Spiritual Disciplines: Bible Meditation
Name of Assembly: United Apostolic Church
Type of service: Bible Study
Date: February 1, 2022
Series: SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES
Lesson 3: DISCIPLINE OF MEDITATION
Scripture Text: Psalm 19:1-14; Joshua 1:8
“This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein 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." – Jos. 1:8
‘The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. 2 Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. 3 They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard.4 Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world. God has made a home in the heavens for the sun. 5 It bursts forth like a radiant bridegroom after his wedding. It rejoices like a great athlete eager to run the race. 6 The sun rises at one end of the heavens and follows its course to the other end. Nothing can hide from its heat. The instructions of the Lord are perfect, reviving the soul. The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. 8 The commandments of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are clear, giving insight for living.9 Reverence for the Lord is pure, lasting forever. The laws of the Lord are true; each one is fair. 10 They are more desirable than gold, even the finest gold. They are sweeter than honey, even honey dripping from the comb. 11 They are a warning to your servant, a great reward for those who obey them. 12 How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults. 13 Keep your servant from deliberate sins! Don’t let them control me. Then I will be free of guilt and innocent of great sin. 14 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer”– Psalm 19:1-14 (AMP).
BENEFIT OF MEDITATION ON GOD’S WORD
Meditating on God’s Word provides an opportunity to understand and apply His will to our lives.
GETTING TO SECOND NATURE
On January 15, 2009, Captain Chelsey Sullenberger was the pilot who was flying US Airways flight 1549, carrying 155 souls from New York’s LaGuardia airport toward Charlotte, North Carolina. As the plane hurtled upwards, its engines struck a flock of Canada geese. Both engines were disabled, and the plane, which had reached an altitude of only three thousand feet, was too low to glide to a nearby runway. The only chance the passengers had was for Sullenberger to land the plane in the Hudson River.
In the moment of crisis, there was no time to whip out the flight instruction manual or watch a YouTube video on what to do in a flight emergency. In that moment Sullenberger’s thousands of hours of preparation kicked in. The complicated process of landing the plane under such circumstances—a process which, to the novice, would have seemed impossibly complex—was second nature to him. During his years as a pilot, he had studied the manuals, learned the ins and outs of planes, and meditated on various flight procedures. Everything he had learned through the years had penetrated below the level of short-term memory and into the deeper levels of the mind where instincts lie.
Living the Christian faith requires many of the same principles. Living as a Christian under all circumstances isn’t something someone can do without preparation and experience. Making biblical principles second nature takes trial and error and years of training and meditation upon God’s Word. But when the hour of crisis comes, when everyone else is looking for the manual and fumbling for instructions, the one who has patiently meditated upon the Word in the quiet hours that others have wasted will rise to the occasion.
Introduction & Definition
Scripture urges us repeatedly to meditate upon, not merely read or memorize God’s word. When we are engaged in meditating on the Holy Scriptures our minds are in the process of being transformed and the words of our mouths reshaped. The Christian transformation is to be so complete that the ungodly things we used to delight in are replaced with those things that are righteous. For these radical and fundamental changes to take place in us - God’s word has to be internalized.
The word meditation as used in this lesson is not to be confused with emptying of the mind that Eastern religions practice. In this lesson, meditation refers to a long, regular, and carefully measured consideration of a topic with an intense commitment to faithfully applying it to one’s life.
A Commitment to Meditating on Scriptures
The first Psalm begins, “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night” (Psalm 1:1–2).
Contrary to the man who constantly situates himself in the company of foolish talkers (the ungodly, the sinners, and the scornful); the Psalmist said that the blessed man delights in the word of God. The blessed does not spend his time in unfruitful and unnecessary discussions with the godless; the blessed man takes comfort in the Scriptures. His days are given to considering Scriptures and applying them to his daily life. He meditates day and night. In other words, meditation on Scripture is not a day job; neither is meditation something one is to do only after a day’s work is done. Essentially, the Psalmist pronounced a blessing on the one whose life is a continuous conversation with Scripture.
Delighting in God’s WordThe constancy of meditation is regulated by what the Psalmist calls “delight.” The blessed man is the man who delights to think upon the Word. He is in love; no sooner has his mind been released from having to concentrate upon his tasks he returns to mediating on the Word. Scripture is the “gravity” of his mind—every thought, sooner or later, drifts naturally toward it and the God behind it. He doesn’t make decisions without a conversation with Scriptures.
We are called to live in this world, and we cannot isolate ourselves from the environment to which we are called to be salt and light. We have very little choice in determining what we hear, however, what we meditate upon, what we take delight in, is our own choice.
The Word of God Becoming Our Word
Great poets of the past have often agreed that the one essential habit of becoming a great poet is the habit of reading, living, sleeping, eating, and breathing good poetry. Such poetry is not just about having good feelings and then describing them in rhymes. Good poetry requires an extreme sensitivity to words. The great poet chooses words like a pianist chooses notes; dozens of different words could get the job done and convey the author’s basic meaning, but good poetry requires just the right word. He rolls words around in his mind, weighing and “tasting” each one. A word’s meaning is not enough; the poet has to consider the sound of the word—its vowels, consonants, syllables, and accents. Moreover, the right word or phrase is not determined just by what the word or phrase means to him; the poet has a keen perception of what other ears hear in these words and phrases.
The careful knowledge of the would-be poet, which compels him to explore the heights and depths of every word he uses, is the kind of knowledge that characterizes meditation. When called upon to lead the people of Israel into the Promised Land, Joshua was charged with the responsibility of having a careful knowledge of the words of Moses: “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein 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” (Joshua 1:8).
One would think Joshua would be required to memorize military strategies for “good success.” He was, after all, Israel’s general; he was to lead Israel on a long campaign to conquer, city by city, the land of Canaan. But he was told instead to meditate upon the Law that he might observe and perform it.
The Law was not a list of battle tactics; the Law did not contain weapon-making secrets. It did not hold a list of training techniques. It did not even provide vital intelligence of the layout of the land Israel was set to conquer. The written words of Moses merely informed the reader of how to properly relate to others, how to manage one’s land and possessions, and how to worship God. However, Joshua’s success and that of Israel would be determined by their obedience to the word of God.
Joshua’s knowledge of Moses’ words was to become so complete that the Law was not to depart out of his mouth. That is, the language of the Law was to become the language of Joshua. His responses to questions were to be informed by the Law. His praises and rebukes were to be the praises and rebukes of the Law. The Book of Joshua lets us know that Joshua’s knowledge of God’s Word was carefully remembered and applied.
At the end of Joshua’s life, after decades of war, triumph, and disaster, Joshua’s words to Israel sound strangely familiar: “Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that ye turn not aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left” – Joshua 23:6.
These are almost the exact words he had heard from God when Joshua was still a young man: “Be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest” – Joshua 1:7.
God’s word to Joshua as a young man had indeed become almost indistinguishable from Joshua’s words as an old man.
Meditation upon Scripture calls for a knowledge of Scripture that is so careful that one’s language begins to alter and conform to the language of Scripture. This does not necessarily mean quoting Scripture verbatim in King James English whenever we speak, but it does mean knowing how to give a scriptural response to the problems we face.
Commitment to Faithfully Applying Scriptures
We have discussed the chief characteristics of one who meditates upon God’s Word. Now we will closely examine how meditation upon Scripture in light of the gospel of Jesus Christ can transform one’s mind and nourish the possibility of doing extraordinary things.
Many people memorize Scripture, which is commendable. However, memorization and knowledge of Scripture is not enough. There has to be a commitment to a faithful application of the knowledge one has gained from Scripture.
Paul is an exemplary figure for many reasons, but perhaps above all other reasons, he is especially exemplary for his intense commitment to meditating upon Scripture in hopes of proving that God is faithful to His Word.
Paul experienced a struggle between the promises of Scripture and his calling to evangelize the Gentiles. At one point in his life, he saw the two as mutually exclusive. During this time he reasoned that if God’s Word was true, then Israel was exclusively God’s people. But if the Gentiles were also to be God’s people, then God’s Word could not be true. However, once he encountered, and was commissioned by Christ, he had to conclude that indeed the Gentiles were to be included in God’s covenant.
But he had to ask: Was God’s Word to Israel then true?
Paul, through meditating on Scripture, came to the extraordinary discovery that not only had God indeed welcomed the Gentiles, but He had also done so in according to His Word. Let us trace this discovery as Paul described it in various places in his letters.
Paul’s Meditation on Scripture
Paul’s Bible did not include the books and letters of the New Testament. Paul’s letters were written before the Gospels. What we now call the Old Testament was Paul’s Bible.
When Paul was faced with the reality that either the Scriptures were wrong or his fellow Jews’ traditional interpretations of the Bible were wrong, Paul chose the latter.
Paul went back to the Scriptures and read it without pre-conceived ideas. New patterns began to emerge in what had been perhaps overly familiar passages. For instance, in the story of God calling Abraham and making a covenant with him (Genesis 12–21), Jewish teachers saw Abraham as the father of the Jewish people who had been offered an exclusive covenant with God. But Paul now realized that God had declared Abraham righteous long before he had ever submitted to circumcision, which is the traditional Jewish sign of election. For Paul, this could mean only one thing: God had intricately orchestrated the plot of this story to lay the foundation for the Gentiles’ inclusion in the covenant.
Many early Jewish believers resisted the notion and dared Paul to find this teaching based on their understanding of the Scriptures. The greatest difficulty was that, as Paul noted, this “fellowship” between Jew and Gentile in the covenant was a “mystery” that had not been “made known unto the sons of men” and had been hidden “from the beginning of the world . . . in God” (Ephesians 3:4–9).
Paul now had “ears to hear” what the Spirit was saying through the timing of this Scripture: God had declared Abraham righteous before he was circumcised so that Abraham could be not only the father of the Jewish faithful, but also the father of the uncircumcised Gentile faithful!
Paul was the first to understand this: he saw that the gospel of Jesus Christ had “broken down the middle wall of partition” (Ephesians 2:14) between the Jews and Gentiles and that the “Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of [God’s] promise in Christ by the gospel” (Ephesians 3:6).
Paul’s understanding of this very challenging doctrine did not come to him by merely a brief look at the Scriptures. He had to spend the time to meditate upon the Scriptures that he had and with the help of the Holy Ghost he was able to understand God’s word.
Let’s look at 2 Peter 3:15-16, 15 And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood....” Some Scriptures are hard to be understood and so it will take diligent study (2 Timothy 2:15) and the ministry of the Holy Spirit (John 14:26) for us to be enlightened.
Conclusion
It is not enough to read Scripture; it is not even enough to know Scripture. Our fathers in the faith have taught us to meditate upon Scripture. Meditating on Scripture cleanses the mind, transforms it, and alters the way we speak. Meditation is the habit of those who delight in God’s Word; it is the characteristic of those for whom God’s Word is the guide for their every decision.