Selah

Psalm 67

For the director of music. With stringed instruments. A psalm. A song.

 ¹ May God be gracious to us and bless us
       and make his face shine upon us,
       Selah  ² that your ways may be known on earth,
       your salvation among all nations.
 ³ May the peoples praise you, O God;
       may all the peoples praise you.
 ⁴ May the nations be glad and sing for joy,
       for you rule the peoples justly
       and guide the nations of the earth.
       Selah
 ⁵ May the peoples praise you, O God;
       may all the peoples praise you.
 ⁶ Then the land will yield its harvest,
       and God, our God, will bless us.
 ⁷ God will bless us,
       and all the ends of the earth will fear him.

 When I read this verse today I became curious about what the word Selah was doing there.  A little googling told me that no one really knows, but many people think it has something to do with a musical pause.  I particularly enjoyed reading this explanation: http://www.mountainretreatorg.net/faq/selah.html  Ultimately, I liked the definition of  a pause for thoughtful reflection.  Since we're not singing this, the definition works for this discussion.

After having a definition, I re-read the psalm and it was very mellow.    You read a line or three and then pause to reflect.  This is song about how Awesome God is and how we should praise him.  The devotional I am reading brought up the thought that it's easy to praise God when things are going our way.  It's not so easy when things are going wrong.

It seems like this is just the kind of psalm to read when things are falling apart around us.  Sometimes when we're upset we don't need commiseration, but something to lift us out of the muck.  Even in the dark of night, God, our God, will bless us.

Are you my neighbor?

 ¹⁵ " 'Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.
 ¹⁶ " 'Do not go about spreading slander among your people.
      " 'Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor's life. I am the LORD.
 ¹⁷ " 'Do not hate your brother in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in his guilt.
 ¹⁸ " 'Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.

Leviticus 19:15-18 (NIV)

I've been reading Christ In Our Home, a daily devotional that Pastor David Penman, the chaplain for Kairos this year, gave to the Kairos planning group.  At first I didn't want to steal from it, but I've decided to share my thoughts based on where the devotional leads me.

Today the discussion was about how sometimes when we love others as ourselves, we are doing a pretty bad job because we don't love ourselves all that well.  The good news is that God loves me even when I don't love myself.

This got me thinking . . . all those times when Jesus is talking about our neighbor, he's not just talking about our friends - or even our enemies - he's also talking about ourselves.  The above verses jumped out at me as an instruction manual on how to deal with depression.  Depression is often caused by being angry with yourself.  Verse fifteen says, don't be too hard on yourself.  This doesn't mean you shouldn't be upset when you do something wrong, but don't berate yourself endlessly for the mistakes you've made.

Verse sixteen is pretty straightforward.  Don't kill yourself.  Seems like kind of a "no duh" thing to say, but placed with the slander part it also seems to talk to the idea that people who are mad at themselves sometimes go out of their way to ask for trouble.  Don't do things that are dangerous just because they are dangerous.

In verse seventeen we get straight to the heart of the matter: "'Do not hate your brother in your heart."  You cannot hold onto the anger.  There's a popular saying, "Hate the sin, not the sinner."  This distinction is important when you're looking inward at your own sin.  We are hardest on ourselves.  But until we can separate ourselves from the sin and say, "That's not who I have to be."  The sin continues to hold power over us.  "Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in his guilt."  Own up to what you have done.  Really examine it, and make a decision to change your behavior - and then rely on the Lord to help you.

This brings us to verse eighteen.  Love your neighbor as yourself.  When Jesus is asked what the greatest commandment is, this verse from Leviticus is what he quotes as number two, after "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind."  Number two is love your neighbor as yourself.  Where to begin?  You start with yourself.  You love yourself so that you can love others.  God will always give us more love, so don't forget to hold onto some for yourself when you're giving it away.  Trust in the Lord.

http://kairosverse.blogspot.com