What is Meditation?

Feb 27, 2024 • Don Willeman

Transcript:

Hello, this Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.

What comes to mind when you think of meditation? Sitting silently with your legs crossed? Trying to think of the “sound of nothing”?

Well, the irony is that as modern Western secular people, we tend to have an Eastern religious view of meditation. We tend to see meditation as emptying our minds—trying to get in touch with oneself or some impersonal force. However, biblically speaking, meditation is not emptying one’s mind but filling it with Scripture.

The Psalmist tells us the blessed man is the one who meditates upon the Word of God, day and night (Psalm 1). The Hebrew word for meditate comes from the idea of murmuring—mumbling words under your breath. To meditate is to muse, to cogitate and consider God’s Word from every angle.

Other places in the Bible connect meditation with the idea of chewing—like a cow chews his cud—repeatedly chomping, swallowing, regurgitating, over and over again, until all the nutrients are thoroughly extracted and absorbed. We are to savor every “bite” of God’s Word, so that our soul is nourished by it.

In this sense, we are all meditators—our minds are chewing on something. The only question is what we’re chewing on? Even to “veg” in front of the television or to scroll through social media is a form of mediation. We are soaking in something, and so, being shaped by it.

You are a meditator! The only question is what are you meditating on?

And that’s something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“How can a young man keep his way pure?

By guarding it according to your word.

With my whole heart I seek you;

let me not wander from your commandments!

I have stored up your word in my heart,

that I might not sin against you.

Blessed are you, O Lord;

teach me your statutes!

With my lips I declare

all the rules of your mouth.