What makes you "give a big pause"? What if I told you there's a word that appears in the Bible seventy-four times, would it give you pause?
I recently started looking for a decorative something to hang on my wall in my kitchen. I was thinking a word maybe two from scripture. Went to Etsy and gound a print with the word Selah. I became somewhat obessed with the print. It says this "Selah. stop. pause. listen. transition. measure. reflect. exalt. lift. praise. always. forever." I fell in love right there with the word.
I always want to make sure what I use is scripturely sound, so I started looking into the word. It is believed that the word is an ancient (meaning out of date) Hebrew word that translated "forever". It appears in the book of Psalm, which gives the impression it is a musical word directing the song text to pause. The derivative word in Hebrew is salal which means to "raise voice in praise". All of this sorta backs up what the Etsy print says.
So, that brings me to the first thing in this blog, what makes you give pause? If this simple word says to pause, what are we to do after that? What is it we are pausing? Psalm 32, Selah is used after three verses.
4 "For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried us as by the heat of summer. Selah"
5 "I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said,'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.' and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah"
7 "You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverence. Selah"
When I read these three verse, I see the pause in different words. Verse four says to LISTEN, verse 5 says to TRANSITION, and verse 7 says to raise those voices in PRAISE. I think using Selah might be a good idea here...
Stop. Ponder. Be Still. Listen. Transistion. Praise.
I needed this reminder, maybe I need it plastered on the wall of my heart as well as my kitchen.
This was lovely 😊