Meditation: Duty, Definition

Introduction to Private Means of Grace and Meditation's Duty

0:04 Now, we are studying together some of the perspectives of the Word of God relative to the personal disciplines of private prayer and reading of the Word of God, what we might call the private means of grace. The public means of grace are the preaching of the Word, coming to the Lord's table, fellowshipping with the people of God. The private means of grace are those of the study of the Scriptures, meditation upon them, and secret prayer. Thus far, in the past four weeks, we have established the necessity for such disciplines of the private means of grace.

0:41 We've considered the principles that should guide us with reference to the time given to these disciplines, how much time and when. And then we have together concluded that the basic ingredients of this discipline are preparation, the study of the Word, and prayer. Now, our present focus is on seeking to understand the Bible. And then we have decided to ascertain guidelines for the private study of the Word of God.

1:08 And thus far, we have established that we ought to read the Scriptures systematically, secondly, in a spirit of dependence upon the Holy Spirit, thirdly, with an active mind, going through, seeking to catch the thread of thought, asking what commands, what promises, what examples, what precepts, what directives are herein contained. And then we've concluded our study last week by...

1:32 By saying that we ought to read the Word of God not only systematically, dependently, with an active mind, but we ought to read the Word of God meditatively. And you gave us Psalm 1 and Joshua 1 as explicit commandments and directives for the duty of meditation. Now, in order to ground our discussion firmly in the Word of God, what I wish to do at the outset, rather than asking some questions...

2:00 I do have three questions that will follow. I think get us moving as a class. But I do want to establish some more biblical, some text of Scripture which will establish for us more clearly and emphatically the duty of meditation in conjunction with our study of the Word of God. Now, of course, we are thinking particularly of meditation as it relates to private study of the Word of God.

2:27 But, of course, the principles apply to the public preaching of the Word of God as well. Now, some of these texts do not use the word meditate, but they obviously convey the concept of meditation. And so we are not bound to our concordances and the listings of the use of meditate, meditation, which are the two words that occur most frequently in the Scriptures, particularly in the Old Testament. The English word meditate is only found once or twice in the New Testament, and it is not meditation in the strict sense that we are considering.

3:02 And so we are not bound to our concordances and the listings of the Word of God. Now, some of these texts do not use the word meditate, but they obviously convey the concept of meditation in conjunction with our study of the Word of God. Will you turn, please, to Colossians 3 and verse 16? Now, this is what we are doing at the beginning of the class.

3:12 Having established at the close last week that meditation was a duty, primarily from your suggestions of Psalm 1 and Joshua 1, and some of the references in the Psalms. We simply want to broaden the base for the duty of meditation. You see that it is a duty. Now what we are doing is simply broadening, thickening.

Broadening the Biblical Basis for Meditation's Duty

3:33 that biblical basis for the duty of meditation. Then we're going to ask the question, how would you define meditation? Is meditation exclusively the activity of a saved person? Or do people in the world, people who are yet in their sins, do they meditate?

3:52 In other words, is meditation a gracious phenomenon? Something particularly exercised only by those in a state of grace? Or is it a natural phenomenon, which grace lays hold of, and sublimates to the purposes of God's grace? Third question we'll consider, what is the function of meditation?

4:10 All these things will be developed, but first of all, we want to broaden the biblical basis for the duty of meditation. Now will someone read for me, please, Colossians chapter 3 and verse 16.

4:38 And the phrase that we're particularly concerned about is this, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Now here's an exegetical problem, is it? Dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing, or is it? Let it dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching.

4:57 But in either case, we don't need to resolve that problem, because our concern is with the imperative, let the word of Christ dwell in you. And this word dwell is the word found in such passages as Romans chapter 8 and verse 11, speaking of the indwelling of the Spirit, if the Spirit of Him who raised up Christ from the dead dwell in you. And for you fellows that are taking your Greek classes, it's a little preposition, N, attached to the word which means to dwell. Oikos is one of your first vocabulary words.

5:41 Have you had it yet for house? Now I always remember that my mental crutch was, oy, the cost of a house. Oikos. And then the, way back many, many years ago, it's a first year Greek class.

5:53 Oy, the cost of a house. Oikeo is the verb there. To dwell. So this means to dwell, it's the verb form of the noun form house, to dwell in.

6:03 So it speaks of an indwelling that is permanent. It speaks not just of a sojourner who plunks out his 18 bucks to Howard Johnson and stays for a night, but it's speaking of the person who has all the problem of title search and closing costs, and then he settles in and begins to collect junk and all the rest for the awful time when he must move away. But anyway, that's the force of the verb and it's in the imperative form. Let the word of Christ.

6:34 And that's the only way to express a Greek imperative is to say, let it. But it's an imperative. God is saying you must have the word of Christ. What?

6:43 Not just touching down for a moment or two upon your front doorstep, but dwelling within with a purpose. Permanent, with a rich, with a full kind of dwelling in your mind and in your heart. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. All right?

7:00 Then Luke 9 and verse 44.

7:04 One of the most powerful and vivid concepts of meditation. And again, it comes in the form of an imperative, a divine commandment. Luke chapter 9.

7:24 Our Lord has just performed a great miracle in every way. He has performed a great miracle in every way. And everyone is in astonishment at the majesty of God. Luke 9, 43.

7:32 But while they were marveling at all these things which he did, he said unto his disciples, let these words sink into your ears. Isn't that a vivid, wonderful word picture of the duty of meditation? What is meditation? It's letting the word not merely lie on the surface of the ear, but sink deeply into the ear.

7:57 Now he says, you are responsible to have the word sinking deeply into your ears. There must be no surface, merely touching down with the truth of God upon the ear, but the sinking deeply. And then let's turn to Psalm 119 and actually read those texts in which we find the psalmist speaking of the experience, of the privileges, of the fruits of meditation as a Christian expert. It's an exegete exercise.

8:28 Psalm 119. Someone read for us, if you will, please, verse 15. Right? Now we're not going to exegete it.

8:47 We're just trying to show some of the major biblical notions. I will meditate on thy precepts, but notice, and you have this in the Hebrew poetry, the parallelism, the one phrase, the second phrase, explaining or amplifying or giving a contrast to the first. I will meditate on thy precepts and this will issue, in having respect unto thy ways. In other words, if we are to live so as to respect the ways of God, to give them their due regard in life, in thought, in conduct, in attitude, that which leads to this is the exercise of meditation.

9:30 Where there is no meditation, there will be constant disrespect for the ways of God. All right? Now over to verse 23. We have the same psalm.

9:41 Someone else read that for us, please.

9:51 All right, here's the psalmist in a situation of adversity. People are conceiving and propagating false information about him, bearing false witness, opposing him. Princes sat and talked against me. But, he says, what did I do?

10:08 Rather than sit around and stew in the strong juice of self-pity until it just stripped away all of my... my substance as a man of God, as a servant of God, what did I do?

10:22 I meditated on thy statutes. In other words, I did not sit around and plot how I could get even. I didn't sit around and plot how I could vindicate myself. I didn't sit around and say, woe is me, why in the world...

10:35 No, he says, I meditated upon thy statutes, indicating that, as in the previous text, meditation was the catalyst which led to respecting the ways of God. Here we see meditation in what we would call its prophylactic, its preventive, its immunizing effects. Those concepts, you see. All of this is going around me.

11:00 However, I meditated upon thy statutes. All right? Over to verse 48 of the same psalm. This is the most interesting verse.

11:10 Someone read that for us, if you will.

11:24 All right? I will lift up my hands, which could be either the expression of praise, as you find in the Old Testament, when there was praise, when there was intercession, there was the lifting up of the hands to God. So it could be that I will praise God for His commandments because I have loved them, or I will entreat God for more light on that which I do love, and, he says, as the capstone to show the genuineness of this outward expression of allegiance to God's commandments, I will meditate upon it. In other words, I will not simply salute to Jesus, General, when He walks by.

12:01 I'll think about Him when He's gone. I will not simply take my hat off when they're playing the National Anthem. I will conduct myself in all of life as a loyal, obedient subject to that which the flag signifies. I will not only give external acts of apparent devotion and worship to the precepts of God, I will take those precepts into my mind and heart and make them the subject of loving and perpetual message.

12:30 Meditation. This is what the psalmist is saying. All right? Verse 78.

12:34 All we're doing now is finding a broader biblical basis for this duty of meditation and some of its various functions. Verse 78. All right? Someone else.

12:44 And if you don't pick it right up, I'll start calling on names to read it for us. All right?

12:57 All right? This is similar to the previous text we considered where Prince has sat and talked against me. Now he prays that God would deal with his enemies, but it's as much as saying, but Lord, whether you're pleased to do that or not, I'm not going to allow the activity of my enemies to keep me from the delight of meditation. I will.

13:15 Now notice the emphasis. I will meditate upon thy precepts. There was the conscious, volitional activity of the psalmist. He was choosing a course of action.

13:26 All right? And then verse 148 of the same psalm. Verse 148. Someone read that for us.

13:41 Now, you see what the picture is here? Here's a military man who knows he's going to pull watch from two in the morning until six. And he says, I anticipated those things. I'd wake up and look at my watch and say, oh boy, it's still not time yet.

13:54 Go back to sleep. Why? He said, there's a sense in which I could not wait for the night watches because it gave me an opportunity to do what? To meditate upon the precepts and the statutes of God.

14:06 Here again, it shows that the psalmist had cultivated a mental and spiritual discipline in which meditation was no little bit a little part of his constant experience as a child of God. Now, turn to Psalm 143 and verse 5. And this is particularly helpful because there are two main words used in the Hebrew for the duty of meditation. And both of those words are used in this one verse.

Hebrew Words for Meditation and Their Meaning

14:38 All right? Someone read verse 5 of Psalm 143, please.

14:48 All right? I remember the days of old. I meditate. I meditate on thy doings.

14:54 I muse on the work of thy hands. Now, the two words that are used most frequently, both in the verb and in the noun forms, to meditate and then meditation as the noun, are, first of all, the one Hebrew word which means to mutter. And it's the word actually used in Isaiah 59 and verse 3, an indictment of the people of God who are the people of God who muttered lies. And that's the word found in Psalm 1 and Joshua 1.

15:27 Blessed is the man who mutters in the law of God day and night. But what happens when you see someone mumbling something? You guys, again, I'm going to pick on you because you meet in the hour before and this is very real. When you're learning vocabulary words, do you make out your little vocabulary cards?

15:41 You ought to if you don't. And you carry them around with you and you're going over there. Oh, God.

15:51 And Mr. Brown carries around his little Hebrew cards and I carry them around in my pocket, too. Trying to get some of your tongue around some of those Hebrew sounds when you get a for night. And then when you get it with the preposition in front of it and then separate with preposition you get another.

16:11 You go around mumbling, trying to fix the thing in your mind. This stands for that. That stands for that. It speaks, you see, of the kind of activity in which the mind is engaged upon the pursuit of the mind.

16:26 upon the pursuit of the mind. upon the pursuit of the mind. The given track of thought and it's determined to stay on that track. You're muttering it.

16:31 You're carrying it over in turning it over in the mind and even bringing into assistance the speech apparatus. And then the other word that is used literally means to bow down in order, again, to convey the concept that there is a thought that is sitting upon me that is weighing down and I'm seeking to feel the impress of that truth, of that thought. With which I am wrestling. So then, these are some of the passages and there are more.

17:02 This is not being exhausted. In which the duty, the function, the blessings that derive from meditation are clearly set forth in the word of God. All right, any passage, major passage that has come to you as you've been thinking about this and I know some of you anyway have done your homework in trying to come up with a working definition of meditation. Is there any other verse that has been very, very forceful in your own thinking as you've been meditating on meditation?

Further Biblical Support and Spurgeon's Insights

17:31 Yes.

17:33 All right. Philippians 4, 18? 4, 8. 4, 8.

17:42 I thought that's what you meant but I said, well, maybe there's one in 4, 18 that I'm not, that's not coming to mind. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honorable, just, pure, whatsoever things are lovely, of good report, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things. And the word there is in the imperative again and you notice the marginal says take account of these things. It's the word from which we get our English word, logistics.

18:11 And I think some of you with some military mentality can see the parallel. And certainly this is a commandment to fix the mind in a very conscious, intelligent way upon the things that are classified here and of course, such things are the things that are set forth in the word of God. All right. Now, I think this gives us a broad, biblical basis for the duty of meditation.

18:33 Which should convince us that it is no duty to read the word of God without meditation, if we may state it in the negative. And some of you who use Spurgeon's Morning and Evening will know that Spurgeon had some very excellent thoughts on this whole matter of meditation for yesterday morning.

18:53 I will meditate on thy precepts, Psalm 119 and verse 15. There are times when solitude is better than society and silence is wiser than silence. Isn't that great? Solitude is better than society, that is, company with other people, and silence is wiser than speech.

19:14 We should be better Christians if we were more alone waiting upon God and gathering through meditation on His word spiritual strength for labor in His service. We ought to muse upon the things of God because we thus get the real nutriment out of them. Truth is something like the cluster of the vine. If we would have wine from it, we must bruise it.

19:38 We must press and squeeze it many times. The bruiser's feet must come down joyfully upon the bunches. Back to the old concept of the wine vat. You see, it was the dug-out stone and all the grapes were poured in and people got in and tromped them down with their feet.

19:54 Well, he's using that imagery. They must well tread the grapes or else much of the precious liquid would be wasted. So must we, by meditation, tread the clusters of truth. If we would, get the wine of consolation therefrom.

20:08 Our bodies are not supported merely by taking food into the mouth, but the process which really supplies the muscle and the nerve and the sinew and the bone is the process of digestion. It is by digestion that the outward food becomes assimilated with the inner life. Our souls are not nourished merely by listening a while to this and then to that and then to the other part of divine truth. Hearing, reading, listening, marking and learning all require inwardly digesting to complete their usefulness.

20:42 And the inward digesting of the truth lies for the most part in meditation upon it. Why is it that some Christians, although they hear many sermons, make slow advances in the divine life? Because they neglect their closets and do not thoughtfully meditate on God's word. They love the wheat, but they do not grind it.

21:01 They would have the corn, but they will not go forth into the fields to get it. The fruit hangs upon the tree, but they will not pluck it. The water flows at their feet, but they will not stoop to drink it. From such folly deliver us, O Lord, and be this our resolve this morning.

Defining Meditation: Initial Suggestions

21:17 I will meditate on thy precepts. Thus far the reading from this dispersion. All right? Having established then the duty, some of the broad biblical basis for it, now then let's throw out for discussion these questions and we'll go as far as we have time this morning.

21:34 The question, question number one, how would you define meditation? If some of you have been working on a definition of meditation, if so, share your findings. None of this is copyrighted and we never tell who said it. So don't be embarrassed.

21:50 If you've come up with a definition of meditation, then share it with us now. All right?

21:56 Anyone got a definition of meditation? Or at least part of the definition?

22:04 Yes, go. Well, it's a finely, probably a finely, I think, about 70, 80 percent. All right? I'm listening.

22:31 Go ahead and read it. My soul faints for thy salvation and I hope in thy word. All right? So you're saying then we could define meditation as the process by which in our minds and spirits we make application of the general truth of the word to our own particular problem or need.

22:55 All right? Someone else got a definition. Yes, Jim? I would say this is your application of the word.

23:10 All right? So you're saying meditation involves, first of all, concentrated thought about the passage, then secondly, prayerful assimilation of the passage, and then obedient expression of it in the life. Okay? Let's just put these things kind of over here and then maybe we can sort of mix them all together and have a synthesis of these things.

23:34 There is concentrated thought.

23:38 There is prayerful application. And then there is practical implementation.

23:49 Now, if we could just get another P up here, we'd have a good alliterated little outline.

23:54 Well, it's got to be, you see, it's got to match with these. Prayerful application, practical implementation, and this would be what?

24:04 Receptive, receptive concentration. All right? All right.

24:12 Now you know a little bit of the secret of what goes on when I sit at my desk working on a sermon. All right. There we go. All right.

24:18 Someone else, you want to suggest a definition or part of one. That may be the reluctance some of you have. You just feel, man, I just can't hold all the lines together. Well, take a stab at it anyway.

Essential Elements of Meditation's Definition

24:28 All right?

24:33 All right. Let me put the question this way. In any definition of meditation, what thoughts must be present? All right?

24:42 That way you don't have to give the whole definition. You can just give some of the things and we'll put them together. Yes? So, righteous thoughts are most important.

24:48 We don't want to intervene in our fellowship with God that would be sinful. I'm taking from David's Psalm 51. Create a pure heart in me, O God, and give me a new and steadfast spirit. Do not drive me from thy presence or take thy Holy Spirit from me.

25:03 Revive me in the joy of thy deliverance and bring me a willing spirit to uphold me. A willing spirit which is so important. All right. So, in meditation, then, there must be something of the, what we would call the substance of our thoughts.

25:19 They must have to do with the things of God in our relationship to Him. All right? So, it must say something about the substance of our thoughts in terms of this biblical duty of meditation. All right?

25:31 What else must be included? I think we can take from what Grover said. There must be the basis from which all our thoughts are derived is the Word of God. As someone has said, nothing is more dangerous than meditation without the Word of God before your eyeballs.

25:49 When you allow the human mind to start thinking and running off in a hundred directions without being governed by the Word of God, then you're guilty of what the Bible calls vain thoughts. So, the basis, then, must be the Word of God written or, as we shall see if we're dealing with a more general thought of meditation, with the works of God manifested. When I consider what? The heavens.

26:13 When I consider the heavens,

26:17 the works of thy hands. Here was meditation upon God's revelation in what we would call the natural world. He wasn't just seeing stars and moons in the vastness of the heavens. He was considering them in relationship to himself and the one who put them all into being.

26:35 And so, finally, he shrunk to the place when he says, what in the world is man that such a God who could make all of this is mindful of him? Well, there's an illustration, you see, of what we would call the more general exercise of meditation. But we are thinking more particularly and exclusively of meditation upon the Word of God written. Though this other, if we were giving an exhaustive treatment of meditation, it would have to include that, but we're not.

26:58 Yes, Rob?

27:01 Yeah, the substance of our meditation must be holy thoughts.

27:11 The meditation we're talking about is not sitting down and quietly trying to figure out how in the world we can pay $300 worth of bills on a $200 balance in the checking account. I mean, that may take some real serious thought, reflection, what could be called meditation, but that's not what we're talking about here. Okay? What else must be included?

27:28 Rosella? When I think of meditation, I think of illumination or a path to a new cut. I think of it in the sense that we can't just read over the passage, but later on during the day maybe to bring it back out of our memory and think about it and go over it and over it. All right, so we call that conscious recall.

27:50 Is that what you're saying? Mm-hmm. Now, a cow, she goes by instinct. When she gets under a tree and then...

27:57 She's not consciously doing that. I mean, she's just being a cow. But we must...

28:03 We are not cows. We are not cows. We are not cows. We are not cows.

28:05 We are not spiritual or physical. And therefore, there must be the conscious recall. I will meditate upon my words. I anticipated the night watches that I might meditate upon night.

28:17 What the cow does instinctively in the realm of the physical, we have got to do volitionally in the realm of the spiritual. Your cut just won't be coughed up. I mean, the second stomach won't just give it up. Or the first stomach won't just give it up to here.

28:33 You've got to make it come up. We work in reverse. Because of the tendency of human sin and the remaining corruption in us, there is a constant tendency to try to just either push it completely out of the system or down into the second stomach and hope that somehow all the work will go on automatically and magically without any conscious effort on our part. But it just doesn't work that way.

28:54 All right? What else must be included? Yes, Doc? Well, in light of maybe dealing with that so that the spirit can come up.

29:16 All right. So, you would say not involved in the basic definition of meditation, but in what we would call the prerequisites to meditation, maybe committing the thing to memory. If it isn't in the first stomach of memory, you can't cough it up to chew on it. I mean, the cow can only chew what's already been put in there.

29:34 She hadn't done her grazing. She can't do her chewing of her cut under the tree. I hope none of you is so sensitive that you find this extended analogy bothering your breakfast. I think it's a very good one.

29:46 We learn from the book of nature wonderful lessons in the realm of grace. Yes, honey?

30:05 Yes. And I did a word study on that word and it just so fascinated me and almost baffled me that I didn't even use that passage. After you mentioned it at, when was it? We were having, yesterday or Friday when we were discussing this together.

30:19 I, where's my other little sheet? My little, yeah, here it is. I did some word studies and that word, Mary pondered these things in her heart is an interesting word. She literally cast them together in her heart and it's the word used for conferring with reference to a group.

30:37 In Acts chapter 4 and verse 15 you have it. So with reference to herself it's the picture that Mary is counseling together within her own heart with these thoughts. All right? Anything else that should be included here?

30:51 Yes, girl? Word of God.

31:09 All right, so this would become what we call one of the, as Bob suggested, one of the prerequisites to meditation may be memorization. One of the constant attendants must be the awareness of the presence of God. It's not the meditation itself, but it is an inseparable concomitant and inseparable ingredient of true biblical meditation. I'm trying to apply God's word to our problems even, but we're applying God's word.

31:44 All right. We're trying to look at them as we've sung in the hymn. Yes. So again, lest we get any dichotomy between God and the word, we can say we're having dealings with God through His word and we're having dealings with the word unto or in the context of our dealings with God.

32:03 Those two things and you find them in the 119th Psalm again and again. With my whole heart have I sought thee, oh let me not wander from thy precepts. Dealings with God, dealings with His word and the two are inseparable, you see. And if we merely have the word detached from God, we're back in the realm of a lifeless scholasticism and intellectualism.

32:24 If we try to have God without parallel dealings with His word, we have fanaticism and mysticism. Put the two together, we have biblical Christianity. It's good just to be reminded of that. Yes, Jerry?

32:35 In this,

34:18 from the scriptures that all that these circles represent events and circumstances in our lives. We know that they are all ordered by a loving, wise God who has distinct purposes for us, namely to conform us to the image of His Son. Likewise, His truth all has a wonderful interrelatedness with God. But now, as we're actually living amidst our experiences and circumstances, many times, these things seem to be utterly fragmented and isolated.

34:53 There seems to be no rhyme or reason to them. There seems to be no symmetry to them. There's this thing here, this thing here. And likewise, God's truths many times hang, as it were, as isolated snippets of God's mind.

35:05 And I believe what you're saying is that meditation is that discipline which enables us to see that there is a pattern, a pattern of meaning to all of these things and that there is a fusion and an interrelatedness of the truth of God as far as our understanding of it. Is this the direction that you were suggesting? Yeah. All right.

Is Meditation Exclusively Christian?

35:29 Now, I think we've got our minds going in this whole matter of meditation. I'm going to hold off giving you two formal definitions that I have found. I've been like a bee jumping from book to book. And that's why my statue is a little heavy this morning because I've got three volumes of man in here.

35:44 Not to read all three, but I found some wonderful little phrases and sentences here and there on the subject of meditation. And also, and may I commend this to you, one of the new volumes from the Banner of Truth, Bridges, exposition Psalm 119. I'm working through this in my own devotional exercises now, finding it most helpful. But before we come up with a formal definition of meditation, and Jerry's suggestion has provoked the next question.

36:09 He asked the first question, what is meditation? We've had a good bit of feedback, so we've got a lot of things held here in suspension. We haven't brought them together yet. We haven't put in the thing that's going to make it all crystallized.

36:22 Let's hold off on that. And I want to ask the second question. Is then meditation exclusively a Christian activity? And we've already, I think, had the answer anticipated, but I want us to explore that for a little bit.

36:34 Is meditation exclusively a Christian activity?

36:41 Yes or no? And then be prepared to defend and illustrate your answer. Yes, Paul?

37:08 Yeah. But it's concentrated use of the mind with distinctively religious purposes in view, right? Okay. All right, someone else.

37:19 Yes. All right.

37:32 Yes. That chirp and that mutter. And I think the word mutter there, if I'm not mistaken, is that same Hebrew word. They chirp and they mutter.

37:41 They mumble.

37:45 All right, what about the person who plots a murder? How does he plot his murder? He's got a grudge against someone. And what happens?

37:57 He allows that first seed of anger to do what? To stew and to brew as he focuses his mind upon it until that thing does what? It seizes his affection until there is boiling within his breast a cauldron of murderous hate. And then what does he do?

38:16 Then he begins to use all of his ingenuity to plot the perfect murder. Isn't that a form of meditation? Concentrated, focused, mental activity with a distinct end in view? Yes, Bob?

38:27 No. All right, in other words then, I think we all would be agreed that whatever disciplines of the mind and of the spirit, and you notice I keep using those two because I don't want us to make any kind of a bifurcation, any kind of a hard, fast separation between the activity of the mind, the rational faculties, and the involvement of our affections, our will, our emotions, the human spirit. And I'm not using these terms in a technical, clinical sense. I'm using them in this broad way. Now I lost my train of thought by explaining one of my words. That's gone.

39:26 Right out the window. But anyway, I think we're all agreed that the meditation then in this general sense, yes, that's what I was saying, in this general sense is not a phenomena peculiar to a Christian. It is a human activity which the grace of God and the spirit of God lay hold of and make subject to the purposes of God. Now that's true of so many things.

39:51 You breathe before you were a Christian. You breathe after you're a Christian. Breathing is a purely physical phenomena of human beings and also of dogs and cats and mice and cows chewing their cud under a tree. But now, the grace of God lays hold of a man so that now he breathes with a different end in view.

40:13 Whether he eats or drinks or breathes, the God who has given him breath in all things, he now acknowledges as the giver and he receives his breath that he might in loving service to God show something of his appreciation for God's mercy and grace to him in Jesus Christ. So that meditation is a human phenomena that people engage in to one degree or another and therefore we must not look upon it as some kind of an exclusive advanced activity known only by a little inner circle of a few very, very advanced saints. And that's why I was making this point. Because it is a human phenomena, it is something that all of us at one time or another have engaged in and do to some degree engage in even now.

40:57 And Manchin has an excellent section in Volume 6. I have the reference here but I won't take time to read it this morning because our time is almost gone already. In which he shows that covetousness and murder and lechery and all of these things are viewed in Scripture and he gives specific texts as the outgrowth of sinful meditation. Alright?

Formal Definitions of Meditation

41:19 Let us then try to come up with a workable definition of meditation and let me give you two that I have found helpful. The first one is a bit of altered Manchin. Altered by yours truly. The basic structure is from Manchin.

41:34 I've just changed a few words and added some. This is the definition Manchin gives with a little alteration. Quote, Meditation is that duty or exercise of religion whereby the mind is applied to the solemn contemplation of revealed realities. That's my phrase.

41:56 Of revealed realities. What are we contemplating? Revealed realities for practical uses and purposes. So the end of meditation is intensely practical.

42:12 It is that my life, my conduct, my thought may be conformed to the word of God. The subject of meditation is very much very explicit revealed realities. What is found in the word of God and then the actual duty or the actual engagement is primarily an exercise of the mind applying itself to those realities. Now I don't know if that helps you.

42:44 I found that definition with a little alteration helpful. Then there is another definition that I came across. Quote, Meditation is that exercise of the mind whereby it recalls a known truth as some kinds of creatures do their food there's the cow again under the tree we can't escape her this morning to be ruminated upon until the nutritious parts are abstracted and fitted for the purposes of life. That's what we might call a pictorial definition as opposed to a logical analytical one.

43:20 It takes the figure of the cow. Meditation is that exercise of the mind whereby it recalls a known truth you see you come back again to reveal truth as some kinds of creatures do their food to be ruminated upon until the nutritious parts are abstracted and fitted for the purposes of life. Now I'll give you Bridges' definition in a footnote that he has on page 32 of his exposition and it is this.

43:53 If a chapter be read I'm sorry oh that's the one that's the one I wrote down Bishop Horne on this verse and I was just giving the quote for my own use to know where it was. That was then Bishop Horne the second definition but then there was this wonderful little PS that was under that footnote. If a chapter be read with the eye merely while the mind remains inattentive and the book be shut as soon as the chapter is finished and thus what has been read immediately escape the memory what is there to surprise if after the whole Bible has been several times read through we discover in ourselves no increase of piety or devotion. And that's from Professor Frank the leader of the Moravian School in Germany a long while ago.

44:38 So then I think from these two definitions we should all be able to have something of a working definition of what meditation is. The exercise of religion in which the mind is applied to the solemn contemplation of revealed realities for practical use is in purposes and this brings in the elements that Grove mentioned in his attempt to the definition it brings in these other elements that different ones of you have suggested. Now do you find that does that just sound like a mass of words or is that something you feel you can take hold of? Yes, Ralph?

45:14 You want to write it down? Okay, alright. I will give it. Phrase by phrase.

45:17 I will write it up here. You wouldn't be able to decipher. These fellows would think they were having a second Greek class.

45:25 Meditation is that duty that is the duty or exercise of religion.

45:38 Meditation is that duty or exercise of religion whereby the mind is applied whereby the mind is applied to the solemn contemplation contemplation whereby the mind is applied to the solemn contemplation of revealed realities for practical uses and purposes whereby the mind is applied to the solemn realities of revealed solemn contemplation of revealed realities for practical uses and purposes. We're not doing it to have some kind of a transcendental high and say, whoo, I was meditating last week and I really felt it. No, no. I was meditating and God showed me some new dimension of duty. God

46:37 showed me the clenching of my own spirit. God revealed to me some new dimension of the glory of Christ that has stirred me on to love Him and serve Him more faithfully. Alright, have you all got that? Who were any of you who were copying? Alright.

The Peculiar Function of Meditation

46:54 Now let me ask the question and I have time just to strike into this vein of thought. What is the peculiar function of meditation? We've seen what meditation is, but now let's analyze it. What does it actually do when we exercise the mind in the solemn contemplation of revealed realities?

47:15 What actually happens between the meditating Christian and the truth that is the object of that meditation? What are some of the things that are going on in his mind and heart while he is meditating? The instrument by which the truth is fused. I use that term. It is fused. When you fuse something, you take two things that were two and you make them one. They are now fused and meditation is the divine means by which the objective truth is fused to the person. I'm not going to say the mind or the heart or the spirit. I'm going to say to the person.

48:08 Because God's truth comes to the whole person. Alright? What is another of the functions of meditation? What actually happens?

48:17 What?

48:19 How does it do that? Alright? Meditation and functions to give us an increased sense of dependence upon God. Alright? What are some of its other specific functions?

48:45 I'm asking the question. You're giving the answer. And the objective truth,

48:56 if it has benefit to us, it must control us. This is the divine method by which then, if we use this analogy, the reins and the bridle that are here in the word of God are actually then put upon our neck and in our mouths. If we use that analogy. Here are the precepts that ought to be the rein, the bridle, the bit to the people of God and in meditation, we actually get the bit in there and the reins are felt upon the neck. Alright? What else?

49:30 Yes, Bob, and then we'll come down to again.

49:49 This is a tremendous facet of meditation and we hope to get into that. The relationship between prayer and meditation. And again, it's interesting that the same Hebrew word is translated almost interchangeably in many of the Psalms. The word for prayer and the word for meditation.

50:04 Give ear to my words, O Lord. Consider my what? My meditation. David calls his words of prayer his meditation.

50:12 The two are so fused together. So this is another aspect that we'll want to enlarge on and draw out. Yes, Ken? I think that it enables us to enjoy God. We say with the context of catechism that man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. I remember when I first heard that, I said, well, I know we're supposed to glorify God, but I didn't understand about that enjoying. And I think this is one way that we enjoy God. Alright. Meditation becomes the context within which the enjoyment of God is experienced. Now, let me close the session because we want to give the two minutes to Mr. Dixon on another item. By just going back to that old stand by the Westminster standards and it's interesting, questions 147 and 48, I'm sorry, 140, 56 and 57 are so apropos to what we've been studying. Question

Westminster Standards on Reading and Meditation

51:06 156 of the larger catechism. Is the word of God to be read by all? The answer, although all are not to be permitted to read the word publicly to the congregation, yet all sorts of people are bound to read it apart by themselves and with their families to which end the Holy Scriptures are to be translated out of the original into the common languages. Question 157.

51:31 How is the word of God to be read? Having established the duty as we've done, they ask the next question, how do you go about it? And here's the answer. The Holy Scriptures are to be read with a high and reverent esteem of them with a firm persuasion that they are the very word of God and that He only can enable us to understand reading in a spirit of dependence and with desire to know, believe and obey the will of God revealed in them. Reading with an open mind characterized by faith and obedience, with diligence and attention to the matter and scope of them. Catching the thread of thought, you see. With meditation, application, self-denial and by self-denial they meant here not trusting in ourselves. Whatever duties they lay before us, whatever perspectives they open to us, we are not to think we can attain them of ourselves and with prayer.

52:31 Isn't that a beautiful and simple statement of how the word should be read? And it's so because again, the men who framed this were primarily pastors. They were pastor dash theologian and confessional fathers. Not abstract theologians just writing discourses on the nature of the word of God.

52:51 Well, our time is gone.