Meditating on Scripture

Photo: George Bannister

If we aren’t careful, our daily devotions can become a formulaic routine in which we check a box and move on without ever interacting with God or facing our own sin.

Over the years, I have used Bible reading plans, but I’m growing less fond of them because they emphasize reading a certain amount of Scripture without any regard for interacting with it.

Maybe we place such a high emphasis on reading plans because so many Christians aren’t in the Word on a regular basis and therefore we are just hoping to get them started by providing structure.

That makes sense, but a quick read of a passage will never have as much impact as meditating on it will.

If a believer only reads Scripture and never meditates on it, he may have a large amount of head knowledge along with a puffed up sense of self. But when a believer routinely meditates on what he reads, he tends to have a spirit of humility because he has wrestled with God and has been humbled.

Let’s look at a few passages that convey this concept of meditation on Scripture better than I can:

“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)

According to Strong’s Bible dictionary, the Hebrew word for “meditate” used in this passage means “to murmur (in pleasure or anger); by implication to ponder: - imagine, meditate, mourn, mutter, roar, speak, study, talk, utter.”

“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law[b] of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.” (Psalm 1:1-2)

The same Hebrew word for meditate is used in this passage as in Joshua 1:8.

“I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.” (Psalm 119:15)

The Hebrew word for “meditate” in this passage is different, but it means much the same: “A primitive root; to ponder, that is, (by implication) converse (with oneself, and hence aloud) or (transitively) utter: - commune, complain, declare, meditate, muse, pray, speak, talk (with).”

“Until I [Paul] come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress.” (1 Timothy 4:13-15)

The word for “practice” here in the ESV is translated as “meditate” in the KJV. The Greek word from which they are translated means “to take care of, that is, (by implication) revolve in the mind: - imagine, (pre-) meditate.”

So if we are to murmur, ponder, imagine, mourn, mutter, roar, speak, study, talk, utter, converse (with oneself, and hence aloud), commune, complain, declare, muse, pray, speak, talk (with), take care of, revolve in the mind and/or meditate on God’s Word, then a cursory reading of the Word isn’t enough.

What does meditating on the Word look like, practically speaking?

Everybody meditates on Scripture, and ultimately wrestles with God, in a different way. When I am meditating on the Word, which admittedly isn’t often enough, I am reading Scripture in small(er) chunks, reading a passage multiple times, underlining words or phrases that speak to me, using commentaries and concordances to gain a better understanding, journaling about the passage – asking myself hard questions, praying over the passage to confess a sin or ask for guidance, and writing down passages on index cards and carrying them around with me to meditate on throughout the day and week.

I would love to hear how you meditate on God’s Word. What does it look like, practically speaking?