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"This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate thereon 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" (Josh.1:8).
I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. [Psalm 119:15]
How Does A Person Meditate On God's Word?
Meditation is a combination of reviewing, repeating, reflecting, thinking, analyzing, feeling, and even enjoying. It is a physical, intellectual and emotional activity—it involves our whole being.
In some ways, meditation doesn't easily fit into Western culture. We value action and busyness more than stopping and considering. The author of this psalm was from another time and culture, one with a tradition that valued meditation. As a result, meditation came more naturally for him and others with his Middle Eastern background. We have to overcome some cultural obstacles to learn to meditate.
There are many ways to meditate on God's Word. Some possibilities include: (1) Take time to read a verse or passage over and over. (2) Begin to memorize all or part of it. (3) Listen—quiet your heart to allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you though God's Word. (4) Consider how it fits with the rest of the Bible and life in general. (5) Become emotionally involved—allow yourself to feel what God feels, his desires expressed through his words. (6) Move from meditation to application—connect your thoughts to action. Consider how the truth and power of the Word of God should affect your behavior. [Quest Study Bible. Copyright © Zondervan Publishing House]
How Does a Christian Meditate?
The word meditation has different, sometimes confusing meanings. Transcendental Meditation or TM, as it is called, involves the emptying of the mind of all thoughts and repeating a "mantra," which is a Hindu prayer or invocation in the Sanskrit language. The person repeating the mantra over and over again has no idea what he is saying. Buddhism and some forms of mysticism also promote an empty-headed form of meditation.
Empty-headed meditation can be a very dangerous practice. It is an open invitation for demonic spirits to influence the mind. Most occult practices such as seeking to contact the dead or inviting the presence of an inner spirit guide begin by emptying the mind of all thoughts. These practices are strictly forbidden in the Word of God. [Also See Section Mysticism in The Church]
In contrast, when Christians meditate upon the Word of God, this does not involve maintaining a blank mind. Rather it means filling the mind with the Word of God.
In order for the Holy Spirit to effectively open your eyes, strengthen your faith and affect your heart and mind, you must prayerfully focus your conscious, undivided attention upon the words you are reading or studying. Working out with the Word of God means taking the time to think about the Word and promises of God. This is what it means to meditate. We give the Holy Spirit time to work with us. ["Meditating Upon the Word of God." by Don Matzat]
Meditating on God's Word
If we look up the word meditate in our English thesaurus we will find synonyms like contemplate, ponder, think, consider, deliberate, and reflect. What I am about to share with you, however, seems to present a somewhat different concept about meditation. First of all, I found that, with the exception of a few verses, most of the examples of meditation are in the Psalms, those musical poems of praise, punctuated frequently with David’s characteristic interjections: "O Lord" (about 190 times in Psalms), "O God" (about 100 times), "Praise the Lord" or "Hallelujah" (31 times), and "bless the Lord" (15 times). The words mouth, voice, and tongue are used in the Psalms 135 times collectively, a testimony to the fact that the psalmists' interactions with God were often not a silent matter. Just as meditation is linked with the mouth in Joshua 1:8, mentioned above, it is often connected with the mouth or voice in the Psalms. Psalm 5:1-3 says,
"Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation. Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up."
Notice the words that we rendered in bold print in these verses. The whole context suggests that the psalmist's meditation is something vocal and audible, for it involves words, the voice, crying, prayer, and hearing.
Now let's look at Psalm 19:14, which says,
"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength and my redeemer."
Here, as elsewhere, meditation is something related to the heart; but the heart's contemplation is expressed by the words of the mouth. Even if one concludes that the meditation of the heart is a silent pondering of God's law, this inner reflection is accompanied by the words of the mouth, most likely in an attempt to articulate the meditation itself: that is, to put into words what the heart sees and to offer it as prayer or praise or a song to God.
Here is another passage from Psalms that illustrates this point:
"My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips; when I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night-watches" (63:5-6).
One can imagine David pursued by Saul's army in the wilderness of Judah, taking a turn at watching by night over his little company of devoted followers, and discovering, as He communes with His Lord, that there is One who satisfies the soul amid the harshest of circumstances. We can almost hear him joyfully praising his God in a low voice so as not to wake the others. To one of them it would have sounded like groaning or muttering. But we know, according to the context, that it was his meditation.
Two Enlightening Hebrew Words
When we look up two Hebrew words that are frequently translated meditate in the Psalms, we see that they are also used in a variety of other ways, some quite surprising. The Hebrew verb pronounced hagah (Strong's number 1897) literally means to growl, groan, sigh, mutter, or speak, but it is used figuratively to mean meditate or ponder. This Hebrew word is used in Isaiah to signify the moans of grief (16:7), the growl of a lion (31:4), and the cooing of a dove (38:14). Yet, it is the same word that means meditate in Joshua 1:8. Hagah is also used in Psalm 1, describing the blessed man who delights in the law of the LORD:
Keil and Delitzch say of this word that it speaks "of a deep, dull sound, as if vibrating between within and without" and "here signifies the quiet soliloquy of one who is searching and thinking." We can only attempt to appreciate the depth of this word as it depicts the blessed man who day and night is considering and pondering God's word and whose voice sometimes breaks into sighs of longing or coos of delight as he interacts both silently and audibly with God in His word.
Another Hebrew word for meditate is siach (Strong's 7878), a verb which can mean to muse, ponder, converse, utter, complain, pray, sing, or speak. Notice again how the mouth is implied by most of the varied meanings of this word, which is used three times in Psalm 77. This psalm initially expresses the groanings of one who is deeply troubled:
"When I remember God, then I am disturbed; when I sigh (siach), then my spirit grows faint" (v.3).
When he remembers the days of old, he takes heart:
His spirit lifts even further when he considers the lovingkindness and compassion of the Lord (vv.8-9). Then he begins to talk to himself,
"And I said, 'This is my infirmity; but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High'" (v.10).
He determines to remember the deeds of the Lord and His wonders of old (vv.11-13). Finally, he says,
His appreciation of God's willingness and ability to deliver His people has been greatly enriched by a progressive and deliberate interaction with God's word through sighing, singing, speaking, meditating, and musing.
Just consider how the psalmist takes charge of his soul, opening his mouth in the middle of overwhelming feelings of depression—first in a sigh, then in a song in the night, then in speaking to himself and remembering the deeds of the Lord, then in meditation and musing on the Lord's works. The result is that he now proclaims,
and he spends the rest of the psalm enumerating the Lord's mighty deeds on His people's behalf. His increasingly vocal meditation and musing on the word and the deeds of the Lord have brought him out of introspection, out of looking at himself and his predicament, into the realm of a revelation of God, who works wonders for His people. [Alan D. Olive Tree Bible Software]
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