Tuesday Sermon: Selah!

          Today's sermon is a little bit different, in that we're going to focus on the Psalm 62, and one of the saints honored today, Agatha of Sicily.  Agatha lived from 231 to 251 CE. 

          Psalm 62 has the mysterious word that appears 71 times in the Psalms:  Selah.  Apparently, no one really knows what it means, but by the best guess, it means to pause and praise, pause and contemplate, or to give value.  This is apparently one of the root words in Hebrew that scholars disagree about.  So then the question becomes, when you’re reading those passages in the Bible and you come to the word “Selah”, do you actually say Selah, or should you say something in praise of what you have just heard?  Hallelujah!  Or should we pause and think about what we’ve heard, giving it the respect and careful consideration it apparently deserves?

          "For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall never be shaken."  In these first two verses, we are provided the foundation upon which the Psalmist rests.  It can also be exemplified in Agatha's story.  According to the 13th-century Golden Legend, 15-year-old Agatha was from a rich and noble family, and, as one of the famous "virgin martyrs", she had made a vow of virginity and rejected the amorous advances of a low-born Roman prefect named Quintianus. 

          The first place in Psalm 62 that is followed by Selah is at the end of Verse 4, where it has been described how much a person can be battered.  Quintianus thought he could force Agatha to turn away from her vow and force her to marry him.  His persistent proposals were steadily spurned by her, so Quintianus, knowing she was a Christian – and this was during the persecution of Decius, when so many Christians were put to death - had her arrested and brought before the judge.  And of course, he was the judge.  He expected 15-year-old Agatha to give in to his demands when she was faced with torture and possible death, but she simply reaffirmed her belief in God. He was her foundation.  In order to force her to change her mind, Quintianus sent Agatha to Aphrodisia, the keeper of a brothel, and had her imprisoned there, where she suffered a month of rape, assault, and efforts to get her to abandon her vow to God and go against her virtue.  Selah.  A place to pause and think. 

          What would you do?  Is there a temptation here to blame God for the vow you made?  Or do you continue, knowing that no matter what they did to your body, your soul remains pure and steadfast, and will not be shaken.

          Quintianus sent for Agatha again, argued, threatened, and finally had her put in prison and had her tortured. Amongst the tortures she underwent was the cutting off of her breasts with pincers. After further dramatic confrontations with Quintianus, Agatha was then sentenced to be burnt at the stake, but an earthquake saved her from that fate; instead, she was sent to prison where St. Peter the Apostle appeared to her and healed her wounds.

          The second place in the Psalm followed by Selah is after the eighth verse:  "Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us."  Selah!  And here, I think the pause is more of a praise, but one of quiet strength and conviction.

          Agatha experienced atrocities in her very short life, but she trusted in God, and He brought her to Him from the prison in which she died.  May her example make us pause and think.