Selah

Scripture Text: Psalm 85: 1-2, 8-13 (Advent 2B)

¹Lord, you were favorable to your land; you restored the fortunes of Jacob. ²You forgave the iniquity of your people; you pardoned all their sin. Selah.…

⁸Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts. ⁹Surely his salvation is at hand for those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land. ¹⁰Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss each other. ¹¹Faithfulness will spring up from the ground, and righteousness will look down from the sky. ¹²The Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase. ¹³Righteousness will go before him, and will make a path for his steps.

Selah. It’s an odd word that seems to us to be sort of randomly inserted in some Psalms (and even a couple of times in Habakkuk). The meaning for us is a little unclear. Technically, the word means “forever”. It is perhaps a derivative of the Hebrew word for “raise voices in praise” or even “make the instruments louder”. Whatever the meaning, the insertion of the word in the midst of a passage indicates an intentional pause in the text. It possibly means to actually raise voices or add louder instruments. Some also speculate that it could mean to bow or to raise one’s head. However it is interpreted, it means to pause, to stop, to spend some time absorbing or meditating or just thinking about what has been said.

The Psalm begins as a “looking back”, if you will. The people have been delivered from exile. But they’re still struggling. There is still wilderness in their midst. The words are a reminder that God has delivered. They have been returned from exile. God has redeemed and forgiven the people. But their memories of whatever they experienced God doing in the past seems to be slipping away. They are in need of a reminder of restoration yet again so they plead that the God who has come before will be the God who comes yet again if they will only listen and pay attention. And then we get yet another vision of the Peaceable Kingdom, where faithfulness rises up and righteousness is showered upon us, where peace and love reign. But between the looking back and the peering ahead is a pause. Selah.

It’s a good lesson for us. We have experienced the goodness of God. We have cast our eyes upon God’s Creation and we have been reminded who God is and what God can do. But then we get comfortable or we get busy or we get off track a bit and our memories begin to fade. We sometimes find ourselves forgetting that this faith journey is ongoing. We are not inserted into a Mach 1 spaceship upon our birth that is aimed for where we need to go. There is not a map. There is not a GPS. I’m not even really sure there is one definitive plan. Life doesn’t work like that. Faith doesn’t work like that. It’s not a plan; it’s a Way. But we find ourselves in the wilderness yet again and we feel alone. Selah. It’s like we’re being told, “Just stop a minute. Think about all the goodness that you have experienced. Think about all the times you have felt loved and blessed. Think about all those times that your faith carried you and all those times that God’s presence almost felt tangible. Now remember. And pay attention. And walk.”

The truth is that we are not capable of maintaining that, for want of a better word, “faith high” on a permanent basis. It’s too much. And even that would eventually fall into some sort of comfortable familiarity. Instead, God brings us through wilderness and blessing, through despair and faith, through loss and clarity. And in between, we pause. We remember so that we will know.

Have you ever thought that the season of Advent is sort of a pause? Perhaps it is our selah season. It’s a look back, a remembrance of what God has done. We read of deliverance from exile and forgiveness from wrongdoing. And we look ahead. We strive to imagine that Peaceable Kingdom that God envisions. We try to see our world differently. And in between, we pause and we prepare and we restructure our lives based on what God has done and what our faith tells us God will do. Advent is our in-between time in which we are reminded that the God who has come near in the past, the God who has brought us to this place, is walking with us now and forward into that vision that God has for us. As the Psalmist reminds us, God has gone before on this path we travel. And now God walks with us as we follow the path. Selah…forever.

Sometimes you sense how faithfully your life is delivered, even though you can’t read the address. (Ted Kooser)