Rekindling the Habit of Biblical Meditation | Joshua 1:8

My sister has completed at least a half dozen marathons. So, if she ran, I would follow the Twin Cities event. There would be somewhere in the neighborhood 18,000 runners – 18,000 brave, motivated, skinny, overachieving, masochistic people. And even though upper Midwest folk tend to be reserved, there were still a few participants that were not exactly ordinary. One guy had a huge Mexican sombrero, and was dressed like one of the three amigos. Another guy had on a full cow costume – udder and all. And then there was group of a dozen people draped all together in a special outfit so they could run as a human caterpillar.

The starting line was a sight. There’s dairy-cow-man laughing and fist-pumping and working the crowd. Mr. Amigo has the sombrero doing the wave. And the caterpillar is way more energetic than any real caterpillar I’ve seen. 

Then the race began. The first phase of a marathon might be called the pleasure stage. At this point running is fun. The adrenaline is pumping, the head is clear, the body is loose, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, you’re “one with the cosmos.” You’re functioning like a well-oiled machine. How long this pleasure stage lasts depends on the runner’s conditioning. 

After the initial rush of excitement wears off, the middle miles of a marathon become a grind. But after the grind comes flat out torture. The temptation to stop, for many, is overwhelming. The runner’s feet protest vigorously. Knifing pain stabs their calves. Thigh muscles cramp. Lungs seem filled with burning coals. Runners refer to this as “hitting the wall.” And to hit the wall and keep going is the ultimate test for a runner. Races are won or lost, completed or abandoned, at “the wall.” 

And it was here, in that last third, that watching the race got most interesting. Mr. Dairy Cow wasn’t laughing and waving anymore. The human caterpillar was collectively hanging over a fence, retching. At the finish, people came dribbling in one at a time. Some of them didn’t make it at all. The start of a race is enjoyable. It’s easy. Finishing is hard work. To finish well? That’s glory. And finishing well is what counts. And the capacity to finish well is what the Biblical writers call perseverance. 

Now perseverance is not a simple solution to every hard thing. We all have limits that the “desire to endure” by itself will not transcend. The ability to complete a marathon well requires training. It requires hours, days, weeks of habitual exercise.

To finish the Christian life well – sanctified, besetting sins crucified, the character of Jesus amplified – this requires training. And the training requires habits, habits that seem hard at first, but habits that, once developed, position us in the flow of God’s transforming grace. 

It’s been our custom – our habit – to take the first few weeks of each New Year, and give attention to habits of grace that, once learned, and regularly practiced, empower us to finish our respective course to the glory of Jesus. Yesterday, for example, I finished reading through the entire Bible for the 40th consecutive year. The first year, I thought, “Is this even possible?” Now, considering it as a challenge doesn’t even cross my mind. Imagine habits of grace practiced year in and year out – what the Lord might do in you? Imagine what sins might be diminished? Imagine what spiritual breakthroughs could happen? Imagine what power may be displayed as you draw closer and closer to the finish line of your life?

Today, I’d like to introduce you (perhaps re-introduce) to the habit of Biblical Meditation. I’m not talking about Bible reading. I’m referring to meditating – pondering, musing, considering, thinking deeply about God and all He has said and revealed in His Word. And our starting point is Josh. 1:8. After Moses died, this is what God said to Joshua.

 “This book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”

—Joshua 1:8

Whenever we talk about the habits we practice, the habits that position us to experience God’s presence, it’s always necessary to remind ourselves that there is nothing we can do to merit God’s grace or cause His grace to flow in our lives. David Mathis writes, “I can flip a switch, but I don’t provide the electricity. I can turn on a faucet, but I don’t make the water flow . . . so it is for the Christian with the ongoing grace of God. His grace is essential for our spiritual lives, but we don’t control the supply. We can’t make the favor of God flow, but he has given us circuits to connect and pipes to open expectantly.”

And Biblical Meditation is one of those conduits by which we can routinely avail ourselves of those paths of blessing, or neglect them to our detriment. So, my outline today falls under 4 headings – the value of Biblical Meditation, the nature of Biblical Meditation, the subject matter of Biblical Meditation, and the practice of Biblical Meditation. 1st, the value (excellence),

The Value of Biblical Meditation

Why is regular meditation on what God has communicated in His Word so important, so necessary, so excellent? In terms of spiritual life, it’s the difference between “prosperity and poverty”, strength and weakness, vibrancy and frailty, difference between substance and superficiality. Josh. 1:8 says, “Then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”

Now, it should be obvious that the promise held out here is not a guarantee of money or victory. The blessings are spiritual. Ps. 1:3, says the blessed person is the one whose “delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all he does, he prospers.”

Biblical meditation awakens the spirit of the lethargic, energizes the soul of the weary. It lifts the spirit of the downcast. And if we don’t practice this habit, the best we can hope for is a weak, disordered, sin-filled Christian life. When the LORD communicated himself to Joshua to encourage him for the task of conquering the Promised Land, He did not discuss military strategies or battle plans. Rather, God told Joshua that his greatest need was to live life meditating upon God’s Word. Why? It’s because God’s Word is the substance of our communion with God. It’s because Biblical meditation works in us a healthy reverence for God. And the reverential fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Biblical meditation engenders peace in God’s providence and hope in God’s promises. Biblical meditation engenders love for God and Christ. Biblical meditation weakens love for sin, and it intensifies hatred for sin. It strengthens. It nourishes all the best parts.  One Puritan author writes,

 “Little meditation makes lean Christians, of little life, little strength, little growth, and of little usefulness to others.”

—Nathanael Ranew

Which part of that would not be significant for a military commander, or a stay-at-home mom? And this is why our flesh, and Satan himself, oppose Biblical meditation like nothing else. Thomas Watson writes, “The devil is an enemy of meditation . . . He knows that meditation is a means to compose the heart, and to bring it into a gracious frame . . . Satan is content that you should be hearing and praying Christians, so that you be not meditating Christians. He can stand your small shot, provided you do not put in this bullet.”

In times past, Biblical meditation was considered to be the “supreme means of grace.” And listen, its neglect was considered the cause of every sin and all punishment. It was, and remains the habit of all habits – the exercise of all exercises. So, what exactly is it?

The Nature of Biblical Meditation

The first thing that can be said, is that meditation, in and of itself, is something that requires little help defining. We do it quite naturally. We do it all the time. Most simply, to meditate is to think. Meditating is imagining, contemplating, considering, brooding over something. In Ps. 39:3 David writes, “My heart became hot within me. As I mused, the fire burned.”

Meditating is musing. And musing has an effect. We think about something long enough, and our emotions are sure to follow. What happens when you rehearse in your mind some injustice or offense committed against you? Like David, our hearts become hot. What happens when you nurse some lustful imagination? Your heart becomes hot. Why do we lose our temper? Why do we fall in love? Why do spouses have affairs? Why do businesses get started? Why are some people sullen and discouraged? Why are others inspired to achieve great things? Strong actions, flow from strong affections, that flow from musing. I’ve been musing over this comment by a 19th cent. pastor.

“What is the wickedest part of a man’s life? It is his vain thoughts.”

—William Bates

The darkest, most sin-filled part of our lives are empty, unfruitful, unhelpful thoughts. Have you ever considered the most potentially dangerous part of your life is your vain imaginations? Empty fantasies? Unrealistic daydreams? Or the thoughts with which we assuage our anxieties in the night? Meditation is quite common. It means to think about, to dwell upon. Phil. 4:8 says, “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

Biblical meditation means to give careful thought to pure and praise-worthy things. Heb. 12:3 says, “Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.”

Consider. Direct your mind’s attention to an object. Immerse yourself in it. Jonathan Edwards was said to be able to take any subject and imagine it, consider it, and contemplate it in a “360 degree kind of way.” He would mentally walk around it. Ponder it from every angle. We have this capacity – when it comes to certain things. According to Luke 2:19, “Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.”

I’ve recently come across a treasure trove on Biblical meditation. It’s a useful book entitled, God’s Battle Plan for the Mind, written by David Saxton. Here are just couple examples of how the Puritans understood the nature of Biblical meditation.

 “Meditation is a holy exercise of the mind whereby we bring the truths of God to remembrance, and do seriously ponder upon them and apply them to ourselves.”

—Thomas Watson

 “Meditation is a deep and earnest musing upon some point of Christian instruction, to the strengthening up against the flesh, world, and devil . . . a steadfast bending of the mind to some spiritual matter, discovering of it with ourselves, till we bring the same to some profitable issue.”

—Isaac Ambrose

We don’t talk that way these days. But, perhaps, more significantly, that kind of “earnest musing” in our time of information overload, and endless media saturation, is nearly inconceivable. The TikTok feed of video content – changing every 7-12 seconds – has trained/conditioned a generation with an attention span where “steadfast bending of the mind” is nearly impossible. Even the analogies offered by contemporary theologians seem as challenging as running a marathon.

 “Hearing God’s Word is like one dip of the tea bag into the cup. Some of the tea’s flavor is absorbed by the water, but not as much as would occur with a more thorough soaking of the bag. Biblical meditation is like immersing the bag completely and letting it steep until all the rich tea flavor has been extracted.”

—Donald Whitney

Such is the nature, and the challenge of Biblical Meditation. And apart from the miracle of a regenerate heart, one will not discover the kind of joyful affection in it as experienced by the composer of Psalm 119, who writes, “Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. My eyes are awake before the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promise” (Psalm 119:148 ).

Another 19th century pastor writes, “What greater delight than to think on that God in whom he doth most delight? Though it be hard in regard of its practice, yet it may be sweet and delightful in regard to its profit . . . It is not a hard work for a man to be digging in the mines, digging up for silver, and yet delightful in regard to the profit” (William Bridge).

 We put up with back-breaking exertion, if there is hope for treasure. Even the most worrisome distractions are no match for a heart made new. 

 “Even though princes sit plotting against me, your servant will meditate on your statutes.”

—Psalm 119:23

And so we pray to God, Ps. 119:27, “Make me understand the way of your precepts, and (then) I will meditate on your wondrous works.”

Which leads, then, to – 

The Subject of Biblical Meditation

And the most obvious subject is all that God has communicated in His Word. Josh. 1:8 says, “This book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.”

The subject matter for Biblical meditation is all that God has communicated of Himself – ALL He has done, ALL He has said, and ALL He has made Himself known to be – as He has revealed it in His Word. This book and all the storehouses of treasure revealed in it – this is the subject matter of our pondering, our musing, our thinking, our considering, our remembering. And the aim of it is that God would stir up our affections, so as to direct and to govern our ambitions. The goal is that God might set our hearts on fire, so that we might cross the finish line, free from our besetting sins, and more and more like Jesus.

Consider the vast ocean depths of material by which God’s Word might ravish our thoughts? God, and all His attributes. The person, the offices, and the works of Jesus. The riches of the gospel, the glories of Calvary. The person and work of the Holy Spirit. The privileges of true believers. The benefits of trials and tribulations. Once again, it was the Puritans who emphasized certain Biblical subjects more than others – with a view to engendering care to persevere in doing all that is written in it. And those subjects included the foolishness and consequences of sin. Subjects designed to restrain particular temptations to sin. They were especially devoted to careful thought about eternity, and the certainty of death, and God’s sure judgment, as well as the glories of heaven, and the sobering reality of hell. Nathanael Ranew writes, “No man ever yet fled from hell, but first fixed his thoughts in some proportion on it. No man will fly fast enough from this pit of perdition, this lake of fire, if he do not oft look towards it, and keep his eye upon it.”

There is no sweeter prosperity, and no greater success than to gain that eternal pleasure to be had in heaven forever at God’s right hand. And finally, 

The Practice of Biblical Meditation

There is so much application we could give regarding the exhortation to meditation “day and night.” But I want to draw your attention to the structure we have intentionally built into the corporate approach we’ve taken at Emmaus Road Church. It begins here, with the sermons we preach in this place week in and week out. I trust it is apparent that your elders give careful thought, and serious attention to rightly handling and proclaiming God’s Word. 

And then, on Monday, one of our pastoral residents prepares and distributes thoughtful questions, along with the sermon manuscript, for the purpose of keeping our minds fixed, corporately, on what we’ve heard preached here. Our aim is that together we would remain in this Word – by reading again this Word, and thinking, and pondering, and musing on this Word. Our prayer is that you would pray over and through the Word that was preached. Meditate on it.

And then, those of you who have joined us in the covenant of church membership, gather in what we call “discipleship huddles” where we read and hear the Word again. And our aim and purpose is that you would think and ponder and consider the Word together. What could possibly work the text from our minds into our hearts and lives better than talking it through, and praying it through together.

And then, Caleb Dirnberger plans the song set we sing at the beginning of this worship gathering. And when he prayerfully plans that set, he intentionally chooses songs that relate to the focus of the sermon from the previous week. And by this practice we are seeking to direct the meditation of your minds back to God’s Word again and again and again. The puritans believed that “without meditation, truths might be devoured, but not digested.” 

Educational psychologists tell us that if we are introduced to a compelling truth, and that truth is not reflected on and applied, the next compelling truth cancels out the first. And that’s the reason so much contemporary Christianity is thoughtless, superficial, and self-absorbed. We hear a sermon on Sunday, we listen to pod-casts on the way to and from work on Mon.-Fri. We go to Bible-study on Tues., listen to another sermon while working out at the gym on Wed. Twitter feeds us a constant intake of news and comment. There are videos upon videos alerting us to every possible danger to our Christian convictions. Some of us have 3-5 books going at any one time. Now, there are certainly professing Christians who are spiritually starving themselves to death. But there are others who eat and eat while barely digesting one thing into their systems. If this aging pastor could offer you one small practical exhortation - less is more. 

350 years ago, James Ussher wrote,

 “One hour spent thus (i.e. meditating – digesting God’s Word), is worth more than a thousand sermons, and this is no debasing of the word, but an honor unto it.”

—James Ussher

If there is one habit (one exercise) by which you will train yourself – position yourself in the path of God’s lavish and transforming grace – go to the Lord for this skill of meditation on His Word. There is an art, and divine competency to it, that we can organize, but ultimate which none can teach but God alone. Would you have it? Then go to God for it. And then you shall make the way of your soul prosperous, and then you shall gain the eternal finished life with good success. Let’s pray.