God is Watching Over As We Meditate On His Word
The book of Psalms in the Bible begins with what I believe is a keynote psalm…Psalm 1.
This psalm contrasts the wise, godly person with the foolish ungodly one. It begins by describing what the wise, godly person does NOT do:
Blessed is the man (person) who:
- Does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
- Does not stand in the way of sinners
- Does not sit in the seat of the scornful
But rather, he/she delights in the Word of the Lord and meditates on it day and night. In thinking about the effects of this delight and mediation on the Word, we realize just how very important the process of mediation on the Word is to become a godly, wise person. Mediation comes from the root word which means “to chew the cud like a cow”, “to ruminate”. This means that we not only read or hear the Word, or even memorize it, but to proactively, word by word, think upon the meaning of the verse or passage, and to get all the truth out of it, in order to apply it our daily lives. This practice of mediation on the Word is not a well-known one in our hurried-up world of today. It is the rare person who takes the needed time to actually think upon scripture until it becomes a literal part of the spiritual life.
There is a very positive side to meditation, however, and that it can be done anywhere, anytime, without any “equipment,” other than the Word of God in the heart, and our minds. Memorizing scripture to me is a necessary part of meditation, because one does not always have a literal Bible or device with the Bible at hand, i.e. in the middle of the night, or during a blackout, or while driving, etc. But when there is a reservoir of scripture in our minds, we can draw upon it to begin the process of actually thinking of what it means, asking the Holy Spirit to open it to us with all its rare treasures, and allowing it to become a part of our lives. As the psalmist in Psalm 1 says, the godly, wise person is one who meditates upon the Word of God DAY and NIGHT. Literally when we don’t have to have our minds focused on our work or other activities, we can be meditating on the Word. God is pleased with this habit, and certainly will be watching over us as we obey His command to meditate on His Word.
By Mary Fawcett