סֶֽלָה (Stop and listen)

Open my eyes that I may see
   wonderful things in your law. Ps. 119:18

Over the past two weeks that I’ve been working on this project I alternate between trying to master the technical building blocks of Hebrew and meditating on specific verses from Psalm 119.  I paused at verse 18 which literally says,

Open

my eyes

may behold

Wonderful

your law

This verse resonates with me because it reflects my desire to have the eyes to see wonderful things. However it also shows up the gap between my thinking and the orientation of the psalmist in that when I think of glorious things to behold I don’t think first and foremost of God’ law.

As I pause here, I remember that the opening of the eyes (literally “uncovering” or “removing” which reminds me of the book of Acts when it recounts how “something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes” 9:18) is not something I achieve but is a work of the Holy Spirit. And so this verse becomes a prayer with a double petition: first that my eyes might be opened and second that I will come to appreciate God’s revelation as the most wonderful of objects to be pondered.