05.06.06
Reading the Bible (7)
The Lost Art of Christian Meditation
(I) The Theory of Meditation (II)
Read: Psalm 1:1-8
What a remarkable woman Ellen MacArthur is! You would have had to be living on Mars not to know that she has just smashed the world record for circumnavigating the globe single-handed. She survived for over 70 days with less than 15 minutes sleep at any one time. I don’t know what drives Ellen MacArthur; I don’t know what kept her going as she sailed around Antarctica; I don’t know what inner ambition sustained her for 72 days of torture. But whatever it was, it is an example to us all of preserving endurance.
Ellen MacArthur has a hidden source of strength. But we Christians also have a hidden source of strength – it is called meditation. Meditation is to us what ambition and achievement is to Ellen MacArthur. These things provide her motivation; Christian meditation is what provides our motivation. Maybe the reason we are such sickly and weak Christians is that we meditate so little on the Word of God and fail thereby to exercise the muscles of our spiritual lives. Meditating on God’s Word is God’s hidden source of power for Christians.
Last time we gave the meaning of meditation as: a prolonged, deliberate activity of the regenerate mind and heart where the Christian devotes himself to pondering spiritual truth and its application. We saw that meditation is both an activity of heart and mind and covers the study of Christ and His excellencies. This week, I want to move on to discuss both the motives for meditation and the benefits of meditation. My hope in studying these things is that we may all derive more from God’s Word, both our private reading of it and our public listening to it, than we are at presently enjoying, and thereby we will be brought into a more contented Christian frame where we are living to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
[B] The Motives for Meditation
There are 4 principal motives for meditation in the Christian life:
1. God has Commanded it – In Psalm 4:4, God instructs David, “in your anger do not sin; when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent.” Meditation is a command of God. Now we live in an anti-authority society – even our armed forces rely less upon commands and more upon coercion than they did 50 years ago. We so often hear the comment, “you haven’t got the right to tell me what to do”. However, if there is someone who does have the right to command us it is God. And what we know of God assures that following His commandments will result in our good and His glory. So if God commands us to meditate, as He commands us to pray, to read His Word and not to forsake fellowship with other Christians, we can be sure that there is a good reason behind it, and we must obey.
2. We were Created for it – there is something within our constitution that is only satisfied by the self-conversation we enjoy in meditation. Thomas Boston writes, “Man is a social creature and made for society, to converse with God, with himself and with others.” Meditation is no more than this creature’s needs being met. Each one of us has thoughts rushing through our heads, the question we must ask is whether when God created our minds, so capable and rational, he did so that sin might have its throne in our minds in our selfish and sinful daydreams, or that our thoughts might be used to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever. Or to put it simply, all of us think; the question is what we think about – self or God? If we are using our minds to think of God, and that is meditation, they are being used as they were created to be.
2. – there is something within our constitution that is only satisfied by the self-conversation we enjoy in meditation. Thomas Boston writes, “” Meditation is no more than this creature’s needs being met. Each one of us has thoughts rushing through our heads, the question we must ask is whether when God created our minds, so capable and rational, he did so that sin might have its throne in our minds in our selfish and sinful daydreams, or that our thoughts might be used to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever. Or to put it simply, all of us think; the question is what we think about – self or God? If we are using our minds to think of God, and that is meditation, they are being used as they were created to be.
3. God’s People have Practised it – over the centuries and millennia, God’s people have found meditation to be a precious gift of God to them. In Genesis 26 we read of the way in which God provided a wife for Isaac. As the camels carrying Rebekah approached the tent of Isaac we find him meditating in the field (Genesis 24:63). Job, David, Jeremiah and Jesus all found trememdous comfort in meditation. The history of the Church is replete with ‘meditators’ – from Athanasius to Augustine, from Thomas a Kempis to John MacDonald of Ferintosh – they all delighted in their meditations in God’s Word. If one of your friends was to recommend a new restaurant to you as being a place of good food, good music and good surroundings, you would go there to check it out for yourself. The Church in heaven, all those who have walked where now we walk, all recommend to us the way of meditation, since for them, it kept them sane through persecution and war.
4. Heaven will be full of it – meditation will be our occupation in glory. Psalm 17:15 tells us, “And I– in righteousness I will see your face; when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness.” “Blessed are the pure in heart”, said Jesus in Matthew 5:8, “for they shall see God”. According to 1 Corinthians 13:12, “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” If meditation of the excellencies of Christ is to be our eternal occupation, should we not ready ourselves to be thus occupied? W.G.T. Shedd writes, “For whatsoever a man thinks of with most relish here in time, he shall think of with most relish in eternity … he who … loves to think of God and Christ and abhors to think of sin in all its forms, shall think of God and Christ in eternity – where all such thought is music, and peace, and rest.” John Owen writes, “Think much of heaven, as that which will give you a perfect view and comprehension of the wisdom, and love, ad grace of God in Christ, with those other things which shall be immediately declared.”
[C] The Benefits of Meditation
The benefits of meditation can be classified as follows:
[C] The benefits of meditation can be classified as follows:
(1) Psalm 1 Benefits – here in Psalm 1 we find the righteous man of God being marked out by a new desire for God’s word – it is His delight and His continual meditation (vs. 2).
Vs. 3 then describes the meditating man of God as a tree planted near a river. The man’s mind and heart are tuned into God’s frequency; his roots of meditation suck up the nourishing water of God’s Word. But then, vs. 3 and 4 itemise 3 immediate benefits of meditating for the righteous man:
- Fruitfulness – if you would bear fruit for the Kingdom of God, and bear in mind that the fruit of the Spirit are mostly internal attitudes rather than external actions, you must be much in the meditation of God’s Word. Just like juicy fruit cannot grow on a tree which is dehydrated or has no water source, so the fruit of the Spirit cannot grow on a tree which isn’t sucking up the water of God’s Word through meditation.
- Durability – if you would keep your leaf from withering, you must be much in the meditation of God’s Word. The point is that in hot desert climates, dessicating winds may blow and denude the tree of its leaves, but the tree planted near a river does not derive its moisture from the air around it, but from the water beneath it. Its life doesn’t therefore depend upon whether the weather is dry or wet, because it gets its water from an unending source. That is like the man or woman who meditates on God’s Word – their contentment is durable because it is does not derive its life and inspiration from outside itself, but rather from the water of life which comes through the Scriptures. Christian backsliding is a complex combination of internal and external problems. But a resistant attitude to God’s Word is both a cause and a symptom of backsliding. The Word stops being read in private, it stops being heard in public – to be durable a Christian needs God’s Word 24/7 and that comes through meditation.
- Prosperity – the prosperity of which the Psalmist speaks here is the opposite of the fate of the wicked. They are said to ‘perish’ (vs. 6), whereas the Lord watches over the way of the righteous. Prosperity here, whilst it may have a side meaning in terms of this world’s wealth and goods, mainly stands for the future we look forward to with God in heaven. Whilst the wicked, those who have no regard for God’s Word, perish; the righteous, those who make it their meditation day and night, live. Meditation is a characteristic of the man of righteousness.
Such a man is blessed by God. God, whose judgement of us is far more important than ours, considers us blessed and happy. And can we not indeed say that the times in our lives when we have disciplined ourselves to reading, hearing and meditating on God’s Word have been times of true spiritual blessing to us? If ever we have been happy as Christians, it has been when we were eagerly feeding on God’s Word. That is the message of the Psalmist.
(2) Other Biblical Benefits – as we go through the Bible, we come upon many other benefits of Christian meditation. As far as I can see there are 13, all of which will be listed in the document I will produce at the end of this series on Reading the Bible, but I just want to focus on 4 tonight:
(a) Meditation Brings Joy to the Christian – God is infinitely blessed and infinitely joyful. A man or woman who meditates on God cannot help but themselves become more blessed and joyful. Robert Dabney and W.G.T. Shedd both write of the impact that meditation has upon the Christian’s joy. Dabney writes, “Most happy are we when our meditations are charmed by the beauty of holiness and our eyes filled with the perfections of God; for there are the transcendent glory and symmetry to satisfy the intellect, the taste, and the conscience at once.” Shedd writes, “There is a strange unearthly joy, when a pure and spiritual mind is granted a clear view of the divine perfections. It rejoices with a joy unspeakable and full of glorying. All future beauty, all created glory, is but a shadow in comparison.” Laughter, as well as yawning, is infectious. God’s joy is infectious. One cannot be in the presence of God’s joy at His own perfections without oneself becoming joyful at the very same thing. Dabney writes, “The habit of silent adoration is a fountain of happiness to the soul.”
(b) Meditation Brings Holiness to the Christian – John Owen writes, “… the fixing of spiritual affections on spiritual objects is perfective of our present state and condition.” If we would be holy, we must fix our thoughts on He who is Holy. W.G.T. Shedd writes, “Can we actually and affectionately commune with the most perfect and high God in the heavens and not become sanctified? The spirit of men takes its character from the themes of its meditation. He who thinks much upon wealth becomes avaricious; he whose thoughts are upon earthly glory become ambitious; and he whose thoughts are upon God becomes godlike.” Shedd highlights an important point here; we all meditate, every human being, the question is what we meditate upon. The man who meditates upon wealth becomes greedy for more; the woman whose thoughts are upon earthly power and glory becomes over-ambitious; but the one whose meditation is of God and spiritual things becomes characteristically God-like. Likewise, meditation helps in resisting temptation and actively pursuing righteousness. W.G.T. Shedd writes, “With what a vehement spiritual force does and holy mind resist evil, after it has just seen the contrast between evil and God. Will the eagle that has soared above the earth in the free air of the open firmament of heaven, and has gazed into the sun with an undazzled eye, endure to sink and dwell in [the] dark cavern of the owl and the bat? Then will the spirit which has sent the glorious light of the divine countenance endure to descend and grovel in the darkness and shame of sin?” One cannot have one’s mind filled with pious thoughts of God whilst at the same time dwelling in the shame of sin. Meditating on God therefore will keep us from descending into the caverns of the devil.
(c) Meditation Brings Hope to the Christian – the meditative spirit thinks much of heaven. Indeed, as another one of the benefits of meditation unfolds, meditation actually brings heaven into the reality of the Christian. However, such a fixing of the mind and heart upon the happy future which awaits all those whose trust is in Christ, nurtures and feeds the Christian hope. John Owen writes, “Unless we acquaint ourselves, by continual meditation, with the reality and nature of this glory, it is impossible it should be the object of a vigorous, active hope.” Suppose we had a couple who were engaged in a long-distance relationship. She was in London and he was here. They only saw each other two weekends a month. The hope in their relationship is fostered by the way they feel and think about each other when they are apart. If one partner does not think of the other partner, then there is something seriously wrong in the relationship. Both partners have to feed their hearts with thoughts of each other when they are apart in order for there to be real hope – something to look forward to during the weekends they are together. The same is true in Christian meditation: whilst at this time we are ‘apart’ from Christ while here in the body, in order to have hope, we must meditate upon Him in our hearts and minds.
(d) Meditation Brings Preaching to the Christian – The Puritan William Bates wrote that meditating is like trying to build a fire from wet wood. Those who persevere will produce a flame. We come to the Lord’s day services often like wet wood, waiting for the Lord to ignite us through the preaching of the Word. We do not realise that not only must the preacher work hard to discern God’s message for the people, but the people must work hard to hear God’s message for them. We are often accused in the Reformed Tradition of being too passive in our services; only the minister, and perhaps the precentor, does any work. In other traditions, everyone has a role to play, be it music, drama, banners, whatever. Now I am not decrying these things, but it is not true that our services are marked by passivity. Rather, I would say that more effort is expended in actively listening and seeking to understand the preached word than in running about with flags. Sunday is a day of rest, but it’s not a day of inactivity – we have to work hard to listen to God’s Word. In other words, the Reformed Tradition espouses a liturgy of listening. It has been said that the quality of preaching is not now what it once was, and there may be truth in that. But it is also true that the quality of listening is not now what it once was. I know personally that I have sat under some of the greatest preachers in Scotland and derived no benefit because I have not listened, whereas I have sat under some of the poorest preachers in Scotland, but because I was making an effort to listen, I derived real spiritual benefit. In other words, the spiritual benefit I accrue is not merely a function of the preacher’s skill, but also of the energy I expend in listening and meditating on the message. If I am meditating on Christ before the Word is preached, I am far more likely to listen to the Word of Christ when it is preached. And if I am meditating on the Word of Christ after it is preached, I am far more likely to derive spiritual benefit from it. Meditation is like the action of swallowing and digesting food. Listening is the action of taking it into our mouths, but no nutritional benefit accrues from even the finest of food unless it reaches our stomachs. No spiritual benefit accrues from even the finest of preaching unless our spiritual digestive systems are operating well – and that is meditation.(a) Meditation Brings Heaven to the Christian – St. Augustine wrote, “Nor in all these things that my traverses in search of You do I find any sure place for my mind save in You, in whom all that is scattered in me is brought into one, so that nothing of me may depart from You. And sometimes You admit me to a state of mind that I am not ordinarily in, a kind of delight which could it ever be made permanent in me would be hard to distinguish from the life to come.” W.G.T. Shedd wrote, “God is infinite blessedness and glory, and no good being can behold Him without partaking of it. As he gazes, he is changed into the same image from glory to glory. The more clear and full his vision, the more overwhelming and boundless is the influx of heaven into him.”
(b) Meditation Brings God’s Presence to the Christian – W.G.T. Shedd wrote, “Were we accustomed to such heavenly contemplation and musing, the “fire would burn” in our hearts as it did in that of the Psalmist, and our souls would “pant” after God. God would be real to our feelings, instead of being a mere abstraction for our understandings.”
(c) Meditation Brings Strength to the Christian – John Flavel wrote, “Without this (meditation) we lose the usefulness and benefit of all the works of God for us or others, which would be an unspeakable loss indeed to us. This is the food our faith lives on in days of distress.” W.G.T. Shedd wrote, “The success of a Christian mainly depends upon a uniform and habitual communion with his God and Redeemer.”
(d) Meditation Brings Security to the Christian – John Owen wrote “They who do not think of them (the blessings of heaven) frequently shall never believe them sincerely”
(e) Meditation Brings Christ-likeness to the Christian – Charles Hodge wrote, “We become conformed to the thing with which we are familiar.”
(f) Meditation Brings Motivation to the Christian – R. L. Dabney wrote, “It is this brooding upon great and assured objects which fires the soul with those intense sentiments that incite exertion.”
(g) Meditation Brings Scripture to the Christian – Joel Beeke wrote, “Meditation transfuses Scripture through the texture of the soul.”
(h) Meditation Brings Prayer to the Christian – Joel Beeke wrote, “Meditation is a great aid to prayer. It (meditation) tunes the instrument of prayer before prayer.”
(i) Mediation Brings the Sacraments to the Christian – Joel Beeke wrote, “Meditation on the sacraments helps our graces to be better and stronger. It helps faith, hope, love, humility, and numerous spiritual comforts thrive in the soul.”
Meditating upon God’s Word is what separates the spiritual men from the spiritual boys. The man or woman who thinks God’s thoughts will do amazing things, like circumnavigating the globe of this life with all its complications; like keeping going even in the midst of superhuman disasters or like evangelising the hostile. If you are looking for a hidden source of strength, can I heartily recommend the discipline of meditation? God Himself commands it and the benefits are out of this world. AMEN