Neighborhood Trees #6 | Cypress, TX | January 2023

I was preaching in the Arkansas Depart of Corrections Varner Unit. This high-security state prison for men is located about 30 miles from where we lived at the time. Our church offered to bring our choir to perform our Easter cantata there. The chapel was full to capacity. More than 200 men – all in white overalls – sat tightly-packed in the pews. There were Amen’s and other expressions of agreement and encouragement throughout my sermon. One man sat on the front row and every now and then shouted out, “Think about it!”

It’s not a man sitting on the front row calling out think about it here, but rather an obscure word. The word selah (סֶלָה,) occurs three times in this psalm. The meaning is not controversial, but  it is unclear. Some say it’s a liturgical term, calling for a musical interlude, or some liturgical action. Others suggest it is a call to pause and reflect. A friend said, in jest, “It’s what David said when he came to the end of a verse and couldn’t remember the next line!” I like the idea of selah being an invitation to pause and reflect – to think about it.

The first occurance of selah is at the end of the second strophe of Psalm 32:

For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away
    through my groaning all day long.
⁴ For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
    my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah

Guilt renders us anxious, and we can groan, and even waste away under its weight. I have previously shared how fear did that to me many years ago. We are to see God’s hand in our times of anxiety, fretting, fear, and restlessness. Certainly we must see the hand of God in times of unresolved guilt, calling us to repent. While it could be the devil stirring up false guilt, or even bringing up previously-forgiven sins, it can also be God wanting us to experience a deeper sense of peace through an honest confession of our sin. His desire is not to cause us pain for pain’s sake, but to drive us to confess our sins and find his mercy and forgiveness. Think about it.

Then comes the second invitation:

I acknowledged my sin to you,
    and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”
    and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah

Clearly this shows that God’s desire is to give us peace, relief from shame, and to forgive our sins. In the acknowledgement of our sin we find truest peace. Jesus put it this way, “…the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32) God sets us free when we stop pretending we’re good enough to approach him, and acknowledge our sin and seek his forgiveness. Think about it.

Then comes the third:

Therefore let everyone who is godly
    offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found;
surely in the rush of great waters,
    they shall not reach him.
⁷ You are a hiding place for me;
    you preserve me from trouble;
    you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah

We are all urged to confess our sins to God. We are all urged to acknowledge our need for his deliverance. We are all to recognize and avoid the dangerous torrents of destruction that come to those who do not repent, and to rejoice in God’s deliverance. Think about it.

Think about it. We suffer if we don’t confess our sins. God forgives the sins of those who acknowledge their transgressions. He delivers us from the catastrophic destruction that comes upon those who do not repent. Pause and ponder these things. Think about it!