"Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation. Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up." (Psalm 5:3)
Meditation is a subject that receives little attention these days. Don’t get me wrong. We are overwhelmed with devotional books, calendars, software, etc. However, our tendency is to simply read the daily message as part of a routine. Meditation is altogether another matter. Let’s talk about that.
David begins his plea above by asking God to "give ear" to his words. The Hebrew here is very descriptive. It refers to the cupping of the hand around the ear to increase its sound gathering capacity. In other words, he is asking God to really listen. He reiterates the plea with "consider" and "hearken" which mean attend to and to prick the ears, respectively.
"My cry" might be translated in contemporary terms as "my h-e-l-l-o-o-o-o." It’s like you might call out when you enter an area knowing someone is there who doesn’t know you are. It’s as much an announcement as a call for attention.
It may surprise you, but the word for meditation means musing or pondering. This goes to the heart of our theme this year which has been study rather than read your Bible. We are to take the truths before us and chew on them!
When we do, we enjoy the richness of the flavor that God has preserved for us. It is not enough that He has put it on our plate. We must dig in so we can begin to digest and put to use the daily bread He gives.
In our time, meditation has taken on a mysterious nature because of the influence of eastern cults. Meditation isn’t magic, it is simply reflecting on God’s word and our relationship with the Father. Out of that reflection comes the cry of our heart and the call to ever increasing faith.
Surprisingly, few New Testament translations have the words meditate or meditation. The Septuagint (LXX) translates meditation here with the Greek krauge which means an outcry intended for public hearing. This word does appear seven times in the NT and none seem to carry the impact of the Hebrew in Psalm 5. Of the twenty or so translations readily available to me, the only verses where a word has been translated in this way are Luke 21:14, Acts 4:25, Philippians 4:8, 1 Timothy 4:15 and 2 Timothy 2:8. These references offer a variety of words that some translate as meditate, but there seems to be no general agreement here.
Nonetheless, the concept of meditation might well be drawn from these and other passages. Let’s look at a couple that come to mind.
"Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things." (Philippians 4:8)
The idea of dwelling on such things is expressed by logizomai. It’s not exactly the same flavor as the Hebrew, but it appears to be close.
Similarly, we read in Colossians 3:1-3. "Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God."
Phroneo (set your mind) carries the idea of exercising the mind and, in this context, regarding "things above". Again, this doesn’t quite capture the sense of the Hebrew but it’s close.
Contrary to the teaching of some professing Christian teachers, meditation is not some mindless, trance-like state one enters passively. It is an active pursuit that begins by embracing God’s word and seeking to apply it to our lives as we grow in relationship with Him.
That’s what these verses are about! I’m occasionally asked what is left for us if biblical prophecy has been fulfilled. Verses like these give us much direction. We could do a lot worse than to spend our time rehearsing "these things" and considering how faithful we are in living them out before the Father.
Finding the time and place to meditate can be a challenge in our fast paced culture, but it is worth making the effort. I suggest that your meditation be aloud (the words used tend to indicate that mode). While not absolutely necessary, there is something instructive about putting your musings into words. Whether you do that alone or with a trusted friend, vocalizing your thoughts sometimes helps to zero in on the subject at hand.
If you feel silly expressing your thoughts aloud, at least write them down. Many times, just seeing them on paper or hearing them with your ears will cause you to say, "No, that won’t work because..." or "That really seems to mesh with...."
Either way, you are making progress that you probably won’t make just letting ideas rattle around in your head. Give them substance!
It is so easy to fall into the habit of reading by rote, especially when we are familiar with a passage. Zero in on one thought and live with it awhile. You may be amazed at what you discover. Even if you can’t make sense out of something, don’t abandon it forever. Come back to it again and see if you have grown to a point where it does begin to compute. God’s timing cannot be thwarted here.
While we are to be diligent students, we must recognize that we will never understand everything perfectly (or at all in some cases). That should teach us humility. Those who profess to have the truth all worked out are prone to arrogance and most of us have witnessed that first hand (or been guilty of it).
Meditation confronts us with that which we don’t understand and compels us to trust in God to open our minds as we grow in faith.
The most important thing for us to understand is what we need to know in order to do what God is calling us to do this day. That is our first order of business and failing to focus upon it will result in our other pursuits being merely academic.
Bible 101
This month we wrap up our overview of how to study your Bible. While we haven’t begun to say all that could be said on the subject, I hope you have been encouraged in some way to be more diligent in your study and application of God’s word.
In bringing this discussion to an end, for now, let me share a few tips that have made my own study more profitable and enjoyable.
It almost goes without saying, but your study should be approached with a prayerful attitude. Notice that I did not say you should begin your study with prayer. There is a big difference! Old habits die hard and prayer can easily become a habit and little more.
There is no magic formula that says if you pray before you study God will grant you the understanding you seek. Prayer must be an attitude more than anything else. That’s the reason we are urged to "pray without ceasing." That doesn’t mean we go around praying all the time, it means that we discipline ourselves to approach each moment of our daily life recognizing our dependence upon God. Bible study is just one more aspect of our lives where that awareness needs to be ever before us.
Continue to build your library. For the most part, I’m talking reference works here, not the fluff that fills most Christian bookstores these days. The cheapest way to acquire these is on computer but using them that way does have its limitations. If you can’t afford all the books, look for a good Bible software program.
You can get one that comes loaded with a lot of resources for around $300. Even a small set of books would cost you far more than that. If $300 is out of reach, there are many places on the Internet that you can view or download a lot of the popular resources that are in the public domain. If you haven’t looked, you’ll be amazed at what can be yours with the click of mouse button.
Make lots of notes as you read. In other words, start your own commentary. Start with a single binder for everything and watch it grow. Pick up a package of Bible tabs and affix them to divider pages in your binder. Now instead of making notes in your Bible carry a small pad and make your notes there. Either transcribe them to your binder or paste them to a page for future reference. Start an index early. It will be helpful when notes on a particular passage deal with more than one subject and you want to remember where they were. In time, you will fill volumes. Your children and grandchildren will enjoy them one of these days so do a good job!
As you study, your confidence in your understanding of scripture will grow. That’s natural. It’s also tempting to find a comfortable place and stop learning and changing. Don’t! Allow yourself to be challenged, especially by other Christians.
Don’t be afraid to confront differences. That is the only way you will learn. Above all don’t be afraid to admit that someone else’s view makes more sense than your understanding. It’s that humility thing. We need to learn to express our gratitude when God puts people in our path who help us correct our misconceptions.
At the same time, we need to learn gentleness in dealing with others who have not been diligent in their study. Gentleness is a good idea even when they have been diligent too! Our goal is a better understanding of the things of God and better relationships with the people of God. Any academic pursuit which destroys relationships needs to be prayerfully examined. It does little good to be right, if we alienate other Christians in the process.
As you study a particular passage, talk to several trusted friends. Ask them what they see in the text. Share what you think you are seeing and ask for their input. I’m willing to bet you will develop some great friendships if you make this your practice.
Always keep the basics in view. Remember the big picture. What you are studying has to fit in the story seamlessly. If you are having to force fit pieces, you still have homework to do. Hint: you’ll always have homework to do.
Move slowly. There isn’t anything much more embarrassing than thinking you’ve seen something great in scripture and running out to share it with others, only to have someone point out a well known passage that renders your interpretation erroneous. Yep - I’ve done that. It isn’t fun, but it is instructive. That’s why you’ll usually hear me say, "I think I’m seeing ... what do you think?" Careless proclamations can be painfully wrong.
By all means, keep your work, even if you later come to disagree with your initial conclusions, keep them. In time, you will see how your thought processes were trained by the Holy Spirit to see the truth more clearly.
Don’t rush through the text. Spend serious time with even the most familiar passages. As you do you will see layers of truth. Some have described the experience as being like peeling an onion. Uncovering layer after layer of truth brings you ever closer to its core. Don’t be satisfied to grasp only the surface truths. Dig deep!
Keep your Bible study in a proper perspective. Ravi Zacharias posed an interesting suggestion awhile back. I don’t remember it verbatim but I want to share the gist of it. He said he was coming to understand that the Bible was more about God’s anthropology than man’s theology. I tend to agree.
When we approach the scripture as a book of rules about how we are to live in order to be pleasing to God we end up with the focus on us. When we see scripture as teaching us about who we are and our relationship to God, we quickly long to see the focus placed on Him and what He has done and is doing. This distinction is worthy of much consideration as we study.
Finally, glorify God for what He shows you in His word. Don’t adopt the view that the light you have seen is your doing. Your diligence only puts you in a position to see the light. It is God who provides the light. Thank Him!
Now, get out your Bible and start the new year with a new zeal for understanding its message.
Happy Holidays
If you need evidence that we live in a post-Christian America, all you need to do is pay attention at this time of year.
While I’m not one who believes that Christ was actually born this time of year or even that it is important to celebrate His birth on one particular day, witnessing the changing celebration of the season is eye-opening.
I don’t have a problem joining the world one day a year and remembering that God sent His Son into the world to be our Savior. If the world wants to single out a day to rejoice in that good news, I’ll add my "amen." Nevertheless, my celebration is a daily one and it isn’t limited to just the Babe in Bethlehem, but all He represents.
I’m not surprised when a Godless culture wants to strip every vestige of Christianity from the public arena. A few communities have followed the practice of ancient Rome and said all faiths are welcome to put up decorations on public property this time of year. In most cases, it is only the Christians who actually do so, but there is the occasional Kwanza or Hanukkah scene.
For most of the country, expressions of Christian faith in public places is taboo. Local officials fear lawsuits so much that even professing Christians give in to political correctness. While celebrating the day is not something I understand to be required, forbidding Christians to publicly celebrate it is a violation of free speech.
If you live with the illusion that America is still free, you have only to add this restriction to the long list encroachments on our liberty to begin to see the real picture. We can’t say "Christmas" anymore without offending the sensitive ears of the Godless and perhaps invoking the wrath of the state in the process.
You can be coerced into taking sensitivity training at work so that you know how to be accepting of minorities, homosexuals, and all the rest, and if you refuse you are seen as uncooperative and bigoted. But, let a large company with a diverse group of employees try to hold a Christmas party and you will test the tolerance of the real bigots. Happy holidays indeed!
That said, silence regarding Christmas is better than sacrilege. I rarely ever watch major network television but I recently flipped by NBC on my way to those stations where I do find worthwhile viewing (there aren’t many). I don’t know what I was witnessing as the station tuned in but it only took a moment to identify it as making a mockery of the birth of our Savior.
Had this been a spoof on the life of Martin Luther King, there would have been an outrage from the black community. I’m convinced that a number of Christians probably watched the program I only viewed for a few seconds. I haven’t heard of any outrage. It is acceptable to belittle the faith of Christians and at the same time promote a commercialized celebration of the season that robs it of its meaning.
Who is to blame? Clearly the fault lies with professing Christians. Our pulpits are full of preachers who teach non-confrontation and non-involvement in public matters. Attend a Christmas celebration at your local public school and see if you can find any reference to Christ. We have Rudolph, Frosty and all the rest, but not the Christ child. A few years ago, one local school in our community refused to allow the program for their Christmas presentation to have a manger scene on its front. How far we have fallen.
My prayer is that we will quickly discover what we have forfeited and recover our path. Unfortunately, the rapid influx of diverse cultures has made Christians a minority in this country. Those who come here seeking the blessings that derived from our Christian heritage fail to understand that undermining the faith of our people will ultimately destroy the very blessing they seek.
Our task is larger than ever. I pray we are up to the challenge and that God will grant us the time to see it through.
The Apprentice’s Journal
On December 8th, I became an IHOP Senior Citizen (55th birthday). It was a bit anti-climactic since Sharon preceded me by 4 months but now we can both enjoy the senior discounts. Somehow, I don’t feel like a senior citizen but it must be true. I’ve got too many things yet to accomplish to be old so I guess I need to at least think young. That is harder to do as the body starts to shut down one piece at a time!
I find myself considering what it means to grow old and somehow I don’t think I ever will. Sure, the body will do its thing but age has more to do with how you live your life than the number of years you amass. We’ve all known people who were "old before their time." For whatever reason, their body stayed around a lot longer than they really engaged life. It seems our culture moves further in that direction all the time.
I’m thankful that God has blessed me with older friends who have not ceased to live. Their days are spent living out their faith in obedience to God’s will and purpose for their lives. They don’t claim for themselves the supposed luxury of retirement but busy themselves with engaging the world about them. How I cherish their example!
How shall we fill our days? That’s an important question to ask. If we feel our enthusiasm for life waning, we need to consider why that is happening. In some cases, physical limitations may change the direction of our lives or even be totally debilitating, but that is not the case with most people. By ceasing to interact with the world in a meaningful way, they gradually lose their sense of purpose and meaning. Ultimately, that turns into a death wish in one way or another. It always saddens me to see people give up on life when they yet have so much to give, and enjoy.
Even more troubling to me are those who have "retired" and now think the rest of their years are theirs. They set out to indulge themselves because they’ve "earned it." They live out their lives in selfish pursuits. They flit from one adventure to another thinking it will bring them happiness, only to find emptiness.
If they are fortunate, their pursuits at least involve them with other people and they are doubly blessed if those involvements develop into deep and lasting relationships. Life is about relationships and being inattentive to them robs us of its real beauty. "Eat, drink and be merry" may sound attractive, but it is little consolation in the face of death. Those who have truly lived have neither dread of death or desire for it. They are content either way. Like Paul, they seem to know when they have finished their course.
I don’t mean to imply some fatalistic awareness that death is at our door, but the deeper awareness that we have fulfilled the purposes for which God has called us. People who live this way are never overtaken by death, they are ready for it whenever it comes.
Again, Paul’s example is instructive. He was perfectly content with life in spite of his circumstances. Death was no longer an enemy to be feared; indeed, making the transition from life to life eternal was desirable to him. Yet, his sense of purpose compelled him to remain focused on what God required of him.
That sense of purpose seems to be missing in so many lives today. It’s not that we need to know all the specifics like Paul was shown, that would probably overwhelm most of us. At the same time we should have a sense of direction and meaning.
The awareness of that purpose enables us to see past the momentary difficulties of life. We may lose our job, but if we are not defined by our work, we can handle that. We may lose our wealth, but if our faith rests in God rather than our finances we will overcome the adversity. To be specific and to the point, we have a Living Hope which allows us to face life or death with grace. When we live confident in that Hope nothing can shake us.
I’m looking forward to growing really old. I don’t have a crystal ball that allows me to know what the future holds, but I know that whatever it is, God intends it for my good. That alone is cause for rejoicing.
I don’t know when it happened, but sometime in the last few years, I began hearing wisdom in some of my own words. On several occasions, the depth, beauty and simplicity of words I heard coming from my lips has surprised me.
I don’t mean something that just sounded good, but something that upon serious reflection expressed a wisdom that I know is not my own. The results were immediate and profound: God was praised and I was humbled to have been so used. At last, I am beginning to experience what I tried to create most of my life. God does it better!
That makes me all the more anxious to see how He will use the remainder of my years. I look forward to sharing them with you. ~ Jim