SELAH
This is a very beautiful psalm, as so many are; this one is particularly precious. It is interesting that the Lord Jesus, in speaking to His own at the end of Luke (Luke 24:44), opened their understanding of “all that is written concerning me” from Moses and from the prophets and from the Psalms. It is very interesting that He should include the Psalms when He spoke to the company, because Moses and the prophets represent God speaking to man, but the book of Psalms is man speaking to God. What an interesting thing that the Lord Jesus should include that book in opening their understanding of the Scriptures. You might say that what flowed out from the hearts of men towards God was a result of the great matter of understanding the Scriptures.
I thought about this psalm by the sons of Korah as thinking of the tumultuous times that we are living in, with people being very agitated about things in the public sphere throughout the world. These things mark the present time that we are in, and as believers, we do not make light of people’s feelings, because our own hearts can be like that. How very often, we may say, things boil up, and fears and distresses become out of proportion in our minds. These sons of Korah had known what it was to have tremendous grief and sorrow in their family. Korah and the men that had belonged to him, their families and property, had been consumed in the rebellion of Korah (Num.16:32). The earth had swallowed them up but the sons of Korah had been spared. It gives some colour to this reference, “God is our refuge”. What feelings must have entered into their hearts as they thought of their fathers carried away. We do not have much detail as to it, but it says that “the children of Korah died not”, Num.26:11.
But thank God that He is our refuge. You think of these things, the mountains and the earth: you may say they are stable things that could never change. But the earth is seen as removed, the mountains cast into the seas, and the waters roaring and foaming. In speaking to one and another here it is clear that we are not any of us that much different – “face answereth to face”, Prov.27:19. Sometimes our thoughts become agitated and things seem to become out of proportion, beloved brethren – the mountains carried into the heart of the seas and the earth removed; things which seem so stable. Perhaps there is an answer in some of our hearts to these experiences and fears in our time. Fears as to health, fears as to family, fears as to situations, fears as to the unknown; these things are known by us and very often they are private. They are not apparent, but this is what is described here.
But then there is this lovely word that comes in. Despite the waters roaring and foaming and the mountains shaking with the swelling thereof, these sons of Korah say, “Selah”. “Selah” – we understand that this word means ‘pause and consider’. It is a good thing sometimes, in the tumultuous way that our thoughts roar, especially as we get older, to come to that point of “Selah”. It is rather like the eunuch in Acts 8 when he commanded the chariot to stop.
Then I thought of this word that is mentioned next; “There is a river”. “There is a river the streams whereof make glad the city of God”. This figurative description is a beautiful picture. And bear in mind it is in one of the psalms. They are among the things the Lord Jesus refers to in opening the Scriptures to the understanding of His own. He would open to us an understanding of where we are. There comes a point when we are able to say “Selah” and stop. Then, “There is a river …”: thank God for that, beloved. I think this river might, in application anyway, refer to the grace of God. We were speaking on Saturday as to faith, and earlier we were speaking about grace: these are the fundamentals of Christianity. Sometimes I think we could do with stopping and pausing, considering and going over the fundamentals, beloved brethren. We may have some knowledge of the Scriptures and how to interpret them, but how wonderful the fundamentals are.
What impresses me is the grace of God. It says, “For the grace of God which carries with it salvation for all men has appeared, teaching us …”, Titus 2:11. It teaches us: grace teaches. We think of grace and salvation, we think of the gospel, but the fulness of grace contains and carries far more. This wondrous, glorious matter that has flowed out from the heart of God is grace. It is a wonderful thing. It has been said that Christianity works by what it brings, not by what it finds 1. I think the believer is brought into a sphere of things with a supply: the supply is all from God. The hymn writer puts it beautifully:
‘The river of His grace,
Through righteousness supplied,
Is flowing o’er the barren place
Where Jesus died’ (Hymn 13).
So there is supply. God does not always change the circumstances, beloved, He does not always take away the things which, you may say, are hurting us, but He brings in the supply. That means that we are able to go through, and more than go through. The riches of divine grace cause something that rises from the believer to God, even despite the direst of circumstances. These are very precious things; “There is a river the streams whereof make glad the city of God”.
I had this thought, beloved, that it is a great matter sometimes, along with the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim.2:4) that is available to us, just to go back to the simple fundamentals of the way that God has blessed us. We enjoy the blessedness of faith and the greatness of His gift, the gift of His grace flowing over the barren place where Jesus died. Then the turmoil that enters into our lives, and enters into the lives of men, falls into its place. There is a quotation of Mr Darby’s that a local brother quoted to us at the end of his life, and it surely affected me; ‘God’s ways are behind the scenes; but He moves all the scenes which He is behind. We have to learn this, and let Him work, and not think much of man’s busy movements: they will accomplish God’s. The rest of them all perish and disappear. We have only peacefully to do His will” 2.
The river of God’s grace is flowing over the barren place where Jesus died. May we be encouraged, beloved brethren, for His name’s sake.
Word at a meeting for ministry, Edinburgh
l10 December 2019
Ron D Plant