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Selah. It's a curious little word. A word that has created quite a stir of opinions among scholars as to exactly what it means. It's only found in the Hebrew Bible and in no other Jewish literature which means that it's a "church term." It is always found in relation to music and songs so we know that it is in some way a musical term.

Music was an important part of worship to the Jewish people. We tend to think of Moses' tabernacle as a very stiff and religious place with sacred rituals and to some extent it was. But when King David assumed the throne, the worship was transformed. The scriptures say that for the first time, David appointed musicians to practice and perform music and he wrote over seventy songs himself. They had trumpets and lyres (which were primitive guitars) and harps and tambourines and cymbals and horns and all sorts of musical instruments with which to praise God. There are fourteen different musical instruments mentioned in scripture in all. What had once been perhaps a bit formal and starchy, now the morning and evening worship was transformed into a celebration of God's mercy and power. David's love for praising God transformed the Hebrew worship service.

There are those who would frown on the use of instruments and spirited singing and dancing and such like King David did in the church desiring a more "formal atmosphere" whatever that is. They miss the point. King David was a musician and a worshipper before he was ever called to be a king. He was later called "a man after God's own heart." Part of that came from his bringing heartfelt worship and excitement through music and new songs to the temple of God. If that is true for an era where the presence of God dwelt behind a veil in a literal building then how much more is it true now that God dwells within the temple of our bodies!? If they could get that excited about a God who had only partially revealed Himself to them and just on the stories of what they had seen God do in the past, then how much more should we who see the active demonstration of God's power, everyday give God thanks through outward expression and music? And let me say this: if dancing for God and singing and playing music with all sorts of rhythms and beats seems to you "worldly" let me remind you that before there was ever the local club and the disco, the Jewish people were meeting "down at the Tab" for morning worship! When you hear a worldly song, just remember that the devil copied God's people and not the other way around. God's people were dancing first!

The music of David's time was sophisticated and very skilled. The scriptures say:

This is one of my favorite scriptures on praise and it's been a while since I quoted it! God is worthy of our best and it's okay to use new songs about His goodness to praise Him. It's also okay to praise Him loud every once in a while! I've been in a few churches where I wanted to stand up and scream this verse! There is just some times when the Spirit of God moves upon you that if you are quiet, you are not responding to what He is doing! It's okay to praise Him with a "loud noise!"

I understand that it doesn't have to always be with a loud scream. I understand that there is a time and a place for everything. In fact, although you may not know it, there is a collection of songs in the Bible that we call the "book of Psalms." And within that book before and after and around the actual lyrics, are musical terms that indicate how a particular song was to be sung. There are ten of them in all and they include such terms as:

"Higgaion" which means to play softly and reverently. It's found only in Psalms 92. A similar term is "Micahtam" which indicated that the song was to be played "in a precious manner." It was used in the heading before six psalms. There is no musical terminology directing for a song to be played loud and excitedly, but think about what that means. If they had to have a notation to tell you to play softly and reverently and didn't have to have one to tell you to play louder, then what do you think the normal style was? Along the same line of thinking, only seven psalms -- out of 150 -- were specially notated as to be soft and gentle. That tells us quite a bit. You only have to read Psalms 150 to get a feel for a "normal style" worship service in David's era:

But there was a mixture of styles. The other terms of musical notation in the Psalms include such terms as "alamoth" which meant that it was to be sung by high female voices. It's found only twice in scripture. Part of the reason for that is that among the Jews, the men were the leaders in worship. It wasn't the women showing the way back then, but the men set the pace! There's nothing wrong with women praising God freely and thank God for them, but the scripture declare that the man is to be the "priest" of his home. That doesn't mean that you sit on a throne and order everybody around. It didn't say "king." The priest was the minister, he was the example to others of how to please God. He was the one who organized and led by example the worship services. Go read the Old Testament and you will find that those who led in worship usually were men. There are women in there too, but the men played a prominent role! Paul wrote this about the men of the Early Church:

Paul said "I wish the men of the church would get a revelation of true praise and worship!" I think that God knew that women, being the more emotional creature, would worship God regardless. Most women have no problem giving God the praise. But for some reason, we men are too prideful to really let God have His way! And that is what it is: pride. Sometimes men tend to "look down on" exuberant worship. But David, set aside his kingly robe and danced before anybody else did. Some of us men could learn a lesson about praise from King David! David understood that to stay upon his throne and not worship God was to express to God that he was "higher" than that and David understood that "my throne is nothing compared to His majesty!" When the presence of the Lord is here, it's not the time to sit upon your throne of who you think you are and look down on the worshipper, but even if you are the President of the United States, when God Almighty is here, it's time to praise Him! Would that our men would get a revelation of worship!

Another term that is found once in scripture is "Muth Labben." It means to be sung by "young people." Oh, that our young people would get a revelation of praise and worship! God is worthy to be praised even by teenagers and children. Too many times children and youth leave the worship up to the adults but the last time I checked, you were breathing too! Whether we are young or old, we need to praise God!

"Neginah" or "Neginoth" is found six times in scripture. It means to play with the harp, a many-stringed instrument. The similar "Nehiloth" is found once and means to be accompanied with wind instruments. "Shoshannim" or "Shushan Eduth" is found a few times and means to be accompanied by six string instruments -- guitar players, there's your scripture! "Shiggaion" is found once and means that the song is to be performed freely as directed by the worship leader. And several times we have "Sheminith," which seems to indicate a particular key or musical scale by which the song was to be played.

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And then we come back to that little word that perplexes so many scholars, "Selah." It's found seventy-four times in scripture -- seventy-two in the book of Psalms and twice in the book of Habbakuk. And yet to determine it's meaning, we have to look at it's usage in scripture and that is our only clues. And, in usage, Selah is quite unique because it's the only musical term in scripture that is never found at the beginning of a song. It's sometimes used at the end of a song, but mostly right in the middle. Always after the statement or thought of the previous phrase has been completed.

Some scholars have said that it means "stop and think about what was just said." Other scholars point to it's musical origin and believe that it was a point in the song where the vocals stopped singing and the music played by itself -- a sort of Biblical "jam session." Some say that it meant that the music was to get louder. An early church pastor, Eusebius of Caesarea wrote that to him it "marked the passages in which the Holy Spirit ceased for a time to work upon the choir." In other words, it indicated when the Spirit of God began affecting the choir members so much that they couldn't sing! I don't know if that is true or not, but you can tell what kind of church Eusebius pastored! For him to be able to even think of that indicates that it had perhaps happened to his choir a time or two.

For what it's worth, here's what I think "Selah" meant. I think that it was a combination of many of these traditions. It was a musical term but only used in the middle or end of songs, therefore it seems to have something to do with the music's interaction with the singing. It is always after a thought seems to tell us that it has something to do with what was just said. I think that Selah meant that the vocalists stopped singing, and while the musicians kept playing, everyone thought about and then praised God for what was just said. It think it was like saying "stop singing and let's worship and give God glory for that!" It was like saying "praise break! Think about what we're singing and let's praise God for that!" When you realize the meaning of the word, then it's importance and why God allowed it to be included in the scriptures become obvious. Whenever you see "Selah" in a song, then it's telling you that "after we said that, now it's time to praise God thinking about that!" And the phrases that precede the word in the songs identify the times in your life when "it's time to Selah!" Paul wrote in our other text:

We are commanded to praise outwardly, but it's not meant to be "mindless praise." God doesn't just want juking and jiving for the sake of juking and jiving. I've seen people dance until they sweat through their clothes and yet God wasn't really glorified and they went home unchanged. God doesn't want dancing for dancing sake, but rather our outward emotion is to spring from thinking about the good things of God! "If there be any praise, think on these things." True, Godly praise should spring forth from thinking about good things about God! It's not mindless, but very much sensible. When I think about how great God is, that's why I praise Him! The scriptures say to "praise Him according to His excellent greatness" but to do that I've got to hear how great He is and begin to think about it! And so "Selah" meant "think about what we just said and respond accordingly!"

Maybe you know the funky chicken and the mashed potato or at least the "hokey pokey" but do you know when it's "time to Selah?" Let's look at the things that scripture tells us is a reason to praise the Lord. Here are some of the things that -- after they were stated in Psalms, were immediately followed by Selah. Here are things, that the scripture says is time to praise the Lord!

Don't feel like your prayers are being very effective? Maybe you need to include some praise and worship in your personal prayer time! Remember that praise gets the attention of the Almighty, so if you want God to heed your prayer, mix praise in with your requests. You personal prayer time is a time to Selah!

This one was obvious wasn't it!? But there's a little more to this scripture than just that. The Hebrew Word for "dwell" can either mean "a permanent home" as in your residence or house, or it can mean "a familiar haunt or hangout." There wasn't anyone -- not even the priests -- that actually lived up at the temple. So what the song is saying is that those who are always going to church, will be praising God for forever! If you will make coming to church and participating and allowing God to change you, then you won't stop praising when this life is through, but you will just keep on praising! These Psalms are songs that were sung in church so it's almost like the worship leader is singing about how blessed are people who make church a common habit and then he realizes "hey we're at church, that's us -- Selah!" It's time to praise God!

The Israelites were proud that their capital city Jerusalem was the city that God had "placed His name on the earth." And when somebody preached about it or spoke of it in the house of God, they felt like that was reason enough to praise God! We should not just think that praise and worship is for just the song service, but rather if God's Word is being proclaimed in the preaching -- even if it's just reminding you of something that you already knew -- then you ought to praise God even at that part of the service! Even the preaching is a time to Selah!

This brings us to our text, because besides the chosen state of their beloved Jerusalem, there is one other topic that got the Israelites excited when they heard it preached:

It's a time to Selah!

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It's probably fairly obvious that those are all times to Selah, but to stop there would only be to listen and obey half of the scripture. And so I have to tell you that there are some other time that we should praise God listed in these songs that perhaps at first might shock you. It's time to Selah . . .

There's a song by the Gospel singer, John P. Kee, that begins with the words, "There's two times to praise Him: when I feel Him and when I don't."

We discover the reason that a child of God can praise God in the verses following the Selah:

The Lord will deliver me and be faithful to me! And then the writer had to take another time to Selah!