What does Biblical Meditation look like?

Do you struggle in your faith? Many of those struggles can stem from lies that we believe about ourselves, God, or others. I describe the process of uncovering those lies and replacing them with truth from the Bible in my BUILD method. You can download a free overview here.

One of the spiritual disciplines that can be very helpful in replacing those lies with truth is Biblical meditation.

Meditation gets a bad rap in Christian circles. In some ways, it’s for good reason. When you think about “meditation”, what comes to mind? For many, they picture someone sitting in a yoga pose with their eyes closed and fingers in a circle position. That’s a typical reference to Eastern meditation, which is NOT something the Christ follower should be involved in. Eastern meditation involves emptying one’s mind, or focusing on a single object in order to encourage mental discipline and focus.

Biblical meditation, on the other hand, involves thinking and mulling Scripture over in our minds. The Hebrew word that is used for “meditate” in both Joshua 1:8 and Psalm 1:2 means to “murmur, ponder, imagine, to growl, utter, speak, muse, or imagine” (Strong’s Concordance). It’s also the same word in Psalm 2:1 that is translated “plot” or “devise”. Clearly there’s a lot of thought going on in Biblical meditation, rather than just a focus on one physical object.

Where does Biblical meditation fit into our lives? When we meditate on Scripture, we mull it over in our minds, we think about what it means and how it affects our lives. Many times, meditation is combined with memorizing a verse and studying it. It’s all wrapped up together. When we memorize a verse or verses, rather than just committing the words to memory (which can be done mindlessly), we are thinking about them. What do they mean? How do they impact my life? How do they counter the lies I find myself believing?

I’ve been slowly working my way through the book of Ephesians this summer. I’ve read it many times before, memorized portions of it, studied it - it’s not new to me. This time, I’m trying to memorize as much of it as possible, but not just so I can read back words. I’m really trying to meditate on it as I go. Some days that means just thinking about one verse throughout the day.

I’ve been marked in Christ with a seal… The Holy Spirit is a deposit guaranteeing my inheritance… (Ephesians 1:13-14) A deposit - that means that there’s more to come. Like a down payment on a house or a vehicle. So the Holy Spirit is just the beginning of what God has in store for me. What does that mean to me today? What does it say about how God feels about me? My value? Do I only have both the deposit and the future inheritance based on what I produce? No, it’s just based on my believing. That helps to counter my feeling like I also have to be performing to earn God’s love…

That line of thinking could also branch into looking up other verses about the Holy Spirit and His role in my life. I could also investigate the idea of an inheritance. Where else does the Bible talk about our inheritance?

Meditating can happen just in our minds. It can also be something that we write out in a journal. The meaning of the word meditate also suggests speaking out loud. If there was ever a good excuse to talk to yourself, this would be it!

I heard an interview with Makoto Fujimura recently where he talked about his practice of taking one Psalm per month, listening to it spoken each morning, and working on an ongoing painting based on that Psalm. What a unique way to meditate on verses! I have no idea what his paintings looks like - does he try to paint the images in the Psalm (trees, pits, musical instruments, etc) or does he paint his own interpretation of the Psalm… I’m sure there’s no right or wrong way to do it. It’s whatever makes those verses come alive. It’s a way of processing what they mean and how they impact our lives.

I’m not artistic, but I’ve taken verses and tried to illustrate them. It forces me to try and attach concrete images to more vague concepts. How would you illustrate “peace”? “Reconciliation”? “Judgment”? Illustrating those concepts forces us to think abut what they mean.

If you speak another language, learning a verse in another language is a good way to rethink what it means. Different English translations can also make is think.

How can you incorporate Biblical meditation into your life?