Have you ever been asked the question, “How has your week been?” and found yourself having to stop and think, ‘actually, how has it been?’ Sometimes, the busyness of life seems to blur the days into one and we can feel like a spectator watching a montage of scenes flashing past instead of being an active participant, enjoying and engaged in the journey.
The psalmists invite us to try something different; they beckon us to Selah. Some 73 times, the psalms are punctuated by this word. However, rather than forming part of the narrative, it was a technical musical term that allowed for a pause—an interruption to or an accentuation of the lyrics. Selah pauses were designed to give us a moment to ponder the importance and the truth of what has been said.
Our own lives also need Selah moments—sacred pauses where we allow ourselves to reflect on our own narratives and on the beauty of God’s activity in them. Moments where we breathe deeply and give ourselves permission to lift ourselves and our needs up to the Father—giving ourselves space to exalt and accentuate Him over and above our to-do list.
As we learn to interrupt all we are doing with these Selah moments of being, the blurred montage of our lives gets brought back into focus. And rather than a harried spectator, we become the active participant that God intended—aware of His truth and His power in the midst of our every day.
What might it look like for you to Selah today?
