Meditation on the word

I originally preached this sermon at Redemption Church on Febuary 7, 2021. Included below is my manuscript for the sermon. You can access the full sermon archive or Redemption Church here or subscribe to the sermon audio podcast.

When you hear the word meditation, what comes to mind? Chances are, you envision a bald, Buddhist monk, crossing his legs with his eyes closed and lips pursed, humming in serenity. Modern notions of the word meditation connote Eastern spiritual practice. These eastern meditation practices have gone mainstream, with books, podcasts, and apps aiming to help the distracted mellow themselves into a state of mindfulness.

Since the word meditation is associated with a vague spirituality, many Christians rightly feel their spiritual senses disturbed by these practices. Even though there is a good deal of baggage related to the word meditation, we should seek to redeem it with a proper biblical definition. After all, meditation is something commanded of us by God.

There is a monumental difference between eastern practices of meditation and the Christian definition of the term. For eastern meditation, one seeks the emptying of the mind. Christian meditation is a filling of the mind with the truth of God’s word. Thus, Christian meditation is tethered to the Word of God. Last week we discussed the importance of in-taking the Scriptures as a means of grace, but we hinted at several problems in our hearts as we read the Bible. Reading the Bible can feel like a merely intellectual endeavor, not an affectional one. We can read the Bible superficially, without giving space and room for the Holy Spirit to use the Word of God to form our hearts. I’m convinced that means of Christian meditation is the missing piece when it comes to our Bible reading, an ignored discipline that leaves us still hungry and unsatisfied, even though we come daily to the banquet of the Word of God. As the Puritan Thomas Watson put it, “The reason we come away so cold from reading the word is, because we do not warm ourselves at the fire of meditation.”¹

As we consider the concept of meditation from the Scriptures, we will look to Psalm 1, a wisdom psalm that foils the life of the wise and the life of the wicked. The wise man is defined by his delight in the Law of the Lord and his habit of meditation upon it. In sum, delight in God’s Word and meditate on it day and night.

As we look at Psalm 1 and consider the practice of biblical meditation, we will first consider the definition of Meditation. Then, we will see the fruit of meditation. Finally, we will move to the practice of meditation.

1. The Definition of Meditation

Psalm 1 introduces us to the blessed man. This wisdom psalm, strategically placed at the beginning of the Psalter, teaches us about the nature and practice of wise living. The psalmist does this by contrasting the wise man from the wicked man. The foil between the two highlights the critical activity which separates the wicked from the wise—the meditation on the law of the Lord.

The blessed man is first defined by what he doesn’t do. The parallel structure of the first verse indicates that blessed man doesn’t walk, stand, or sit around the wicked, sinners, or scoffers. The change in posture from walking, standing, or sitting indicates that the wise man isn’t influenced in any way by those who mock God. He resists even the opportunity to have his mind shaped by the wicked. So, if the blessed man isn’t shaped by the faulty and sinful thinking of others, what does shape his mind? What is it that forms his heart? The answer is given in verse 2: «But his delight is in the law of the Lord and on His Law he meditates day and night.»

We think about what we enjoy. We muse over what delights us. The wise man cherishes the Word of God. The Scriptures excite him, interest him, and he rejoices in the opportunity to study them. Notice that «on the law he meditates day and night.»

In a way, Psalm 1 is an exposition on God’s command to Joshua,

“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” (Joshua 1:8, ESV)

Psalm 1 shows us that it isn’t just leaders like Joshua who need to meditate upon the Word of God. Every wise person is one who commits their lives to the meditation of Scripture.

However, what does it mean to meditate on Scripture? The Hebrew word for meditate in Psalm 1 communicates «an active pondering, perhaps even muttering to oneself in pursuit of insight.»² The original word (הָגָה, hagah) can convey the idea of cooing, growling, muttering. It’s sort of like muttering under your breath while your reading. Vocalizing and muttering the words of Scripture quietly to yourself.

So let me present for us a working definition of what we mean by meditation. Meditation is the active engagement of the mind to focus intently upon the Word of God to provoke joyous delight in God.

Notice some four key aspects of this definition worth emphasizing.

First, meditation is active, not passive. We are working our minds, not neglecting them. As one Puritan put it, «Solemn meditation is a serious applying of the mind to some sacred subject till the affections be warmed and quickened» ³ Meditation requires work, discipline, and concentration. Thus, Christian meditation is the opposite of eastern practice. The Christian aims to engage the mind upon the truth of Scripture.

Second, notice that meditation requires the cultivation of focus. Meditation cannot happen if we are hurried and distracted. Our spastic minds, which jump from one thought to another, must be honed in, restrained, and forced to submit to the text. A scattered brain cannot meditate on God’s word. Biblical meditation requires the ability to focus our attention on the truth. A wandering mind must be reigned in and directed upon the path of truth.

Third, notice meditation has an object—the Word of God. We don’t meditate on our feelings, our emotions, the events of the day. Biblical meditation casts those aside to let the Word shape our hearts. In fact, meditation can be quite dangerous if it isn’t grounded in the Word of God. Listen again to the wisdom of the Puritans, this time Thomas Watson:

Meditation without reading is erroneous; reading without meditation is barren. The bee sucks the flower and then works it into the hive and so turns it into honey. By reading we suck the flower of the word; by meditation we work it into the hive of our mind, and so it turns to profit. Meditation is the bellows of the affection.⁴

Watson also wrote,

Directions for your meditation: Read before you meditate. «give attendence to reading» (1 Tim. 4:13). Then it follows, «meditate upon these things» (v. 15). Reading doth furnish with matter; it is the oil that feeds the lamp of meditation. Be sure your meditations are founded upon Scripture. Reading without meditation is unfruitful; meditation without reading is dangerous.⁵

Fourth, notice that meditation has an aim—joy. Scriptural mediation is not intellectual computation but affectional adoration. Biblical mediation aims to take your reading of the Word of God and move it from your head to your heart. It’s not about just understanding what you are reading but rejoicing in what you read. The Puritans understood that meditation was the means of stirring our affections for the Lord in our Bible reading. If we leave cold from reading Scripture, chances are we’ve neglected the means of meditation. One puritan said, «Meditation is a mighty engine to kindle cooling hearts and make them flame in fervency.»⁶ Another said, «How can the word be in the heart unless it be wrought in by meditation? As a hammer drives a nail to the head, so meditation drives a truth to the heart.»⁷

One of my evening traditions after the kids go to bed is to go to our kettle to heat some water for a cup of green tea. However, if I take the tea bag and do one quick dip of it in the water only to throw away the bag, I would have to drink a bland cup of hot water. Why? Because I didn’t give the teabag time to steep in the cup. The aroma, color, and flavor of the tea will only change the water if I give it time to steep. The Christian life is like a cup of hot water, and the Scripture is the teabag. If I only do quick dips of the Word, I don’t give it the time necessary to change me and transform. Meditation is the practice of letting the word steep into our soul, giving time and thought for the Word of God to change me.⁸

And blessed is the man or women who meditates upon the Word of God day and night, who takes up this means of grace, who knows day by day a delight in God as they feast upon the Word! Now that we know what meditation is, let’s next look at the fruit of meditation.

2. The Fruit of Meditation

Psalm 1 goes on to describe the life of the blessed man who meditates upon the Word. The psalm uses the image of a tree by the river to capture the dynamics of a Word-centered life. He is like a tree planted by the streams of water. His roots go deep into the ground. He anchors himself by the river and laps up all the water and nutrients needed to survive and thrive. Therefore, the tree produces great fruit and weathers every season. Its leaf does not wither. A life rooted in the Word produces evergreen Christians—Christians who have joy in God in every season of life. Even in suffering, loss, disappointment, or persecution, the Christian rooted in the Word of God will still have the green leaves of spiritual health and will not cease in fruitfulness.

The fruit of biblical meditation produces stability, permanence, fruitfulness, and enduring health. Do such characteristics describe your life as a Christian? Or, does your life look more like the wicked, people whose lives ignore God’s Word, like chaff blowing every which way by the winds of emotions and circumstances? Is your Christian life marked by stability or volatility? Fruitfulness or fruitlessness? Greenish growth or brownish decay?

The Psalm shows us that Scriptural mediation transforms the soul, producing spiritual health and fruitfulness. A Christian who longs for more growth in God must sink their roots further into God’s Word. The wicked, on the other hand, demonstrate that life apart from the meditation of God’s Word brings death and ruin.

The final verses of the psalm indicate that the contrast between the wise and wicked bring eternal consequences. The wicked will not stand at the judgment. The way of the wicked will perish. Those who reject God’s word will perish. The great indicator of heaven and hell is demonstrated by our response to God’s Word. The pages of Scripture contain the good news, the gospel of our salvation. Scripture attests to the truth that we are sinners, condemned before a holy God. It is only by God’s love in the sending of Jesus to us that anyone of us can be saved. We are made right before God by repenting of our sin and putting our faith in Jesus. Those who reject the message of salvation, who spurn the good news of God’s word, will perish in eternal condemnation.

However, the wise man is the one who experiences a transformation of the heart, for the Lord knows the way of the righteous! And how are we made righteous? By the righteousness of Jesus given to us in faith. The Christian is known by God, who has experienced a change in the heart which goes from rejecting God’s Word to rejoicing in God’s Word. The evidence of the new birth in the believer is an ongoing appetite for and delight in the Word of God.

Perhaps today, you are like the wicked man in this psalm and are in outright rebellion and rejection of God’s Word. You are not alone; everyone is in that same position. Yet, God has changed our hearts by his grace, awakening us to the beauties of the gospel, saving us in Jesus, giving us faith in his beloved Son, and filling us with a hunger to meditate upon the Word. God can do the same miracle in your heart that he has done in mine. Turn from your sin, and call out in faith to Jesus this day. Delight in the good news of the gospel!

You see, the spiritual fruit that comes from scriptural meditation is eternal in its scope. Not only will it help us live wisely today, but it sustains us in the faith.

If meditation is essential for Christian fruitfulness, how do we practice it each day?

3. The Practice of Meditation

While meditation is a vital tool for taking up the means of grace in the Word of God, it is a mode of operation that many of us find unnatural. The greatest hindrance to meditation is our proclivity to distraction. Compared to prior generations of Christians, we have a flood of trivial information each day that bombards us in news and notifications. Thus, meditation may be even more important in our day, even if it is more challenging. The need to focus our mind’s attention on the Word of God is in some ways more difficult and more necessary.

However, let me give you three practical ways you can help incorporate the practice of biblical meditation: scripture memory, scripture writing, scripture pondering.

Scripture Memory

With the rise of printed books and digital technologies, our ability to memorize is much less developed than in the ancient world who would memorize whole books verbatim. Nowadays, we don’t even know the cell phone number of our spouse. Why bother learning it? After all, it is on our phone!

You may think similarly about the Bible. I have access to the Bible everywhere! I can quickly pull out my phone and search up a verse I need. Why bother committing the Bible to memory?

Well, memorizing Scripture can be a powerful way to meditate on the Word. Bible memorization fuels biblical meditation. When you have a verse memorized, you can mull over it and chew on it any time, day or night. “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:11). Memorization makes meditation on the Word possible throughout the entirety of your day. The more you memorize the Word, the more the Spirit will draw it to your attention—teaching you, leading you, and convicting you. You will find many of the verses you’ve memorized called to your attention by the Spirit of God.

However, the goal of Scripture memorization isn’t to be able to have a massive list of verses locked away like trophies in a mental case. The act of memorization itself has a way of transforming our souls. Memorization requires repetition, and that repetition forces us to meditate upon the text. Repeat the verse over and over again. The focused attention memorization requires is itself biblical meditation.

Let me encourage you to incorporate Scripture memory into your daily time in the Word. Start with a verse a week you would like to memorize. I find it best to read the verse out loud ten times, looking carefully upon each phrase and word as I do so. Then, I close my eyes and recite the verse ten times from memory. Rehearse the verse throughout the day as time permits. Through repetition and rehearsal every day, you will memorize the text.

As you develop this discipline, you may desire to take on longer sections of Scripture. This is of great help because it helps you understand the context of God’s Word better. Memorize a psalm. Memorize a chapter out of the book of Romans. Perhaps, you may wish to take on an entire book of the Bible, which sounds like an intimidating feat but isn’t as bad as you may think. By memorizing a verse a day, you can memorize an entire book of the Bible over several months. For more on how to do that, let me refer you to Andy Davis’ booklet called An Approach to Extended Scripture Memorization.

Scripture Writing

Our thoughts tend to be scattered, making the sort of concentration biblical meditation requires difficult. Therefore, writing can be an incredible aid in focusing our meditation on Scripture. Writing forces you to think, wrestle, and articulate what God is teaching you from his Word.

Once you’ve established your habit and plan of reading the Word of God every day, consider incorporating writing as a way to do biblical meditation. If you follow a Bible reading plan, pay attention to how the Holy Spirit may zone your interest to a particular section of your reading. While it’s wonderful to read Scripture broadly, find a smaller section of Scripture to do the work of meditation. Let’s say you are reading Romans 1–3 for the day. You read the chapter, but the Spirit draws your attention to Romans 3:21, «But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.»

For your time of meditation, take a piece of paper or a notebook and write out that Scripture by hand. Then, begin to meditate on that passage in writing, asking some of those good questions we talked about last week.

Mull and linger over the text. Write out your thoughts. What is the righteousness of God? How has it been manifested apart from the Law? How do the Law and prophets bear witness to it? What does this say about God’s character? How do I receive the righteousness of God from Jesus? What is my response to this truth? What is God teaching me today from this text?

You see, the goal isn’t to write an exegetical paper but to meditate on the text and impress its truth upon your heart. Writing your meditations in the habit of journaling can bring concentration to our mind, slow us down, and help us give extended focus attention to God’s word.

Scripture Pondering

What do I mean by Scripture pondering? It means doing scriptural meditation without a pen in hand. Writing is a focus crutch for our minds. However, as you grow in your ability to give extended focus to God’s Word, you can meditate on Scripture with your inner thoughts. Take a portion of Scripture, perhaps from your daily reading or a reading of your choice and read it. Read it a few times. Read it slowly.

Then, focus your mind to meditate on what you’ve read. Take an idea from the text, like the righteousness of God. What does this mean? How is God righteous? How has God made you righteous? Let your thoughts work.

As you meditate upon the truths you see in God’s Word, let yourself be moved by them. Seek to stir your affections with the beauty of Christ. Seek to make the truths in your mind not merely abstract but personal and real.

Whenever you find your thoughts straying or wandering away, bring them back to focus on God’s Word. In your meditation, preach the text to yourself. Remind yourself of the implications of the gospel upon your life. Churn your stiff heart loose with the Word of God. The work of meditation is like taking a plow to the soil, making the heart open and ready to receive the seed of sanctifying grace in the soul.

Before long, you should find your heart so overflowing with joy and gladness over your meditation that your heart feels compelled to pray. Meditation is like preheating the oven, warming the soul to the means of prayer—a subject to which we will discuss next week.

You can do this scriptural pondering in a chair at home or a walk through the neighborhood. When you have Scripture memorized, you have ample fuel to do this sort of Scriptural pondering, whether driving in your car or doing menial tasks like folding laundry. Cultivate the life of the mind by seeping it in thoughts of God’s Word.

Final Thoughts

May our lives as believers be like a tree planted by the stream of God’s Word. May we make time and prioritize the meditation on God’s Word. May we delight in it. May we meditate upon it day and night!

Let me encourage you this afternoon to take up the means of meditation. Select a text from God’s Word. Maybe you can use Psalm 1. Read it slowly. Read it a few times. Use a sheet of paper and write out your meditation. Or, go for a walk and focus your mind’s attention on this text. Pay attention to the Holy Spirit’s working. Impress the truths of God’s Word upon your heart.

If we take up this means of meditation, the intake of Scripture will not be dry. Our hearts will not respond with coldness to the text. Meditation is the engine that sets our souls ablaze with affection for God in response to his Word. If you find it hard to «delight» in God’s Word. Perhaps you are merely reading it and not meditating upon it. Take up this means of grace, and may God form us and shape us by his Word as we delight in the precious truths of the gospel.

1. Thomas Watson, as cited in Donald Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, 49. ↩︎
2. Crossway ESV Study Bible ↩︎
3. George Swinnock, The Christian Man’s Calling, in Works 2:425. ↩︎
4. Thomas Watson, Bible and the Closet, 24–25. ↩︎
5. Thomas Watson, Gleanings, 112–113. ↩︎
6. Nathanael Ranew, Solituded Improved by Divine Meditation, 72. ↩︎
7. Thomas Watson, A Christian on the Mount, in Discourses 1:239. ↩︎
8. This illustration of the tea was borrowed from Donald Whitney’s original in Spiritual Discipliens for the Christian Life, 48. ↩︎

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
² But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
³ He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers.
⁴ The wicked are not so,
But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
⁵ Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
⁶ For the LORD knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the wicked will perish.

If this is Prayer Week, why do we begin with a message on Psalm 1 that doesn’t mention prayer, and focus our attention on the Word of God and not prayer? The central point of this psalm is made in
verse 2: «But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night.» The person who delights in God’s law so much that he meditates on it day and night is delivered from the ways of the wicked and sinners and scoffers, and is made fruitful and durable and prosperous. That’s the point. Delighting in the law of God is the central issue. So why begin Prayer Week with this psalm and this focus on delighting in the law of God?

Well, where is this psalm? It is the beginning of the book of Psalms. And what are the psalms? Many of them are prayers. In fact, the Psalter is the prayer book of the Bible. Millions of Christians go to the Psalms to find words for the cry of their hearts in the worst of times and the best of times. So I begin Prayer Week with Psalm 1 because the Bible begins its prayer book with Psalm 1.

But why does it? And why should we? The reason is that in the Christian life -in the life of God’s people — prayer and the Word are connected in such a way that if you disconnect them, both die. Let me sum up the connection between prayer and the Word in three ways. The Word of God inspires prayer, it informs prayer and it incarnates prayer. Just a word of explanation on each of these.

Connection Between the Word and Prayer

The Word of God inspires prayer. This means that the Word commands us to pray, and makes promises to us of what God will do if we pray, and tells us stories of great men and women of prayer. James 5:16-18 does all three. First, «Pray for one another so that you may be healed.» There’s a command from the Word. Second, «The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.» There is the encouraging promise. Third, «Elijah was a man with a nature
like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months.» There’s a story to inspire us. So the Word inspires prayer by telling us to
do it (like a doctor telling us what’s good for us) and promising us good things if we will do it, and telling us stories to encourage us in our weakness.

Second, the Word of God informs prayer. This means that the Word tells us what to pray and becomes itself the content of our prayer. When you know the mind of God in his Word, you pray the mind of God in your prayers. For example, in Acts 4:24-26, the early church prayed like this: «They lifted their voices to God with one accord and said, «O Lord, it is You who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that is in them [see Exodus 20:11], who by the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our father David your servant, said [quoting Psalm 2], ‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples devise futile things? The kings of the earth took their stand, and
the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ.'» This is the way powerful saints have prayed throughout history. O may the Lord fill our payers with the great purposes and promises of God that we learn from his Word. The Word informs
prayer.

Third, the Word incarnates prayer. This means that prayers are often invisible and concealed in the soul and in the closet and in the church. But their effect is to be in the open in the lives of other people and among the nations. How does that happen? God
usually advances his purposes in world evangelization and personal transformation and cultural reformation by direct encounters with the truth of his Word. The Word incarnates our prayers. Prayers become effective through the truth getting into people’s ears and minds and hearts.

People don’t just start believing on Jesus because you pray for them. They need to hear about Jesus. «How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?» (Romans 10:14). «Pray for us that the Word of the Lord will spread rapidly and be glorified, just as it did also with you» (2 Thessalonians 3:1). Prayer empowers the Word and the Word incarnates prayer. Saints don’t just become more holy because someone prays that they will. They need to see the truth: «Sanctify them in the truth. Thy Word is truth» (John 17:17). Cultural slavery to injustice and greed and dishonesty and sexual immorality does not just change because we pray for it. The agent of reformation is the truth: «You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free» (John 8:32). Prayer must be incarnated in declarations and demonstrations of the truth.

That’s probably enough to explain why we begin Prayer Week with a text on the Word of God. The Word inspires, informs and incarnates prayer. They go together, because Word and Spirit go together. Word without Spirit is intellectualism. Spirit without Word is emotionalism at best, and probably syncretism. But the Word and the Spirit are kept together when we depend on the Spirit for help in all our dealing with the Word, and express that dependence
in prayer.

The Blessing of Delighting in God’s Word

Now let’s consider Psalm 1 and focus on delighting in and meditating on the Word of God. First, let’s think about the blessing that comes from delighting in and meditating on the Word
day and night. The Psalm begins, «How blessed is the man. . .» So you are drawn in right away: do you want blessing in your life? The word means «happy» in the rich, full sense of happiness rooted in moral and mental and physical wellbeing.

But now who is this happy person? The one who does not do something and the one who does do something. The happy person does not «walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers!» (verse 1). But what does the happy person do? Verse 2: «But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night.» So, instead of finding his pleasures in the words or the ways or the fellowship of the wicked, the one who is truly happy finds pleasure in meditating on the Word and the ways of God. («Law,» Torah, = instruction: God’s Words about God’s ways.)

Now the point of the psalm is to say that when you experience the Word of God like that — as so delightful and so satisfying that it captures your mind and heart day and night and weans you away from the counsel and path and seat of the world -when you experience the Word like that, you are blessed. You are happy.

The Person Who Delights in the Word of God

Then, in verse 3, it gives us three illustrations of that happiness. The first one is that the person who delights in the Word of God and meditates on it day and night will be «like a tree
firmly planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in its season.» The second one is that the person who delights in the Word of God and meditates on it day and night will be like a tree whose «leaf does not wither.» And the third is that the person who delights in the Word of God and meditates on it day and night «will prosper in all that he does.»

Let’s think about each of these for a moment.

1. Fruitful

If you delight in the Word of God and meditate on it day and night you will yield your fruit in season. You will be a fruitful person. O for more fruitful people! You know them. They are
refreshing and nourishing to be around. You go away from them fed. You go away strengthened. You go away with your taste for spiritual things awakened. Their mouth is a fountain of life. Their words are healing and convicting and encouraging and deepening and enlightening. Being around them is like a meal. This is the effect of delighting in the Word of God and meditating on it day and night. You will yield fruit in season.

2. Durable

The second illustration of your blessing if you delight in the Word of God and meditate on it day and night is that your leaf does not wither. The point here is that the hot winds are blowing and the rain is not falling and all the other trees that are not planted by streams are withering and dying, but in spite of all the heat and drought, your leaf remains green, because delighting in
the Word of God and meditating on it day and night is like being planted by a stream. The happiness of this person is durable. It is deep. It does not depend on which way the wind is blowing or whether the rain is falling. It gets its life from an absolutely changeless source: God in his Word.

The person who delights in the Word of God and meditates on it day and night speaks like the prophet in Habakkuk 3:17-18: «Though the fig tree do not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will exult in the LORD, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.»

(A Thought on Y2K)

This might be a place to say a word about the Y2K scare. Do you want a prophetic word about Y2K? I have two prophetic words about Y2K. First, the greatest need on January 1, 2000, will not be basements stocked with food and water and generators, but hearts stocked with the Word of God. You will be fruitful, you will flourish, you will be life-giving not by seeking the very things the world seeks (Matthew 6:32), but by delighting in the Word of God and meditating on it day and night. What the world will need and does need from the church is the Word of God that fits us to say, «Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . .. In all these things we are more than
conquerors through him who loved us» (Romans 8:35-37).

The other prophetic word about Y2K is this: Nothing is going to happen on January 1, 2000, nothing, that is as bad as what is already happening to persecuted and starving Christians in Sudan. Or to the staggering number of orphans in Malawi and other AIDS-devastated countries of Africa. Or to survivors in Honduras and Nicaragua. Or to lonely, dying old people in dozens of skilled care centers around the Twin Cities who have outlived their families. There is something that smells of hypocrisy in the talk about stockpiling supplies in our homes to «minister» to others in the coming Y2K crisis when there are more places to minister this very day that are worse crises than anything that is going to happen a year from now. Y2K will happen to someone every day in 1999 — many of them within your reach.* Delight yourself in the Word of God, meditate on it day and night, and then take the fruit of your life and go minister to the lost and the hungry and the thirsty that are already so many. Then you won’t even notice when Y2K happens.

3. Prospering (Really?)

3. But now that leads to the question raised by the third illustration of blessing and happiness in verse 3. «And in whatever he does, he prospers.» Really? What does this mean? Does it mean that, if you delight in the Word of God and meditate enough, your business will make a big profit and your health will always be good and there will be no food shortages or car accidents or violence against your house?

Well, there are some reasons to believe that such a person will have some of those blessings. For example, when you delight in God’s Word instead of walking in the counsel of the wicked and standing in the way of sinners and sitting in the seat of scoffers, you will be doing the kinds of things that God approves of, and he is likely to bless what he approves. And when you are delighting in the Word of God, you are trusting it, and we know God works for those who trust him and wait for him (Isaiah 64:4; 2 Chronicles 16:9).

But there are reasons to believe that God does not always spare his most faithful people. There are many passages of Scripture that tell us «many are the afflictions of the righteous» (Psalm 34:19; cf. Acts 14:22). Psalm 73 expresses the reality that often the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper. The answer of that Psalm and this one is: Behold what becomes of them in the end (Psalm 73:17).

Psalm 1 says, «The wicked are not so, but they are like chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will
perish» (verses 4-5). When this Psalm ponders the value of being wicked or of delighting in the Word of God, it measures the value finally by what happens at the judgment. There may be some prosperity in this life for the wicked, but in the end they will be swept away like chaff, but those who have delighted in the Word of God will go on flourishing because God sets his eye and favor on them. He «knows» their way.

So the blessing, the happiness, referred to in verse 1 is a life that is nourishing and fruitful for others, a life that is deeply durable in the face of drought and a life whose «labor is not in
vain» (1 Corinthians 15:58), but succeeds in God’s good purposes into eternity. That’s the blessing of delighting in the Word of God and meditating on it day and night.

What Is Meditation?

Now what does this meditation involve? The word «meditation» in Hebrew means basically to speak or to mutter. When this is done in the heart it is called musing or meditation. So 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.

Here is where I plead with you to get involved in the Fighter Verse memory program or some other pattern of Bible memorization. Unless you memorize Scripture you will not meditate on it day and night. But O the benefits and delights of knowing communion with God hour by hour in his Word. If you have ever wondered, What is hour-by-hour walking in fellowship with the living God? the answer is: it is his speaking to you by his Word through your memory and meditation and illumination and application and your speaking to him words of thanks and praise and admiration and desire and seeking for help and guidance and understanding. The Word is the
basis for your hearing him and for his hearing you. The depth and solidity and certainty of your walk with God and your communion with God will rise and fall with whether God’s own written Word is the warp and woof of the fabric of your fellowship.

Let me just give you an example of how this works in my own life. As I was coming to the end of the year and reading the final pages of the Old Testament in the Minor Prophets, I was moved by Micah 7:18. It is the foundation of a favorite hymn of mine, «Who Is a Pardoning God Like Thee?» by Samuel Davies. So I memorized it and carried it around on the front burner of my mind for several days. It says, «Who is a God like thee, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in steadfast love.»

One of the insights that I discovered and tasted with tremendous pleasure was that God does choose to be angry, but his anger is limited. Why? Because he «delights in steadfast love.» This means that anger is not God’s favorite emotion. He «delights» in love. This has huge implications — practical ones -about my life and my own anger and love as I rest in him. And theological ones, as I ponder the levels of willing in God: willing to be angry in his holiness at sin, and yet not delighting to be angry the way he delights to show steadfast love. I was fed by this text for several days before I moved on to another front-burner text.

So I urge you to memorize Scripture, and meditate on it day and night. It will change your life in many good ways.

What if Meditation and Prayer are Drudgery?

Finally, we must ask about this delight. The deepest mark of this happy person in Psalm 1 is that he delights in the Word of God (verse 2). Bible reading and Bible memory and meditation are not a burden to him, but a pleasure. This is what we want. What a sadness when Bible reading is just a drudgery. Something is wrong.

What shall we do? Well, we will say more next week, but let’s close considering this. We struggle with Bible reading and memory and meditation because we don’t find pleasure in it. We have other things we want to get to more. TV or breakfast or work or newspaper or computer. Our hearts incline to other things and do not incline to the Word. And so it is not a delight.

Did the psalmists ever struggle with this? Yes they did. Take heart. We all do. How shall this be changed? This is Prayer Week, and so the answer we will stress is that it is changed through
prayer. This is what I will focus on next week. We must pray for God’s enabling to help us delight in his Word. This will be clear from the way the psalmists pray. I hope you will come back and hear the help that the psalmists give us not only to pray without ceasing, but to do it with delight.