Friday, October 16, 2009

A String of Selah Pearls (Psalm 55:107)

Positioned gracefully across the Book of Psalms is a string of seventy-one pearls, lovely beads of wisdom followed by the admonition SELAH which means, “Pause, think on these things, meditate.”


Psalm 55:1-7 “Listen to my prayer, O God, do not ignore my plea; hear me and answer me. My thoughts trouble me and I am distraught at the voice of the enemy, at the stares of the wicked; for they bring down suffering upon me and revile me in their anger. My heart is in anguish within me; the terrors of death assail me. Fear and trembling have beset me; horror has overwhelmed me. I said, “Oh, that I had the wings of a dove! I would fly away and be at rest—I would flee far away and stay in the desert . . . Selah.”


Meditation


Like the psalmist, sometimes I feel that the pressures of life, the fiery darts of the enemy, are almost more than I can bear. Like the psalmist, I want to run off to the wilderness, live as a hermit and say goodbye to all my woes. What I must remember is—


I can’t run from trouble; I live in a fallen world. The whole creation groans under the weight of sin . . .


I can’t resist the enemy while in flight. I must stand my ground and rebuke him in the name of the Lord . .


I exchange one set of problems for another when I run away. The wilderness is full of temptations, too . .


God will not allow me to be tempted beyond what I will be able to endure . . .


My present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in me . . .


SELAH


Look up: Romans 8:22; Ephesians 6:11-13; Jude 9; Matthew 4; 1 Corinthians 10:13; Romans 8:18

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