What does selah mean in psalm 46

One of the best results of study, is developing an open mind and learning others' perspectives and sharpening your personal discernment. All truth is God's truth, and there is a lot to learn that can deepen a disciple's convictions.

At the same time, with humility, you learn the grace of not being dogmatic or arrogant about the truth you do believe in from God's word. The Bereans maintained "noble character" and respected Paul's input, yet held it up to revealed truth in the Hebrew scriptures. Back to "Amen" for a Little Guidance As noted earlier, the Hebrew word "amen" is a very potent international word. Transliterated directly from the Hebrew into New Testament Greek, and then to Latin and into English and many other languages it has possibly become the best-known word in human speech.

If you ever get a chance to study it out, you will find that very few people would disagree that it is derived from the Hebrew word "aman. Without diving into another word study, I simply want to raise the distinct possibility, that we can get a clue for "selah" by looking at similar words in Hebrew.

Note: For Hebrew, I do not have any formal training, certificate or degree. Even a concordance can be misleading in the hands of a baby Christian or non-studious disciple! Is than an oxymoron? On the other hand, it is more dangerous to not love God's word and "do your best" to know and understand his word!

Paul promised when discussing his sincere reliance on God's grace "For we do not write you anything you cannot read or understand. As Jesus was woken up "morning by morning as one being taught" , may we see the answer to this prayer bless our lives: "Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law. They are very similar in Hebrew! Job 28 in verse 16 and 19 use it as "weighed" or "valued" against. In context, the gold and topaz of Ethiopia cannot be "compared" to the value of wisdom.

The idea then would give "selah" a meaning of "weigh" this, "value" it. Put it on a scale and place weight on it as a valuable point to ponder. The idea certainly works when you examine the 74 times "selah" is used in scripture. The main meaning is "to reject" or "cast aside.

The idea is to build up a road so it can be traveled upon. Or it is used to "exalt", "lift up", or "highly prize" something. It is used to "extol the Lord" in adoration and fear in Psalm And in this psalm, we see a use of "salal" used very similarly to "selah" in the same psalm.

Verse 19 and 32 are verses with "selah" at the end - And they are imperatives to sing praise to God. These calls to praise comprise a refrain in the psalm - with slight variation. Verse 4 is an identical imperative - the first of the 3 and uses "salal" or, translated here as "extol. Selah 32Sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth, sing praise to the Yahweh, Selah. Lift up! Highly Prize! For me, "salal" is a stronger candidate to marry up to "selah" as a meaning for it.

The application, when you "lift up" the thoughts that have "selah" after them has the same effect as "calah. One is placing a high value on the text when weighing it.

The other is placing a high value on the text as you lift it up and highly prize it! And when you lift up God's word, you lift your soul, your hands, your mind, your heart, your voice and your whole life!

That is what makes one "upright"! Do a study on what God's people lift up to God. Maybe you could do an article on it! It starts by lifting his word and heeding his voice. In the first century, and before the Christian era, and even today, the Jews literally raised up the word of God before it is recited in public.

This is historical context, Jewish custom, shedding light on the meaning of scripture. The Psalmist even praised God's word. In God, whose word I praise— in God I trust and am not afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? For example, in the synagogues, when the scrolls were brought forth for reading as in Luke 4, the synagogue attendant would raise the scroll up above his head and walk around the standing congregation three times.

The congregants remained completely silent in reverence to the holy word of God. That was the context of Luke 4 as Jesus preached in the Nazareth synagogue where he grew up. When it says, "he unrolled the scroll and found the place where it is written Bible study is all about "meaning" and understanding what God meant. For myself, after examining these passages closely, looking at Jewish traditions, and looking at the Hebrew terms with the best tools available, I have come to understand the word to mean "lift up" the text preceding "selah.

With that, the musicians and congregation knew to focus with utmost reverence on selah passages. And as you lift up God's word in your mind and heart, you lift up your entire soul and life to God. The term is used so often when compared to other more common terms like "Amen" and "Hallelujah" that a meaning is definitely worth seeking out.

In my personal reflection, I envision the ancient Jews in worship. For example, the Hebrew word erets is translated to earth , because they have the same meaning, so we English speakers just read 'earth'. A transliteration is when a Hebrew word is simply sounded out to English so we can read and pronounce it. An example is Hallelujah. Instead of being translated as "Praise God," this word has been left for us to sound out as it would be in the original Hebrew and continues to be a powerful expression of praise.

Like Hallelujah, the fact that Selah is transliterated and not translated doesn't diminish its importance. Instead, it signifies that when we read Selah, we are pronouncing the word generally the same way it would have been pronounced thousands of years ago by those who originally wrote and read it. The Bible is truly the words of God given to us, and every one of those words matters, even the words we don't fully understand and can't properly translate.

After all, we can't understand all there is to know about God, so it stands to reason that there would be words in Scripture that are beyond our full comprehension. This doesn't diminish words like Selah, but in some ways can make them a little more meaningful.

Another transliterated word in the Bible that we don't fully understand is the word shigionoth and its singular form, shiggaion. Each of these words appears in the Bible only once. The important thing for us here is that these two words appear in chapters that are written as music and, you guessed it, also include the word Selah.

Shiggaion is found in the title of Psalm 7 , " A shiggaion of David, which he sang to the Lord". All rights reserved. Filters 0. A word occurring between verses or paragraphs in parts of the Hebrew Bible , often in the Psalms , perhaps indicating a pause for contemplation. How often I have read, quoted, or shared with someone in a counseling situation. Since verse 10 falls in the third and final strophe of the Psalm, verses , the context of those verses is important for understanding verse Notice how verses 8, 9, and 11 reference some aspect of war and fighting.

There comes a time to lay down your arms and know that He is God—He will do as He wills with me and with the other guy. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth gives way … The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Luther retired to his room that night to think over his answer. His Bible fell open to Psalm Luther returned the next morning to stand before his detractors.