05.06.06
Reading the Bible (6)
The Lost Art of Christian Meditation
(I) The Theory of Meditation
Read: Psalm 77:1-20
I enjoy watching natural history programs on TV. There is a program on at the moment about lost tribes – tribes which are still basically living in the stone age. They wander about with no modern clothes on and they live in a completely pre-technological age. But, for all their ‘primitiveness’, there are many things these tribes know and understand which have been long lost to us. They know, for example, how to catch and kill their food, whereas we only know how to pull a chicken off the shelf at Tesco. They know how to heal wounds and illnesses using leaves and roots, whereas a trip down to our local chemist’s is the norm for us. These tribes have retained many arts which have been lost to us.
We, in the modern Christian world, have also lost an important art which our more ‘primitive’ forefathers practised in abundance and to their great spiritual benefit. The greatest lost art in the modern Christian life is that of meditation – that of fixing our mind on considering and applying the excellencies of God in Christ to our minds and hearts.
I enjoy watching natural history programs on TV. There is a program on at the moment about lost tribes – tribes which are still basically living in the stone age. They wander about with no modern clothes on and they live in a completely pre-technological age. But, for all their ‘primitiveness’, there are many things these tribes know and understand which have been long lost to us. They know, for example, how to catch and kill their food, whereas we only know how to pull a chicken off the shelf at Tesco. They know how to heal wounds and illnesses using leaves and roots, whereas a trip down to our local chemist’s is the norm for us. These tribes have retained many arts which have been lost to us.We, in the modern Christian world, have also lost an important art which our more ‘primitive’ forefathers practised in abundance and to their great spiritual benefit. The greatest lost art in the modern Christian life is that of meditation – that of fixing our mind on considering and applying the excellencies of God in Christ to our minds and hearts.
We have been going through Question 90 of the Shorter Catechism which corresponds to our reading of the Bible. It reads:
SC. Q. 90 How is the word to be read and heard, that it may become effectual unto salvation?
A. 90 That the word may become effectual unto salvation, we must attend thereunto with diligence, preparation, and prayer; receive it with faith and love, lay it up in our hearts; and practise it in our lives.
In order to get the most out of reading our Bibles, we are to do all these things – things we do before we read, things we do as we read, and things we do after we read. It is in this latter category that the lost art of Christian meditation falls. Maybe the reason our forefathers were so much more full of the Scriptures was because they meditated upon it – they laid it up in their hearts. The ‘laying it up in our hearts’ is composed of two elements. One memorisation, which we looked at last time, and second, Meditation which I want to spend the next couple of weeks thinking about. I want to begin tonight by looking at the meaning of meditation:
[A] The Meaning of Meditation?
1. Terms of Meditation – there are two Hebrew terms commonly translated by the English word ‘meditate’ or ‘meditation’. These words are (sichah) and (hagah). Sichah is the less common verb; it is used in texts like Psalm 119:97, “Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.” Or Psalm 104:34, “May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the LORD.” It literally means to complain or muse. It fluctuates between the acts of speaking and thinking. haga is the verb used in texts like Psalm 77:12, “I will ponder all your work and meditate on your mighty deeds.” This verb is used in Isaiah 59:11 to describe the cooing of doves; in Psalm 31:4 it is used to denote the growling of lions; in Psalm 90:4 and Psalm 115:7 it is used to describe moaning; in Psalm 35:28 it is used to denote the acts of declaring, muttering or uttering. The Greeks translated hagah by their word dialogue, and this is very much its meaning. The word hagah denotes a talking to oneself about the things of God. It means a talking underneath one’s breath; a continual reflecting on the works of the LORD.
The Bible’s own language therefore sets the tone of what it means to meditate. Meditation is a talking to oneself about the salvation of the LORD – sometimes thinking, sometimes speaking. John Piper writes, “meditating on the Word of God day and night means to speak to yourself the Word of God day and night and to speak to yourself about it.” It is often said that talking to oneself is the first sign of madness, but when it comes to the Biblical discipline of meditation, talking to oneself is the first sign of true wisdom. In Psalm 1:2, hagah is used of the activity of the righteous – ‘on his (the LORD’s) law, he meditates day and night.’ So if you would be wise, and righteous, you must talk to yourself.
2. Definitions of Meditation – we now turn from the analysis of the Bible’s words for meditation, to the definitions offered by the Biblical commentators. W.C. Kaiser Jr. writes, “Meditation may be characterized as deep, reflective thought, often occurring in a repetitive or enduring fashion.” Charles Hodge writes, “Meditation is the serious, prolonged, devout contemplation of divine things.” Thomas Boston writes that meditation is “… when the soul deliberately sets itself to think upon some spiritual thing, in order to the bettering of the heart thereby.” From these quotes, we can produce a summary statement of what meditation is: Meditation is a prolonged, deliberate activity of the regenerate mind and heart where the Christian devotes himself to pondering spiritual truth and its application. Here in this definition we see many things: we see that meditation is not the same as daydreaming, since the latter does not require any deliberateness in its exercise, rather it comes upon us naturally; we see that meditation does not merely involve mind, but also the heart; we see that meditation is an act of devotion to God, not of the tickling of the intellect; we see the objects of meditation as spiritual truth and its application.
3. Source of Meditation – where is meditation to take place. We understand that meditation is a deliberate self-mumbling procedure, but what is the primary seat of activity involved in the discipline of meditation?
a. An Activity of the Mind –We live in a generation which is profoundly anti-rationalistic. People are no longer thinkers, who reason out the truth using their minds; they have become feelers, who make up their own truth according to what their senses tell them. The mind is a despised and largely ignored. The tragedy is that the thinking of the world on this matter has deeply permeated the Church, so that we hear people now saying, “I don’t want to have to think, I want you to tell me what to think”. We must beware of becoming a spoon-fed generation of Christians whose minds have atrophied into nothingness. The Bible, in sharp contrast, promotes and elevates the role of the mind. Romans 12:2 tells us that it is be through the renewing of our minds that our Christian transformation takes place. I Peter 1:13 encourages us, in the light of living in this sin-sick world, that we must prepare our minds for action. Now you might say (or you might not say) to me, “But you’re a minister; you’re intelligent, it’s alright for you to use your mind; but I’m not intelligent. I haven’t got a degree and I don’t read books. If meditation is primarily an exercise of the mind, how then can you expect me to do it?” Well, there are many different answers I could give to this question, but we’ll satisfy ourselves with just two: the first answer is that all of us have intelligence, it may not be abstract intelligence, that is the intelligence necessary to work out sophisticated calculations and read heavy theology, it may rather be practical intelligence, able to deal with many different problems at the one time – like cooking the tea, making coffee, doing the ironing and watching the kids all at one time. Some of the most intelligent people I know are those able to entertain children through the day. Notice, I didn’t say that meditation is all about thinking in an abstract way – I also defined meditation as the application of spiritual truth – in other words asking the question, ‘how does this apply to my day to day life’ – questions of practicalities. Now we are all able to do that. The second answer is that we were given minds to use them to ponder God’s glory, and it is only by practice that we shall learn how to use them in that way. The man who lies in bed for a month finds his muscles atrophying; he’s unable to walk or lift things – because he’s not able to exercise his muscles while lying in bed. After he is able to get up, physiotherapists gently work his muscles so that in time he may do all he once did. We, each one, need intellectual and spiritual physiotherapy to work the muscles of our minds – and the Holy Spirit of God, if asked, will certainly be our spiritual physiotherapist. Your mind activity is not activity done alone – the Spirit helps in this – so ask him to massage the muscles of your mind so that you may use them effectively and to His glory. W.G.T Shedd writes, “Meditation upon God is a blessed activity of the mind, because God himself is an infinitely blessed being, and communicates of the fullness of his joy to all those who contemplate it.”
b. An Activity of the Heart – meditation is not merely an activity of the mind – it is no less than an activity of the mind, but it is an awful lot more. Charles Hodge writes, “[Meditation] is distinguished from mere intellectual examination or consideration. It has a different object. The object of one is to understand, of the other to experience the power.” Meditation is not merely intellectual, where we are seeking to discover new things to fill our minds; it is also emotional and volitional, where what we discover with our minds filters down into our hearts, affecting the way we feel and behave. Robert Dabney writes of meditation, “This silent adoration is not the mental bustle of investigation, but the dwelling of the thought upon the ascertained perfections of God, until the soul is suffused with sacred affections. It is not to have the lesser lights chase each other like meteors flashing athwart the horizon of the soul; but it is to have an absorbing and ascertained verity rise to its zenith, and dwell there, bathing the whole content of thought with its light and warmth. This placid state of the intelligence is not the pursuit, but the possession; not the search, but the fruition of the soul.” One of the great dangers of meditation is that it becomes more about discovering than it does about the discovery; it becomes more about searching than it does about finding. The enjoyment of meditation must not be about the pursuit of God, but about the possession of God.
I am at present going through the diary of Andrew Bonar, and one thing he says has greatly convicted me of my own lack in this area. He enters into his diary on 6th November 1831, “I fear that my delight in the Scriptures is very much because of the joy of the understanding.” As a research and development scientist in a previous life, I know what it is to experience the joy of the pursuit of discovery. In many ways, the discipline of research is prompted not by the joy of what is discovered, but by the pursuit of discovering. Furthermore, when that knowledge is discovered, it plays no part in the scientist’s experience. For example, I have looked on crystals and calculated results no human being before me had done. The truth is that doing these things brought me great joy, but it didn’t profoundly change my life. The danger for me, personally, is that I have the same joy when I discover something new out of God’s Word – I am prone to have a joy in the process of discovery, not in God Himself. My mind is titillated and entertained, but my heart is not changed. Meditation must not be about knowing new things about God, but knowing God in a new way. The joy must be in knowing God.
Thomas Boston writes that meditation is, “employing the heart on the spiritual subject so chosen, to think upon it, study it, and seriously consider it; to lay it up before our understandings, so as to move our affections and improve our hearts.” Again he writes, “dwell in the contemplation of his matchless excellencies. Let it be the substance of your religion to love him, to admire him, to be swallowed up in his love. And let love to him set your souls a-moving in all holy obedience.” Here again we see that meditation is to be a heart encounter with the living God, not merely a philosophical discourse about Him. Furthermore, it is to produce within us a new desire after obedience to His revealed will.
4. Extent of Meditation – what are we to meditate about? When we think of Christian meditation we are prone to see a theologian sitting in a dark library poring over books and thinking about how many angels dance on top of a pinhead. But is that what Christian meditation is to be about? I would say two things about the extent of meditation:
First of all, it is not to be speculative. Thomas a Kempis, the middle-ages Christian author of ‘The Imitation of Christ’ wrote, “Meddle not with curiosities; but read such things as may yield compunction to thy heart, then occupation to thy head.” The secret things belong to the Lord, we are as well leaving them with Him there and delving rather into the things revealed. In speaking of speculative meditation, the Puritan John Flavel writes, “a man may easily get a strain by over-reaching.” Speculative meditation is of the same variety of activity as philosophical or scientific discovery – it is all about the pursuit and not about the discovery – the joy is in the speculation and not in knowing God. The aim of meditation is to experience and know God better; the aim of speculation is to titillate the intellect. W.G.T. Shedd writes, “There is, indeed, for the created mind, no true knowledge of the Creator but a practical and sanctifying knowledge. God alone knows the speculative secrets of his own being. The moral and holy perfections of the Godhead are enough, and more than enough, for men to meditate upon.”
Second, just as Shedd has written, “there is no true knowledge of the Creator but a practical and sanctifying knowledge.” In other words, meditation must be based upon practicalities – things which are of use to the soul. Now I am not saying for one moment that one stage of the meditation process will not be intellectual – in other words if you are working through a verse you will need to apply your mind in understanding what the text says and what it means – but the aim of meditation is not to stop there, but rather to continue until we ‘feel’ God in the text and our lives are changed. The aim of meditation is therefore practical, not speculative. And let’s furthermore be clear, that experiencing God in the heart is an intensely practical thing. You cannot experience God without being utterly transformed – you see this in every encounter men and women have with God in the Scriptures – they are never the same again. Meditation, as we shall see in the next couple of weeks, is a step above understanding, it is also applying. Meditation takes a text or subject and asks ‘how does this apply to me? In the light of this truth, how must my life change?’ if your life doesn’t change as a result of your meditation, then you haven’t done real meditation at all.
Robert Dabney writes of the man of meditation in Psalm 1, “it was not a problem with entranced his intellect, but a solution.” When I was doing my PhD I spent two years entranced with a problem, but once I had solved it I cannot really say that I was entranced with the solution. The problem gave me sleepless nights, but the solution didn’t. In a sense, solving the problem gave me joy, but the solution itself left me cold. Just like doing a jigsaw gives you pleasure, but once it’s complete, the picture you’ve made, you can take it or leave it. Speculative meditation is another of the same, where it is the intellectual problem which entrances the mind, not the solution. But real and true Christian meditation upon the excellencies of God in Christ is not entranced with the problem, it is rather caught up in the solution. When the one who has meditated on the beauty of Christ discovers and experiences Him in his heart, Christ entrances him and keeps him from sleep.
In conclusion, meditation should be seen as a continual muttering to one’s heart and mind of the things of the Spirit. It is not merely intellectual, it is experiential and practical. The man or woman who gives themselves to Christian meditation will come out on the other side not merely informed, or reformed, but transformed. They will see the excellencies of God in Christ in a way they never had before, and they will worship Him. Has your worship of Him grown cold? Is Christ not all in all to you? Then we must meditate afresh upon Him so that we may experience a fresh wind of His presence and power. AMEN