Psalm 3 — Selah

If persecuted by your own people, and you have a whole crowd against you, say Psalm 3.

Athanasius, On the Interpretation of the Psalms 15

Psalm 3 has a couple of "firsts."

It has a title: A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son. So we know who wrote it and the very difficult circumstances under which David was praying. This is really a good one to reflect on when you're having family problems. If nothing else, we can be thankful that we're very unlikely to be pursued by our son and his army to murder us. Fingers crossed, anyway.

It is the first lament psalm. Laments begin by crying out to God for deliverance, often by an individual. Then comes the specific complaints and petitions. And finally comes the confidence in God's deliverance and the psalmist's devotion to God. Often the suffering and feeling of being far from God can move the psalmist closer to God by the end.

This is the first psalm in which the word "Selah" is used. Evidently the meaning is uncertain but Wikipedia says that the general consensus is:

It is probably either a liturgico-musical mark or an instruction on the reading of the text, something like "stop and listen." Another proposal is that selah can be used to indicate that there is to be a musical interlude at that point in the Psalm. It can also be interpreted as a form of underlining in preparation for the next paragraph.

I didn't know that before and love the idea of being told to take a minute for reflection. That is the perfect way to be sure we're not just reading the psalm without thinking about it.

Rembrandt van Rijn - David in Prayer

3:1-2 Many Foes

Thoughts on the Meaning of Selah. Gregory of Nyssa: One who has comprehended the term in a definition might say, then, that diapsalma is a pause that occurs suddenly in the midst of the singing of a psalm in order to receive an additional thought that is being introduced from God. Or, one might rather define it as follows. Diapsalma is a teaching from the Spirit that occurs in a mysterious manner in the soul, when the attention given to this new thought impedes the continuity of the song ... On the Inscriptions of the Psalms

Psalms 1-50 (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture)

I like the point where David says, "Many are saying of me, God will not deliver him." Then there is a Selah — and when I pause for reflection I realize it sounds just like today. How many times are we challenged by people who deny God exists or that He's able to help us, that we can't count on God at all? Or it could look like a self-fulling prophecy meaning that we're not worth God's attention. For every time we've faced this challenge, we can remember the great King David was right there with us. Some things are very different now versus David's time. Some, however, are just the same.

Sources are here and an index of psalm posts is here.