Thinking About God

I will meditate on Your precepts, and contemplate Your ways.

Psalm 119:15

The American Heritage Dictionary says that to meditate is to “to think or reflect.” How did such a simple idea become so scary to most Christians today? Eastern religions that use meditating on a specific word or thought as a way to empty the mind, to move beyond object-oriented thinking to a deeper state of awareness or reality, have grown in popularity. Ironically, in Scripture, meditation is always focused on something or Someone—a filling of the mind, not an emptying.

In the Old Testament we find Scripture to be the most consistent object of meditation (Joshua 1:8; Psalm 1:2; 119:48). But Old Testament saints also meditated on God (Psalm 63:6) and His majesty (Psalm 145:5), the works of God (Psalm 77:12), and God’s name (Malachi 3:16). And in the New Testament we are exhorted to meditate on things that are true, noble, just, pure, lovely, and of good report (Philippians 4:8), as well as on sound doctrine and the spiritual gifts of God (1 Timothy 4:14-16). Psalm 1:1-3 perhaps says it best: the primary characteristic of a godly person is that he or she meditates “day and night” on “the law of the LORD.”

The more we contemplate the truth of God, the more our lives will reflect the Author of that truth.

Meditate on the Word in the Word.

JOHN OWEN