How many times when reading through the Psalms have you come across the word "Selah" and had no idea why it was there or what it even meant? All we can really find is that it is a musical term dividing up sections and even linking them together. However, I think that there is much more to be found in the word then we actually know. Selah is from the Hebrew word calah which means 'to hang,' It can also be translated to mean "stop and listen." This takes on a whole new powerful concept for the believer. So many times when we read the Psalms we read straight through only to briefly contemplate its meaning at the end of the passage. King David and the other writers of the Psalms, however, inserted this word "selah" on purpose so that throughout the psalm we might "stop and listen" to what the Spirit is trying to instill in us. Psalm 46:10a says, "Be still and know that I am God." This word, this instruction is simply put into the scriptures so that we may, as the psalm says, "Be still." Our world is all about the instant, but here in the psalms we learn that quiet contemplation and devotion is crucial to our growth in Christ Jesus. I have learned recently about a type of prayer called the "Nature Prayer." Simply put, it teaches for us to pray and give thanks for the Earth God has provided. We must find a quiet place to pray and mediate on His beauty and His creation. Selah is teaching the same principle. I pray, for myself and for anyone who reads this, that we find time in our hurried devotions to practice this principle and to hang upon the words of the Holy Scriptures.
“We live, in fact, in a world starved
for solitude, silence, and private:
and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship.”
C.S. Lewis "The Weight of Glory"
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