The True Purpose of Rest: Let it Make a Change in Your Direction

When you read the Psalms, what do you do when your eyes encounter the word "selah?" Do you pause as the meaning of the Greek word suggests? I’ll go first and confess that I usually don’t, and I think I’m in the majority.

What if, instead of using selah as a convenient mile marker for scripture memory projects or (worse yet) an unnecessary interruption of the flow, what if we received selah as an invitation?

In the psalms, Selah shows up for the first time in Psalm 3:1-3 (ESV):

"Lord, how they have increased who trouble me!
Many are they who rise up against me.
Many are they who say of me,
‘There is no help for him in God.’
Selah
But You, O Lord, are a shield for me,
My glory and the One who lifts up my head.”

What begins with trouble, with wearying voices pointing toward hopelessness, ends with praise and a clear view of God in his role as refuge and strength. The psalmist went from “There is no help” to “Lord, YOU are my helper!” And it happened after a pause.

What is the Purpose of Rest?

Scholars differ over the true purpose of selah in the original context of Hebrew worship. Does it mean a thoughtful interlude of silent reflection? Some believe it signifies a sudden burst of instrumental music to accompany corporate praise.

In Thou Givest, They Gather, Amy Carmichael suggests that selah’s invitation to pause turns our inner struggles into peace. “We look away from self, away from the enemy. We look up!”

Rest is not simply a cessation of work. Rest is a gateway to worship. A pause for praise is a U-turn away from weariness and discouragement and toward strength and peace.

What if you began taking God up on his invitation to rest wherever you find it—within the text of a psalm, with the sweet and satisfying presence of a loved one, in the simple beauty offered by the view through your kitchen window? What if you began to experience God as your helper and your source of true rest?