Christian Meditation

 Psalm 1:1-2 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 of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

Don’t worry – In the title of this post I’m not talking about sitting around in a circle and clearing our minds in order to become one with the cosmos or something like that. What I want to write about briefly today is the Christian discipline of meditation.

More than anything, I want us all to take a look at what one of our time’s greatest theologians J. I. Packer has to say about the idea of Christian meditation. I came across his description of “meditating on the truth” as I’ve been re-reading through his book Knowing God (which is a book I would highly recommend to everyone in our church).

First, Packer asks the question “…What is meditation?” This gets at what I was mentioning in my opening sentence. We have some pretty crazy ideas that go by the name “meditation” in the modern world. He defines the practice below…

Next, Packer addresses the issue of the importance of Christian meditation. He says, ”Well may we ask, for meditation is a lost art today, and Christian people suffer grievously from their ignorance of the practice.”

He then goes through a thorough explanation of this Christian activity.

“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.”

Why do we meditate on the works and ways and purposes and promises of God? Packer answers

“Its purpose is to clear one’s mental and spiritual vision of God, and to let his truth make its full and proper impact on one’s mind and heart. It is a matter of talking to oneself about God and oneself; it is, indeed, often a matter of arguing with oneself, reasoning oneself out of moods of doubt and unbelief into a clear apprehension of God’s power and grace.” – Knowing God, p. 23

I challenge you this week, and for that matter for the rest of your life, to take up the practice of Christian meditation. Find a text of scripture that tells about “the works and ways and purposes and promises of God.” Think the truth over. Dwell on it. Apply it to yourself. God promises that as we do this, the Holy Spirit will transform us into the image of Christ Jesus.