Meditate on God's Word

Meditating on Scripture provides blessing and delight.

What does meditation mean to you?

The best way to describe biblical meditation is by how the cow eats food. Cows have 32 teeth but the incisor teeth are not good for chewing. They have no upper teeth on the front of the mouth but have upper and lower teeth towards the back.

The molars chew in a circular motion and the food goes through a four chambered stomach. They regurgitate the grass so they can be re-swallowed. This allows them to separate the nutrients from the other materials. This is also where the term “chew the cud” comes from.

Having four stomachs helps to digest food faster so that predators can’t sneak up on them when their heads are down.

This process of the cow ruminating on the same food over and over reminds us of what it means to meditate on scripture. It goes through our minds over and over until we understand its true meaning.

Psalm (which means “praise”) is broken up into 4 divisions. This is the first division and is commonly known as the “wisdom psalms”. These are instructive and provide practical guidelines for living moral lives in pursuit of God’s will.

Philippians was written by Paul while he was imprisoned to the church that he planted. He encouraged them to pray while he prayed for them. Uncertain on what the future held for him, he encouraged them to meditate on the things that were good rather than the things that were bad.

Psalm 1:1–3 CSB

How happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked or stand in the pathway with sinners or sit in the company of mockers! Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night. He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams that bears its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.

Psalm 1:1 CSB

How happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked or stand in the pathway with sinners or sit in the company of mockers!

Everyone is seeking happiness. If that is true, then everyone should read this psalm, for it directs us where happiness is to be found in its highest degree and purest form.

Surely this is the highest to which the human heart can aspire! This happiness is as attainable by the poor, the forgotten, and the obscure as by those whose names figure in history and are trumpeted by fame. It is not to the hermit or the priest, but it comes to any man or woman who loves God and seeks to obey him.

His position has nothing to do with it. His character has everything to do with it.

The happy man is described as one who avoids the way of wicked persons. The tragic folly and sin of the wicked is that they have neglected the chief thing to be remembered, namely, that there is a God, that they are his creatures and, being his creatures, ought to live for him. They give God no part of their lives, and he is in none of their thoughts.

The godly man, however, does not consider first how the world regards a thing but how God looks at it.

The Psalmist uses 3 words describe the people who are opposite the happy man.

Wicked means those who violate God’s covenant and who are lawless troublemakers.

The literal image of the word sin is missing the target, meaning that they miss the goal of God’s will.

The mockers are the ones who violate God’s covenant but also ridicule those who follow God. Their idea of the wisdom is the opposite of God’s (Prov. 15:12).

Proverbs 15:12 CSB

A mocker doesn’t love one who corrects him; he will not consult the wise.

Psalm 1:2 CSB

Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night.

People must have some delight, some supreme pleasure. A person’s heart was never meant to be a vacuum. If not filled with the best things, it will be filled with the unworthy and disappointing

The Christian should be reveling in the law of the Lord, the Word of God. David did not have a fourth of what we possess—it was a little Bible then. We, therefore, should take ten times more delight in it than the psalmist did.

There are two positive steps happy people take.

First, delight is in the Lord’s instruction. Instruction in the Hebrew is Torah. Although this is the name of the first five books of the Bible, the psalmist was referring to the entire revelation of God.

Second, meditate. This is more than just reading and studying, it is knowing it so deeply that it becomes apart of your everyday life.

Psalm 1:3 CSB

He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams that bears its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.

This world is a desert that can never satisfy the dedicated believer. We must send our “spiritual roots” down deep into the things of Christ and draw upon the spiritual water of life

There can be no fruit without roots. Too many Christians are more concerned about the leaves and the fruit than they are the roots, but the roots are the most important part.

Unless Christians spend time daily in prayer and the Word, and allow the Spirit to feed them, they will wither and die

When Christians cease to bear fruit, it is because something has happened to the roots

Meditating on Scripture helps us to pursue righteous living.

Psalm 1:4–6 (CSB)

The wicked are not like this; instead, they are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand up in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to ruin.

Psalm 1:4 CSB

The wicked are not like this; instead, they are like chaff that the wind blows away.

Once grain was harvested, it was placed on a smooth rocky surface that exposed it to the wind. The harvesters would separate the husks using a tool to roll over it. They then would use a tool to throw the husks in the air and the wind would carry the chaff away leaving the grain.

If the believer is compared to a tree; permanent, sturdy, strong, beautiful and useful, the wicked or sinners are compared to chaff—they have no roots; they are blown with the wind; they are useless to the plans of God

Psalm 1:5 CSB

Therefore the wicked will not stand up in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

Is there a future judgment?

Verse 5 informs us that there is. Of course, in the OT we do not find the full explanation of the future judgments as we do in the NT.

For the believer in Christ, there is no judgment of sin (John 5:24; Rom. 8:1), but for the unbeliever, there is “a terrifying expectation of judgment” (Heb. 10:27). This judgment of the lost is described in Rev. 20:11–15. There will be no Christians at that scene, only unsaved people.

The true character of the wicked will be revealed at that judgment; they will be seen as chaff, worthless lost souls. When v. 5 says the wicked “shall not stand” in the judgment, it does not mean they will be absent; rather, it means they will not be able to endure the judgment.

When the books are opened, these individuals will be flung to their knees in confession of sin and of the truth of God’s Word and God’s Son (Phil. 2:9–11).

These ungodly people will never be allowed to enter the heavenly congregation of the righteous, even though on earth they might have been members of religious groups. Matthew 7:21–23.

This is what I spoke about last week about the weeds growing up with the harvest. God will ultimately reveal the weeds from the wheat.

Psalm 1:6 CSB

For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to ruin.

Verse 6 sets before us the familiar teaching of the “two ways.” Jesus concluded His Sermon on the Mount with this picture (Matt. 7:13ff), and we see it mentioned throughout the Book of Proverbs (Prov. 2:20; 4:14; 4:24–27; etc.). Why are the ungodly lost? Because they will not submit to Christ and His Word. They prefer the counsel of the ungodly to the “whole counsel of God” in the Word (Acts 20:27).

They prefer the friendship of godless people to the congregation of the righteous. They spend their days thinking about sin, not about the Word of God (Gen. 6:5). They think they are secure in the earth—but they are only chaff!

The Lord watches over the way of the righteous. The Hebrew word for watches means more than to look with the eyes. It means “knows”. It involves the providential care of God upon the believer.

This was the same word used in Genesis when talking about the intimacy between a husband and wife.

In Exodus, it was used to show God’s knowledge of Israel’s groaning.

When we meditate on God’s Word, it helps us to understand this providential care in our lives.

Meditating on Scripture keeps us focused on the right thoughts.

Philippians 4:8 CSB

Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any moral excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy—dwell on these things.

One of the reasons we don’t keep our peace is that we tend to dwell on the things that are set in opposition to the peace we’re asking for. If we continue to entertain messages that work against our peace, anxiety will soon return.

We must, therefore, ask ourselves if we are able to praise God for the things that we are dwelling on. If we can’t, then we’ll soon lose the peace God has given us.

Peace involves the heart and the mind. “You (God) will keep the mind that is dependent on you(God) in perfect peace, for it is trusting in you(God).” (Isa. 26:3).

Wrong thinking leads to wrong feeling, and before long the heart and mind are pulled apart and we are strangled by worry. We must realize that thoughts are real and powerful, even though they cannot be seen, weighed, or measured.

We must bring “into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5).

“Sow a thought, reap an action.

Sow an action, reap a habit.

Sow a habit, reap a character.

Sow a character, reap a destiny!”

The Christian who fills his heart and mind with God’s Word will have a “built-in radar” for detecting wrong thoughts. Right thinking is the result of daily meditation on the Word of God.