HEBREW WORD STUDY – THE CLEFT OF THE ROCK

HEBREW WORD STUDY – THE CLEFT OF THE ROCK – SELA’  סלע 

II Samuel 22:2:  “And he said, The LORD [is] my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer;”

Fanny Crosby one of the greatest hymn writers of her time in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century was blind throughout her life.  I have driven many blind people on my disability bus and although they would not admit it, they suffered fears that we as sighted people would not even give a second thought. They were afraid to cross a street, to step off a curb, getting lost in their own neighborhood, even hearing a strange noise they could not identify.   

Without all the modern technology we have today to help the blind I can only imagine the many fears that Fanny Crosby must have experienced.  Yet, she wrote that great hymn that I used to enjoy singing even as a child: “He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock.”  

II Samuel 22:2;  The Lord is my rock and my fortress.  The word rock is sela’ which really means a fortress. It is a fortress built into a rock.  The best example of a sela’ is the 4^th Century BC capital of the Nabataean Kingdom known as Petra.  It is a city literally built out of a stone mountain and the inhabitants were able to successfully repel enemy attacks by utilizing the area’s mountainous terrain.  In ancient times people would run for the mountains when an army was coming to attack.  The one achieving the highest ground often had the best defense.  That is where we get the old saying; “Head for the hills.”  Sela’ is a cleft or an opening made a by a split in the mountain.  It was one of the safest places to hide in early times.  The word for fortress is matsud which has its origins in the word for a prey and one that is hunted or being chased.  The word eventually took on the idea of a fortress for the one being chased will seek a sela’ or a fortress.  So the Lord is a sela’ for the matsud that is the Lord is the fortress in the cleft of the rock for those being pursued or hunted. 

Then finally God is the Deliverer.  The one being hunted or pursued not only finds God to be a fortress in the cleft of the rock or sela’ but He will also deliver you from those that are pursuing you.  The word deliverer is palat which is a word that is used for one who helps another person escape from a prison. God not only hides us in the cleft of the rock but when the danger is passed He will lead us out of that secure place into a place of safety.

Fanny Crosby, as with all of us, is beset by many fears some which are unreasonable, but are fears nonetheless.  Yet she found safety in the sela’ the cleft of the rock where God eventually palat, led her as He will with us into a safe place.  The writer used the word sela’ to make a play on the word selah which means to rise above. When God palat’s us or delivers us we will selah rise above all our troubles.