Psalms 3:4

Selah.

Stop and think

That seems to sum up the several meanings of the word “Selah.” Some say it is a direction to the musicians to play an interlude while the singers ceased; some regard it as a direction to the players to stop and tune their instruments. Others see an injunction to raise heart and voice, harp and organ, to their fullest capacity. Others see a reference to eternity, as if one interposed, “World without end, Amen!” Many regard the word as equivalent to certain well-known signs in music, bidding you turn back and repeat. In any case, it is as if a solemn rock (“sela”) stood right across our path, bidding us “stop and think.” On the ground of this injunction meet all meanings, however divergent they seem. “No help for him in God.” Stop and think. Selah looks forward as well as back. God has been a shield for David; He can also lift up his head once more, and invest him with glory, the sunshine of the Divine countenance. For us who conduct the services of God’s house, “Selah” has a message. It bids the preacher rightly divide the word of truth. It bids him compare truth with truth, bringing out things new and old, and fixing each in its most telling place. It says--tune your hearts, voices, instruments. Seek inspiration, do justice to the Divine message and the gospel song, so that with holy passion, and sacred emphasis, and heart-felt pathos you shall lead our hearts to God, and incite our minds to things eternal. (Michael Eastwood.)

Psalms 3:4

I cried mate the Lord with my voice.

Turning to God in prayer

I. The psalmist’s exultation. “But Thou, O Lord.” The second part of the Psalm shows how David’s sense of the Divine presence and protection impelled him to rejoice, as if he were delivered from trial, although not yet actually set free. No sooner does he complain to God than he begins to experience consolation, for never does anyone flee to the Saviour for refuge in vain. But to particularise: what kind of help does the Psalmist receive when he seeks Divine aid? He fled from Absalom defenceless, and God, like a shield, completely protects him: he was in disgrace, God becomes his glory; prostrate, and God lifts up his head. In a word, Jehovah supplements every deficiency. This is ever true. Dost thou desire wisdom? He will be thy wisdom. Glory? He will be thy glory. Riches He will be thy wealth. Yea, He Himself will be all that thou cravest. The sweet sense of Divine compassion cannot be repressed, but will find vent in confession. Thus God is glorified, and the consciousness of His favour is increased by the very act of acknowledgment.

II. Method of gaining deliverance. The Psalmist therefore unfolds the method which he, had adopted--turning to God in prayer--“I cried unto the Lord with my voice.” For let no man think that God bestows His grace on those who do not seek it, or opens the heavenly door to those who do not knock, still less to those who despise and refuse His proffered mercy. In this way He disciplines our faith, although He never grants the least favour because there is anything meritorious in our prayers.

III. The Divine response. “And He heard me”--from the heavenly sanctuary, and also from the earthly tabernacle then radiant with the Divine presence. This is added so that all may know that God answers supplications, in harmony with His will, as quickly as we offer them, and thus causes success in prayer to stir us up to renewed petitions. The answer which was vouchsafed to David--God replying by deeds rather than by words--is specified at the end of the next verse, “the Lord sustained me.” What he had stated before in several words, “Thou art a shield for me my glory, and the lifter up of my head,” he afterwards expresses in a single phrase, “the Lord sustained me,” thereby indicating his sense of Divine protection in the very midst of persecution. (Robert Rollocks.)

Prayer answered

John Rutledge, of Buffalo, a godly sailor, was used very much in winning his swearing, licentious fellows for the Saviour. They had left Buffalo when the lake was still dangerous with floating ice, and they had accomplished three-quarters of their way, when one morning, to the great alarm of crew and skipper, they saw the ice closing upon them. There was just a narrow passage straight ahead, and it was fast closing. If the ice close it will crush the ship to pieces like a tinderbox, and they will all be lost. The men’s faces grew white, for the wind ceased and the calm came, as if to let the ice nip them and grip them to destruction. John Rutledge asked the skipper’s leave to go down to his cabin and pray. The captain was a godless man, but eternity was nigh, and he believed in John Rutledge. He had sailed with John for many a voyage; and the Christian had commended Christ by his life. Happy soul when the man that works by you,--when your comrades, at any rate, acknowledge your fidelity to Jesus. They may not like you, but yet they believe in you up to the hilt; and they trust in you even when they profess to despise you. John Rutledge got the skipper’s leave to go down to the cabin and pray. As he was there on his knees a few of the men gathered with him, and amongst them the captain. Rutledge prayed that God would guide the vessel, that God would steer the craft, that God would deliver them. The men heard, and listened attentively. As they returned to deck, the man at the wheel greeted them with, “There is hope.
The wind is nor’-nor’-east.” The wind began to “sough” and sigh and fill the sails, and the ice began to part; and the men said to the captain, “Shall we spread more canvas?” “No,” he replied, “not a stitch. Somebody else is guiding this ship. Let her alone.” A happy life is that when difficulties come, when rebellions arise, when doubts all drop upon deck, for the man to be able to say, “Let her drive; there is Someone else controlling and guiding.”