Mar | 06 | Selah; And then He Came!

Key Word:- CONSIDER

Title:- Selah; And then He Came!

Psalm 3:3,4 But You, O LORD, are a shield for me, My glory and the One who lifts up my head. I cried to the LORD with my voice, And He heard me from His holy hill…….Selah

So goes a portion of Lauryn Hill’s chorus in her modern day psalm, which I first heard on the soundtrack of ‘The Divine Secrets of The Ya Ya Sisterhood.’ I first saw and heard Hill perform and sing in ‘Sister Act 2’ when she belted out ‘Joyful Joyful We Adore Him!’ What a voice, but more than that friends, I say again, what a modern day psalm is the song entitled, ‘Selah’.

The exact meaning of this term ‘Selah’ as it appears in the Book of Psalms may be a debated one, yet most people think it means: “ ‘Nota Bene!’ or ‘Note well’ or ‘mark well’ or ‘look at this’ or ‘think about it now’ or ‘meditate on it’ or ‘let the truth of what has just been sung just sink in and soak in, so much so that the truth delivered to you becomes a ‘yes’ and an ‘amen’ in your heart and life; thus let it mark you, let it make you, let it, Oh God for goodness sake, let it change you! Selah!’ " What a brilliant if somewhat lost little word!

Did you know that truth has to sink in to take it’s true effect? Meditation is simply that space of reflection that allows the thought to descend 12 inches to the heart. That foot long space between mental acceptance and heart embracing is not just a clapping cleavage, or a chest so full of hair that it looks like a burst mattress, oh no! That foot long of hard ground, for that is what it is, is a killing ground, and a parched desert full of rocks, weeds and picky little pecking birds! It's quite a job to let the seed of truth, travel down south just 12 inches to the depths of our being and germinate in the heart. I am sure you will agree. Selah!

Hill’s lyrics paint the heart as despicably deceitful and our whole being as whorishly happy in acquiescing to its treasonable and killing lies. The summation of her psalm is a deep cry of rescue; rescue primarily from herself! Listen:

“Nothing can be done against the truth,
No matter how we remain in denial (yeah);
Wasting time, replacing time with each empty excuse;
But that'll only work a little while;
Coping with despair, knowin' you're not there;
Ashamed to just admit I've been a fool!
So I blame it on the sun, run away from everyone,
Hoping to escape this ridicule.
Trapped in misery,
Wrapped so miserably in this deception that
I'm wearin' it like a skin”
We are all at some point in this trapped position and in an alarming way, without the goodness of God, we are happy to be so trapped; that is until He comes. Until He comes and clears a foot long path from head to heart and friends, when that happens, Oh my God, when that happens! What revealing nakedness! What an horrific discovery! What a revelation of sin and awful self and oh, the accompanying pleading cries! What tortuous grounds for suicide are discovered then, for I tell you, if the arrival of such revealing truth did not come on the gracious hand of Him who holds the key to our own prison house, then we like the Philippian jailor of old, would want to fall happily and headlong onto our own blunt and bombastic poorly sharpened, not so shiny, little swords. But thank God, Jesus the Saviour always turns up with grace, when His truth arrives in the heart. ‘Selah!’
Mark well friends, that when His word comes and travels that Sabbath days distance from head to heart, it arrives in resurrection power! It arrives as light in the darkness, as hope in the midst of death! It arrives in the gracious pierced hands of Him who now and for always, holds the keys to death and hell. And God’s people said, “Oh Jesus, amen and thank You Lord Christ!”
So let me ask you friend, “What are you wearing for a covering today across your sorry little heart? What colour from within reflects in the shiny surface of your skin? Is it the bright red colour of glorious grace or the saving facing yellow, of self-justifying madness? Selah!

Listen: - Unless the LORD had been my help, My soul would soon have settled in silence. If I say, “My foot slips,” Your mercy, O LORD, will hold me up. In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul. Shall the throne of iniquity, which devises evil by law, Have fellowship with You? Psalm 94:17-20


Pray:
I beg you desperately cause me to agree to what I know is best for me. Please save me from myself, I need you to save me from myself.
Please save me from myself so I can heal the choices that I make.
Oh I have been nothing but mistakes, what a wasted use of space Should I die before I wake.
In all of my religion, I've fortified this prison,
Obligated to obey the demands of bad decision.
Please save me from myself,
I need you to save me from myself.
Please save me from myself
So I can heal.
Selah.

(Lauryn Hill)