Stop lights in the Bible

Anyone who travels between Riverdale and Fayetteville cannot but help notice the increasing number of traffic lights. Personally, I detest them. Just when I think I have clear sailing, up goes another traffic signal and invariably it’s red when I approach it.

Traffic signals, to our chagrin, are signs of progress. Or, are they? I personally can remember only one traffic light in Fayetteville and that was when I was a college student traveling between Columbus and Athens.

Well, there are texts in the Bible with stop lights. It became crystal clear as I made my way along Georgia 85 through Riverdale and Fayetteville. It occurred to me that we can take stopping at a traffic signal as a negative or a positive. Like most of life.

Stopping could be a very good time to check out your indicator lights. Stopping could be an opportunity to take a gander at the new sights popping up around us. Maybe you won’t look so ignorant when someone mentions the new J.C. Penney. Stopping is a good time to handle one of the items on your prayer list.

Back to the Bible. Check out Psalm 46 and many of the other Psalms. There’s a little word that acts like a traffic signal on red: Selah. The old joke is that “Selah” is what David said when he broke a harp string.

In my study of Selah, it seems it means to stop, pause, and think over what you have just read. It’s a stop signal.

Go with me to Psalm 46: God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change and though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; though the waters roar and foam, through the mountains quake at its swelling pride.”

Right there following that wonderful text is the word “Selah.” Stop for a second. Go back over what you have just read. Think about it. That’s what “Selah” is suggesting that you do.

Hummm! Katrina. Rita. Wilma. Alpha. The earth is changing whether you are a believer in global warming or not. Islands that once were are no more.

But it does not matter about the changes that are happening to the earth. Truth is this earth is passing away. But think: “God is our refuge and strength.” The New Orleans Superdome didn’t prove to be much of a refuge. But God did. Just ask millions of coastal residents who turned to him.

So, rather than rushing through the Word of God, stop and soak up its meaning and special “word” just for you. Just as you would stop at a red traffic signal, stop at God’s Word and let it speak to you. And oh how it will!