While I Slept

I went to bed well before midnight on New Year’s Eve.
Yes, I did.
The full house that we had for much of the holidays had emptied a bit.
Our youngest daughter had plans with her church friends.

It was going to be a quiet night.
However, my husband came down with a terrible cold.
I decided to un-decorate the house that day to keep busy.
By the time the dinner dishes were done and put away, I was tired.

My throat felt scratchy.
It was not a great way to start the New Year.
I know when I need rest.
That night, I listened to my body and went to bed.

No watching the ball drop from Times Square.
No kiss at midnight.
No banging pots and pans like my children used to do.
No special way to mark the New Year in any way.

The year 2016 ended; the year 2017 began and I was asleep.
I heard nearby firecrackers.
I heard some distant voices from other houses.
I was resting and rejuvenating; hoping not to get sick for New Year’s Day.

I wrote and sent my children a text, which ended with an emoji of a sleeping face.
I was sure they would be surprised; I knew that I would be asked about it the next day.
When we had a family dinner the next night, I was indeed asked.
Mom, that’s not like you to go to bed before midnight.

New Year’s Day was lovely.
My husband was still sick with his cold but I seemed to ward off the worst of it.
The extra sleep helped.
I guess with all the wonderful activity of the holidays, I didn’t realize that I was tired.

I got up the next morning and sat at the island to have my breakfast.
No one was downstairs yet.
I had time to be alone.
I had time with the Lord.

For twenty-five years now, I read through the entire Bible.
Someone I met many years ago did the same thing.
She has since died and gone home to be with the Lord.
Her husband described her daily reading as, going coast to coast in the Bible.

I liked that.
I have gone coast to coast in the Bible twenty-five times.
That is not meant as a pat me on the back, saying, attagirl.
It is, I’ve read through the Bible twenty-five times and I still have not plumbed its depth.

I knew the next day I would begin again in the book of Genesis.
But for that day, I was reading in the book of Psalms.
There it was.
The word that I want to define the new year;  the new year I slept through as it began.

Selah.

Selah is from two Hebrew words, meaning to praise or to lift up.
Selah is found 71 times in the book of Psalms and three times in the book of Habakkuk.
It is believed that Selah is a musical notation since the Psalms were meant to be sung.
If this is true, then every time Selah appears in the Psalms, the musicians paused.

The musicians paused to take a breath, or to sing a cappella, or to play instruments alone.
They may have paused to worship the One they were singing about.
They may have paused to lift their hands in worship.
The musicians embodied the meaning of the word: they paused, praised, and lifted up.

One little word.
In the short time I sat at my island, I read the word, Selah, twice.
As I paused to ponder and consider God’s Word in this New Year, I saw descriptions of Him.
I wrote them down in the margin of my Bible.

My Rock.
My Salvation.
My Fortress.
My Refuge.

These words describing God were found in the first two verses of the psalm.
David is the writer of Psalm 62.
A few verses later, I read the word Selah again.
The same words describing God were repeated and another one was added: my refuge.

Resting and pausing gives us a fresh perspective.
When we rest and pause, we begin to see clearly who God is.
We see that He is worthy of our praise.
The rest allows us to stop long enough to take notice of things we tend to miss when we rush.

My soul finds rest in God alone;
My salvation comes from Him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation;
He is my fortress, I will never be shaken…(Psalm 62:1,2)

Selah

Find rest, O my soul, in God alone;
My hope comes from Him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation;
He is my fortress, I will not be shaken.
My salvation and my honor depend on God.
He is my mighty rock, my refuge. (Psalm 62:5-7)

Trust in Him at all times, O people;
Pour out your hearts to Him,
For God alone is our refuge…(Psalm 62:8)

Selah

One thing God has spoken,
Two things have I heard:
That you, O God, are strong,
And that You, O Lord are loving.  (Psalm 62:11,12)

Psalm 62 set the tone of the New Year for me.
The New Year that began without me realizing it.
The New Year that I slept right through.
The New Year that taught me that I continuously need to rest in Him.

I am so glad that I slept through the noise of midnight.
I am so glad that 2017 began while I was asleep.
The tone of the New Year is set.
Selah.

Rest.
Pause.
Lift up.
Praise.

The unfathomable One is known through His Word.
When I pause to ponder all He is, I will never get to the bottom of discovery.
I need to pause, I need to consider, I need to be still in order to know Him.
God can be known, not in the noise, but in the quiet of the rest.

Selah.