By Athanasios Bardis
The Biblical Teaching of Scripture Meditation
As children, we often found humor in teasing peers about their memory lapses, such as jokingly saying, “You don’t even remember what you had for lunch yesterday!” This playful teasing highlighted a common childhood experience: the challenge of recalling specific details or events. It underscores the natural tendency of young people to find amusement in the quirks of memory and cognition, reflecting a deeper understanding of the complexities of remembering.
I emphasise “challenge of recalling specific details or events” because our minds categorize and store data according to its meaning and significance. For example, if I were to ask you, “What were you doing on Tuesday, September 11, 2001?” I am sure that the overwhelming majority of us would not hesitate to answer. Why is this? We all associate the events of 9/11 with great significance, which is why our memory banks have stored this information in a section that is easily accessible.
What if I asked you, “What did you have for lunch yesterday, the day before that, and last week?” Do you remember?
Biblical Meditation
We can conclude that the more we care about something and the more we think about it, the easier it is to remember. There are more significant aspects of life than just eating and drinking for pleasure or even remembering what we wore yesterday.
Man is not to live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God (Matt 4:4). Friend, take into account and pay careful attention to the eternal Word of God. The intake of God’s Word is one of the most important spiritual disciplines for living a godly life.
Assuming that all true Christians acknowledge the significance of Scripture, I would like to emphasise the importance of the discipline of Scripture meditation. While many people link meditation with transcendental practices, it is essential to clarify that biblical meditation is fundamentally different from Eastern mystical meditation.
Transcendental meditation is an inwardly focused experience of the ineffability of vague emptying of the mind. In contrast, biblical meditation is an objective, filling of the mind with the Word of God. The agent of understanding, illumination, and transformation is the Holy Spirit of God. In biblical meditation, we look outwardly to God, not inwardly toward our depraved self. The psalmist declares, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer” (Ps 19:14).
The Scriptures continually urge all believers to pay careful attention to, ponder, reflect on, and earnestly consider God’s words. God has communicated in a clear and understandable manner so that humans can comprehend His message and respond with obedience through the effective action of His Spirit. The relationship between the mind and heart is so intricate that what a person exposes their mind to inevitably shapes who they become.
God’s glorious purposes for his people are that they be conformed to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. How eternally glorious are the plans of God for his adopted sons and daughters! Jesus’ prayer for believers of all ages is for their sanctification by the Word of truth (John 17:17).
Methods of Biblical Meditation
As Joshua prepared to lead the countless people of Israel into the Promised Land, God’s main instructions for this young leader focused on the reading, learning, and meditation of the Law. Joshua was not only to cherish and read the Book of the Law but also to continually reflect on it. God told Joshua: 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 (Joshua 1:8). Thoughtful consideration of God’s Word leads to the correct application of biblical principles, which in turn brings about the outpouring of God’s blessings (Joshua 1:8-9).
Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day (Ps 119:97). Delight enhances our affections and increases our desire for the things that bring us joy. Delight in God and seek to know more of Him through His Word. Meditate on God’s Word, think through it deeply and pray. Cultivate good habits that encourage regular meditation on the Bible. Blessed is the person who meditates and delights on the law of the Lord, day, and night.
- Biblical meditation leads to wisdom when, by the power of the Holy Spirit, believers properly understand and apply the Word of God (Ps 49:3).
- Biblical meditation engages the mind and helps us to see how God’s Word applies in our lives.
For this to happen, meditation must follow correct exegetical patterns. For example, when we meditate on God’s Word, we should avoid cherry picking phrases but rather take all verses in their proper surrounding context. We should meditate on a specific passage both biblically and theologically, asking ourselves questions such as, “What does this passage mean? What is it saying? What is the practical application of this passage? What actions will I take? Does this passage mention any particular doctrine?”
Our meditation should follow an analogy of faith pattern, namely, interpreting Scripture with Scripture, trying to understand more difficult passages in light of easier ones, since Scripture never contradicts itself. Look for repeated phrases, words, and themes. Reflect on verses that share similar themes, as this will not only aid in memorization but also enhance contemplation.
Meditate on the attributes of God as described in His Word. Meditate worshipfully, and exalt God for who he is. The psalmist meditated on God upon his bed and in the watches of the night (Ps 63:6). Acquaint yourself with God, understand and know the glory of the greatness of God (Jer 9:23-24). Find specific parts of the Scriptures that talk about the sovereignty, immutability, foreknowledge, holiness, power, faithfulness, goodness, patience, grace, and other divine perfections of God and contemplate them. Contemplate the glorious splendor and the wondrous works of God (adaptation from Ps 145:5).
The prince of preachers, Charles Spurgeon, understood that,
“nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued, investigation of the great subject of the Deity. The most excellent study for expanding the soul is the science of Christ and Him crucified and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity.”[1] Know your God.
Jesus Christ is the centrality of the Scriptures; he is the fulfilment of God’s salvation plan for humanity, and all Scripture culminates in Christ. Remember the mighty deeds of the Lord; recall his acts of grace, wonder in his love, ponder all his works, and meditate on God’s redemptive purposes. Biblical meditation that is not for the purpose of Christlikeness is fruitless and dangerous.
Meditate on the biblical text for the purpose of obedience; seek to glorify the Lord. While meditating on Scripture, self-examine for the purpose of godliness. Ask yourself, “Am I obeying God in this area? Do I need to repent of anything? Where do I need to change?” Pray and seek God’s grace.
There are many ways the faithful can meditate on the text of Scripture. We can meditate by reading and reflecting on the text, reading aloud, journaling about our insights, praying the Scriptures, spending time in silence and solitude, singing psalms, or listening to the Bible being narrated. The Puritans often gathered to discuss the Scriptures or sermons they had heard. Their practices remind us that we can also meditate on Scripture together with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
The Lord delights when we gladly obey his commandments. The teachings and doctrines of the Bible are to be desired more than gold. They are sweeter than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb (adaptation of Ps 19:10). Biblical meditation is of great benefit to our Christian maturity.
Are we going to meditate on Scripture for the purpose of godliness? The apostle Paul would have thought so. Practice it, persist in it, train yourself for godliness. Proclaim with the writer of Psalm 119:97, Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.
Bibliography
Pink, Arthur W. The Attributes of God. Memphis: Bottom of the Hill Publishing, 2011.
[1]Arthur W. Pink, The Attributes of God (Memphis: Bottom of the Hill Publishing, 2011), 99.