I cried unto the Lord with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah. Psalm 3:4 KJV
Last week I broke one of my toes while tripping over a chair on the way to the coffee machine in the morning. What bothers me almost as much as the pain is the fact that this injury has put a halt to many of the activities I had planned for this week. I have had to pause and reconsider what is most important. Now in the Bible there is a word that reminds me of my situation and that is the word Selah. Though the precise meaning of Selah is debatable, it is some sort of annotation denoting a time to pause and reflect. Selah is used much the way a rest is used in music. When I was a child I struggled with those rests in my clarinet lessons. A four beat rest was especially hard, though it gave me the needed moment to take a breath, it was hard not to start tooting my next note before it was finished. In that same way, God sometimes places a long rest between events in our lives. Oh yes it is hard to wait out those full four beats with nothing we can do!
We take a quick breath and ask – “When can I play my next note?” But God, who is the wise orchestra director of our life knows exactly how long we the rest must be. This rest is not just an accident, it is written into the composition of His symphony. It is time to pause and reflect on the last measures He gave us to play. Not until just the right moment, with our full attention given to the direction of His baton, will it be time to start tooting again. Maybe like me, you are experiencing God’s call for Selah today. Instead of fussing and fretting over what we can’t do, we need to see this as His perfect timing, for taking a deep breath so that we will be ready to play just the right note! So I’ve shared my personal Selah moment for this week – is anyone else willing to share yours? It just might give someone else a needed blessing today!
praise2worshipdotnet 
Pingback: Selah — praise2worshipdotnet – QuietMomentsWithGod
Selah has been a theme for me these past few months. Sometimes, when we refuse to rest over a period of time, God forces it on us. Such has been the case for me and it has been one of the hardest best things.
One of the things I have had to learn (re-learn) is how to breath … deeply. For so long I had been shallow breathing (think flight/fight response) that I could no longer fill my lungs fully with air. This affected my ability to do physical acts like walking, but also made falling asleep difficult and increase anxiety. After weeks of ‘exercising’ my lungs through breathing practises, I can now take full, deep inhalations of air, and hold it! The exhale feels amazing … and complete. All that to say, I needed to accept this selah in my life, my days, so as to fully take in the breath of life.
Carole
What a wonderful story and thanks for sharing your personal Selah. The size of God’s instrument in teaching us is so often small compared to the lesson it leaves in our heart.