Read Psalm 63, Meditation from F. B. Meyer

For the next two days we are going to draw on the testimony of the Church and the encouragement to learn and engage in the discipline of meditation.  Todays readings are all from F. B. Meyer. 

·        F. B. Meyer on Christ our Passover.

The life of the church between the first and second advents is symbolized by the feast on that memorable night. With joy in our voices and triumph in our mien, we stand around the table where Christ's flesh is the nourishment of all true hearts, straining our ear for the first clarion notes which will tell that the time of our exodus has come. Christian people are very much too thoughtless of the necessity of feeding off God's table for the nourishment of spiritual life. There is plenty of work being done; much attendance at conferences and special missions; diligent reading of religious books; but there is a great and fatal lack of the holy meditation upon the person, the words, and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

·        F. B. Meyer on the Faith of David.

As day after day he considered the heavens and earth, they appeared as one vast tent, in which God dwelt. Nature was the material dwelling place of the eternal Spirit, who was as real to his young heart as the works of his hands to his poet's eyes. God was as real to him as Jesse or his brothers or Saul or Goliath. His soul had so rooted itself in this conception of God's presence that he bore it with him, undisturbed by the shout of the soldiers as they went forth to the battle, and the searching questions addressed to him by Saul.

This is the unfailing secret. There is no short cut to the life of faith, which is the all-vital condition of a holy and victorious life. We must have periods of lonely meditation and fellowship with God. That our souls should have their mountains of fellowship, their valleys of quiet rest beneath the shadow of a great rock, their nights beneath the stars, when darkness has veiled the material and silenced the stir of human life, and has opened the view of the infinite and eternal, is as indispensable as that our bodies should have food. Thus alone can the sense of God's presence become the fixed possession of the soul, enabling it to say repeatedly, with the psalmist, "Thou art near, O God

·        F. B. Meyer: Keep in Touch with Jesus.

Avoid the spirit of fault-finding, criticism, uncharitableness, and anything inconsistent with His perfect love. Go where He is most likely to be found, either where two or three of His children are gathered, or where the lost sheep is straying. Ask Him to wake you morning by morning for communion and Bible-study. Make other time in the day, especially in the still hour of the evening twilight, between the work of the day and the avocations of the evening, when you shall get alone with Him, telling Him all things, and reviewing the past under the gentle light which streams from His eyes.

Read Psalm 92, More Help on Meditation

What a wonderful Psalm, especially as we think about how we approach this matter of “meditation.”  I am always moved when I read v5-6 of this Psalm:

⁵ O Lord, how great are Your works!
Your thoughts are very deep.
⁶ A senseless man does not know,
Nor does a fool understand this.

It is clearly a worthwhile venture to investigate the very deep thoughts of God.  It this context God’s deep thoughts are related to His works.  There is a principle in Scripture that God is always at work.  Those who lack wisdom are unable to think clearly about God’s works.  Conversely, because they accept and study the words of God (Scripture) the wise man thinks about what God is doing.  He is able to see God’s hand in the affairs of men, in nations, in economies, even in nature.  Yet he still comes to the conclusion that, as Isaiah said, God’s ways are above man’s ways.  His thoughts are very deep.

Thus we ask, how can we increase in the discipline of meditation?  Here are a few additional Scriptures about meditation that give us some valuable ideas.

·        Psalm 19:14: May the meditations of my heart be acceptable.  The ultimate goal of meditation is not to make me happier.  The goal is to be pleasing to God.  We should remember that while we may not always call it “meditation” our minds are often mulling things over, thinking deeply about things.  A regular, formal meditation on Christ will benefit us throughout the day; the things we think about a lot will be acceptable to God. 

·        Psalm 104:34: My meditation shall be sweet to the Lord.  This is a similar term.  To be sweet is to be agreeable or pleasing.  If you want an example of good meditation this Psalm is all about God’s works.  The Psalmist reviews God’s great works and then makes the connection between His works and the life of the saint.

·        Psalm 63:6: I meditate on You in the night watches.  This is a valuable reminder of the value of meditation on nights when sleep doesn’t come easily.  We often are awake with worries.  Those are wonderful times to turn to memorized Scripture for meditation.

·        Matt. 6:5-6: The synagogue and the “closet”.  Jesus was contrasting the proud parading of one’s prayers in public places versus the value of prayer in a very private place where it is just you and the Lord.  Public prayer has a place but meditation demands freedom from distractions.  It is hard to meditate in your home or office where you are constantly being reminded of things you need to do.  It is hard being around loved ones.  Check out Jesus’ choice of places and times where He could enjoy deep time with His Father.

     o   Matt. 14:23; 15:29: Jesus retired to hills.

     o   Mark 1:35: early morning hours.

     o   Mark 6:31; 7:24: a quiet place.

     o   Luke 6:12: all night.

     o   Luke 22:41: Gethsemane.

Read Joshua 1:1-8, The Content of Meditation

It is foolish to think that we do not need to consider the question, On what do I meditate?  Foolish because God makes it clear that deception is always a problem in this world.  In Psalm 38:11-12 David recognizes that even his friends and family have the potential of laying snares for us and deceiving us. 

Those also who seek my life lay snares for me;

Those who seek my hurt speak of destruction,

And plan deception all the day long.

Solomon made a similar observation about evil men, that they are devious and seek to deceive others.  Even if the answer from Scripture is fairly easy to see, we must still ask and answer Biblically.  So here are a few verses that speak of meditation and that tell us what needs to be the object.  In other words, if meditation is chewing the cud, what is the “cud”?

·        The content of meditation: Old Testament.

Ø Josh 1:8: book of the law

Ø Psalm 1:2: the law of the Lord

Ø Psalm 77:12: on all Your works

Ø Psalm 119:15,78: in Thy precepts

Ø Psalm 119:23,48: in Thy statutes

Ø Psalm 119:148: in Thy word

Ø Psalm 143:5:  Your works (1), what your hands have done (2)

Ø Prov. 6:22: “wisdom” will talk with them

This is not, as you can see, a simple redundancy, telling us only to meditate on the Bible. There are two complimentary descriptions of the “cud”: God’s word and His works.   

 ·        The content of meditation: New Testament.

Ø 1 Tim. 4:15: instruction.

Ø Phil. 4:8: good things.

Ø Heb. 12:2-3: Christ, His passion.

Ø Col. 3:1-2: Christ, heavenly things.

Ø Rom. 8:5: the things of the Spirit.

Ø 2 Cor. 3:18: the glory of the Lord.

Ø 2 Cor. 4:16-18: eternal things.

The New Testament adds something very important.  It is still telling us to meditate on God’s word and works.  Instruction, the good things we are to think about, the things of the Spirit and the eternal things are all talking about God’s word and works.  But what we get in the NT is the idea that we are to meditate on Christ.  He is God, He is the Word of God (John 1:1) and He came to do the work of God. 

Remember that all this has to do with what it is that we think about and mull over and consider in meditation.  The emphasis on God’s word and works means meditation is the musing and mulling over and deep consideration of what theology calls general and special revelation.  God’s works involve creation, conscience and providence (general revelation) as well as Scripture (special revelation).  We delve deeper into the deep thoughts of God when Christ Jesus is seen at the center of it all.  

Psalm 1, The Meaning of Meditation

Of late several of our blogs have dealt with the subject of the Scriptures.  One subject dealt with “how to listen to a sermon.”  That’s a proper subject.  But if that is proper then the subject of “meditation” is absolutely critical. 

There are in our day two problems that I have seen in the area of Christian “meditation.”  One is that Christians are less and less inclined to take time away from the business of life for the purpose of meditating on the Scriptures.  We seek refreshment regularly by taking vacations or getting away from it all, by which we mean, going on a hike or taking a trip or seeing the sights or watching a game or some sort.  Not necessarily criticizing this, but when do we get away from it all so that we might meditate on the Word of God?  When are we alone with God, without our family, without the typical noise of life?  Jesus on occasion spent all night with His Father.  Just the two of them!  When is the last time I spent an hour with my God?  Or a half hour?  Or 15 minutes?  Just the two of us! 

The other problem has to do with the content of Christian meditation.  Some have rightfully raised the question of what we set our minds and hearts on when we spend quiet time with the unseen God.  Some are concerned about the possibility of a mind-less approach to meditation where we seek to empty our minds with no plan as to what we will then place in our empty minds.  It is worth thinking about, not only because of the potential dangers with such an approach, but also because the Bible itself has much to say in answer to the question.  It rarely speaks of meditation without stating the content of that meditation.  We do not want to say much here about this now but only wish to raise the question in anticipation of considering how the Scriptures answer the question.  On what do we meditate? 

Without meaning to be to simple, let us begin with some simple statement about …

·        The meaning of meditation.  Let us consider Biblical terms, then an illustration of meditation, a dictionary definition, and finally our concluding thoughts on what it means to meditate.

1.     The term in Josh 1:8; Psalm 1:2:  to moan, growl, utter, muse, mutter, meditate, devise, plot, speak. to meditate, devise, muse, imagine.

2.     The term in Psa. 119:15,23,etc: 1 to put forth, mediate, muse, commune, speak, complain, ponder, sing, study, ponder. to meditate, consider, put forth thoughts.

3.     The term in Rom. 6:11:  1 to reckon, count, compute, calculate, count over;  2 to consider, take into account, weigh, meditate on. 3b to suppose, deem, judge. 3c to determine, purpose, decide. Additional Information: This word deals with reality. If I "logizomai" or reckon that my bank book has $25 in it, it has $25 in it. Otherwise I am deceiving myself. This word refers to facts not suppositions.

Ø In the Navigators little booklet on meditation, we read: “Meditation is chewing. It is like the graphic picture of a cow and her process of mastication. Bringing up previously digested food for renewed grinding and its preparation for assimilation. Meditation is pondering various thoughts by mulling them over in the mind and heart. It is the processing of mental food. We might call it ‘thought digestion.’  ‘Chewing’upon a thought deliberately and thoroughly, thus providing a vital link between theory and action. What metabolism is to the physical body of a cow, meditation is to your mental and spiritual life.”

Ø meditation 1. Quiet time spent in contemplating the Word of God and in fumigating the mind of the toxic thoughts and ideas that infiltrate it every day. 2. Private devotion or spiritual exercise focused on a religious theme. 3. Spoken or written contemplative discourse delving into spiritual things.

We believe there must be time, of necessity quiet time, for Christians to reflect on Biblical truth.  While meditation must be factually correct (i.e. we must have good theology or good understanding of a particular passage of Scripture) that is not the essence of meditation.  Meditation takes truth from Scripture and seeks to allow God to direct us in the application of that truth.  It is a necessary discipline tying together the ancient words of Scripture to my present-day life.  More on this in days to come.

Read Psalm 90, The Context of Psalm 90

(This is an additional thought to the post on Psalm 90, last posted Aug. 11, 2019.)

We must also add that this Psalm is interesting given the leadership of Moses over the people of Israel for 40 years in the desert while all those who were over 20 years old at the start were destined to die.  There can be no question that Moses wrote this Psalm during the 40 years.  Go back through the major thoughts in this Psalm with the idea in mind that you are one of those who, by year forty, will be dead.  Imagine throughout the 38 years from the refusal to enter Canaan at Kadesh Barnea until the arrival at the Plains of Moab east of the Jordan River.  You would have seen thousands die in some plagues.  You would have seen many others die in the usual variety of ways: accidents, sickness, just old age for some.  And if you showed up at the Jordan, still alive, you would know it was now just a matter of days and you would be gone.

·        God is eternal (v1-2).  You would now know God as faithful, as having endured the abuse of people He loved and cared for.  You would have a special experience with His eternality.

·        Man is temporal (v3-6).  You would have seen some very powerful and important people gone now.  Miriam.  Aaron.  The crowd that were swallowed up in the rebellion of Dathan and Abiram.  Your closest friends.

·        Life is full of sorrow (v7-11).  You would now be an expert on this subject.

·        But oh, how the prayers and desires and attitudes of v12-17 would be real to you.  Teach me to number my days and use them well.  Be compassion Lord.  Be merciful now, not later.  Make me glad in this sorrowful life.  Honor Yourself through me.  Give me a legacy, Your legacy!

This perspective is important and valuable to us.  We ought not to keep thinking in the common way which is to assume that death is off down the road somewhere.  I have known some precious believers who, perhaps because of failing kidneys or hearts have known that they were going to be dead in 2 or 3 days.  I have seen and heard them speak with friends and loved ones and to be a tremendous encouragement by the way they trusted God in the toughest time.  I have also been around people when they suffered their first heart attack or even just a clogged artery that needed to be reamed out.  And I have seen the sudden panic and seriousness they came to have about how they were living and using their lives.  It is a good thing to think like the Israelite in the wilderness who knows that “by year forty I will be dead.”  After all …

We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good (useful) or bad.  (2 Cor. 5:10)

Acts 16, How to Advance the Gospel

Today’s title is intentionally deceptive.  We love to go to seminars and workshops and to hear highly “successful” pastors and Christian leaders to tell us “how to” do something God wants us to do.  We love to copy the methodology of the experts.  But it’s a sham.  Look at the things in Acts 16 that advanced the gospel.

·        16:1-7: Paul picked up Timothy.  There’s some good administrative methodology. Paul had him circumcised because Paul knew they were in areas with lots of Jews (Phrygia, Galatia) and figured to be heading to other areas with lots of Jews (Asia Minor, Bithynia).  Paul was following the normal plan, preaching the gospel where there was always a synagogue where he could gain initial converts.  Each of the areas mentioned so far had representatives in Jerusalem on Pentecost (Ac. 2:9-11).

·        16:8-10: Just like Peter who had a vision to go to the house of a Gentile in Caesarea, so Paul had a vision to go somewhere that wasn’t anywhere on his top-ten list of highly evangelizeable regions.  God was leading him to a place where, at least in Philippi, there was no synagogue (v13).  There weren’t enough Jews.  Further they disliked those Jews (v20).  It was very Roman/Greek.  And no one from Macedonia was said to have shown up at Pentecost.

·        6:14-15: The hospitality of Lydia was a significant help in the advance of the gospel.  And Paul was apparently reluctant to stay with her; she had to beg!

·        6:16-18: The demon-possession of a young girl who antagonized Paul and Silas was important for the advance of the gospel.  Paul, in a fit of frustration (it says he was greatly annoyed), cast out the demon.  Without this there would have been no imprisonment and thus no salvation for the jailer’s family.

·        6:19-24: Unjust punishment advanced the gospel.  Paul did not, as many good Americans would have done, declare his rights as a Roman citizen in order to escape being beaten many times with rods.  I wonder sometimes what Silas thought as to why Paul didn’t put a stop to the beatings.  Interesting.

·        6:25-28: In the same manner, Paul and Silas’ refusal to escape to freedom when their chains fell off advanced the gospel.  Not only did Peter and Paul both have visions that expanded their minds about how God wanted to work; they both had prison experiences with midnight deliverances.  Peter left the prison, at the command of the angel, and the guards were executed the next morning (Ac. 12:5-19).  Paul stayed and a family believed in God (v34)!

So, how was the gospel advanced?  The answer is it was advanced by Spirit-led men of God.  They were not copying someone else’s methods or working from the latest manual for successful evangelism and discipleship.  Spirit-led men!  That’s the way Jesus did it.  That’s the way we can do it.  Your daily time with God is the key to successful ministry.  As is your obedience to the promptings of His Spirit.

Psalm 93

In the final years of David’s reign there were cries for Absalom, “Long live the king!” (2 Sam. 16:16) but his reign and life ended suddenly.  A rebel named Sheba gained a following, only to have his head handed to Joab (2 Sam. 20:1,22).  David’s son Adonijah sought to take the kingdom to the cries of “Long live king Adonijah” (1 Kings 1:25).  But by the end of the day his reign had ended and he soon lost his life.  Bathsheba said to David, “Let my lord King David live forever,” yet his personal reign would come to an end shortly.  Solomon was acclaimed by the same cry, “Long live King Solomon” (1 Ki. 1:39).  His long and prosperous rule faded spiritually towards the end and resulted in a divided kingdom.  Political uncertainty afflicted Israel during Old Testament times even as it does in today’s world.

How unlike all of that is the acclaim of this Psalm.  The Lord reigns! 

·        He is clothed with majesty (v1).  Not with the accoutrements of majesty but with majesty itself.  His reign is the definition of majesty!  The pomp and ceremony of today’s leaders is ultimately a public relations campaign.  With the Lord majesty is substance!  His splendor radiates from His very being.

·        He is clothed with strength, girded about so He is always on the ready (v1).  That is why the saints are not among those who trust in chariots and horses but we will remember the name of the Lord our God (Ps. 20:7). 

·        In the Kingdom where the Lord reigns the world is firmly established (v1).  This speaks of the earth, the planet created by God for the good of its inhabitants.  The earth is the Lord’s and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein (Ps. 24:1).  By His sovereign wisdom and might He has established the earth; it cannot be moved.  The earth does not disrupt the Kingdom where God reigns but it fulfills His purposes.

·        The reign of the Lord is not something new but is from of old (v2).  There are none of the defeats or difficulties or death such as brought to an end one kingdom of men after another.  His throne is established because He Himself is from everlasting.  The Lord has always reigned; and thus even the earthly reign of the Lord (the Messianic Millennium) is a sure thing. 

·        The certainty of the Lord’s reign on earth is emphasized in v3-4.  There have been and will yet be great floods against the Lord and His reign but none will prevail because the Lord on high is mightier than any of those waves of evil.  Consider particularly a Satanic flood that will be launched against God’s saved Nation in Rev. 12:13-17.  God always protects His people.  And why?

·        Because His testimonies (precepts and promises) are very sure; and because holiness adorns His house (everything about His Kingdom will be uniquely perfect).  Such is the reign of the Lord.  The Lord reigns!

Bow in worship of the Sovereign Lord!  Recognize your citizenship in that Kingdom (Phil. 3:21).  In His reign nothing is uncertain.