The Necessity of Meditating on Scripture (part two)
By Jay Wegter Meditation on Scripture involves treasuring God’s Word in the heart (Ps 119:11). Meditation is
intentional; it involves both study and reflection upon the Word in such a way that we find our true riches in the Lord. By turning over the truth of God in our minds, it makes an indelible impression upon us—it becomes ours. We live in an age of superficial religion. Most folks have ‘borrowed convictions’—they have never made it a habit to treasure up God’s Word in their hearts. There is no short cut for gaining ‘first hand convictions’—they are the result of longing for the pure milk of the Word (1 Pet 2:2; 1 Tim 4:6; 2 Tim 2:15). The Psalmist said, “I will meditate upon Thy precepts; and regard Thy ways. I shall delight in Thy statutes; I shall not forget Thy Word” (Ps 119:15-16).
Only when God’s Word is treasured in our hearts will it put us to work both in serving God and putting sin to death. One must meditate upon Scripture if he is to be a doer of the Word (James 1:22-25). Our resolve to please God will only be realized if we continually familiarize ourselves with God’s truth so that it daily informs our affections and desires (Josh 1:8).
The contemplation of the truth is our primary weapon in the battle for the mind. Meditation has a goal: to induce trust, loyalty, devotion, surrender, obedience, delight, and love to God; and, all the while deepening our knowledge of God, our love of His truth, and our conformity to it. When believers meditate on Scripture, they are always about the business of weighing the temporal against the eternal—therefore they are willing to suffer loss and deny themselves for the sake of Christ. Frequent meditation is required to do this weighing of heaven against the world; of weighing the value of knowing Christ versus earthly gain. The Apostle Paul models this habit of ‘weighing’ in Philippians 3:7-16—he shows us how to daily weigh the eternal against the temporal (Jonathan Edwards, The Religious Affections, pp. 374-375).
When the saint meditates on the Word, he is anything but passive; he is busy building a case for obedience and tearing down the beginnings of any argument for distrust of God. Meditation moves the Word of God from the mind to the heart; from the academic to application. It is a revitalizing spiritual discipline that we need to exercise daily. Because our lower natures are hostile to God’s gracious will; our minds need constant reorientation by the Holy Spirit (Peter Toon, The Art of Meditating on Scripture, p. 31).
Meditation is necessary in order to enjoy the kind of intimacy and closeness to God to which we are called (Jn 15:4; 1 Jn 2:28). “There are but two ways to draw near to God: by prayer and by meditation” (William G. T. Shedd). Meditation is a necessary labor and a pleasurable discipline enabling the saint to take delight in God. The reward of regular meditation is that we find God to be our chief treasure, to be trustworthy, and to be our highest good. Heart-warming communion with God is not possible apart from the Scripture practices of prayer, worship, and meditation. Without these regular, Spirit-induced ‘heartwarmings’ at the hearth of Scripture, our fickle hearts will go in search of other lovers.
The three disciplines of prayer, worship, and meditation are closely related. Scripture meditation feeds and stimulates both prayer and worship. Meditation is our contact point for communion with God; and it is the very essence of growth in our knowledge of God. As we meditate upon the Word of God we are communing with the Lord. Those who meditate upon Scripture who are blessed with ‘divine disclosures’; God is pleased to manifest His presence where the true knowledge of Him is known, loved, proclaimed, adored, and exalted (Jn 14:21-23). By the mind-renewing power of meditation we submit our minds to the mind of God. We are lifted above subjectivism (moods and feelings) to concrete thoughts of God. The effect is always to humble us as we contemplate God’s greatness and glory against our sinfulness and smallness. Meditation teaches us to think in the presence of God (Ps 19:14).
Whatever occupies the mind and heart will engage the will. Thoughts and deeds follow affections. Meditation ‘unites the heart’ and equips the believer to navigate by means of Scripture (Ps 86:11-12). There is no way to pass victoriously through this world of seductive idols without meditation (Ps 119:9-16). We may tell ourselves that we please God because our lives conform outwardly to His moral commands: but the real evidence in the soul of the saint is meditation (Ps 1:1-3). Our love to God is evidenced there first. “Blessed are your eyes because they see and your ears because they hear” (Matt 13:16). The meditating saint uses these faculties planted at regeneration for the purpose of meditation (1 Cor 2:10-16). The godly man or woman meditates so that praising God and telling of all His works is a spontaneous activity (Ps 145:1-7). Our spiritual battles are primarily at the level of ‘spiritual seeing’—seeing true treasure (John Piper).