Selah

The psalmists put it in between their crying and their praising — this word without translation: Selah.

Pause. Consider. Let the music rest. Let the word land.

We are not very good at selah. We fill the rests with noise, scroll through the silence, mistake stillness for waste.

But the pause is not empty. It is where the word does its slow work, where the grief is allowed to be grief before it is rushed into resolution, where joy is felt rather than immediately documented.

Selah.

Be here. Let this be what it is. God is speaking in the space between the notes.

Selah.