SELAH, A TIME TO PAUSE
2/17/25 SELAH, A TIME TO PAUSE
HEARD AND SAW: My friend. I saw a pair of parenthesis ( ) and heard, Pause. Intermission. Wait upon the Lord. Wait I say. Wait upon the Lord.
Psalm 3:3-4 But thou, O LORD, [art] a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head. 4 I cried unto the LORD with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah.
Today I studied the word Selah. It was quickened to me as connected with seeing the parenthesis. I chose Psalm 3:4 because it was the first Psalm that the word is mentioned. I felt the Lord was telling me I was to spend some time reflecting upon His Words.
DAKES COMMENTARY
Seven Suggested Meanings of “Selah”
A thought link, connecting ideas in Hebrew poetry.
The Septuagint translated it by diapsalma, a pause in the psalm by the singers.
The Chaldee sometimes translated it by lealmin, “forever”.
A word equivalent to da capo in music directing the choir to repeat.
A word from Hebrew: sal (H5542), to raise or elevate the voices of singers.
A word from salah, to spread out indicating that the subject should be meditated on by the reader.
A word denoting an instrumental interlude or louder accompaniment.
Today as I wait upon the Lord in a pause, I’m asking Him to let the meditations of my heart be acceptable. Lord Your Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against You. I am reminded of a winter pause when all is snowy out the window. And inside is a warm fire. I am all tucked in and snuggly. Thank You Lord.
2/18/25 SELAH CONFIRMATION
Today I watched a short YouTube about a man who transformed his 5,500 acres of land. He called his land SELAH.
In Selah: Water from Stone
His land was brush and trees and he drilled several wells 500 feet deep and they were dry. They drilled told him he had a dry aquafer that stored water 40 feet underground but it was dry. So he cleared some land and planted grass. The grass allowed the land to soak up the water and fill the aquafer and after it filled, the aquafer had no place to go so it created a lot of springs all over his land. He named his land Selah, to stop and think about it.
FROM YOU TUBE: Almost 50 years ago, fried chicken tycoon David Bamberger used his fortune to purchase 5,500 acres of overgrazed land in the Texas Hill Country. Planting grasses to soak in rains and fill hillside aquifers, Bamberger devoted the rest of his life to restoring the degraded landscape. Today, the land has been restored to its original habitat and boasts enormous biodiversity. Bamberger’s model of land stewardship is now being replicated across the region and he is considered to be a visionary in land management and water conservation.
2/18/25 CONFIRMATION: SELAH IN ANCIENT EGYPTIAN MEANS SAY NOTHING
I was listening to an Egyptian curator speak about the Rosetta stone. The stone was a written decree from an Egyptian king. The language was written in sign language similar to pictographs. In the writing on the stone, she showed the sign for SELAH! She said that the word for Selah in the ancient Egyptian language is a “silent” sign meaning you were not supposed to read it. In other words it means to say nothing when you are reading it outloud.
2/19/25 INTERESTING CONNECTION
Yesterday I turned via slider in my rhema data base to March 24 rhema where I had mentioned that the word transparent was a buzz for that month. It was about transparent sharing with public. Then the section under that was called What is NOT transparent. This morning I had an eye glance to my blue printed notebook of rhema from the past. I turned to the exact same page!!!
Ecclesiastes 3:7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
3/30/24 WHAT IS TRANSPARENT
I went back to bed this morning to pray over what to share as private vs public:
Where to draw the line. I saw a man come to me and said, Is your name *.*? (I had no idea of the name but his question was too forward for my liking.) I saw a lady in the background shrug saying she didn’t know either. I just stared at him in silence. Your biggest hurdle. I saw I was on stage and said Excuse me. I drew aside off stage and sunk to my knees and cried.
Your JOY is transparent sweet one, not your sorrow. I saw someone that appeared to be a black servant enter a secret garden and brought a tray of food and placed it upon a bench. He left it there and walked out of the lovely garden and closed the gate behind him.
Song 4:12-16 A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. 13 Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; henna, with spikenard, 14 Spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices: 15 A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon. 16 Awake, O north wind; and come, you south; blow upon my garden, that its spices may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat its pleasant fruits.
2/19/25 THE ROSETTA STONE IS MENTIONED AGAIN!!!
In today’s Hebrew word for the day he speaks about scribing by carving stones and mentions the rosetta stone! It is one of my daily “devotionals” that come into my eSword.
HEBREW WORD FOR THE DAY (by JD Watson)
February 19
Statute(s)
chōq [and] chāqaq
The fourth synonym we encounter for God’s Word is statute, which is the Hebrew chōq (H2706), a masculine noun derived from a verb (chāqaq, H2710) that means “to cut, scratch, inscribe, or engrave.” Oh, what a word we have here! While it is used for such ideas as cutting a tomb out of rock (Isa_22:16), its most common use is to refer to engraving or writing.
At one time, one of the major attacks on the authenticity of the Bible by its critics was the belief that writing did not exist in Moses’ time, “proving” that Moses couldn’t have written the Pentateuch, rather that it was written four centuries later by four separate authors. This was forever dispelled, however, in 1902 by one of the most important archaeological finds of all time, the Code of Hammurabi, discovered by M. J. de Morgan. Hammurabi was king of Babylon (ca. eighteenth century BC) and was, therefore, a contemporary of Abraham. The code, written on an eight-foot-high, two-foot-wide, and one-and-a-half-foot-thick polished block of black diorite stone, contains laws (some similar to the Mosaic Law) dealing with worship, justice, taxes and other money matters, building, and matters of commerce.
The existence of that code, as well as others of the ancient world—such as the Egyptian Rosetta Stone (ca. 200 BC)—wonderfully illustrate our word for today. It is used, for example, of the statutes God gave to Moses (Exo_15:26; Num_30:16, Mal_4:4). The word lûach (H3871) speaks of a stone slab (Exo_34:1). God inscribed His law on such tablets; they were known as the “tables,” as in the “tables of testimony [February 17], tables of stone, written with the finger of God” (Exo_31:18).
The old expression “set in stone” also illustrates this truth. God’s statutes (or decrees) are engraved in stone, graphically demonstrating their permanence. Turning again to Psalms 119, we find chōq twenty-one times, the first of which is in Psa_119:5: “O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!” God’s Word is not open for debate, not subject to reinterpretation for the times. God’s Word is set in stone!
Scriptures for Study: Read a few of the occurrences of statutes in Psalms 119, noting what our attitude and response to them should be: Psa_119:8; Psa_119:23; Psa_119:54; Psa_119:71; Psa_119:83; Psa_119:112, and Psa_119:117.
2/19/25 WATCHING DESERT DRIFTER: HIEROGLYPHS
For the last couple weeks I have been watching Andrew’s podcast of his archeology hikes in southwest USA. He searches for old ruins on google earth and then hikes to find them and photograph them. It has been so interesting. He always finds ancient hieroglyphs on the rocks where they lived. One of them really touched me. It was a large flat cliff of a bunch of different size baby feet marked with a red type ink. Another was a bunch of hands. They loved to express their pictures of the various animals, bugs and hunts. Some were carved and some were in a type of ink.
GIVING EXPRESSION
Today I am wondering why suddenly the idea of carving in stone is suddenly on the Lord’s radar in my rhema. I remember thinking that a writer will grab ANYTHING to write on and an artist will use ANYTHING to create with. It is a part of who they are, to give expression to the world they see. It is almost impossible to hold a writer or an artist back from expression. After being a musician for 23 years, I laid it down when we married. A sheet of music is a bunch of symbols on paper that are expressed through sound. I traded in playing the piano keyboard into playing the computer keyword and I continued to give expression through that means. Painting to me is giving expression as well. I have been passionately painting every day. I enjoy it very much.
WORD TO PONDER: A TIME TO SPEAK AND A TIME TO REMAIN SILENT 2/18/25
Within a freely flowing relationship there is a natural ebb and flow of conversation. Beloved this is also true between you and I. Sometimes I speak and sometimes I remain silent. Whether you are surrounded by My Words or by My silence, both are have purpose. My silence does not mean I am “mad” at you, or I have withdrawn from you. Yes when I am silent it causes you to draw near and seek Me. The longer My silence, the greater you soul search to make sure you are aligned properly with Me. I also use silence as a time of rest. Remember when I spoke for 6 days to create the world. I looked at all that I had created and saw that it was good. And then I rested and sanctified that day, I separated that day for a special purpose.
As you follow Me, learn to rest when I rest. If I am not speaking – yes make sure you are properly aligned. Then accept My selah pause as a brief time to reflect on what was, what is and what is coming. Pray over what is not yet settled. Commit yourself to wholly follow Me. Be ready when I call. Keep your ears perky because when I speak, I have something to say to you.
James 1:19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
