Category Archives: Bible Studies

An Unexpected Messiah

By | |
Comments Off on An Unexpected Messiah

The Truth About Christmas

by Bob Burridge ©2010


This article continues a series of studies about the events surrounding the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. The series begins with, Called To Bethlehem. There is also a complete index for all the articles telling The Truth About Christmas.

Part 3 An Unexpected Messiah

Our minds are designed to fill in missing information. There is a blind spot in every human eye. It’s the optical disk over the place where the optic nerve joins the back of the eye. There are no photo-receptor cells in that part of the retina.

Try this:
Put two dots on a paper about 4 inches apart. With the paper very close, stare at the right side dot with your right eye closed. If you move the paper away slowly the left-most dot disappears.

Your brain fills in the area over the blind spot with general information from the area around it. You never notice the missing information in what you see. In modern computer terminology it’s a software solution for a hardware limitation.

There are blind spots in our understanding of God and his plans too. We haven’t been told everything yet. The tendency of our fallen minds is to fill in the things not revealed with guesses. When this happens, false religions, wrong beliefs and wrong moral principles slip in. Even well meaning Christians miss the comfort and truth in Scripture passages that way.

God tells us what he wants us to know and we shouldn’t speculate about the rest. We need to identify the things that aren’t based on God’s word so we don’t get confused by them.

The ancient promises about the coming Messiah were like that. Jesus Christ was not what the people of his day expected the Messiah to be. He came in a form that no one would have thought was appropriate. He was far more than what they thought God would send. He came to do something that the people in his day didn’t expect. And he did it in a way totally unexpected even by those who anticipated his coming.

They had the promises of the Old Testament Scriptures. They were the windows God provided that allowed a glimpse of what Messiah would be and do. But people had distorted God’s promises with unfounded innovations. They filled in the things God hadn’t said with their own theories. They read in the Bible that the Messiah would be a king greater than David. So they expected a passionate revolutionary who would dethrone the Emperor of Rome. They imagined him setting up an impressive earthly palace with an invincible army to defend it. They read in Micah 5:2 that he would be born in Bethlehem, the city of the King David. Bethlehem was a suburb of Jerusalem. It was home to many priests and political leaders. They assumed this mean that the Christ would be born to a powerful Jewish leader and live in a rich palacious home, Such a Messiah would be able to take on Rome and the other Gentile nations.

These brilliantly crafted ideas fit the way things seemed to work in the world, so they became the accepted beliefs that filled the synagogues with enthusiastic believers. The few that wouldn’t go along with their popular teachings and methods were looked at as out of touch and a little weird. There was one serious problem though: they were wrong.

Today people still expect a different Jesus than the one who actually came to save them. They choose from his sayings certain words they use to support their own assumptions. They redefine who he was, what he did, and how we come to benefit from it today.

Our responsibility is to know and promote the truth, then to worship him, and live by his promises. Knowing the truth about Jesus is more important than just getting the historical facts straight. It’s more important than just being able to have a “right theology”.

For example: people talk about learning to love as Jesus did. That’s a good thing. But they fill in their own information about what real love is. It’s not love to encourage behaviors or attitudes that replace those God has promised to bless. Most people know that it is important to worship, to help our neighbors, and to have pure thoughts. But if they don’t know the real Jesus and they don’t know God’s word, they might be thinking and doing things in those activities which actually offend the Lord they hope to please. Adding things to God’s word keeps the real soul-liberating message hidden.

Jesus wasn’t what they expected the Messiah to be. Isaiah 53 warned them about how unexpected the Messiah would be to his people. It actually begins in Isaiah 52:14 where the paragraph starts.

“As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:”

Israel had been God’s chosen nation, but they rebelled and violated God’s covenant. They tolerated idolatry and immorality, so God let pagan nations conquer them. They were forced into slavery, and their temple was torn down stone by stone. Just as the prophets had warned, the nations were astonished, appalled, horrified at Israel’s claim to be God’s Kingdom on earth. The idea that they were a nation at all, much less God’s nation, became a mockery. As a subjugated people, they no longer even resembled a nation.

In the same way, God’s promised Messiah would be disfigured, mocked, and hated. He was even put to death, a disgraceful death as a criminal on a Roman cross. He wouldn’t be what they all expected the Messiah to be.

To them the truth seemed unbelievable. Isaiah 52:15 says,

“So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.”

Instead of just favoring Israel, the Messiah would sprinkle many nations. His shed blood would be sprinkled on lost souls of all the nations. both Jews and Gentiles. This was unheard of in the Jewish community in the time of Jesus. Gentiles were despised and considered unredeemable.

Even the great kings, who usually had a lot to say about things, would be silenced. They would be dumbfounded, speechless at the unexpected work of a suffering Messiah.

So Isaiah wrote in chapter 53:1-3

Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Literally the Hebrew text in verse one reads: “Who would have believed the thing reported to us?” Instead of sitting on a royal throne in a plush palace, he would be a humble redeemer.

Next Study: A Surprise for Mary

The City of Bethlehem

By | |
Comments Off on The City of Bethlehem

The Truth About Christmas

by Bob Burridge ©2010


This article continues a series of studies about the events surrounding the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. The series begins with, Called To Bethlehem. There is also a complete index for all the articles telling The Truth About Christmas.

Part 2 The City of Bethlehem

God used the decree of the pagan emperor Caesar Augustus to move the chosen family to the place planned eternally in the mind of God.

Luke 2:4-5 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.

Bethlehem has a long history. It was a village for 2000 years before the time of Jesus. It had always been a small town of hard working people. Its rich fields were good for growing grain, raising sheep, and producing grapes, figs, and olives. The name, Bethlehem, or baet-lekhem (בת לחם) means “house of bread”. It was the town where Israel’s King David was raised.

It was sometimes called Bethlehem-Judah or Bethlehem Ephrathah to distinguish it from another Bethlehem which was in the territory of Zebulun.

This Bethlehem was about 5 miles south of Jerusalem, a little over an hour’s walk. The daily offerings in the Jerusalem temple required the sacrifice of sheep every day of the year. The shepherds of Bethlehem were kept very busy raising sheep to supply the priests with the sacrifices. That was the job of David and his family before God made him Israel’s King.

Jerusalem was a busy place every day with the markets, the work at the Temple, the meetings of the Sanhedrin, and debates by the scholars and well known Rabbis. So Bethlehem became a sub-urban town where some priestly families chose to live away from the busy pace of Jerusalem.

To comply with the decree of Rome, and in God’s providence, Joseph and Mary came there when their baby was due.

The traditional Christmas story imagines these two as lone travelers coming to a town where they didn’t know anyone. A little thought sheds some doubt on that idea. The very reason they were going to Bethlehem was to be registered in the city of their family’s origin. It was the city from which all their relatives had come. They would all have to visit during the enrollment.

It is more accurate to picture Mary and Joseph along with at least all the heads of homes of all their relatives and loved ones converging on Bethlehem to be enrolled in the City of David. They would likely have traveled in a caravan with their fathers, grandfathers, brothers, uncles, and any other family members that chose to go with them.

We ought to remember that family ties were much closer in the Jewish culture than they are now in our modern Western civilization. They would hardly have been alone in a strange city. It was more like a family re-union, than two lone travelers in a cold uninterested town.

Next Study: An Unexpected Messiah

Called to Bethlehem

By | |
Comments Off on Called to Bethlehem

This article begins a series of studies about the events surrounding the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. Follow the links at the top of the page to read through the articles which were first posted in 2010. There is also a complete index for all the articles telling The Truth About Christmas.

The Truth About Christmas

by Bob Burridge ©2010

The traditional Christmas story isn’t always told the way it really happened. The facts are recorded in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. The details recorded there give us a more sketchy story than what we might expect by our 21st century standards.

Unfortunately, where the Bible account is silent tradition speaks volumes. When a blend of tradition and fact takes place we tend to see things we expect to see rather than what’s actually there. A careful study the biblical account is the only way to bring our mental picture of Christ’s birth as much as possible into conformity with what God tells us took place at that special moment in history. Since we are so used to hearing the Christmas story told in the wording of the King James Version of the Bible, that’s the translation used in this series of articles.

Part 1 Called to Bethlehem

Amazingly, the story of Christ’s birth begins with the edict of a pagan emperor. Luke 2 tells a story that’s very familiar to us. It begins this way:

[1] And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. [2] (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) [3] And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

Long before the earthly family of Jesus moved to Nazareth, God promised that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. The prophecy of Micah 5:2 in the Old Testament said,

“But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”

To fulfill that plan God used the decree of a heathen Emperor. The old King James Version said the command was that “all the world should be taxed.” But “taxed” is not the most accurate translation of the words in God’s inspired text. The word used here is apographesthai (απογραφεσθαι). It describes a census or registration of the people. The census was used to set up the tax requirements of each region of the Roman Empire.

Caesar Augustus set up a regular census when a man named Quirinius (Cyrenius in the King James Version) was governing in Syria. He governed the Roman affairs of the land of the Jews under the primary Syrian leadership of Varus. Augustus had no idea that his plan was part of something much bigger than updating the tax rolls.

In the region of the Roman Empire where the Jews lived registration was carried out in home-towns. That’s where the Jewish family records were kept. Everyone had to return home to the city where his family originated. This is what brought Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, the town of their ancestor King David.

God’s Providence works in unexpected ways, even using the wicked to advance his plan. Proverbs 21:1 explains that God controls even the plans of an evil leader’s heart.

“The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.”

Next Study: A different way to view the trip to The City of Bethlehem

The Rising Sun of Righteousness

By | |
1 Comment

The Rising Sun of Righteousness

Reflections upon Malachi 4:1-3
by Bob Burridge ©2010

I sometimes enjoy getting up early enough to see the sun rise. There’s something different about it’s coming up than the reverse where it’s going down. Probably played in reverse on a video recording we might not be able to tell the difference. Both are astoundingly beautiful and declare God’s glory with profound eloquence. What’s different about the sunrise is that when the sun is just coming up it sets the stage for the work day ahead. The darkness we slept in evaporates away.

The day doesn’t come all at once. It stretches out from the darkness slowly showing us its power to erase the night. The shadows that hid things we might trip over slowly shrink until by noon time they’re next to nothing at all. As the morning turns bright we can see to get on with our work. There’s a freshness in our hearts as the new day starts. There are all sorts of possibilities ahead.

The Prophet Malachi uses this as an analogy to encourage God’s people in Malachi 4:1-3 (That’s 3:19-21 in the Hebrew text); He had just warned the unrighteous who were oppressing God’s people.
Then he said,

“For behold, the day is coming,  Burning like an oven, And all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up, Says the Lord of hosts, ‘That will leave them neither root nor branch. But to you who fear My name The Sun of Righteousness shall arise With healing in His wings; And you shall go out And grow fat like stall-fed calves. You shall trample the wicked, For they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet On the day that I do this,’ Says the Lord of hosts.”

The wings of the sun are its rays as they reach out to touch the darkness. God’s power to purify and to conquer evil will heal the victims of God’s enemies. It will make his people grow strong and become victors over their enemies.

This verse had a special application in the life of the great Presbyterian leader Archibald Alexander. He was born in 1772 in a cabin made of square logs in South River, Virginia, not far from Lexington. Three years later his family moved to the Forks to be closer to the Lexington area because his father had a mercantile business. When the Revolutionary War came in 1776, all mercantile businesses were suspended. His father became a deputy sheriff working with his own father in the new county that formed.

Though he lived in the rough lands just being settled Archibald had a good upbringing. When he was seven he had memorized the entire shorter catechism. He had already started studies in Latin and had become an expert swimmer and horseman. On his eleventh birthday his father gave him his own rifle. He would spend days on his own out in the mountains gathering up stray cattle for his father.

He loved to tell about his childhood in those early days of Virginia. He often told the story about how the boys then all grew their hair long. The style was to wear it tied in a long dangling queue down their back, but Archibald’s hair was very thin so it made a very skinny little queue of hair. The boys sometimes laughed at him and teased him about it. One day they started calling him “My Lord Pigtail”. But Alexander was more concerned about the “Lord” part than the “Pigtail” part. He complained to the head master at school that he believed the boys were breaching the third Commandment about using the Lord’s name in vain. That, he admits, drew even more ridicule than his skinny little tail of hair.

As a teen he struggled to understand God’s grace better. He read sermons and tells of taking his Bible out into the wilderness to read and pray. He got to a point of deep despair when he simply cried out to God for help and to save him. He said that at that moment God worked on his heart opening the wonders of salvation to him. He wrote of it saying, “The whole pan of grace appeared as clear as day.”

Soon after that he made a public announcement of his faith in Christ alone, at age seventeen. Even after this he still struggled with uncertainty fearing that he was worthy. As he came to the Lord’s table he feared that he would eat and drink damnation to himself.

Then he heard a sermon that changed his outlook. It was delivered by the old Presbyterian Scholar and Pastor, William Graham (not to be confused with the more recent evangelist “Billy Graham”).

The sermon was from this text in Malachi 4:2

But to you who fear My name, The Sun of Righteousness shall arise With healing in His wings; And you shall go out And grow fat like stall-fed calves.

He later wrote of it this way,

“The preacher compared the beginnings of true religion in the soul to the rising of the sun; sometimes with a sudden and immediate clearness, sometimes under clouds, which are afterwards dispersed. As he went on, it occurred to me with great distinctness, that the Sun of Righteousness began to rise on me, though under a cloud. When conversing with Mr. Mitchell in Bedford, I was relieved from despair by the persuasion that Christ was able to save even me. This shows how seldom believers can designate with exactness the time of their renewal. Now, at the age of seventy-seven, I am of opinion that my regeneration took place … in the year 1788.”

After surviving a serious illness in 1790, he began to spread God’s word whenever he could. He took on a pastorate in 1794 of the “Cub Creek Church” in Virginia. He was pleased that in his congregation there were 70 blacks at the Lord’s Table. His reputation for sound reasoning, excellent scholarship, and passion for Christ spread. In 1797 he became president of Hampden Sydney College, mainly set up to train ministers.

He struggled for a while with the issue of infant baptism. He read a book by the reformed Baptist, John Gill and refused to baptize babies. But though the arguments were well presented he saw some serious inconsistencies. He spent a long while researching one line of argument after another, primarily carefully examining all the Bible texts used by the Baptists. He later realized that Gill worked from some unsupportable assumptions. Archibald returned to his more reformed view of Baptism and never wavered.

In 1807 he pastored a church in Philadelphia. While there he helped found the Philadelphia Bible Society. It was in 1812 that the General Assembly called him to become the first professor of a new seminary they wanted to start up in Princeton, New Jersey. He was the only professor then. There were only 3 students who met in his home.
The next year there were 9 students and Princeton Seminary grew from there. It’s tragic that in later years liberalism crept in slowly until it took over that Seminary. Other schools were started about that time. One was called Harvard.

Archibald Alexander left us with a mass of great works and teachings which have been foundational still in a sound Bible education. We who continue in his heritage are the more conservative of the present Presbyterians.

His simple comments on Malachi 4:2 have always impressed me. Often when God’s righteousness comes to our hearts with victory it takes some time for the wings of the sun to stretch out and bring light to all of the soul. Patience with ourselves, with God, and with others is important.

What gets us through is the infallible promise that in Christ we are fully redeemed even though we may have a lot of growing to do, and that even when the battles seem harsh against us victory is as certain as noon day itself. God will cause his sun of Righteousness to dispel all the shadows, to destroy all the enemies, and to make his people grow stronger and stronger.

If you doubt that call out to God in simple undone humility. Cry out for help. It will come.

return to the top of this Page

The Meaning of Imputation

By | |
Comments Off on The Meaning of Imputation

The Meaning of Imputation

Genevan Institute for Reformed Studies
by Bob Burridge ©2010

Imputation: The act of assigning a condition, standing, or value. When it relates to persons, the new condition is credited to them, and accounted as being fully theirs. The sin of Adam was imputed to us long ago. The righteousness of Jesus Christ is imputed (credited) to all those redeemed by him on the Cross of Calvary. There our sin was imputed to our Savior where the demands of its guilt were satisfied before God forever.

(Note: The Bible quotations in this article are from the New King James Bible unless otherwise noted.)

We’re often warned about the dangers of living on credit. The basic idea of credit is something very familiar to us in our society today. It’s when you are made able to spend someone else’s money on things you aren’t able to pay for yourself. It’s based on the assumption that you will soon be able to pay them back, and pay them for the privilege of the loan.

In economics this can be dangerous if it is handled unwisely. No one really knows what the future will hold. The assumption is made that the borrower’s income will be able to pay back the loan in a reasonable time frame, and will also be able to pay the price charged for the loan.

There’s a Greek word for that crediting of something to someone’s account. The word is logitzomai. It’s found in several New Testament passages. But the context isn’t about economics. It’s about righteousness.

James 2:23 “And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. ”

The word translated “imputed” is that Greek word logitzomai. The righteousness of Abraham didn’t come from his own pure motives, efforts, or works. It was credited to him by God through his faith. He believed that God would provide what he didn’t have and couldn’t obtain.

It wasn’t only James who talked about this imputed righteousness. Paul used the same example of Abraham to make the same point in Romans 4.

In Romans 4:11 he said, “And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also”

It wasn’t Abraham’s own act of circumcision that made him righteous. That was just a sign of what God had already credited to him.

Then in that same chapter Paul said, “(22) And therefore ‘it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ (23) Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, (24) but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, (25) who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.”

The words “accounted” and “imputed” in this passage are that same word, logitzomai. The faith God puts into our hearts by grace turns from it’s own merits to the merits of Christ.

Then again in Galatians 3:6-9 Paul wrote, “(6) just as Abraham ‘believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ (7) Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. (8) And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, ‘In you all the nations shall be blessed.’ (9) So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.”

The word for “accounted” is again the word logitzomai.

We have no righteousness of our own, yet we are credited as being righteous. The reason we can’t earn this standing on our own is that is another imputation that took place back in Eden. The sin of Adam was imputed to all who would descend from him by natural conception. Jesus was born by supernatural conception so the sin of Adam was not credited to him. He was born without that debt of sin. As our perfect representative he paid the penalty we all owe.

God’s word directly teaches that sin together with its consequences passed upon all of the human race by Adam’s sin. Romans 5:12 “… through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned”, and 1 Corinthians 15:22 “For as in Adam all die …”

Adam’s guilt was imputed to his posterity in a way similar to the manner in which Jesus Christ’s righteousness is imputed to his people by grace, and their sin is imputed to their Savior.

Charles Hodge defines it, “to impute is to attribute anything to a person or persons, upon adequate grounds, as the judicial or meritorious reason of reward or punishment.” (Systematic Theology. vol 2, pg 194)

The wonderful truth is that we who are redeemed have Christ’s righteousness imputed to us. It’s credited to our account as if it was our own.

No one can ever pay back the debt he owes for his sins. Only Jesus could pay that infinite debt. Our sins were credited to him as if they were his own.

That’s the message behind this name of God in Jeremiah 23:6. He is THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. Only dressed in the righteousness of our Savior, that which is credited to us, can we be God’s children.

Unlike the crediting that takes place in economics, we are never expected to pay back what’s credited to us. We could not. Jesus paid the debt in full for us.

Critics of this idea often say that this makes us unconcerned about doing what’s good. They assume that if it is not our good deeds that make us right with God, then we will have no reason to do good at all, since we already have righteousness in Christ. But there are things not taken into consideration by these critics. They fail to understand the motivation that drives the redeemed human heart.

It is our grateful love for the Loving Redeemer that stirs us to want to live for his glory. The pride that imagines that anything we do is pure enough to make us innocent before God is destructive, self-centered, self-deceptive, and arrogant. It is not a reliable motive for obedience.

The best motive that stirs us to honor God in our thoughts and lives is a humility that admits its own poverty, weakness, and total unworthiness. The person who understands that his righteousness can only come by the imputation of that which belongs to his Savior, is the one who can truly appreciate the fact of this amazing grace.

Those who come to see their own unworthiness, and to trust in Christ’s work alone for salvation, are the ones who are thankfully humbled before God and before others. They engage in humble and faithful worship. They struggle hard to obey out of gratitude with no delusions of earning their salvation. They busily evangelize telling others, all kinds of others, both the good and the evil, that in spite of their own record, their own successes or failures, there is hope in the promise of God in the work of Christ.

They will stand before God as holy children, dressed in the purest of righteousness, the righteousness of the perfect Savior. They can be confident that in spite of their sins, their inexcusable crimes and evil, they are loved and counted as heirs of eternal blessing with Christ.

return to the top of this Page

The Meaning of “Selah”

By | |
Comments Off on The Meaning of “Selah”

The Meaning of “Selah”

By Bob Burridge ©2010

When you read the book of Psalms you come across the term “selah” 71 times. Few who read the Bible have any meaningful idea about what that means. There are different views about the exact purpose of the word in the Psalms.

The first place you find it is in Psalm Three where it occurs in verses two, four, and eight. The word always stands alone at the end of a sentence. This makes us believe that it is a musical instruction rather than a word to be translated literally as part of the message of the Psalm.

The word “selah” appears to be related to the Hebrew word “salal” which is used in sentences where it means to lift up, or to exalt (for example Proverbs 4:8). If this word is a musical direction in the Psalms it probably means a lifting up of the voices or instruments either in pitch or in volume.

The ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint) uses the word “diapsalma” to translate “selah”. This combines the word “psalm” (a song sung to musical accompaniment) with the prefix “dia” which is a preposition primarily meaning, “through”. Literally it simply means “through the Psalm”. This does not give us much help, and probably indicates that the Septuagint writers were not sure what to do with this expression.

Technical musical instructions are there for a purpose. Arrangers, composers, and lyricists try to use the elements of music to create an emotional setting for the words and message of the song. There must be some reason why this word is included in the inspired text of the Book of Psalms.

If this word is inserted in the Psalm where pitch or volume is increased, it must mark a moment where special attention is to be drawn to what has just been said or sung. Probably we are wise to pause for a moment when we come to the word selah, and focus on what we just read before moving on. We lift up our thoughts to the Lord in consideration of the point made in the words leading up to it.

When reading Psalms out loud to others at home or in worship many prefer to not say the word “selah”, but to pause a moment instead. When Psalms are set to music it is wise to highlight the music for the words leading up to this musical instruction by raising the pitch of the melody, or by increasing the intensity of the arrangement in some way.

In Psalm Three, David uses this word to mark an end to a special point he was making. In verse two he had just explained the trouble he was facing from his enemies who mocked him saying there was no help for him in God. Then in verse four he uses this word after he cried out to Jehovah and was heard by him. Finally in verse eight he concludes the Psalm attributing his salvation and blessing to God.

God’s word has a lot that impresses us. Every thought is amazing when we consider that it is God himself communicating to us. At times the Bible crystallizes a particular idea for us to consider. That appears to be the purpose of the word “selah” in the Psalms. When you come across that word, take a moment to consider the weight of what has just been said, and lift your thoughts to exalt our God as the sovereign, and gracious Redeemer of his people.