Biblical Meditation
(Fifty Days of Consecration #5)
Psalm 1:1-3[1]
4-17-05
Intro
How well do you get along with yourself? It may seem strange but that is a fundamental question that has to be addressed when we talk about meditation. Before I can effectively get into meditation I have to turn off all the noise and activity that surrounds me. I have to get quiet and still. And what is the first thing I’m going to see when I do that? I wish I could say it is God; but usually the first thing I see is me. And I’m not always comfortable with what I see. Sometimes I see pain that I don’t really want to deal with. Sometimes I see resentment or unforgiveness toward some offense. Sometimes I see disappointment that I have previously brushed aside. Sometimes I simply see the flaws and imperfection of my humanity that I am still trying to overcome. When you get real, real quiet, when you turn off all the noise what do you see? How do you respond to what you are see?
What I have just described is one reason people don’t meditate. It’s not always that we don’t have time to meditate. Sometimes we simply choose to be busy, choose to be entertained rather than meditate. Meditation is scriptural and it can be a powerful part of your Christian life. But there are issues to resolve up from before meditation will become a part of our life style.
I. Before we get into the benefits and practical matters concerning meditation let’s talk about two barriers that we will usually encounter.
Barrier # 1 concerns this issue of how well do I get along with myself? Before I can focus effectively in meditation I will have to deal with some things that may be screaming in my soul. Meditation by definition requires that we focus on a particular thing—that we give full attention to that one thing—that all other distractions are set aside. Suppose I wanted you to focus on the taste and nutritional value of milk. I set you in a room and put before you a cold glass of milk and a simple chart of the vitamins in that milk. Your assignment is to ponder the subject of milk. Think about the vitamins and nutrients that are in that glass of milk. Appreciate the health that can come into your life when you drink that milk. Taste and see that it is good. That is not too difficult of an assignment –except that in that room where you are to meditate on milk I am also going to place two hungry lions. How good of a job would you do in regard to the milk? The lions would be such a distraction, no matter how much you wanted to concentrate on the milk your mind would really be upon those two hungry lions. “What am I going to do about those?” Before I can meditate effectively I may have to kill a few lions first. At least when I begin the meditation process (when I get quiet and still) I can face those lions and deal with the reality.
So after we get the external noise quiet we begin dealing with the internal noise in the soul. When you do that make sure you don’t run from what you see and hear. Do you hear your conscience telling you to forgive somebody? Then take time to deal with that in prayer. You may have to wrestle some with your own feelings. You may ultimately have to tell yourself to do the right thing regardless of how you feel. But resolve the issue. Maybe your conscience is telling you to stop doing something that you know is wrong. You can’t stop it without the grace of God. But you can make a choice to stop it and then seek God for strength to overcome. I think many of us are masters at brushing disappointments aside without working through them. But what happens when I get quiet before God—that disappointment is right there in my face. What do I do with it? I deal with it honestly before God. In Exodus 5 God has sent Moses to Pharaoh. Moses obeys God and confronts Pharaoh about releasing Israel. What was the result? Pharaoh took the straw away and demanded the same number of bricks from the Hebrew slaves. Have you ever obeyed God and things got worse? If that wasn’t bad enough, his own people turned on him as well. I think it would be safe to say that Moses was real disappointed with his ministry at that point in time. Now watch how Moses prays concerning that disappointment. Ex 5:22-23 “Moses returned to the LORD and said, ‘O Lord, why have you brought trouble upon this people? Is this why you sent me? 23 Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble upon this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.’” Do you know why that was such a great prayer? It was an honest conversation about what he was really feeling. I remember a disappointment I went through about fifteen years ago. I knew I shouldn’t be disappointed with God. God is perfect. He makes no mistakes. There’s no real justification for being disappointed with God. Theoretically it does not make sense. And for that reason I told myself that everything was fine. I reminded myself how faithful and just God is. I did a lot of nice, religious things. But when it was all said and done—bottom line, I was very hurt, very disappointed in what God had allowed to take place in my life. And with all those feeling, I stayed real, real busy for God—because I didn’t want to get still and deal with all those feelings. I know you know this—but isn’t it amazing how we loose sight of simple truth like this—God knew exactly what I was feeling, no matter how nice I was on the surface. When I finally got honest with God about the pain I was feeling—I eventually worked through it and meditation got a whole lot easier. Do you know how hard it is to prepare sermons when you’re ticked at God? Well, I’ll just put it this way—a lot of the sermons were about disappointment. Moses faced his pain and disappointment in a conversation with God. Psalms is the best prayer book I know. Now listen to some of the prayers you find there. Ps 10:1 “Why, O LORD, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” Ps 44:23-24 “Awake, O Lord! Why do you sleep?
Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever. 24 Why do you hide your face and forget our misery and oppression”? Ps 74:10-11 “ How long will the enemy mock you, O God? Will the foe revile your name forever? 11 Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand? Take it from the folds of your garment and destroy them!”
Honest conversation with God is a pre-requisite for effective meditation. A cleansing of the conscience is important in preparation for meditation. It’s not enough to silence the external noise of the world around us. That is step one. But then we have to silence the screaming voice of our own conscience and any pain we may be feeling. That doesn’t happen by ignoring the issues. It happens when we face them honestly and appropriate the all-powerful blood of Jesus. Heb 9:14 “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!”
Barrier # 2 How much truth do I want? When I get quiet before God I am coming into a special opportunity to hear His voice. God never lies. God always speaks truth—even when it disagrees with our preconceived ideas. Before I can desire the sincere milk of the word, I have to love truth more than my own opinion. I have to be open to new insight that challenges some of my old ways of thinking. If my mind is closed, if I really don’t want the responsibility of more truth, I will draw back from meditation. For biblical meditation will most likely bring me face to face with fresh truth from the word of God. Is your doctrine so carved in stone that God can’t say anything else to you. Are you so wedded to past experience that you are not open to new experiences with God? Those are issues that will keep us from meditation. When these barriers are addressed it becomes much easier to move into biblical meditation.
Let’s talk a little about what biblical meditation is. Meditation involves a focus of our attention on a particular thing. It is an exercise of hearing God—especially through His word in Scripture. It is a process of assimilating God’s word into our spirit. Some have likened it to the process in which a cow chews the cud so to speak. Cattle take their sweet time chewing, swallowing, bringing it back up, chewing some more, until the food is thoroughly processes. Meditation ceases to be meditation when it is rushed.
II. The subject of our meditation is extremely important. Philippians 4:8 gives us a description of the kind of things we should discipline our minds to dwell upon. “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things.” (Phil 4:8-9) That gives us a good over-all guideline for our meditation. Now let’s be a little more specific.
1st Our meditation should be well grounded in the word of God. Over and over when meditation is talked about in Scripture, it is explained as meditation upon the word of God. Ps 119:97-99 “Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. 98 Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. 99 I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes.” Of course, the Bible they had at that time was the law. The Hebrew word translated law is torah. The Psalmist was meditating upon the word of God.
Turn with me to Psalm 1:1-3 “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. 2 But his delight is in the law (the Torah—their Bible) of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.” We’ll come back to the results of this meditation in a moment. But the blessed man is the man who delights in and meditates on the word of God. The instruction the Lord gave to Joshua as he began leading Israel is very similar. Joshua 1:8, “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” Again we have the results, “you will be prosperous and successful” and the means, “…meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.” The word is a gold mine for meditation. That is primarily where we go to excavate truth.
2nd Our meditation should include the good things the Lord has done.
Ps 143:5 “I remember the days of long ago; I meditate on all your works and consider what your hands have done” I personally find it very encouraging to think about my past experiences with the Lord, His tender mercies toward me, the love I have experienced from Him. In the same way a married couple can reflect back on their times together, it is a good thing to think about your times with the Lord. But beyond that, ponder the mighty works of God—the work of redemption, the work of grace, the work of creation. Ps 77:12-13 “I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds. 13 Your ways, O God, are holy. What god is so great as our God?”
The greatness of God and His nature are rich subjects of meditation. Have you ever gazed upon the glittering stars at night or watched a beautiful sunrise or stood on the beach of the ocean and thought about the greatness of God? Listen to David in Ps 8:3-4
“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?” Notice what thoughts arose in David’s heart as he looked upon creation.[2] He saw the greatness of God and then is amazed at God loving interest and care toward himself and other people. Ps 19:1-4 “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. 2 Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. 3 There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.
4 Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”
People are always asking “What about the heathen who have not heard the gospel? Well according to that verse they are constantly being given a message from creation itself for which they are accountable. It is enough for them to ask God for more.
I’m sharing these verses so that you can see that there is a meditation that springs from the observance of God’s works that is appropriate. Last year Jeanie and I went to Hawaii for a vacation. It was a rich experience to hold hands and look out over that beautiful ocean and say to God, “How great thou art.” Rom 1:20 “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”
There is a lot revealed about God in nature itself and it is worthy of our meditation.[3]
What is the difference between biblical meditation and the cultic meditation (based upon Eastern religions)? When a cultist meditates upon creation he is trying to merge with the “Cosmic Mind”. He is not glorifying God for the awesome works of His hands; he is essentially worshipping nature as god. But God is distinct from His creation. He is above and greater than all of creation. Cultic meditation seeks to empty the mind—to bring it into a passive state. We are not seeking a blank, empty mind. We are filling our minds with thoughts about the goodness and glory of God. We are filling our minds with truth revealed in His word. There is substance to our meditation. That is an important distinction.[4] For a passive mind is an invitation to enemy invasion.[5] Do not play around with unbiblical meditation. It is dangerous even when it comes in innocent looking packages. Yoga and Transcendental Meditation have been packaged for American consumption. But they are just as deadly as they ever were. Isa 8:20, “To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them (NKJV).”
III. We have touched upon some of the results of biblical meditation. Psalm 1 describes the man who meditates upon the law of God and obeys God’s word as one who is like a tree planted by the streams of water. In the same way that tree draws life and nourishment from those streams of water a person who meditates upon God’s word is continually drawing spiritual nutrition and life from God. That person is going to yield fruit in his season and his leaf will not dry up and wither. “Whatsoever he does prospers.” The command in Joshua 1:8 is “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” The success comes when a person fills his or her heart with God’s word. How does this connection between meditation and success work? Whatever I focus my attention on and fill my mind with affects the way I think. If I fill my mind with the word of God I begin to think right. Based upon right thinking I make wise choices and do the right things. My actions are driven by my thoughts. And if my mind has been renewed[6] by meditating upon the word of God I will live wisely. As helpful as book learning is, true wisdom is ultimately found in only one book—the word of God. And the wisdom doesn’t come until we get that word in our hearts. Ps 119:11 “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” Meditating on God’s word and hiding it in our hearts is a fortification against temptation. It helps us think sanely concerning sin. It gives us a sound mind with good reasoning powers.[7]
Beyond all that, biblical meditation helps us to know God. It brings us into a holy intimacy where God can whisper into our spiritual ear. He can guide us with His council. He can teach us His ways. He can reveal Himself to us. And to know God is to be transformed by His influence.
There is an important link between meditation, study, and memorization. Memorization of scripture is not meditation. But if you memorize a passage; then anytime, anyplace you can rehearse and meditate upon that word. So memorization is a good companion with meditation. Meditation without biblical study can go off on a tangent. Our thoughts need to be directed according to what God has revealed in His word. But if we never take time to study the Bible and put passages in their proper context and understand the meaning intended by the inspired writer we can find ourselves chewing on straw and not experiencing much nourishment from our meditation. I have watched people get really weird when they passionately pursued meditation without biblical studies. They eventually make the word say to them what they want it to say. So, sound biblical studies should accompany meditation. On the other hand, only studying the Bible for accurate meaning without taking the time to meditate upon it and apply it to your heart is a dry, dusty pathway. That too can take people off on a tangent. We must make both disciplines a part of our daily lives.
Part of the balance we’re talking about comes by being a part of a healthy spiritual community. One way you know a community of believers is healthy is that they are not all clones. In a cult everybody has the same emphasis and the same opinion. It’s unacceptable to be otherwise because individuality threatens the control of the group. But in the Body of Christ there is diversity within unity. In a healthy community of believers you will always have some individuals whose emphasis is study and some whose emphasis is meditation. Each individual needs a certain amount of balance; but some of the balance comes from other believers. But that will only work with two key ingredients: humility and respect. Whatever your strength is do not elevate your gift above the others. Every member is vital and needed. Respect and appreciate what they contribute, especially if it strengthens an area where you’re not particularly strong. As a Pastor from time to time I have trouble with people who are into study being upset that the mediators don’t spend more time in biblical studies. Then at other times I have the mediators upset because the studious ones don’t get more spiritual and meditate. Some of that has to do with the way God wired those people. I don’t want us to be a church of mediators which rejects the studious type. I don’t want us to be a church of intellectuals rejecting the mediators. We want to receive one another and draw from each other’s strengths.
IV. Before closing I want to share a few practical points on how to meditate. The nice thing about meditation is that it is not complicated. You are simply taking time to thoroughly process the subject in your heart. Kirk Bennett has suggested a memorable process he calls RWSSP which stands for read it, write it, say it, sing it, and pray it.[8] Let me give you an example. Suppose you want to meditate on the 23rd Psalm.
1. Solitude--Find a place where you can be alone with God without distraction. Set aside 20-60 minutes to meditate upon the psalm.
2. Silence--Get still before the Lord. Wait for all the activity in your soul to begin to settle down. If there are issues that arise like the one’s we talked about at the beginning of this message deal with them—come into silence not just externally but internally as well—confess any sin, appropriate the blood of Christ, cast all your care upon the Lord, receive the peace of God that passes all understanding.
3. Read the passage slowly 3 or 4 times.
4. Write it as it is in your text—Write it in your own words.
5. Say it—as you say it, allow the vivid imagery of the text to arise in your heart—can you see the green pastures and the still waters. Words are not an end in themselves. Words are a means by which concept is communicated. Allow the concept—the picture to be seen.
6. Sing it—you may just want to chant it—but realize that the Psalms were often sung and you will remember it better if you sing it.
7. Pray it—apply the word to your life and present situation—allow Psalms 23 to bring comfort to your soul.
During this process emphasize different words at different times. Allow the Holy Spirit to place His accent on certain words for this session in that text. Camp where the Holy Spirit camps and drink in the message of the text.
Will you this morning make an appointment with God to apply this teaching. Will you establish a time and place and text when you will meditate upon God’s word? I want to give you a couple of minutes to converse with God and make that appointment. When will you do it? Where will you do it? What text will you meditate upon? Bow your heads and between you and God make an appointment that could open Scripture to you like never before.[9]
Richard Tow
Grace Chapel Foursquare Church
Springfield, MO
www.gracechapelchurch.org
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[1] All Scripture Quotes from New International Version unless otherwise indicated.
[2] In Genesis 24:63 we find Isaac out in the field meditating.
[3] Chris Stanton’s Timothy Life Course (Lake View Terrace, CA: Mission Bridge, 1991) was a helpful resource for the preparation of this sermon. On page 29 he suggests the following aspects to consider when understanding God through nature: His order, faithfulness (sunrise, sunset, seasons), consistency (tide), resourcefulness (variety of plants, animals, people), attention to detail, wisdom, mysteries (electricity, ocean floor and its kingdom), love (beauty of our world).
[4] Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline (New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1998) 20-21.
[5] Watchman Nee, The Spiritual Man, Vol. 3 (New York: Christian Fellowship Publishers, Inc., 1977) 75-119.
[6] Romans 12:1-2
[7] 2Timothy 1:7
[8] Kirk Bennett, Deepening Prophetic Revelation through Meditation (www.7Thunders.org). Attached is the devotional material handed out last Sunday which drew heavily from this resource.
[9] In our first service we used a clip from the movie “Woman Thou Art Loosed” (0:05:11 to 0:06:32) and discussed the importance of what we hide in our hearts.
