A Need for Selah

Who is he, this King of glory? The Lord of Armies, He is the King of glory. Selah (Psalm 24:10 CSB)

In the aftermath of a hurricane, there’s this crazy limbo where there’s no way to just run around from one thing to another. Whether it’s because we’re rationing gasoline, or just because everything is closed/canceled, we find ourselves suddenly much slower than we were.

My husband and I had the lovely opportunity to watch the 2022 Top Gun Maverick in theaters. It was an incredible experience, and as it should, the franchise always makes me think of their prolific line: “I have a need… A need for speed.”

Every single time I have gotten a speeding ticket, it has been to the song “Life in the fast lane” by the Eagles. Speed isn’t always helpful!

I find myself jumping from one thing to another, whether it be events in my life, or just simply from family member to family member because there isn’t enough time in a day.

It’s overwhelming.

There’s so much to do, so little time to do it. It makes sense for us to feel the insurmountable pressure to be everywhere and do everything for everyone. After all, we’re called to be servants, right?

But, what if serving others, what if loving others, comes at such a high priority in our life that we sacrifice God?

It makes me think of the song that mashes the songs “Come Thou Fount” and “Above All Else.” 

“Above all else

I adore Your name 

Above all else tune my heart 

To sing Your praise”

This doesn’t sound like running from one thing to another, or speeding down I-4. This makes me think of stopping and refocusing. What about you?

You know how we usually say “The Hebrew word here is actually XYZ and it means…”? Well, good news, you guys, Selah is the actual Hebrew word! You already say it and already know it! Way to go on growing that Hebrew vocabulary!

But, what does it mean exactly?

It means two different things, to lift up/exalt and to pause. Let’s talk about it. 

TO EXALT

Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you. I will praise your name, for you have accomplished wonders, plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness. (Isaiah 25:1 CSB)

Exalting isn’t a word that I use outside of quoting bible verses like this one here. It’s not in my usual vocabulary, what about you guys? It makes me nervous to think that just because it isn’t in my vocabulary, or a priority in my day, that it isn’t my first instinct. So, how do we change that? 

We turn our hearts to sing His praise. We start our day with that, and keep it at the forefront of our minds. We remember that God is ours to serve and seek exclusively. This means above family, above friends, above our church (I know! Gasp!) above those who need us. 

Now, this doesn’t mean that we abandon everything but God, but we should be completely capable and content doing that. Our God is a jealous God, right? We talk about that because it’s such a prevalent theme through the Bible, but do we really do anything with that knowledge? 

When we’re rushing from one thing to another, putting off reading our Bible, putting off prayer, or forgetting about God in the inbetween, is that putting Him first?

Trusting in Him even when it seems like everything is falling apart, which is particularly hard in some seasons, right? Taking the time to lean wholly on Him in the times that get overwhelming, instead of trying to take it all head on. Praying for opportunities to focus on Him and the goodness and faithfulness that He is. 

We exalt Him by doing exactly what He wants: having a relationship with Him where He is our priority. 

TO PAUSE

In the NLT version, it says Interlude instead of Selah. Interlude comes from the Latin word “inter” which means between. I like to think of this as the pause between each crazy moment in life. Between the events and the people-ing. Between the planning and the execution. Between the moment we wake up and the moment we lay down. It’s that pause to focus on God and not the world around us.

In this psalm particularly, it’s entitled The King of Glory. This is a psalm that is talking about how awesome God is! We could go through this Psalm verse by verse and talk about how wonderfully, perfectly, incredibly awesome God is, but I’ll leave that to you, dear readers (it’s only 10 verses. You’ve got this.)

Going back to the point of this post, to pause is important in this world that is going faster and faster and faster. I mean our entire world is built on getting things instantaneously because we need to move on to the next thing. I’d love to see how much McDonald’s makes off of families speeding from one event to another.

But to purposely pause, and redirect our focus onto God? To take the time to refocus on peace and calm, and spend extra time with Him? Isn’t that exactly what He wants from us?

As we do, remember: God isn’t good and loving and just and perfect because of things He does for us… He’s all of these things and more without us even in the equation. He is because He simply is.

So, spend extra time with God today, tomorrow, all week. To take those moments that we start mentally going through that to-do list, and refocusing on the reality of our lives here on earth: to share God with others. We can only do that if we, ourselves, know Him intimately. 

Do you?