times seem to be unrehearsed prayers.

At our last staff meeting the question was raised “what does that “selah” word mean? Have you encountered that word in the Psalms? My father would jokingly say that it is the word David said when he broke a sting on his lyre. Perhaps, but far from an accurate translation. The word ‘selah’ shows up every now and then in a psalm (71 times, 3 more in the prophet Habakkuk) and it is never translated. Should we leave it in or try and translate it? What do we do with “Selah”?

Selah is left untranslated because it has multiple facets; it means to lift up or to exalt, to pause, as in music or with a rest. It is an accentuation of what has come before. For example, in Psalm 46 the Psalmist declares; Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult. Selah (pause, think on this... then continue...) There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God....Selah describes the chaos the psalmist is feeling all around. But wait, God is in control and there is a peace with God’s presence that calms, reassures, comforts.

Selah is like a governor on the motors that drive our emotions – slow down, chill, contemplate, pray. I think Selah is a good word for this time of year, don’t you think? November is an interesting month. It is a time of harvest, of clearing away and putting away the things of this past year, whether that be yard waste, and patio equipment or year-end reports and evaluations of what has transpired. We spend time contemplating the past year’s events and our place in them. Selah is a pause and a time to reflect.

However, things are beginning to gear up toward a month long (or longer) winter festival season of shopping and decorating and celebrating and caroling. There are pageants and programs and productions and people to greet. Selah is a word that invites us to pause, to reflect on how God has been involved in our lives and continues to be. Selah, stop and give thanks. Selah, fill your heart and your prayers with the beauty and wonder of God’s grace wrapping around you. Selah, know that God’s got this and I can rest in Him. Selah. Thanksgiving. Yes, stop and reflect on all that the Lord our God has done for us and give thanks.

So, I encourage you to selah. For all that has transpired this year in our world and in our individual lives, selah. Lift up and exalt the ways God has touched your life. Rest in that prayer and know that whatever comes next God is with you.

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. Colossians 3:2-3. Selah!

Pastor Doug