Meditation

Meditation Meditation Pat Damiani / General Rhythms of Grace / Psalm 1 The dictionary defines “rhythm” as “a strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement or sound.” God created a world that operates by rhythms. We see that in the very first chapter of the Bible where we repeatedly read “and there was evening and there was morning...” From the beginning God established the rhythms of seconds, minutes, hours, days and years based on the operation of His creation. And God had built rhythm into many other aspects of His creation. There is rhythm in music and we can sense right away when the music is out of rhythm - or at least some of us can. There is rhythm in the way our heart beats and when it gets out of rhythm for any length of time we usually notice that - and then if we’re smart we go to the doctor because that means something is wrong. And then there is my favorite - the rhythm that forms the basis for the graphics for this new sermon series - the waves in the ocean. I still remember many years ago, someone I knew who said that he didn’t really enjoy going to the beach because it was just “one wave after another”. Exactly - that’s one of the reasons that I love the ocean and beach so much. So it’s not really surprising that the God who established all these forms of rhythm in His creation also created each of us so that we operate at peak efficiency spiritually when we incorporate certain spiritual rhythms into our lives. So for the next couple of months, we’ll be looking at 8 important rhythms of grace that are designed by God to help us become more like Jesus and grow in our relationship with Him. Many people call the practices we will be talking about “spiritual disciplines”. But my guess is that if I had decided to use that term, some of you would have already tuned out because frankly discipline is not something you like or that you handle well. Well I’m going to be honest with you right up front. Incorporating these rhythms into your life is going to require discipline. But the good news is that all of us here are capable of doing that with God’s help. I think the main drawback to using the term “spiritual disciplines” is that it implies that these are practices are something we can develop strictly through our own devotion and willpower. But by thinking of them as “rhythms of grace”, we are reminded that they are all products of God’s grace operating in our lives, although we obviously need to participate and cooperate with these rhythms in order for them to be effective. Before we jump into the first spiritual rhythm this morning, let’s establish some guidelines that will help us throughout this series. GUIDELINES FOR ESTABLISHING SPIRITUAL RHYTHMS IN MY LIFE Many of you have probably heard the oft-repeated idea that it takes 21 days to establish a new habit in your life. In fact, I’ve often cited that idea myself. It turns out that is not entirely accurate. I won’t go into all the detail of how that came to be accepted as fact, but what I can tell you is that a much more scientific study done in 2009 provides us with a more accurate picture. That study found that developing a new habit takes, on average, more like 2 months - 66 days to be exact. But the exact time varies greatly based on the individual, the behavior, and the circumstances. In that particular study, it took anywhere from 18 to 254 days for people to form a new habit. So based on those findings, here are some guidelines that might help you as you try to incorporate these spiritual rhythms in your life. • Get started. The only way to get to day 100 is to start on day 1. Don’t get so scared to try something new or worry that you’ll fail, that you never get started. • Start small. If you haven’t been reading your Bible at all, don’t try to read the whole thing in a month. Start with just a chapter a day, or even just a few verses. If you’ve never fasted before, don’t try to fast for 40 days. Start with one day, or even with one meal. The same is true with the other rhythms we’ll be talking about. Start with some bite size pieces. • Don’t worry about being perfect. I have a rhythm of eating 3 meals a day, but if I miss a meal, I don’t just give up and quit eating altogether. The same is true with these spiritual rhythms. In the study I cited, the researchers found that messing up every now and then didn’t affect the long term results. So if you get off track, just make sure you have a strategy for getting back on track. • Embrace the process Recognize that incorporating new rhythms into your life is a process, not an event. One of the problems with thinking that it takes only 21 days, or even 66 days, to establish a new habit is that when you get to that point, you’ll think you’ve arrived or that you’re finished. But that’s not the way it works. You have to continually embrace the process. So with that in mind, let’s tackle the first, and undoubtedly the most important spiritual rhythm. Go ahead and turn to Psalm 1 and follow along as I read. Read Psalm 1 ESV Psalm 1 was likely written by whoever assembled the Psalms into one book as an introduction to the entire book. In this Psalm, he describes two ways of life - the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked. He begins by describing the righteous man and he calls that man “blessed”. This week I discovered something new about that word that is extremely important for us this morning. Two Hebrew words for “blessed” • barak - to kneel or give adoration • esher - a state of bliss resulting from an action The first is the word “barak”. We saw that word frequently in our sermon series on worship last year. It is a word that means to kneel or to give adoration or to grant favor. It is used both of God’s actions toward His people and for our worship of God. The second is the word the Psalmist uses here - “esher”. Even though it is translated here like a verb, it is actually a noun that describes a state of bliss. It does not describe something that happens to us, but rather a state of being that comes about as a result of some action we perform. It is never used of God. So it describes something that we cause to happen to ourselves as a result of certain actions that we take. In this Psalm, the Psalmist reveals those actions that the righteous man takes in order to enter into this state of bliss or happiness. They are the same steps we need to take if we want to be blessed like that. He begins in verse 1 with three negatives. If I want to be blessed I will not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of scoffers. Then in verse 2, he describes the positive action we can take if we want to be blessed. That is going to be the focus of our message this morning, so we’ll return to it in a moment and spend most of our time there. In verse 3, he describes the nature of the blessing. The blessed man will be like a tree that puts down deep roots and who will bear fruit and prosper. In verses 4 and 5, the Psalmist now turns to the wicked man - the one who fails to take the actions that he described in verses 1 and 2. That way of life will result in a directionless life in which the wicked man is constantly being blown around like chaff. Finally in verse 6, the Psalm is summed up by revealing the final destinies of both men. The way of the wicked will perish. Even though the wicked person might appear to prosper here on earth, that prosperity and success is only temporary and won’t last. On the other hand God knows the way of the righteous and the implication here is that the kind of prosperity that the righteous man experiences is eternal. Now that I’ve given you an overview of the Psalm, let’s go back to verse 2, which describes the first rhythm of grace that we are going to cover in this series - meditation on the word of God. The Psalmist begins that verse by revealing that one of the things the righteous man does that results in him being blessed is to delight in the law of the Lord. The wicked usually view the Bible as an oppressive collection of “Thou shall nots”. But the righteous man delights in it because he understands that it frees us from sin and death and is the guide that leads us to a full and purposeful life. As most of us have probably experienced that delight does not happen naturally. It takes the time and discipline that keeps us consistently in the Bible to develop that kind of delight. For me it’s similar to what happens with worship songs sometimes. There are times when I hear a song for the first time and I don’t really like it. But then as the worship team practices the song over and over, I’ll come to delight in that song. But had I not taken the time and engaged in the discipline required to learn that song, I might have never gotten to that point. But just reading the Bible is not enough to develop that kind of delight. You’ll notice in the last part of verse 2 that the way I develop delight in the law of the Lord is to meditate on it day and night. The idea of meditation often gets a bum rap in the church. That’s probably because we tend to think of it as sitting on the floor in a position that I can’t even get into, humming or chanting quietly, and emptying our minds. But that is hardly the picture of meditation that is painted in the Bible. So here is the picture of Biblical meditation we’re going to develop this morning: Meditation is the bridge between information and transformation. As important as it is to read the Bible consistently and systematically, just reading the Bible alone is not enough to transform my life. In order for God’s Word to transform me, I need to take a further step and meditate on what I’m reading. Let’s begin to develop this idea more fully by looking at the underlying Hebrew word that is translated “meditate” here: Hebrew “hagah” = “to murmur, mutter, roar, ponder” We usually tend to think of meditation as a quiet reflection, which is not a bad thing to do, of course. But this is the very same Hebrew word used to describe the roar of a hungry lion looking for food. It is an onomatopoeia. Can anyone here tell me what that means? An onomatopoeia is a word that is formed by the sound it makes. Examples in English would be words like “sizzle” or “boom” or “cuckoo”. So imagine for a moment a lion looking desperately for something to eat - hagahhhhhhhhhhh! So meditation is what we do as we desperately seek to be fed by God’s Word. And it is something that has a place of high priority in the Bible. The Jewish Bible, also called the Tanakh, is organized differently than our Old Testament. It is divided into three major parts: • The Law, also known as the Torah or the Pentateuch, which consists of the first 5 books of our Old Testament. The word translated “law” twice in verse 2 is literally the Hebrew word “Torah”. • The Prophets. This section includes books that we would not generally consider to be prophetical, like Joshua, Judges, and Kings . • The Writings. In addition to the “wisdom” literature such as Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, it includes Job, Nehemiah, Daniel and Ezekiel. Psalms is the first book in the Writings, and, as we have seen this morning, the very first Psalm has an emphasis on meditating on God’s Word. Joshua is the the first book in the Prophets and it also opens with an emphasis on meditating on God’s Word. So meditation is the key theme that ties together all three parts of the Hebrew Bible. Let’s look at the verse in Joshua that focuses on meditating on God’s law since it will give us some more insight into what it means to mediate Biblically: Joshua 1:8 ESV This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. You’ll notice right away several parallels with Psalm 1: • The subject of our meditation is to be the Law of the Lord. While the word “law” is technically a reference to the first five books of the Old Testament - the Torah - that doesn’t mean that we are to limit our mediation only to those 5 books. Both Joshua and the Psalmist make reference to that part of the Scriptures because it is the primary place in the Hebrew Scriptures where we find guidance on how to lead our lives in a way that we will be blessed. Today, we have the New Testament that also provides that kind of instruction for living. • We are to meditate day and night. The idea here is that this is not something that we are to just do occasionally. It is to be a regular part of our lives - something that we do every day. • The purpose of meditation is to apply what we’re reading. We are to do everything that is written in the Bible, not just know it. • Meditation results in prosperity and success. That obviously doesn’t mean that everything is always going to go well or be easy or that I’m going to get rich in a material sense. Success and prosperity, as those terms are used in both of these passages, refer to being able to follow God no matter the circumstances. For Joshua, it meant that he would get to experience the Promised Land, even though the journey wasn’t always going to be easy. For the Psalmist, it meant that no matter what difficulties came in life, he would be like a tree with deep roots who would bear fruit and not wither. As important as it is to read our Bibles consistently and systematically, that alone is not meditation. Meditation is much deeper. It’s like the difference between just dipping the corner of a tea bag into a cup of hot water so the water gets a bit of the flavor of the tea and immersing the entire tea bag in the water and letting it seep until all the rich tea flavor saturates the water. Although the New Testament does not specifically use the word “meditate” when referring to the Bible, both Jesus and Paul address the concept; John 15:7 ESV If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. Meditating on God’s Word is the method we use to make sure that Jesus’ words abide in us. Colossians 3:16 ESV Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And meditation is the way that we make sure the word of Christ dwells in us richly. So in both the Old an New Testaments, we see that... Meditation is the bridge between information and transformation. The world in which Psalm 1 and Joshua 1 were written was such that the people had long periods of time for uninterrupted meditation. The rhythm of their lives was not ruled by alarm clocks and schedules and cell phones and televisions. In addition to their regular Sabbath, they took a break from their work in the middle of the day and their evenings were largely uninterrupted. So they had plenty of opportunities to meditate on the Bible. Unfortunately, it’s much harder for us to make time to incorporate the spiritual rhythm of meditation into our lives. But if we’re serious about letting God’s Word transform our lives, we must do that. So as we close, let me share with you some practical ways to incorporate the rhythm of meditation into the rhythm of your life. SOME WAYS TO MEDITATE ON GOD’S WORD This is certainly not an exhaustive list, but here are 5 ways to get started. • Read it out loud As we’ve discovered this morning Biblical mediation is not necessarily a quiet process. And sometimes just reading the Bible out loud is a great way to meditate on the Scriptures. That’s one of the reasons that I read our text out loud each week. There is something about reading out loud that helps us to get a deeper understanding of the text. Perhaps that is why Paul exhorted Timothy to devote himself to the public reading of the Scriptures. 1 Timothy 4:13 ESV Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Some people also find it helpful to listen to the Bible as well as read it. You can actually use the Faithlife Study Bible or Logos apps to listen to the Bible as well as read it. Many of you could easily listen to the Bible that way while driving or exercising. • Emphasize each word This is a great way to meditate on a single verse or even on a single phrase of Scripture. Let’s do this together with just the first line of verse 2: but His delight is in the Law of the Lord but His delight is in the Law of the Lord but His delight is in the Law of the Lord but His delight is in the Law of the Lord but His delight is in the Law of the Lord but His delight is in the Law of the Lord but His delight is in the Law of the Lord but His delight is in the Law of the Lord but His delight is in the Law of the Lord but His delight is in the Law of the Lord Obviously if you were doing this on your own, you would do it much more slowly and take some time to think more about each word. • Take notes There are a lot of different ways to do this ◦ One of the reasons that I provide a sermon outline each week is so you have a place to take some notes. If you’re like me, just the act of writing something down helps you to remember it even if you never look a those notes again, For others, it is helpful to have something to go back and look at again later. ◦ Some people like to journal and jot down thoughts about what they are reading. ◦ I tend to do this digitally just because I don’t like to do a lot of handwriting. So I use tools like Logos that allow me to highlight text and make notes right in the program. • Ask questions and make observations about the text This is a big part of my sermon preparation every week. But this is something that all of us can do on our own, too. Again I can’t give you an exhaustive list, but here are a few simple ways to get started: • Determine the context. Who is writing ? Who is the audience? What is the cultural and historical background? • Look for words that are repeated in the text, which indicates that they are important. • Try to determine the main point of the passage. • Determine the definition of any words you don’t understand. This is where some of the Faithlife tools we have made available to you can come in handy. • Apply it We saw this really clearly in the passage in Joshua 1 where God told Joshua that the reason the people were to mediate on the Law is “so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it”. The purpose of meditating on the Scriptures is not just to get more information. It is so we can apply it in our lives. That is how we become blessed. As we’ve said today... Meditation is the bridge between information and transformation. It is the process that plants the truth of God’s Word deep into our souls so that our lives are genuinely transformed. That means that the process of meditation is never fully completed until we put into practice that which we find in the Scriptures. As we talked about earlier, the most important step in incorporating these spiritual disciplines into our lives is to just get started. So each week in this series, I’m going to be giving you a “homework” assignment that will help get you started. This week’s assignment is for you to meditate on Psalm 1 every day for six days. There are six verses in this chapter so I just want you to take one verse each day and spend at least 5 minutes meditating on that verse. Try to incorporate at least a few of the methods we’ve talked about this morning during the week. So one day you might just read the verse out loud, emphasizing a different word each time. One day you might ask questions. Another day you might make some notes. And most important of all, if God brings an application to mind, you need to apply it. Does that sound like something you can all do? If I were to ask you to raise your hand if you want God to transform your life and make you more like Jesus, I’m confident that all. or at least most, of you would raise your hand. And I also believe that you are sincere in that desire. But God isn’t going to do that unless we give Him something to work with and we cooperate with Him in that process by incorporating the rhythm of meditating on His Word into our lives. I hope you’ll join me in making that rhythm of grace an integral part of our daily life. Discussion Questions for Bible Roundtable 1. What difficulties and obstacles have you experienced personally in trying to establish “rhythms of grace” in your life? What have you learned about overcoming them? 2. What is the meaning of “blessed is” in Psalm 1:1? How is that blessing connected to the actions I take? 3. How has your concept of meditation changed as a result of this morning’s message? 4. What are the benefits of meditating on the Word of God? How have you personally experienced those benefits in your life?