SELAH

by elder Lin Brown

             In the Old Testament book of Psalm there is a word used which is not translatable - selah.  It is a very important word to our spiritual life.  It was used when the Psalmist was overcome by the majesty of things that he had been moved to write.

 From time to time in the course of a busy day, we all should take a selah. We should pause in the heat of battle and think deeply and contemplatively on the word of God. On this day in particular, we should think deeply upon this great God with which we have to do. Many people will go to their churches today with the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life totally consuming their thoughts and dominating their worship. It will be proven true over and over again in tragic accuracy that the words of scripture are true when they say, “. . . this people draw near to me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me . . . . ” (Isaiah 29: 13)

How is it with you?  Do you go through the motions of mindless traditionalism and are never touched by the reality and awesome magnitude of the True and Living Triune God, the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit?  Likewise, many of us rush through a reading of the word of God never taking a selah, never pausing and thinking that in the very words themselves, not to mention the entire passage, there is a multitude of ideas and concepts in every area of life that could benefit us spiritually.

In the coming days we will explore some of these deep things of God that should cause us to pause, issuing forth a selah from the depths of our souls.

 Psalm 115:3 says “But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.”  This verse is certainly an occasion for us to pause and take a  selah.  This is not the God who is preached in the modern church and believed on by the many people attending its services, but it is the God of the Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. It is the God of the church traveling the old path and the good way wherein is life eternal.

A god who is not this God is no god at all. Man is constantly trying to reinvent a more palatable god made in his own image and designed for his own purposes, which will be found in the end to be just another idol of the reprobate mind of fallen man. 

Let us take a selah here and realize the holy ground upon which we stand. Flesh and blood cannot reveal to us, nor can it make us accept this God who has done whatsoever He hath pleased. Pause and think that this verse says, not that He (God) in sadness did anything, but that he took pleasure in what He did. This verse comes at a time when the Psalmist’s enemies were boasting of their self-proclaimed power, and he, the Psalmist reflected on their actual powerlessness against the God in heaven, who is far above all plans and purposes of man.

Indeed, this is a time for a selah.  May the Lord of this Scripture open your heart to this glorious truth.  Flesh and blood cannot reveal it to you, but the heavenly Father can.

Today we will take our selah before a verse in the Old Testament which should stop us in our tracks and and cause us to bow down and worship the God of the Holy Scriptures. In Isaiah 53:10 it says “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt
make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.”

      Perhaps in the past, we thought of the crucifixion of our Lord as an unfortunate event that caught God totally by surprise, reluctant to do anything except to be saddened at such a display of the sinful power of man.  Alas, selah, we are told that instead, it was the Father’s pleasure to bruise Him. This would be almost unbelievable if it was not in the Word of God.

     It is not that God is a sadistic or an uncaring Father who would take pleasure in the suffering of His Son.  No, He is not like that.  Rather, He takes pleasure in the sacrifice of His Son for the purpose of bringing many children into the Kingdom.  Before there was anything at all, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit undertook the salvation of those that were chosen to eternal life. Thus, it was the pleasure of the Holy Trinity to save those chosen from the foundation of the world to salvation in Christ Jesus.  Selah! 

 At this time of year, it is fitting that we think often on the sufferings of our Savior at the hands of wicked men. Selah! In the Epistle of Hebrews in chapter 12 and verses 2 and 3, the apostle Paul admonishes us to consider the suffering of Christ, who took joy in enduring the cross, yet, despised its shame.  “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.” 

       When times seem to press us down and cause us great anxiety, we who are the children of God have simply to look unto the Author and Finisher of our faith and see One who has suffered more than we ever will or ever could. Selah! Christ endured the cross, the most horrific death ever devised for man by man himself!   Our Lord despised the shame and the shameful evil of godless men. This was He Who had all power in heaven and earth but went like a sacrificial lamb to the slaughter knowing all the time that His death was not the end but a triumphant beginning for all those who were in Him at His death and in Him in His glorious resurrection, and who are now seated together with Him in heavenly places.

             Just think about Him in His suffering.  When you are tempted to pity yourself and the petty trials you are called to bear in your life, Consider Him Who endured the harshest contradiction of sinners.  Selah!

    Today, for our selah, we reflect upon Matthew 27:42 which says “He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him.” The evil men that stood by the cross mocked and jeered at Jesus as He suffered in atoning sacrifice, neither understanding His mission nor the necessity of His death.  It would not be, and it could not be, that He would save Himself, for if He did, no one else could ever be saved. Also, if He were to save Himself, it would mean that He was in need of salvation Himself, which could never be true either.  II Corinthians 5:21 tells us,  “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”  Our Lord had to stay upon that cruel cross, because He was bearing the sin of the elect race; otherwise, all would perish if He had come down from the cross.

Would you have agreed with those that stood by the cross so long ago mocking Jesus to come down from the cross to save himself?  Do you wish that He had never died?  Are you one who believes that His death was an unfortunate triumph of the evil of man?  May the blessed Holy Spirit of God deliver you from such notions and open your eyes to the truth that through the death of the spotless Lamb of God comes the eternal salvation to the election of grace. Just think, that if He had not died and rose again from the grave, then we all would be in our sins and hell would be our eternal abode.  Selah.

 Our selah today takes us to a passage of scripture that shows to us the fickleness of man in his natural state. As Jesus rode triumphantly into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday amidst the materialistic hopes of a military and forceful ousting of the Roman occupiers, Matthew 21: 9 records these words,   “And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.” When their hopes never materialized, they realized that He would not be the Messiah of their expectations. Their shouts of “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord” turned to shouts of rage.    “And they cried out again, Crucify him.  . . . And they cried out the more exceedingly, Crucify him” as recorded in the book of Mark in chapter 15 and verses13 through 14.   Indeed, when Jesus does turn out to be what men want Him to be, then they turn on Him and cry out for his banishment and execution.

 We live in a very dangerous world, which still actively hates the Jesus Christ of the Holy Scriptures. They would tear Him from His throne and would throw Him into the dirt and filth of human depravity if only they could. Make no mistake about it, the real Jesus Christ of the scripture is now no more popular with natural man than he ever was. The cries of “crucify Him” still rings in the courts of man’s government and the churches of man’s religion. Thanks be unto God that it was through their evil desires that His eternal purpose was brought to perfect fulfillment.  Selah.

Our scripture passage today is Luke 23:56 which tells us in the most peaceful language,  “And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.” The horrific scene of the crucifixion was now past, and those who were with Jesus while He walked on earth, now attended His burial preparations. They quietly and sorrowfully laid the body in the grave, and they observed the sabbath day according to the commandment.

Sorrowfully, they went about their duty observing the sabbath as a time of rest. The veil of the temple was rent from top to bottom, and earthquakes shook the land. Both events were hidden from their eyes in a flood of tears and in the brokenness of their hearts.  The evil men who called for His crucifixion were quiet, and their leaders plotted ways to head off any rumors of His resurrection. The Romans went back to being soldiers of an occupied nation. The body of the Lord Jesus Christ lied silently in the grave not moving or breathing because that is the way things are when one is dead, and to the unbelieving, He was most assuredly dead and buried.

Indeed, if that was the end, then we would make pilgrimages to Israel to stand before Christ’s tomb shedding tears because an inscription would read, “here lies another dead person who was good, but is now dead.”   Oh, thanks be to God for that was not the end!  Jesus did arise, and His body is not in the tomb! 

Likewise, it is to be noted that returning to the Sabbath is not an alternative, for duty to a written code is not the way to eternal life. Christ arose, and we do not sorrowfully remember one who once existed but now is dead.   No, we serve in the newness of life a risen Savior Who is alive for evermore. Selah.