What is Meditation

Introduction

Tonight we are going to look at the second habit of grace relating to the word of God: Meditation. When we hear the word meditation, we often think of a buddhist monk sitting with his legs crossed emptying his mind by focusing on one word. Unfortunately, this type of meditation has made its way into some parts of Christianity, but biblical mediation is not about that. Biblical meditation is about filling our minds and hearts with the word of God and it relates to the renewing of our minds. I want to read you a section from George Mueller’s autobiography. Often times when we think of George Mueller we think of a man of prayer and he was, but according to this record in his journals what really made the difference in his walk with the Lord was the practice of meditation.

George Müller said, While I was staying at Nailsworth, it pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, irrespective of human instrumentality, as far as I know, the benefit of which I have not lost, though now… more than forty years have since passed away.

The point is this: I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not, how much I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished.

For I might seek to set the truth before the unconverted, I might seek to benefit believers, I might seek to relieve the distressed, I might in other ways seek to behave myself as it becomes a child of God in this world; and yet, not being happy in the Lord, and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, all this might not be attended to in a right spirit.

Before this time my practice had been, at least for ten years previously, as an habitual thing, to give myself to prayer, after having dressed in the morning. Now I saw, that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that thus, whilst meditating, my heart might be brought into experiential communion with the Lord. I began therefore, to meditate on the New Testament, from the beginning, early in the morning.

The first thing I did, after having asked in a few words the Lord's blessing upon His precious Word, was to begin to meditate on the Word of God; searching, as it were, into every verse, to get blessing out of it; not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word; not for the sake or preaching on what I had meditated upon; but for the sake of obtaining food for my own soul. The result I have found to be almost invariably this, that after a very few minutes my soul has been led to confession, or to thanksgiving, or to intercession, or to supplication; so that though I did not, as it were, give myself to prayer, but to meditation, yet it turned almost immediately more or less into prayer.

The difference between my former practice and my present one is this. Formerly, when I rose, I began to pray as soon as possible, and generally spent all my time till breakfast in prayer, or almost all the time. At all events I almost invariably began with prayer… But what was the result? I often spent a quarter of an hour, or half an hour, or even an hour on my knees, before being conscious to myself of having derived comfort, encouragement, humbling of soul, etc.; and often after having suffered much from wandering of mind for the first ten minutes, or a quarter of an hour, or even half an hour, I only then began really to pray.

I scarcely ever suffer now in this way. For my heart being nourished by the truth, being brought into experiential fellowship with God, I speak to my Father, and to my Friend (vile though I am, and unworthy of it!) about the things that He has brought before me in His precious Word.

It often now astonished me that I did not sooner see this. In no book did I ever read about it. No public ministry ever brought the matter before me. No private conversation with a brother stirred me up to this matter. And yet now, since God has taught me this point, it is as plain to me as anything, that the first thing the child of God has to do morning by morning is to obtain food for his inner man.

As the outward man is not fit for work for any length of time, except we take food, and as this is one of the first things we do in the morning, so it should be with the inner man. We should take food for that, as every one must allow. Now what is the food for the inner man: not prayer, but the Word of God: and here again not the simple reading of the Word of God, so that it only passes through our minds, just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what we read, pondering over it, and applying it to our hearts…

I dwell so particularly on this point because of the immense spiritual profit and refreshment I am conscious of having derived from it myself, and I affectionately and solemnly beseech all my fellow-believers to ponder this matter. By the blessing of God I ascribe to this mode the help and strength which I have had from God to pass in peace through deeper trials in various ways than I had ever had before; and after having now above forty years tried this way, I can most fully, in the fear of God, commend it. How different when the soul is refreshed and made happy early in the morning, from what it is when, without spiritual preparation, the service, the trials and the temptations of the day come upon one! (Bergen, Autobiography of George Mueller).

I want us to start off tonight by looking at two passages that introduce the topic of meditation in the word of God.

Joshua 1:8 “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.”

Psalm 1:1–2 “Blessed is the man That walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor standeth in the way of sinners, Nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; And in his law doth he meditate day and night.”

What is Mediation

Somewhere between bible reading and prayer is the practice of meditation. I mentioned last week that reading is not necessarily commanded in scripture, but you will find many commands to meditate on the word of God. And yet this practice is probably the least practiced of all of the spiritual disciplines. Mediation is feed by your bible reading and often bible meditation leads us to pray about what we meditated on. It is the lynchpin in our devotional life. Thomas Manton, an English Puritan, wrote “The word feedeth meditation and meditation feedeth prayer… What we take in by the word, we digest by meditation and let out by prayer.”

But what is meditation?

New Testament Use of the Word

To answer that question we are going to look at how the word is used in the bible. The bible is the best source for defining words. The word Meditate is found in the NT only twice.

Luke 21:14 “Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer:” Meditate here means to plan ahead on what you are going to say. This passage is a negative use of the word meditate. Here Jesus is telling them not to preplan what they are going to say when they are persecuted for Christ.

Have you ever spent time thinking through conversations you are going to have? I know when I see John he is going to say this and when he does, I’ll say this and give him all these reasons for why I am right.

This is exactly what this passage is talking about when it tells us not to meditate on our answer to our persecutors. But it speaks of thinking through a conversation over and over again in our minds.

b. 1 Timothy 4:15 “Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.” Here Paul is telling Timothy to Meditate on all the things that he has commanded and taught Timothy. Timothy is to think over them, keep them in his mind. But notice he is to give himself wholly to them. Timothy is to enter into this mediation with all his mind, all his heart, all his will. Meditation is not merely a mental activity.

Old Testament Use of the Word

There are a lot of Hebrew words for meditate with synonyms like: thoughtful contemplation, speak enthusiastically, gossip and the one I found interesting is lament because it shows the connection between lament and renewing our minds. but the most common used word for meditate is the word הגה (hagah) which means mutter, read in an undertone.

It is kind of like the man who is upset that his boss made him take out trash. It is all he can think about and if you were to stand by him as he passes by on his way to the dumpster, you might even here him muttering under his breath that it isn’t fair. What he is doing is rehearsing over and over again his thoughts about what happened?

Meditation is stopping long enough to think through a concept of scripture. To run it through your mind in different ways. To savor it. Thomas Watson, a puritan preacher described it thus: “The reason we come away so cold from reading the word is because we do not warm ourselves at the fire of meditation.”

Donald Whitney defines meditation as “deep thinking on the truths and spiritual realities revealed i Scripture for the purpose of understanding, application, and prayer.”

Meditation is kneading the word of God into our hearts. It is chewing on its content until we begin to feel some of its magnitude in our hearts- David Mathis.

You can meditate on the wrong things- Psalm 73:2–3 “But as for me, my feet were almost gone; My steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, When I saw the prosperity of the wicked.” Psalm 73:16 “When I thought to know this, It was too painful for me;” Asaph began his lament by looking at all the things that sinners enjoy. It seems like they never have to suffer for their sin. He thought about how all his service for God seemed to amount to nothing. And the end result was bitterness and pain until he began to meditate on the God and His justice.

It is not about sermon prep but devotionally seeking God. Psalm 1:2 “But his delight is in the law of the Lord; And in his law doth he meditate day and night.” Meditation and delight are tied together. Meditation has three stages: fixing your mind on God, inclining your heart towards God and delighting in God.

There is preplanned times of meditation and extemporaneous times of mediation In Psalm 1:2 “But his delight is in the law of the Lord; And in his law doth he meditate day and night.” You will see this terminology repeated often. Our meditation is to be day and night. I believe that meditation includes preplanned intentional times of meditation which usually occur in the morning. Devotional time in the morning is more biblical than you might think it is. I know people say, I get more out of it in the evenings ect. and I understand that. But there is a reason the bible speaks of meeting with God in the morning: it refocuses your day before it has begun. If you want to walk with the Lord throughout the day it is important to start the day right. So maybe that means you spend a small amount of time in the morning and then do your more in-depth time with God in the evening. We can’t always spend intentional times throughout the entire day so I think what is included in this is extemporaneous times of meditation. Thinking about God throughout the day. This is less formal. You don’t have to have you bible with you or a journal in hand to do this. How often do your thoughts drift to the things of God?

Meditation is about pressing the truths of scripture onto the heart Colossians 3:1–2 “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” I think the best definition I found for this word affections is: to develop an attitude based on careful thought. It involves the mind and the emotions. The Puritans made a distinction between affections and emotions even though they feel the same. To them emotions were emotional responses, or general feelings while affections where the result of careful thought. They were purposeful. It was a choice to feel in response to a truth that they saw. Have you ever run through a thought in your mind about God and it excited you?

What to meditate on

our own sins Psalm 39:1 “I said, I will take heed to my ways, That I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, While the wicked is before me.”

the character of God

God’s hand of providence in your life

Scriptural truths

How to use my time to glorify God Ephesians 5:16 “Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”

The meaning of taking up the cross

past victories over sin

How to Meditate

If you have already begun using the SOAP method that I taught you last week, you are well on your way to learning to Meditate on the word of God. In fact, you have already been doing it without knowing you were doing it. But let me give you a couple more ideas to add to you devotional time to make the most of your meditation.

Get alone Genesis 24:63 “And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide: and he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, the camels were coming.”

Use a Journal- I have used a journal since I was in high school. One of my heroes of the faith is Jim Elliott missionary to the Auca Indians. I first learned about journaling from Him. Other great men of God who journaled include Robert Murray McCheyne, Andrew Bonar, Jonathan Edwards and David Brainerd. While Journaling isn’t commanded in scripture, it is a helpful practice for meditation. When I journal, I write down:

my thoughts on the passage loosely following the SOAP method

a record of events in my life and how God interacted with those events or how I processed them biblically

a record of God’s blessing (I put a star at the top of the page when I am recording a blessing so I can go back to it and read it when I am discouraged)

Recording my thoughts and struggles so I can see how God has transformed me over time.

I even use it as a place to collect good devotional quotes, write poetry and hymns

Pray through scripture- praying through a passage by reading a phrase and then summarizing it in your own words and applying it to your life is one way to meditate on scripture

Paraphrasing what you read in your own words

Conclusion

This has been a real quick summary on what meditation is and how to do it. Next week, we will be looking at the benefits of meditation. Let me challenge you this week. Today is Easter. Spend some time meditating on the resurrection. Go deeper in thought that the basics of Christ died for my sin and rose again. Ask yourself this question this week and then come give me your answers if you are willing “Why does the resurrection matter to my life today as a Christian?” I am not looking for because it saves me. How does it influence you after you are saved. Savor that though. Let it sit there for a while. Write it down. Explore all the applications and implications of that. Go search out some bible verses that speak to it. Pray about the resurrection to God. Then come tell me what you have found. See if it doesn’t mean more to you after spending some time in meditation.

Tonight for the invitation I just want us to sing “My Jesus I love Thee.” If you want to talk to the Lord about what he has taught you tonight feel free, but for the rest of us, let’s savor the beauty of Christ.