Some think that Selah is an emphatic word, marking a point in the psalm for “lifting up” one’s thoughts to God. No one is certain of the exact meaning of this word, that is, what it is to be lifted up. The MacArthur Bible Handbook has this view: “Derived from the verb ‘salal,’ ‘to lift up.’ It occurs in thirty-nine psalms and in the ‘Psalm of Habbakuk’ ( Habakkuk 3). The earliest Jewish traditions thought it meant ‘forever.’" It is variously seen as pause either for silence or musical interlude, a signal for the congregation to sing, recite, or fall prostrate on the ground, a cue for the cymbals to crash, a word to be shouted by the congregation, a sign to the choir to sing a higher pitch or louder. ![]() The Holman Concise Bible Dictionary explains Selah this way: “Term of unknown meaning appearing in Psalms and Habakkuk 3. My research found similar thoughts among Bible commentators. ![]() Out of the thirty-nine psalms which are headlined “for the choir director,” selah appears in thirty-one of them, indicating it has some connection to how the psalm is sung or performed. ![]() Because of the context, most biblical scholars agree that selah is some type of musical notation.
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