Psalm 140:1-8
Deliver me, O Lord, from evil men;
preserve me from violent men,
who plan evil things in their heart
and stir up wars continually.
They make their tongue sharp as a serpent’s,
and under their lips is the venom of asps. Selah
Guard me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked;
preserve me from violent men,
who have planned to trip up my feet.
The arrogant have hidden a trap for me,
and with cords they have spread a net;
beside the way they have set snares for me. Selah
I say to the Lord, You are my God;
give ear to the voice of my pleas for mercy, O Lord!
O Lord, my Lord, the strength of my salvation,
you have covered my head in the day of battle.
Grant not, O Lord, the desires of the wicked;
do not further their evil plot, or they will be exalted! Selah
Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.
Intro: This week a nearby church hosted a Vacation Bible School
My fourteen-year-old granddaughter, Adrianna, volunteered to help out
– on Friday, a friend sent me a video that she filmed the day before
• when I watched it, there was Adrianna on a stage in front of a crowd of kids
• she had a Bible in her hand, and from it she read a couple verses from the Psalms
◦ then she gave a brief talk, encouraging everyone to trust God’s love and faithfulness
– Adrianna was superb – as if she were a professional and had done this for years
• I was very impressed
Last week, I had also been reading in the Psalms
– reading Psalm 140, I noticed three Selah’s interspersed in these eight verses
• that caused me to take a closer look
• the poet was obviously agitated – he seemed oppressed by the actions of bad people
◦ there were evil and violent people planning crimes
◦ there were troublemakers stirring up wars
◦ others were using their clever words to deceive and ruin people
◦ the poet felt threatened by all the rampant wickedness in his world
– thinking this over, it seemed to me that the Selah’s may have been strategic
• I’ll get to that in a minute, but first . . .
What does the Hebrew word Selah mean, and why isn’t it translated into English?
Hebrew scholars tell us that no one alive today knows for sure what it means
– those who are the most knowledgeable have the least to say about Selah
– they say we can’t even be certain about how the word was formed from its verbal roots
However, there are other people who are happy to tell us what they think it means:
– Church Music Directors and Worship Leaders may suggest, “Selah is a musical notation”
• it means, “Take it up a notch”
• increase the volume – pick up the pace – play the melody in a higher key
– Bible teachers tell us, Selah means we’re supposed to closely study the psalm
• for them, Selah means, “Stop and think about what you just read”
– Spiritual Mentors may see another purpose for Selah – that it is a signal
• we need to pause and compose ourselves, have a moment of silence,
• and then continue on in the psalm
This third option is how I decided to use Selah when reading this psalm
The poet was already “in a mood” before he began praying
– as he listed all the societal problems he saw, his blood-pressure started to rise
• he needed a break, so “Selah” – he calmed himself down then returned to prayer
• but soon he was worked up again and needed another break – “Selah”
◦ then after a few more lines he had to take another time-out – “Selah”
◦ finally, he was able to finish his prayer
– is it possible this psalm was written for me? (Well, not “me” exclusively)
• many times in the last one-and-a-half years, my prayers have begun in desperation
◦ driven by angst, bewilderment, and frustration
• the closer we get to the presidential election, the more hot-heads show up
◦ a positive outlook: many people truly love our country and care about its future
◦ a negative outlook: no one engaged in the conversation can remain rational – they all go looney
I wrote these words yesterday afternoon,
before I learned of the attempted assassination of former President Trump
My meditation: “What odd creatures we are, that when we turn to God with a list of concerns, wanting his help, wanting to see his hand move in our world and put an end to crime, greed, and violence, our very prayer churns up all the anxiety we’re trying to release. We need to learn how to practice Selah, so we don’t spoil and undermine our prayers by increasing our anxiety rather than diminishing it.”
• we learn from St. Paul that self-control is one of the fruits of the Spirit
◦ self-control includes the self-regulation of our feelings and emotions
• those people who have the most unrest in their souls,
◦ are precisely the ones who rile up the souls of others
◦ I’m convinced Jesus wants us to have the opposite influence on others
In order to be God’s agents of peace in a troubled world,
– we need to be able to soothe our unregulated feelings and emotions
– can we learn to do this? Can we tame and train our souls? With the poet can we say,
“Return, O my soul, to your rest;
for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you”? (Ps. 116:7)
That brings me to another psalm I read this week
O Lord, my heart is not lifted up;
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child is my soul within me.
O Israel, hope in the Lord
from this time forth and forevermore (Ps. 131)
The poet begins with a confession of being overwhelmed
– he’s given up trying to comprehend things that are over his head
• what did he do with challenges that required more than he could muster?
◦ he self-regulated the disturbance that boiled within
• How? By doing what he tells others to do in verse 3
O Israel, hope in the LORD
◦ that is, focus attention on Yahweh our God and find hope in him
– and what if a fresh round of upsetting circumstances bombarded him?
• he did the same thing – as many times as it took – over and over again,
“from this time forth and forevermore”
The poet imagined his soul to be like a small child
– the first few times I read this verse, it threw me
• I thought that a better metaphor would have been “a nursing baby”
• anyone whose seen a hungry infant, anxious to be fed,
◦ has also seen its repose at its mother’s breast
– after learning about need to form secure attachments in infancy and early childhood,
• I realized why the weaned toddler is the better metaphor
◦ it is in this period of life that we first learn to regulate our emotions
◦ and we learn it from our parents
• the weaned child is not with the mother because it needs to be fed,
◦ but because it needs to feel her touch, hear her voice, and be reassured and loved
◦ it’s not enough to receive that sort of warm affection and attention;
we must have hope that it is always there when we need it
What we have learned about self-regulating our emotions,
– is that we get a lot of help doing this from others
• and, of course, this implies that we can become a shelter of calm in the storm for them as well
• but that requires us to first find that calm garden within ourselves
– in our Reflexion community, we’ve learned the value of the breath of life
• that slowing our breath can quickly change what’s going on in our minds
◦ we receive each breath direct from God – and we return each breath to him
• slow, deep breathing is “nice,” but it’s not enough to bring us to a calm state
◦ there are two more things we need to do:
1.) Relax your body – most the time, we don’t know where our tension is hiding
◦ it’s sometimes necessary to do a body scan
2.) Focus attention – for many of us, a word or phrase can do the trick
◦ inhale “here” and exhale “now”
◦ inhale, “O God, come to my assistance” and exhale, “O LORD make haste to help me”
Once we recover the sense of our closeness to Jesus, and our hope in him, we are at peace
– and frequently that’s enough for us to become a calming influence to others nearby
Conclusion: Today and through this coming week,
News broadcasts will be flooded with stories of yesterday’s events in Pennsylvania
– the reaction of millions of people will range from moderate to wildly extreme
• earlier this morning, Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson advised Americans,
◦ that “everyone needs to turn the rhetoric down”
(he was referring to all the name-calling, insults, and threats we find on social media)
◦ we hope that he and all of Congress (where there have been recent brawls) and the Senate will be able to do that, and set an example for the rest of us
• but it’s not just the wild, outrageous, and inflammatory speech that must end,
The adjustment must be made at the source of the anger, hostility, and violence
and that is the intense feeling–the fear and the hate–in our hearts that must be turned down
And our God, through his word–and especially here in the Psalms–has shown us how we do this
Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift! (1 Cor. 9:15)
Daily Meditations From the Scriptures