This sermon, an informal discussion from an adult Sunday school class, defines biblical meditation by contrasting it with Eastern religious practices and emphasizing its objective focus on God's Word and its subjective application to the believer's life. Pastor Martin expounds on Psalm 1:2, highlighting that true meditation involves prayerful reflection on Scripture with a view to personal application, engaging the whole inner man. He provides practical guidelines for both formal and informal meditation, stressing the need to make time, establish structure, depend on the Holy Spirit, and possess a determination to obey, ultimately aiming to cultivate a life where God's law is constantly considered.
Primary Texts
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Psalm 1:2This verse is the primary text defining biblical meditation, emphasizing the blessed man's delight in and constant reflection upon God's law.
Defining Biblical Meditation: Objective and Subjective Foci2:04
The Active Nature of Meditation7:30
Consistency and the Twofold Nature of Meditation10:15
The Scope of Meditation's Focus13:45
Meditation's Role in Overcoming Anxiety and Guidance16:11
The Interplay of Mind and Heart in Meditation19:40
Practical Guidelines: Making Time24:39
Practical Guidelines: Establishing Structure30:40
Practical Guidelines: Dependence on the Holy Spirit and Obedience34:29
Practical Guidelines: Ungrieved Spirit and Avoiding False Guilt37:43
Practical Guidelines: Recording Reflections and the Constant Battle43:21
Key Quotes
“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.”
“So the two foci in meditation are the objective focus is God's written revelation, the subjective or reflexive focus is my own total redeemed humanity, my thinking, my walking, my acting, my speaking.”
“Nobody can do your meditating for you.”
“though the primary activity is one of the mind, we do not believe in the activity of the mind, biblically described as ever something that is detached from the activity of the heart.”
“It's never just a nice little polite something that tangentially touches me in a few departments of my humanity to make me a whole person. It either has all of me or it has nothing.”
“Because the person who never engages in formal meditation makes little progress in the informal habit of meditation.”
“This book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book.”
“the discipline of meditation, both formal and informal, both the stated times and developing the habit of meditation, is not a constant battle.”
Applications
All listeners
Members should seek to understand what biblical meditation is and how to engage in it effectively.
Recognize that meditation involves focusing on God's Word and reflecting on how it applies to your own thinking, actions, and life.
Understand that meditation is a conscious, deliberate, and personal activity that cannot be done by someone else.
Engage in meditation consistently as part of the overall pattern of your life, not just occasionally.
Cultivate both formal, structured times of meditation and an informal habit of reflecting on God's Word throughout the day.
Allow your meditation to focus on God, yourself, others, or circumstances as the Word of God directs.
Use meditation to combat anxiety by focusing on God's sovereignty and control over the future.
Engage in prospective meditation (looking ahead) for guidance and retrospective meditation (looking back) for self-examination, repentance, and praise.
Seek to have your hearts stirred by God's character and love as you meditate, not just to understand intellectually.
Make intentional time for formal meditation, choosing a time that is most conducive to focus and least likely to be interrupted.
Develop a structure for your formal meditation times, deciding beforehand what passage or aspect of God's Word you will focus on.
Depend on the Holy Spirit to illuminate your understanding of Scripture and to provide accurate self-assessment during meditation.
Be determined to immediately implement the demands of your meditation, whether it involves praise, confession, or altering your behavior.
Ensure you come to meditation with an ungrieved Holy Spirit, recognizing that sin can hinder your ability to engage with God's Word.
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.
Consider making a record of your reflections from meditation and periodically reviewing them.
Remember that the light gained from understanding meditation brings a stewardship; be doers of the Word, not hearers only.
Confess neglect of meditation and ask God to cleanse you and teach you to meditate upon His law day and night, cultivating both formal and informal habits.
A full transcript is available on the
tab. 124 paragraphs, roughly 48 minutes.
Machine transcription
Introduction and Question Presentation
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 whether or not that was fair to give him that kind of advantage. Then I say, ought not an enterprising spirit to be rewarded? So I'm...
Like Tevye, on the one hand, but on the other hand, and... And I think the latter has prevailed, because I do believe the question is one that will be unto general edification.
Just a word about how we'll handle it. I'm not the answer man. I try to be the catalyst, and you become the answer people. And we'll raise the question, give its connection, at least as far as I can discern, to the recent ministry that...
Pastor Bob Martin had in our midst, and then hopefully we'll be on our way. The question is, what is biblical meditation? Could you give us some practical guidelines and directives to help us use our times of meditation most effectively? No, I am not going to give you, but I hope there will be forthcoming from the congregation some practical guidelines and directives to help us use our times...
Defining Biblical Meditation: Objective and Subjective Foci
times of meditation most effectively. So, really, we have two questions. What is biblical meditation? What is the thing itself?
And then, secondly, some practical guidelines as to how better to engage in it. And I would be very surprised if this question did not arise from the expositions of Psalm 1 that Pastor Bob Martin gave to us several weeks ago. You'll remember, in opening up that Psalm, you'll remember, in opening up that Psalm, you'll remember, in opening up that Psalm, I pointed out that the man who is blessed of God is described, first of all, negatively. He does not walk in the counsel or advice of the wicked.
He does not stand in the way of sinners, nor does he sit in the seat of scoffers. That's the negative description of the blessed man or woman. But then there is the positive description. But, his delight is in the law of Jehovah, that is, God's revealed mind and will as found in the Scriptures.
And on his law doth he meditate day and night. Now, if the positive description of the righteous man or woman is that he meditates, she meditates on the law of God day and night, then we ought to have some idea of what meditation is, and how we can best engage in it. Now, will someone like to throw out a response to the question, what is biblical meditation? What do you conceive biblical meditation to be?
What do you believe the Bible means when it speaks of meditation upon the law of God day and night? All right. Biblical meditation, what is it? Any aspect of it now.
All right. All right. Henry? All right.
That sounds very nice. Now you want to unpack that for us. Prayerful reflection with a view to practical application, which means, in your words, good.
Now, what then are the two fundamental ingredients of meditation according to that navigator definition, which, by the way, is a good one, and your explanation of it? What is always to be the objective basis or focus? What is always the focus of the act of meditation? Henry?
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.
You see, the emphasis falls very clearly upon the objective focus of the act of meditation, and it is always God's written revelation of himself, of his mind, of his spirit, of his mind. Of his mind, of his will, of his salvation, of his ways. All right? And then the second factor that was inherent in your definition and description is what, Henry?
It's part of meditation. Give us that definition again. All right. And application, then, turns the arrow where?
Okay. Back upon myself, what is here in the objective focus that says something to me about the way I think about myself? Think, act, live, react. So the two foci in meditation are the objective focus is God's written revelation, the subjective or reflexive focus is my own total redeemed humanity, my thinking, my walking, my acting, my speaking.
All right? You see that? All right. Now, is someone else going to add?
The Active Nature of Meditation
What were you going to say, Jonathan? Or has it all been said? What is meditation? All right?
Yes, David? All right. So that in the actual activity of meditation, can it be done while your mental faculties are in neutral? No.
All right. So the mental faculties, your noose, your noggin, your brain, all right, any term you want to use, from the colloquial noggin to your noose to sound academic, you've got to use this. So there has to be a conscious, deliberate, disciplined, you can use any other kind of word that fits in there, activity of this. Nobody can do your meditating for you.
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.
What do you think of immediately? A woman that had so many things to do, she couldn't get her mind attached. Remember? Martha, Martha, thou art troubled and anxious about many things.
Your mind is off. Your mind is off on all of these things, but Mary has chosen the one thing needful. All right. Anything else to go into a basic definition or description of meditation?
Yes. Yes. All right. So that would be one of the fruits of meditation, to bring the word of God into contact with my life, and then to be so under its power by the grace of God that then the fruit of that will be seen in the pattern of my life.
Consistency and the Twofold Nature of Meditation
All right. That would be one of the fruits of meditation. Yes. Pastor Bob?
All right. It's to be something consistent. So meditation, according to Psalm 1, if it's to be profitable, must not be something that we engage in from time to time, but it must be part and parcel of the overall pattern of life. Now, if that's so, then what does that tell us about meditation as described in Psalm 1?
It tells us that there are times when we ought to be sitting quietly before our Bibles with no one but ourselves and God and our Bibles in the act of meditation. Would you all agree that that is a Christian responsibility? All right. Now, what would you call that kind of meditation?
Could we call it formal or structured meditation? All right. You may have a term that you think is better, but that one comes to mind. I won't quibble over terms.
Then the other would be the informal or the habit of meditation. That is that throughout the day as I live out my life in any given set of circumstances, I am seeking to reflect upon what the Word of God says about me in my present set of circumstances. What does the Word of God demand of me? What does the Word of God promise with respect to my circumstances?
I'm in a situation where I'm asked a question as a parent and I feel so utterly bereft of the needed wisdom. My mind reflects upon the promise. Any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God and in a brief act of meditation, I say, well, Lord, that applies to me here. And then from meditation, my heart flows into a general state.
And then I'm in a state of meditation. My heart flows into ejaculatory prayer. And I say, Lord, give wisdom. And then I find myself responding.
So you see how these activities of the soul interpenetrate one another. You can't just pick up a strand called meditation and just separate it. It's woven into all of these others. So you pointed out that there is both the formal structured act of meditation as well as the informal or habit of meditation.
And it would appear, according to Psalm 1, that the psalmist recognizes the inclusion of both of these kinds of meditation. And especially when you read Psalm 119, you come to the conviction in looking at some of the passages that that distinction does indeed exist in the experience of the believer. All right. Anything else we need to say now about the basic idea of what meditation is?
The Scope of Meditation's Focus
All right, Steve? Yeah. And I think that was implicit in what was said before. But it's good to, again, separate this. If the objective focus is the Word of God, some things in the Word of God speak directly to us. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. Meditation would involve, what is corrupt communication?
What kinds of corrupt communication am I prone to indulge in? Stretching the truth? Backbiting? Double innuendo?
I meditate. How does that apply to me, you see? On the other hand, I might be reading in a passage where some attribute of God is in focus. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised.
And I'm meditating upon God's greatness while the very content of that particular passage does not reflect back upon me, but points me upward to God. So that whatever is the focus of that part of the Word of God upon which I am meditating, my mind should run out in a manner commensurate with that particular focus. So sometimes meditation will find my mind and spirit terminating upon God, sometimes upon myself, sometimes upon others, sometimes upon the world, sometimes upon circumstances. It's as wide as everything that is touched upon in the Word of God.
Good. All right. Any other? Gary.
Fine. Go ahead. Okay. Okay.
Meditation's Role in Overcoming Anxiety and Guidance
So effective meditation, then, is very, very vital for this often distressing subject that troubles believers called what? Anxiety. Yes. Ridding myself of anxieties, I meditate on the fact that God is in the future.
He controls the future. He orders all events and circumstances. I wasn't thinking of that, but that's certainly true. I was thinking of the matter of guidance, that we're storing up the principles of the Word of God.
As they infringe upon our lives, that our steps that are yet before us might be ordered. Order my footsteps according to my precepts. So that with respect to guidance, quieting our hearts over anxiety, there is prospective meditation, looking ahead, and then there is retrospective, and that often has to do with what other disciplines of the Christian life and exercises. So.
Self-examination. Penitence. I thought upon my ways. You do that very long, and you'll find yourself doing what?
Confessing your ways to God. So often meditation that is in retrospect is a matter of leading to humiliation, to repentance, to confession of sin, and to failure. But not always. Sometimes.
If we're tracing out the ways of God. If we're tracing out the ways of God, it will lead to praise. Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. And we look back, and we see all of the ways that God's providence has wonderfully hedged us up.
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-thirds of the way, three-quarters of the way across the country to get away from all of that.
And lo and behold, where the individual ended up, there were some more Christians who began to talk the same kind of stuff that the people she ran away from were doing. And then when he or she ran from that set of circumstances, God had some more. Until finally this individual got the message, and by the grace of God, capitulated. And God just tracked this individual down.
Well, you see, meditation retrospectively can often then lead to praise. And that, of course, is Flavel's whole thesis, the duty for a Christian to meditate upon providence in his treatise, The Mystery of Providence, to look back and see how God has wonderfully guided us. All right, any other dimensions that need to go in to fill out our answer to the question, what is meditation? All right, Jonathan?
The Interplay of Mind and Heart in Meditation
Well, you've anticipated the next question,
practical guidelines as to how to use, how to use our times of meditation most effectively. That comes into the next category. So let's tuck that away as a good warning. But now with regard to what meditation itself is.
Anyone else have anything significant to add to this? All right, Norman? All right, perhaps we should say then that though the primary activity is one of the mind, we do not believe in the activity of the mind, biblically described as ever something that is detached from the activity of the heart. Right.
So we seek to bring the whole inner man into contact with the word of God. So if it speaks of an aspect of God's character, we are not content simply to reflect upon that as a mental concept. We seek to have our hearts stirred. If it's God's absolute sovereignty and his exaltedness and his holy otherness, then we're not content until we feel something of awe and holy dread upon our spirits.
If it's a passage in which the infinite condescension and love and pity of the Lord are demonstrated, we're not content simply to understand that. We want to have a felt appreciation for the Lord's compassion and pity to us. And in meditation, we're not content simply to bring the mind into contact with the word of God, but we want the whole soul, the whole inner life to feel its impress. And I trust as believers, we are never afraid of the word feel as long as we're in contact with this.
Be scared to death of it once it gets out of touch with this. But be scared to death of any religion that says you can have real touch with this and have no feelings.
You see, one is a sterile, cold, barren kind of religion. I won't even call it orthodoxy because orthodoxy, according to the rule, which is what orthodox means, is religion that has the whole man. It has his head, it has his heart, it has his hands, it has his feet, it has his whole being. Not a part of him.
It's never just a nice little polite something that tangentially touches me in a few departments of my humanity to make me a whole person. It either has all of me or it has nothing. And what am I and what are you without your emotions? So an emotionless, feelingless religion is not the religion of the Bible.
Not at all. But neither is a feeling. Neither is a feeling. In religion, detached from truth, the religion of the Bible.
Because the devil plays havoc on our feelings and so does the flesh. All right, anything else now on what meditation is? Because we do want to get the second question. Yes, Louise?
All right, so that will be one of the fruits of meditation. All right, but anything more now on meditation itself?
Yes, Phil?
Practical Guidelines: Making Time
All right, so now we're getting into the mechanics of meditation. All right, how we actually do it. All right, anything more on what the thing itself is?
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.
We think you'd be able to do it once you got over the fright and got unthawed and got all your joints together. All right, I think that navigator definition is one worth memorizing. You want to give it to us again, Henry?
A prayerful reflection upon God's word with a view to personal application. I think that's a fairly good practical, workable definition. Would you feel comfortable with that, Pastor Bob? You do?
All right, good. And Pastor Dixon?
Anyone else? Okay, well then let's move on because we've only got about 18 minutes left. Our time is up. It's gone very quickly.
And let's try to take up now the question, what are some practical suggestions as to how we can more profitably use our times of meditation? Now that question obviously is focusing not upon our habit or informal or the constant meditation, but it obviously is referring to the more formal, structured times. The more formal times of meditation, okay? Now let's first of all then address the question, how can we most profitably benefit?
How can we most benefit from our formal times of meditation? Well, let's take the steps. First thing we have to do is what? I mean, don't look for anything profound.
Let's try to come up with a little five steps to effective formal meditation. First one is, Jonathan, find the time. Find the time? All right.
I'm picking on you, Jonathan, because we all know what you meant, but you just were, you left yourself wide open. Dropped your left and left yourself wide open for a right to the jaw. All right? There's no piece of time floating around back and forth in front of us saying, when you choose, take me for meditation.
No such thing. You must make time. And Jonathan has suggested, we must make time that is most conducive to meditation. That is most conducive to meditation.
That is a time when you are least likely to have your mind distracted by other things, least likely to be interrupted. Make time that is conducive to the activity of meditation. Now, do you see the error of the people who make the rules saying that if you're to meditate, you must get up at 5 in the morning, you must get up at 4.30, you must get up at 6, you must do it such and such?
You find in Scripture that meditation was engaged in by different people at different times. You remember when Isaac had his bride brought to him, he was out in the field in the evening meditating. That's what the Scripture tells us. And David speaks of meditating upon the law of God at various times throughout the day.
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 industrious woman of Proverbs 31, she found that her best times of meditation and intercession were late at night when all of us were in bed, and this was before you had the 65-35 cotton polyester and easy care and everything had to be ironed if it was to be wearable, except your underwear, that doing her ironing when all of us were to sleep were her most profitable times of meditation. Then she could fasten her mind upon the word of God without a half a dozen kids crying, Ma this, Ma that, Ma the other thing. Well, you must make the time most conducive to meditation.
And for each one of us, in terms of all of the variables of our circumstances, it may be a completely different time. And no one can tell you what the best time for you is. But if you say you have no time, then you better start adjusting some priorities in your life. Because the person who never engages in formal meditation makes little progress in the informal habit of meditation.
All right? So make time. What's the next thing?
Practical Guidelines: Establishing Structure
All right, Charles? All right, so having made the time, then suppose you're going to have 20 minutes for meditation, from 7 to 7.20, and then your wife's going to serve your breakfast at 7.20.
What you're telling us is, as you come to that time, you ought to have a structure,
a previously worked out structure for your meditation. What is going to be the part of the objective revelation of God that you're going to meditate upon? Are you going to read a psalm a day? Are you going to read through half of one of the chapters in Proverbs?
Don't simply come. And say, well, it's meditation time. Lord, guide me to a passage and turn it up. That is not the way to make progress in the holy art of meditation.
So have a structure to that time. Charles has suggested, perhaps you may want to, on Monday, look back over the weekend. Spend the first half of your time reflecting back upon all that God said in the public ministries of the Word. We have some in our conference.
We have some in the congregation who, for years, have taken their notes from the ministries of the Lord's day and made them the focus of their meditation as part of their devotional exercises. So that, in a sense, the feast was set before them and they were able to get a few bites out of each meal three times on the Lord's day. Now they've gone back to the refrigerator and taken, as it were, the leftovers and warmed them up until the plate was clean. And it's amazing how such people have profited.
From the preaching of the Word. Because it has gone deeper than merely the ear gift. By meditation it's been assimilated into the spiritual bloodstream. And into the spiritual bone and nerve and muscle and the whole tissue, as it were, of the inner life.
So have a structure to your time of meditation. Precisely where am I going to look in the Word of God? Have some pattern for that. With respect to, perhaps, Monday morning I'll look back upon the ministries of the Lord's day.
Perhaps Tuesday, if I'm going to have a retrospective aspect, I'm going to look back upon God's dealings with me over the past segment of my life. If I'm going to have a prospective element. And here again, we can't dictate to one another. And that's why you will not find us handing out booklets saying ten easy steps to successful devotional 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.
And, I mean, he just had him a real holy hoedown. I mean, all the bells were ringing and everything was glorious as he meditated upon God's goodness. There are other times he came in sackcloth and ashes and mourning clothes. And the flutes that pipe nothing but a funeral dirge.
There was heaviness upon his spirit. And in such times our meditations will be colored by the state of our hearts at any given point. All right? Another thing that's vital.
Practical Guidelines: Dependence on the Holy Spirit and Obedience
Yes, Dan? He used to be a dependent on the Holy Spirit. Okay, so dependence on the Holy Spirit to aid us in our meditation. He is the one who alone can truly illuminate our lives.
To enlighten our minds, to understand the Scriptures. And also, he is the spirit of accurate self-assessment. It's amazing how five minutes under the influence of the Holy Spirit through the Word can teach you more about yourself than five years. Five years of self-justification and playing head games with yourself.
Isn't that true? It's not pleasant, but it's necessary. Oh God, and know my heart. See if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.
And so we cry to God for the Holy Spirit to bless our exercise of meditation. All right? Something else that ought to go in. Yes, Ray?
All right, a willingness to obey. Could we express it a little stronger? A determination to implement. Immediately, the demands of our meditation.
If our meditation demands that we praise God for something that we've been unwilling to praise Him, we need to stop right there and begin to do it. If our meditation leads to self-discovery that demands confession and repentance, there ought to be a determination to implement this immediately. Psalm 119, verses 59 and 60, are very vital at this point. A passage I preached on some months ago.
Some of you, at least one or two, hopefully, will remember. Psalm 119, verse 59. I thought on my ways. You see, part of his meditation was reflecting upon his life in the light of the Word of God.
And turned my feet unto your testimonies. I made haste and delayed not to observe thy commandments. So when the meditation upon the objective commands of God showed a discrepancy between David's walk and God's will, he said, I didn't fool around playing head games on myself, saying, well, I'm the exception and that doesn't apply, and if, but, and however, and whereas, and all the rest. He said, I made haste and I delayed not.
All right? Something else. Someone else had his hand raised. Oh, yes, John.
Practical Guidelines: Ungrieved Spirit and Avoiding False Guilt
All right. Well, that, very good. All right? So we make the time.
We have a structure. And I was assuming that that's what was inherent in there. That we're going to come to the Word of God, but we know where we're going to come. We just don't flip it up.
So at this point, establishing the structure assumes that the Word of God is going to be central in that structure. All right? I think to underscore it explicitly. And then we're depending upon the Holy Spirit to help us to understand and accurately apply that word to ourself.
Then we're determined to implement immediately the demands of that word, whether it's praise, worship, confession, the alteration of a pattern in our life, whatever it is. All right? Could we, we can get more than the five. I was just arbitrarily mentioning that.
Other things that will be practical helps in actually doing that. Actually doing the work of meditation. Yes, Julie?
All right. So let's call that determined to come with an ungrieved Holy Spirit to the work of, or to the activity, an ungrieved Holy Spirit. That's a good point. That's the old adage that D.L. Moody made famous.
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.
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.
As we'll see, God willing, later on again today. From the first night he slew him, I believe, behind every twitch of the grapes in his bedroom, he saw John's ghost. Everywhere he turned, there was John. John, John, John, John, John.
Why? Because he had an accusing conscience. And when you've got an accusing conscience, no matter where you turn in the word of God, your sin will be there. It's coming out at you.
And when that's so, then we don't want to deal with the sin, then we don't want to meditate. So that's a vital part, determination that we'll come with an ungrieved Holy Spirit. And since our time is getting away, let me add this point that Jonathan made, and that is not to allow a conflict of duties. When the duty at hand demands total occupation of the mind and all of its faculties, of the hands, of the feet, for doing the kind of task that means total concentration in order to do it properly, or to do it safely, then you better not be attempting to meditate.
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.
Am I becoming backslidden in heart? She said, well, son, what were you doing during those two or three hours? I said, well, that was during the time when I was mixing the mortar. Well, how were you doing it?
Well, so many shovels of sand. In the mortar mixer. And then so much lime and the bag of...
Well, what would happen if your mind got detracted then? I said, well, I could lose an arm. She said, well, the Lord doesn't want you meditating on His Word when, if your head and hand are not totally together, you might lose your hand or your arm. And then I learned that lesson from my mother.
That simple lesson that God was not displeased when I was doing work that would have been dangerous if I had done it without Him. And I learned that there was nothing other than the total preoccupation of all my faculties. So a sensitive soul must not come under false guilt. Oh, a whole hour went.
Two hours went and I didn't meditate. No verse of the Bible came to my mind. No. If you're in a situation that demands all of your faculties to be engaged in order to be obedient to what the Word of God says, then you're not guilty.
You'd be sinning if you stopped in the middle to meditate. You'd be robbing your employer or possibly endangering yourself. So that was that note that Jonathan sounded. Perhaps that's a good place to put here.
Practical Guidelines: Recording Reflections and the Constant Battle
And you can put whatever title you want on it. Well, we've got about a minute and a half left. Yes, Jane? All right.
Sometimes to help our meditation, perhaps make a record of the reflections that come out of our meditation. And then to go back over those periodically. Right? Someone else had a suggestion.
Yes. Yeah, that's right. There's nobody who has any experience in the Christian life, whether six months or 60 years, who will not say that the discipline of meditation, both formal and informal, both the stated times and developing the habit of meditation, is not a constant battle. If ever Galatians 5.17 is true, it's true here.
The flesh lusts against the spirit. The spirit against the flesh. And these two are contrary, the one to the other. And I've never yet met a seasoned saint who said, Brother, I can't wait till you get to be my age.
You'll be so many years in grace, and it's marvelous. You'll never have to battle to find time to meditate anymore. I've never met a seasoned saint tell me that. When I've asked seasoned saints who've been in grace twice as long as I have, and I've been in the way now some 32, 33 years, and said, What's it like down the road?
They said, The way gets narrower, and the battle gets more fierce. That's been the testimony of every single one of them to me. So I have nothing to look forward to but battling all the way. And John Bunyan understood that, didn't he?
Pilgrim's Progress is the commentary, extended commentary upon that. Well, thank you to the brother who raised the question, and thank you to you, the Lord's people, for your contributions, and I hope all of us have found this helpful. And now that God has given us either a little refresher course in meditation, or perhaps for some, some fresh light in this biblical duty and responsibility, remember that that light brings with it a stewardship. If you know these things, blessed are ye if you do them.
May God give us grace to be doers of the word and not hearers only. Father, we do thank you for guiding our thoughts into this very vital subject this morning. And we would, as a company of your people, confess to you that so often we have indeed sinned by the neglect of this duty, this privilege. We confess that we've allowed a grieved Holy Spirit in us to go on grieved, and we've been unwilling to deal with the sin that would have made the thought of meditation a delight and brought us to it with deep spiritual desire and relish. Cleanse us, O Lord, we pray, and teach us how to meditate upon your law day and night, on the one hand cultivating both the habits of formal, structured meditation, as well as the spirit and disposition of meditation, and preserve the sensitive among us from coming into bondage, O Lord, between the devil's work in keeping us from meditation or loading us with false guilt that we've not meditated enough, what miserable creatures we are if we are left to ourselves.
Come then by your Holy Spirit and teach us to be a people who do meditate upon your law day and night, and will thereby become those blessed men and women described in Psalm 1. Hear our cry and receive our thanks for your presence with us. We offer our praise and our petitions in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
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Passages Expounded
Psalm 1:2
This verse is the primary text defining biblical meditation, emphasizing the blessed man's delight in and constant reflection upon God's law.
Texts Expounded
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Psalm 1 is the foundational passage used to define biblical meditation, describing the blessed man as one whose delight is in the law of Jehovah and on it he meditates day and night.
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This verse, 'But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night,' is central to defining the object and practice of biblical meditation.
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These verses are used to illustrate the immediate application and obedience that should follow meditation, showing David's swift response to God's commands.