How to Meditate on Scripture

Today we talk about Scripture meditation as a spiritual discipline. A failure to meditate on Scripture is the reason why many Christians fail to grow spiritually and are often times called hypocrites who are no better than their non-believing counterparts. This is probably the second or third most important spiritual discipline that you can learn after going to church, having a Bible reading plan, and praying.

We’re going to study Psalm 19, which argues why Scripture meditation is important, and how meditation influences your daily lives, and then I’m going to share a simple way to meditate on Scripture.

7 The law of the LORD is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the testimony of the LORD is sure,
making wise the simple;
8 the precepts of the LORD are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the LORD is pure,
enlightening the eyes;
9 the fear of the LORD is clean,
enduring forever;
the rules of the LORD are true,
and righteous altogether.
10 More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
and drippings of the honeycomb.
11 Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.
12 Who can discern his errors?
Declare me innocent from hidden faults.
13 Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins;
let them not have dominion over me!
Then I shall be blameless,
and innocent of great transgression.
14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in your sight,
O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.

Psalm 19:7-14 ESV

Verses 7–9 present six different terms for the “law of the LORD” (law, statutes, precepts, commands, fear and decrees of the Lord) and then praises it by describing it as perfect, trustworthy, right, radiant, pure and firm. The purpose here is to tantalize and attract the reader to the law because of its benefits. (Longman III, Psalms: An Introduction and Commentary, 2014).

In understanding what God’s Law is, we find our first reason to meditate upon it. On what firmer foundation could you build your life than something that is altogether perfect, trustworthy, right, radiant, pure and firm? I love the combination of adjectives.

I want to share two reasons why you want to practice Scripture meditation into your daily spiritual discipline and then give you a method to practice it.

First, Scripture meditation transforms the lives of the people who practice it. Look at Joshua 1:8. The Bible 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. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

Joshua 1:8

This is what God tells Joshua when Joshua becomes the leader of Israel after Moses. He says this is the key to leadership and ultimately the key to life.

Second, meditation on God’s Word reveals the brokenness of our hearts. You can really see this in verses 11 through 14 in this passage in Psalms. God shows the Psalmist his brokenness through meditation because without meditation, the Psalmist could not discern his own errors — that he is broken. Scripture meditation reveals his hidden faults, and cautions over presumptuous sin. Through its wisdom, God leads the Psalmist into innocence, and God becomes his rock and redeemer. If you desire a reformed heart or just want to love God, or experience the joy offered to us in our relationship with Jesus, then we must learn to meditate on God’s Word regularly.

The Easy Scripture Meditation Method

1. Have a plan to read the Bible regularly every day.
2. Select a small enough passage. Let’s go to Philippians 1. There are 6 paragraphs in this chapter. I read this in the morning today. We’re going to meditate on verses 3-11 for example. That’s what I did today.
3. Formulate a principle from the paragraph. This is simply asking: what does this small piece of Scripture teach us? Do this in one or two sentences: pray for each person individually as I remember people on a daily basis because God is working in you to do something through you.
4. Find a way to apply it today. This is where the meditation is. Finding a way to apply it in your life will cause you to think about (meditate) on the scripture.

That’s all it is. So easy. The hard part is actually doing this regularly. But I hope this method makes it easier for you to do.

Homework:

Meditate on at least 5 passages of scripture in the next week and use the comments below to share what happened as a result.