Let’s Learn the Lost Art
Dear brothers and sisters of Cities Church,
What do you do with a book? Well, you might buy it, or give it away, or display it on a shelf, or throw it out, or even burn it. But the main action you take toward a book, of course, is to read it. Books are written, and produced, to be read.
Now, take it up a level to the Book, the Bible. What do you do with the capital-B Book from God with his compiled written words through his prophets and apostles for the world? Well, for starters, you do the main action that goes with a written book. You read.
But the Bible is not just a book. We rightly handle the Book with greater care, out of reverence for the Author. And we memorize small and large parts of the Book in ways we do not with other books. And perhaps most distinctively — the action that might distinguish the Bible most from every other book — we meditate on the words of God in Scripture.
Chew the Cud
Meditate is an Old Testament way of talking about this different, deeper handling of the Bible. The happy man of Psalm 1 — who flourishes like a tree planted by streams of water — he delights in God’s instruction, and on God’s words he meditates day and night. Note, he doesn’t just say he delights in God’s word and then keeps it on the shelf. But he delights and meditates. His delight leads him to meditate. And as he meditates, his delight deepens and expands and thickens.
To meditate means to chew on something, like cows chew the cud. Admittedly, I’m a city boy who hasn’t spent much time around cows, but all the ones I’ve seen sure seem like they’re in no hurry. To meditate means to ponder something intently, and at length, and we might add without rushing.
One New Testament way of talking about this is setting the mind, as in Colossians 3:2: “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (also Matthew 16:23; Mark 8:33; Romans 8:5–7). Where do you go to set and reset your mind and heart each day? And how long does it take to reset a heart? They do not have reset buttons like a Wi-Fi router. Resetting them takes some unhurried chewing. God made us for meditation.
Study as a Means
You might ask, So, what’s the difference between studying God’s word and meditating on it? Studying God’s word is a marvelous, biblical way of moving beyond mere reading, and learning more, putting big pieces together, asking questions, and finding answers, increasing your overall and very specific knowledge of the Bible. I love studying the Bible, and love that our church is a Bible-studying church. Let’s all study the Bible. And that study is not the same thing as meditation, or a replacement for it, but done rightly will greatly serve it.
When we talk about meditating on Scripture, we’re identifying something distinct and higher than Bible study. Study is always a means to something else. Study is never the end. You study to gain knowledge and then do something else with that knowledge. But Bible meditation is not a means to anything else. We don’t meditate to increase our knowledge of God and his word. We don’t meditate to get ready for group or a conversation later. We pastors don’t meditate on the Bible so that we might preach on it this Sunday. No, to meditate on God’s word is to pause and aim to enjoy God right now, in the moment, through his word.
Meditation on God’s word serves no further end than knowing him and enjoying him right now.
Meditate as an End
It’s very much like what we’re doing together in corporate worship on Sunday mornings. Worship is an end in itself. Worship may have all sorts of good side effects, but we don’t worship Jesus as a means to anything else.
Nor do we meditate on God’s word as a means to anything other than communing with him in and through his written word, and in the power of his Spirit. Oh a pattern of deep, unhurried Bible meditation will have tremendous effects on your life and soul and heart over time. But the long-term effects and spiritual health aren’t the goal. The goal is marveling, enjoying, delighting, gladly standing in awe of the living God and his Son through pondering his words to us.
So, Cities Church, let’s not only be a Bible-reading and Bible-studying church. Let’s also find our way forward in learning this lost art of meditation. Don’t be so quick to check the boxes on your Bible-reading plan, but carve out space to linger, to ponder, to re-read, to chew without hurry, even leisurely — that God’s word would not just run through our heads but down into our hearts — and be the means of our communing with the risen Christ each day.
Your happy pastor,
David Mathis
