What is Biblical Meditation? (informal discusssion)

The point: Members should seek to understand what biblical meditation is and how to engage in it effectively.

A member handed Pastor Martin a pre-written question on a card, prompting a discussion about fairness and the value of enterprise, setting the stage for the sermon's Q&A format.

This adult Sunday school class was held on August 4th, 1985, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now, it was announced that we would have, in this occasion of Pastor Nichols' absence, one of our open forums in which the members of the congregation are free to ask questions relative to portions of the Word of God, to have explained passages that may be obscure, to amplify some areas that perhaps have been dealt with in the public ministries. And someone knowing this handed me a three-by-five card on the way in with his question already written out, and I'm wrestling with whe...

0:03 - 1:02 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize that meditation involves focusing on God's Word and reflecting on how it applies to your own thinking, actions, and life.

Biblical meditation is contrasted with the inward-looking, neutrality-seeking mental discipline of Eastern religious cults, highlighting the objective focus of biblical meditation on God's Word.

Okay. So the Scriptures, the Word of God, are always the thing to which the eye of the soul is looking in meditation. See, we're not talking about meditation as some kind of a mental discipline of a Far East religious cult, where you just sit and you may look inward upon yourself, you may seek to come to a state of mental neutrality. But when we speak of meditation, according to Psalm 1, his delight is in the law of Jehovah, and on his law doth he meditate.

5:26 - 6:07 Read in full sermon

The point: Understand that meditation is a conscious, deliberate, and personal activity that cannot be done by someone else.

The example of Martha, troubled and anxious about many things, is used to illustrate a mind that is distracted and unable to focus, contrasting with Mary's chosen 'one thing needful'.

And you can't do it if your mind is off in the South Sea islands watching the swaying of the palm trees. Or? If it's all taken up with going through your head, with all you've got to do today, and you've got 78 hours of work to do in 24 hours, so you think, and the mind is all distracted. We had a classic example of that just recently in our regular reading.

8:53 - 9:18 Read in full sermon

The point: Engage in prospective meditation (looking ahead) for guidance and retrospective meditation (looking back) for self-examination, repentance, and praise.

An anecdote about a prospective church member who resisted the gospel and tried to flee from it, only to be persistently pursued by God's providence until capitulation, illustrates God's sovereignty and irresistible grace.

We had the privilege of interviewing someone for membership yesterday, and when we were done, we said as elders, if there's anyone who has any problem with the doctrines of the sovereignty of God in salvation, particularly as it comes to expression in what the theologians have called God's irresistible grace. That simply means when God goes out to get his man or woman, he never comes back empty-handed. This individual, it was most interesting. The testimony was that when the gospel first came to him or her, there was a resistance to it, and such a resistance that he or she went halfway or two-...

18:07 - 18:46 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The first practical guideline for formal meditation is to 'make time,' emphasizing that it must be intentionally carved out and conducive to focus, rather than waiting for time to…

An analogy of being threatened with a gun is used to emphasize that the definition of meditation provided is substantial enough to be recalled even under extreme pressure.

Now, if we just flip the board over and suddenly a man appeared at the back door with a .357 Magnum revolver loaded up with six shells and he had a whole belt full of extra ones and as you all passed out one by one it was held to your head and said, give me a satisfactory description and definition of meditation or you've had it.

24:49 - 25:11 Read in full sermon

The point: Make intentional time for formal meditation, choosing a time that is most conducive to focus and least likely to be interrupted.

Pastor Martin shares how his mother, with ten children and no modern conveniences, found her most profitable times for meditation and intercession late at night while ironing, illustrating the need to make conducive time.

So each of us must continue to meditate. Continually evaluate his own God-given responsibilities and circumstances, and make time that is most conducive to the exercise and activity of meditation. Now, those of you who were here years ago when I brought the series on God's directives for family living will remember that I made the point that my mother, as the mother of ten children back before there were automatic washers or any of those conveniences, and she never had outside help, for a day, and sewed much of our clothing and remade it and all of the rest, and truly exemplified the industrio...

28:42 - 30:06 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second guideline is to have a structure for meditation, involving a predetermined passage or focus, and acknowledging that the state of one's heart will color the meditation.

The varying emotional states of David when meditating, sometimes with joyous instruments and other times in sackcloth and ashes, illustrate how the state of one's heart colors meditation.

That's what we've experienced. All of us are put together differently. All of us passes through different periods of God's dealings with us. When you read the Psalms, it's obvious that there are times when David came to his times of meditation with his tambourines and his drums and his cymbals.

33:43 - 34:00 Read in full sermon

The point: Ensure you come to meditation with an ungrieved Holy Spirit, recognizing that sin can hinder your ability to engage with God's Word.

The adage 'This book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book' is used to explain how an accusing conscience can lead people to avoid serious meditation to escape confronting their sin.

I don't know if he originated it. This book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book. It's that simple. And often, our so-called excessive busyness is simply a head game played upon ourselves, because we know if we sat quietly before God and really prayed, Lord, search me as I open your word, we know no matter where we turn, our consciences are so smarting for this or that sin, we know no matter where we turn, we're going to see our sin in the passage we open up.

39:29 - 40:05 Read in full sermon

The point: Ensure you come to meditation with an ungrieved Holy Spirit, recognizing that sin can hinder your ability to engage with God's Word.

The example of Herod, haunted by John the Baptist's ghost due to his sin, illustrates how an accusing conscience makes one's sin appear everywhere in God's Word.

So what do we do? We avoid any part of the word of God. We avoid any serious meditation, because we've got a sneaking suspicion, no matter where we turn, it's just like John. John the Baptist and Herod.

40:05 - 40:18 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not attempt to meditate during tasks that require your full concentration for safety or effectiveness; instead, meditate on obeying God in those tasks beforehand.

Pastor Martin recounts his mother's counsel when he worried about not thinking of Christ while mixing mortar, teaching him that God does not require meditation during tasks demanding full concentration for safety.

Before you go to that task, meditate on the verse that says, whatever your hand finds to do, do with all your might, is unto the Lord and not unto men. Then go do it with all your might. And again, I must refer to my mother's wise counsel to me when, as a young Christian, doing construction work the first summer after I was converted. I had done it a couple of summers before, and it never bothered me, but this first summer after I was converted, I would come home greatly disturbed, and I'd say, but Ma, I went two, three whole hours today and had no thoughts of Christ.

41:24 - 41:58 Read in full sermon