The Messiah accepted and bore the punishment we deserved for having rebelled against and offended God. "Your indignation (chemah - wrath, anger, and displeasure) was laid upon, supported and upheld by (camak ‘al - was embraced, and sustained by) Me. And You have afflicted (‘anah - occupied, bruised, and humbled) Me with all breaking, shattering, crushing, cessation, and annihilation (mishbat - extreme pressure which diminishes something), rejecting and repudiating Me and tossing Me aside (selah - making Me insignificant)." (Psalm 88:7)

In this context, selah can also mean: "used Me as a possession to pay for and buy" the redemption of all mankind. I find it interesting that most English translations (JPS, KJV, NASB, & NIV), relying mindlessly on Mesoretic vocalization, transliterate "Selah" as if it were a name and then correlate it with "an unknown musical note." It only takes a second to discover that salah, a word which is indistinguishable in the Hebrew text, is appropriate in this context because it means: "to reject, repudiating the existing relationship, tossing it aside, holding the person in low esteem." Again, Yahushua volunteered to receive our punishment. Had He not redeemed us we would have been rejected by God. He would have repudiated any relationship to Him, tossing us aside and holding us of low esteem. We would have been shattered, crushed into nothingness, and annihilated. There would have been no remembrance from us as we would have been cut off from and forgotten by God.

Some would say that selah means "pause" in a musical context. If that is true, then it is meaningless musically because we no longer possess the notes. If "pause" is said to mean "stop and reflect," then it provides an important contribution to the text, but only if selah is translated "(Pause and reflect upon this.)" That being the case, Yahuweh wants us to carefully consider the choice that leads to the consequence of being annihilated.

"Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples! Shout to God with the voice of triumph! For Yahweh Most High is awesome; He is a great King over all the earth. He will subdue the peoples under us, and the nations under our feet. He will choose our inheritance for us, the excellence of Jacob whom He loves. Selah...." Considering the fact that the Jews have historically been far more concerned with their immediate survival than with pipedreams of national preeminence, this is an exceedingly odd thing to say--or it would be, had not Yahweh ordained it. It is so strange, in fact, that the Israelites would never have though to choose or seek this destiny for themselves. Therefore, Yahweh must choose it for them. Selah, by the way, is a musical notation: it means "pause," stop and reflect upon what’s just been sung