Rest Here

‘I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me.  He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.  Psalm 57 v2-3, KJV

Every good chef knows that the best way to present meat to the table is to rest it after it comes out of the oven.  It’s the resting that helps all the tenderness to come back into the dish.  Without resting, the meat stays as it was, tense and tough from the heat of the cooking.

Rest is built into all of creation, plants rest from flowering and even growing at all for a time.  The birds and the bees don’t keep a 24/7 schedule, and what is a mountain if not a rest after the earth has moved?

The word ‘rest’ is mentioned between 400 and 600 times in the Bible, depending on which translation you favor reading.  But of all these mentions, I love this one the most:  Selah

If you understand this word, selah, then I think you have the true meaning of what rest is all about.  As with all Hebrew words, selah has many meanings.  Like a polished diamond that gives off light and color at every angle, so this word sparkles with all the beauty of life.  In essence selah is a deliberate and significant pause.  This word occurs seventy-one times in thirty-nine of the Psalms, those abiding songs about the nature and character of God.

‘I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me.  He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.  Psalm 57 v2-3, KJV

Here the song writer is talking about the challenges and obstacles of his life.  He is on the point of being overwhelmed, consumed, swallowed up.  He is crying out for help.

And then the song pauses.  Selah, which means to pause and think of this truth forever, from the primary Hebrew root word [calah] which means ‘to hang,’ and by implication to measure (weigh).  In Bible times, money, food and other valuables were ‘weighed’ by hanging or suspending them on a type of balance (the equivalent of our measuring scale) to determine their value.

The song writer is taking a deliberate and significant pause from his woes to think, weigh up, measure, meditate on the truth and character of God. Doing his bit and then leaving the rest to God if you will.

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under the trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time” John Lubbock, this guy was busy, if you are interested you can read about him here

Intentional rest without which there is no understanding, no time to let God do what we cannot, no opportunity to let our limitations fall from our hands into His, no silence to hear His still, small voice or His whisper on the wind. ‘I love you, I am with you, I am able’…

Rest, a deliberate and significant pause.  Because the resting helps all the tenderness to come back.  So that we don’t stay tense and tough from the heat of the hour.  After all, what is a mountain if not a rest after the earth has moved?

May He lead you beside the still waters and restore your soul today.  He is able.  Selah.

Tagged as: daily devotional, Encouragement, Freedom, God, Inspiration, love, Psalms, rest, rest here, restore your soul, selah, self help, still waters, the word rest in the Bible