The Lost Art of Biblical Meditation
I recently saw an advertisement from a local business for axe-throwing. I have never had the opportunity to go, but it sounds like a fun, manly activity. I was curious about when it became a “thing,” so I recently read up on the history a little bit.
Axe-throwing has been used for centuries in warfare and hunting, but apparently, it’s the lumberjacks in the early 1800s who turned it into a sport (bless them!). Now, here at the beginning of the 21st century, we have been gifted with a revival of an epic sport we never knew we needed. I’d love to go. Who’s with me?
The revival of the modern art of axe-throwing reminds me of our need for the revival of a lost Christian discipline. It has fallen to the wayside for many Christians but is far more important than tossing around heads of sharpened steel. I am talking about the art of biblical meditation.
An ancient warrior no less than King David of Israel was a man highly skilled in this spiritual discipline. In the book of Psalms, he shows us why believers need to meditate and some ways we can learn this lost spiritual art. Why should we learn this ancient art?
1. God blesses those who meditate.
Here’s the first reason we should meditate—God blesses you with stability and fruitfulness in your spiritual life. The book of Psalms opens with a call to meditation, telling us the blessed man’s “delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night” (Psalm 1:2). God blesses, or shows his favor, to those who carefully consider his Word and its implications for their lives.
Psalm 1 gives us a captivating metaphor to show us how meditation leads to stability and fruitfulness. The blessed man who meditates is “like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers” (Psalm 1:3). God intends for this stability and prosperity to impact in every area of life.
As we lead our homes as godly dads and husbands, our meditation on the Word of God should transform the way we provide for, protect, and direct our families. It should change the way I speak to my wife and my children. It should impact the financial decisions we make, the use of our time, the priority of the local church in our lives, and so much more.
Biblical prosperity does not mean life will automatically become smooth sailing for us or we will suddenly become wealthy. We still live in a fallen and sin-cursed world, and we also know that “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12). However, when we soak our minds in the truth of God’s Word, God does promise us joyful prosperity and blessing in Jesus Christ that will never change no matter the trials we face or the losses we experience.
The wisdom of Psalm 1 leads us into the promise of Psalm 2. There God declares he has set his anointed Son, his holy King, firmly on the throne. He had made a promise to bless David’s kingly line and establish his house with an eternal dynasty (2 Samuel 7). Yet, for this to work, David and the kings after him needed to be like the blessed man of Psalm 1. They needed to meditate on God’s Word.
God had commanded each of his kings in Deuteronomy 17:18-20 to write out a copy of the book of the law and read it all the days of their life. In this way, they would learn to humbly fear the Lord by keeping his Word and doing it.
Meditation helps us hate sin and love God.
And this brings me to the second reason for why we need to meditate. Meditation leads us to hate sin and love God more. David, with all his successes, also had some major failures. Instead of going out to battle with his army, he grew lazy and stayed home. There he faced sexual temptation, and instead of forsaking it he indulged in it. He loved his sin more than his relationship with God.
The result was spiritual disaster, a fractured kingdom, and a devastated family. He had forgotten the wisdom of Psalm 119:9-11.
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.
When we give into temptation and indulge in sin like David, we have chosen to love our sin more than our relationship with God.
Yet here’s the good news—where David failed, Jesus prevailed. In the temptation in the wilderness, we see Jesus, the final son of David and perfect Son of God, resisting Satan’s temptation in the wilderness with nothing but the Word of God. Through the grace of Jesus Christ, we have the power to resist temptation by the Word of God. Jesus has given us his Holy Spirit. And when we team up with the Holy Spirit, when we open the Bible and meditate on its truth, the Holy Spirit illuminates our hearts and renews our minds.
This is what you are called to as a godly husband and father—a life of biblical mediation so you might “be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Romans 12:2). This is how we learn to hate sin and love God more.
And David, with all his failures, still gives us a good example of how to do this in the Psalms. The first two books of the Psalms, from Psalm 1 through Psalm 72, are packed full of David’s meditations on the Word of God. From singing with his sheep to running in the wilderness, from his mighty victories to his humble confessions of sin, David’s life was dominated with a love for God and his Word.
A Practical Starting Point
As guys, we often aren’t as good at communication or expressing ourselves. But you would find great benefit in developing a few habits to help you grow in the spiritual discipline of biblical meditation. Try writing in a journal about what you are learning in Scripture.
Take a favorite Christian song or hymn with rich truth and listen to it multiple times, considering its implications for your life. Talk to your wife and work out a weekend where she can be free to spend a morning with God, and then you can spend a morning with God. Lead your wife and family in the biblical art of meditation, and you will enjoy the prosperity that God provides.