The title of this article contains such a key question: how exactly do we go about meditating on God’s Word? In our last article (Tidings, March-April 2011) we examined how bible meditation is crucial for forsaking our naturally fleshly minds and raising our thoughts higher to Godly thoughts. We saw that meditating on the Scriptures is critical if we want to truly become children of the Father. While last time we looked at the purpose of Bible study, in this article we will examine how we do Bible study. We will take a look at the two main types of meditation, and then discuss a couple Bible study tools.
Siyach and Nabat
Let’s take a look at Psalm 119, the longest chapter of the Bible. This psalm contains a variety of good points about Bible meditation, but for now we are going to zero in on one verse. Take a look at Psalm 119 verse 15:
“I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways” (Psa 119:15).
The word for “meditate” here in the Hebrew is “siyach” (pronounced “see-yock”)1. It means both “to ponder” and “to converse with oneself.” Therefore, the idea conveyed by “siyach” is that we are to sit down and simply think about God’s principles. I especially like the idea of “conversing with oneself.” We can literally discuss God’s Word with ourselves in our own minds. We might ponder, “Why did God make a law like that in the Law of Moses? Perhaps for this reason… maybe this reason…” You get the basic idea. We do the same sort of thinking all the time with personal problems, about whether we made a right or wrong decision, about solving a puzzle from school or work, and a myriad of other things. So the nice thing about this is that it really isn’t a new idea to us; we just have to take it and apply it to the Scripture!
Now let’s take a look at a phrase from this verse, “have respect unto.” The Hebrew is “nabat” (pronounced “naw-bat”). “Nabat” means “to scan” or “to look intently at.” This is the usual Bible study idea of sitting down and pouring over the pages of Scripture. Therefore, we see that it isn’t just about pondering God’s Word, but it’s also about diligently scanning the pages as well. Sitting down with the Word of God is a huge part of our meditation, and we can’t neglect it. It can be difficult, because this part of bible meditation is the one of which everyone is scared. I know that sounds funny, but it’s true. We don’t like sitting down to look intently at the pages of Scripture because we feel like we don’t know how. When I was first baptized I hardly read my Bible because I felt like I wasn’t good enough or smart enough to find anything worthwhile. That type of thinking is dead wrong. God designed His Word so that — as we have said before — everyone could find His principles there. Let’s take a quick look at another verse from Psalm 119.
“The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple” (Psa 119:130).
God assures us that even if we think of ourselves as the simplest of people, His Word can still be a shining light to us. So if you feel like you aren’t smart enough to find the gems of wisdom in God’s word, think again, because you can!
Powerful Bible Meditation Tools
So we just looked at how there are two main types of Bible meditation: we can indirectly meditate on the Scripture when we don’t have a Bible with us, and we can directly scan the pages when we do have one with us. Keep in mind that often Bible meditation will be a mix of these two things, and not just one or the other. The tools we will be looking at will usually be useful for both types of meditation. So let’s begin! Our first Bible meditation tool is…
Asking Questions. Wow, I cannot stress this enough. Asking questions is an incredibly powerful tool for searching the Scriptures! When we ask questions it does a few different things. Firstly, it shows us what we don’t know. Secondly, it gives a focus for study: instead of meandering around the pages and picking up general points, a question makes us focus on finding a specific answer. In other words, it gives us a goal that we can work towards. Thirdly, questions force us to get our mental turbines revved up to start thinking about or searching for what the answer could be.
Jesus gives us great examples of this. Let’s turn up one so that we can see the power of a question in action.
“While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The Son of David. He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son? And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions” (Matt 22:41-46).
Again and again in the Gospels we read about how Jesus is the son of God, yet the religious leaders refuse to accept that the Messiah could be God’s son. In fact, they outright called it blasphemy! In this passage from Matthew, Jesus forced the religious leaders to think about their understanding of the Scriptures by posing two questions. The second one he asked was, “If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?” See, a son was lower than his father and therefore could call him “lord,” but never the other way around! Sons are always subservient to the father. The implied answer is that even though the Messiah is a descendent of David, he is also the son of God, and therefore, David could call him Lord. When the Pharisees were forced to stop and think about the question they slowly began to realize the answer…and they didn’t like it one bit. In fact, they were afraid to talk to him anymore!
So we see that Jesus used questions about the Scripture as an impressively effective teaching device. In the same way, instead of assuming we already know the answers like the Pharisees, we can learn from the Word by asking questions.
The Three C’s.
Like questions, the “Three C’s” is a simple concept and easy to remember. They are: Context, Cross-references, and Common Sense. Let’s begin with Context.
Context is basically just looking at where a single verse, passage, chapter, book, or group of books fits into the surrounding verses, passages, chapters, book, or books. Verses may appear to say one thing until we take the time to look at the context after that we will realize they were saying something quite different! A good example of this is in Corinthians.
“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him” (1Cor 2:9).
This verse is commonly interpreted to indicate that the Kingdom will be so good that we haven’t seen, heard, or even imagined how good it will be. It certainly seems to say that doesn’t it? Let’s take a look at the verse in its context by including the verse before it.
“Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1Cor 2:8).
In this chapter Paul described how the “princes of this world” did not understand the wisdom of the Scripture, and because they did not understand, they ended up crucifying Jesus! Paul supported this with the verse, “Eye hath not seen…” This verse describes how men ignored the Word of God and because of that, ended up murdering their Messiah! Clearly, this is not a reference to the Kingdom.
The next “C”, cross-references, are pretty simple and self-explanatory, but all too often overlooked. If you aren’t too sure about a verse, or you simply want to find more information, check your cross-reference column and look up those verses! You’d be amazed at how much you can learn just by looking up another passage.
Finally, common sense is describing how we need to think about what we are reading. From this we can learn obvious details from the divine Word that aren’t explicitly stated. For example, think about the “woman with a flow of blood” described in Matt 9, Mark 5, and Luke 8. Here is a quick quote from Luke’s account.
“But as he went the people thronged him. And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any, came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched” (Luke 8:42-44).
It seems like just a simple little story at first doesn’t it? However, if we apply “common sense” then we’ll see some details come to life. It isn’t explicitly stated in the gospels, but the woman was “unclean” by the Law of Moses (Lev 15:19, 25). Anyone and everything she touched would also be made unclean. Imagine how this woman would have been shunned by society! She also went to many physicians, but none of them could do a thing. She was feeling shamed, weak, and hopeless by this point. We read in the gospel accounts that crowds of people were packed around Jesus; perhaps hundreds or thousands of them. This poor, sick woman has been losing blood for twelve years; think of how difficult it would have been for her to reach him! She was desperate, and it took every last ounce of strength she had to just barely reach out and touch the fringe of his garment. Ever think about that? Why did she touch the fringe of his garment? Perhaps because she didn’t have the strength to get any closer than that!
Now take a step back and look at all we put together just by using a bit of common sense! These were all details that, though they were not stated, seem true when we take a moment to think about the story. The story really came to life, and this was only with a quick look!
Conclusions
You may feel that even equipped with these tools that you still won’t be as great at Bible study as John Thomas, or Robert Roberts, or some other student. The good news is…you don’t have to be! God doesn’t expect us all to be at the same level in terms of what we can find in His Word. What God does expect of us is that we put our whole hearts into the effort of meditating on His Word that we might think and act like Him.
God, in his wisdom, has also designed the Bible so that there is something for everyone: little children can learn from a bible story like Noah’s Ark, but then a seasoned bible student can come along and learn different lessons from the same exact story! As long as we put in our best efforts then we will, indeed, reap spiritual benefits.
I hope that this two part meditation has been useful to you in understanding the importance of knowing the mind of the Father. May He bless you and keep you until our Lord Jesus returns.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One