Read: Psalm 1:2, Psalm 119:9-16
Meditate. The word immediately conjures up images in our minds of monks in bright robes sitting crosslegged in mountaintop temples clearing their minds of everything in order to gain contemplate the supernatural. It brings up thoughts of crazy new-age teachings about trances and accessing the sub-conscious. There are even Christian teachers and leaders who buy into this and teach that meditation involves suspending your mind in order to access some kind of inner awareness.
But this is not the entire story. Meditation must involve more than just thinking. We can think about things merely in order to gain knowledge but biblical meditation changes our lives. We see this real change in Psalm 119. Meditating on God’s word helps the young man keep his way pure (vs 9), he hides God’s word in his heart that he might not sin (vs 11), he praises God (vs 13) and he rejoices in Him (vs 14). Meditating on God’s word is more than just thinking for the sake of thinking. Meditating on God’s word results in real change.
J.I. Packer describes this kind of meditation well in his excellent book Knowing God: “Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promises of God. It is an activity of holy thought, consciously performed in the presence of God, under the eye of God, by the help of God, as a means of communion with God”
This is the kind of meditation that the psalmist describes in Psalm 1.The blessed man is the one who meditates like this on God’s law. The word for law here is much more than just the rules and regulations in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. It is everything that God has revealed to us through His written word. For the psalmist it would include all of the Old Testament books that were written at that time. For us it includes all of God’s word and all that He has done in salvation.
The blessed man meditates on all of this. He calls it to mind, he thinks about it, he dwells on it, he applies it to himself and he lives it out. It changes how he thinks, how he feels and how he acts. It becomes so central to him that it changes who he is. Through the whole process he prays to God, worships God and grows in relationship with God. Real, biblical meditation on God’s word changes everything.
Prayer:
Use the Bible passage from today and the reading notes to write down your prayer points before you pray.
Adoration:
Confession:
Thanks:
Supplication:
¥ Pray that God would fill you with His spirit as you read and meditate on His word. Pray that He might use it to change you and grow you in relationship with Him.
¥ Pray for the children in your church both young and old. Pray that God would be at work in the hearts and minds of each of them to bring them to faith in Himself.
Time reading God’s Word and meditating on it is an incredible opportunity for worship. Think of everything that God’s Word reveals about Him and give Him praise and worship for who He is.
1. Using you own words how would you explain to someone what it means to meditate on God’s word?
2. Practically, how could you establish the regular habit and routine of meditation on God’s word?
3. As a group, how might you be able to encourage each other in this habit?
Intro: Sometimes it can be very hard to do the right thing. We might want to but we want to do the wrong thing more. Has that ever happened to you?
Share: What you did in a time like that. How did you try to do the right thing?
Read: Psalm 119:9-16. The Psalmist also wants to do the right things. What are some of the things he does to help him? What do you think it means to ’hide God’s word in our heart’? (vs11) What are some of the ways that you could not neglect God’s word? (vs16)
Pray Together: Thank God that He is there to help us when we are tempted and that He gives us His word. Pray that He would help you hide it in your heart.
Intro: Sometimes it can be very hard to do the right thing. We might want to but we want to do the wrong thing more. Has that ever happened to you?
Share: What you did in a time like that. How did you try to do the right thing?
Read: Psalm 119:9-16. The Psalmist also wants to do the right things. What are some of the things he does to help him? What do you think it means to ’hide God’s word in our heart’? (vs11) What are some of the ways that you could not neglect God’s word? (vs16)
Pray Together: Thank God that He is there to help us when we are tempted and that He gives us His word. Pray that He would help you hide it in your heart.
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