Selah

Selah
How often, while reading the bible, I have just skipped over words with absolutely no concern for their impact on the scripture being read.

One such word is “Selah”.

My pastor assigned this lover of reading and words the job of communications ministry. How cool is that?

This assignment has so profoundly changed the way I look at the Word.

Now, I haven’t become a “biblical scholar” or expert in anything. Instead I have developed a serious hunger to better understand God’s word and the way it applies to MY life.

Today, in connection with my work for the church. I read Psalms 4. This is far from the first time that I have read this scripture, but it is surely the first time I was not able to just skip over the word “Selah”.

Selah (Hebrew: סֶלָה‎, also transliterated as selāh) is a word used frequently in the Hebrew Bible, often in the Psalms, and is a difficult concept to translate.
(It should not be confused with the Hebrew word sela‘ (Hebrew: סֶלַע‎) which means "rock.")
It is probably either a liturgico-musical mark or an instruction on the reading of the text, something like "stop and listen". "Let those with eyes see and with ears hear" is most concise"
Selah" can also be used to indicate that there is to be a musical interlude at that point in the Psalm. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selah


This word is found in the Psalms of David and the book of Habakkuk. Scholars have speculated its meaning since 270 B.C., when the Old Testament was translated into Greek. Since the Psalms were actually songs—set to music—many conclude that selah refers to musicians’ directions. They feel that selah was not a sung word. Rather, it told musicians to play louder or faster, reprise a verse, etc.
But a Jewish music expert, Suzanne Haik-Vantoura, offers a different, more fitting view. Her book, The Music of the Bible Revealed, (written in French) states that selah was not an instruction. In fact, she concludes that it is part of the lyrics. Though she gives no formal definition for the word, she believes that, like amen at the close of prayer, selah stresses the importance or reality of what was said.
www.thercg.org/p032.a.html -

Until I am given a better understanding, I will hold to the interpretations "stop and listen". "Let those with eyes see and with ears hear"

When I see the word “selah” I will stop and listen. I will attempt a better understanding. I will read prayerfully.

May God Forever Be a Blessing in Your Life!!!

(There is a wonderful writing on this word at http://www.mountainretreatorg.net which can only be reproduced in full; therefore is not included here.)








M