Sermon Central
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The Power Of Our Selah Series
Contributed by Dave Kinney on Jun 23, 2008 (message contributor)
Summary: This last sermon in the series helps us experience on a daily basis the all imnportant 3 "Selah" found in this chapter. Once these are a reality in our lives, so much will change in our walk with God!
What if I told you that there is one person who can come along side your life and give you perfect guidance and success in anything God asks you to do! You say, “But I don’t believe that there is a person that perfect and that precise!” With all do respect, I think you are wrong! There is a person and that person is found in Jesus Christ! But that’s not the problem, your rejection is not so much about Him as it is… and here’s the hiccup – here lies the real problem, do you really want His guidance and place of success? Once you decide that you really do want it, the rest is very easy!
Psalm 32 intro…
David was a gigantic saint and a great sinner too! David was top of his class when it came to sin! We can look at his life and his adultery, the murder and then he spends a year running from God’s guidance and best, completely unfulfilled and miserable – Nathan the prophet nails him to the wall and over a period of a year God is slowly breaking him down and repents of his sin.
If you really want to see the emotional roller coaster of sin and repentance – it’s all here in Psalm 32. This Psalm is written after Psalm 51. This Psalm is one of 13 Psalms known as the song of instruction and forgiveness. He writes 13 different ways to appeal to the person whose life is on a crash course… ready to crash and burn! He says, “You don’t have to destroy yourself, find a place of rest!”
Read Psalm 32:1-2
David is saying - this is how you become successful and blessed before anything else!
Let me define success for you = Taking our abundant lives and pouring them into someone else’s life! Anything other definition falls short, any other statement is filled with error – throw it away!
I ask again…do we really want to be successful? Do we really want to accomplish more in life than we could ever think or imagine? The extraordinary life is wrapped up in this definition! The fulfilled life is connected deeply to this thought!
Verse 2: “In whose spirit there is no deceit”
STOP! I want to ask you another question – “Do you really want to be the person that has absolutely no deceit or deception in your heart?”
“Deceit” = fooling oneself, lying, etc.
Now let’s look at 3 verses again and see something very interesting – I want you to see 3 words that are missed by so many of us as we take in this Psalm.
Verse 4 – “Selah”
Verse 5 – “Selah”
Verse 7 – “Selah”
What is that? Well, if any biblical theologian with Dr. in front of his name and he says he knows – he’s not being completely honest! No one really knows! You can ready a dozen commentaries and get a dozen different answers. You find this word used only in the Book of Psalms and once in the Book of Habakkuk! That’s it!
It’s possibly a signal to the musicians, maybe a change in tempo. Time out! Take up the offering! Time for a solo! One scholar said that it was the signal for the congregation to fall flat on its face, in light of what is being sung!
One thing I’m pretty sure of, “Selah” was a “sigh”. It’s as if the worship service is go so great, the glory of God is so there, the singing is reaching the highest heaven and all of the sudden everyone just stop, just stop and take this in, let this worship really sink in to the deepest part of your spirit – that’s when you know you are living the abundant life!
Psalm 46:10, 11 “Be still and know that I am God…The God of Jacob is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.”
“Still” = in Hebrew, rest, to let go, release something
Matthew 11:28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest (pause, refreshment).” NIV
Psalm 4:4 “…Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still. Selah.”
B. J. McComb’s “Red” story is an inspiring one! He was a man reared in Texas grew up picking peanuts, then as a teenager became a mechanic and his pay was a room, 2 meals a day and free chewing tobacco. He was very involved in Texas’s FFA. At 22 years old he started selling cars in Corpus Christi Texas, outselling all other salesmen. Then at 25 year old he laid everything on the table and invested in a used car dealership in 1952 and one year later he started a new Ford Dealership in San Antonio Texas.
