What does is mean to meditate on Scripture?

Meditation on Scripture is something the Bible instructs us to do. It is more than just concentration. It comes from a Hebrew word (maggah) meaning “to murmur” or “mutter,” or the word suach meaning “to talk to oneself.” The New Testament word equivalent means “to ponder or imagine,” such as in Luke 2:19 where Mary “pondered things in her heart.”

Meditation differs from studying in that studying focuses on understanding while meditation focuses at obedience. When we study, we ask questions of a text while meditating is responsive and we let the text ask us questions. Studying is head work. Meditating is heart work. Meditating may focus on a single phrase or word of a verse.

Meditating helps us to ask, “What is God saying to me?” and respond to God like Samuel did with, “Speak, Lord, your servant will hear.”

Meditating centers around taking in Scripture or a Biblical story as we would food. We take it before the Lord in quietness and begin to digest it until it becomes a part of us. If our Bible studying is solely from a critical or evaluative approach, we will only end up agreeing with what it says. That doesn’t always meant that we HEAR HIM. To meditate on Scripture means that we are catching the Spirit.
Psalm 1:2 says that the righteous man meditates on his law “day and night.” That means in the good times and bad (when the light is shining and when it isn’t). The more we meditate on God’s Word, the deeper it soaks into our spirits. When it comes alive inside of us, we discover that His power ignites us and it becomes our desire to follow Him more closely.

Take time to meditate on the verses as you go through these daily exercises. If you do, they will become more personal as God’s Word clears your thinking.

In Him,
Richard Linberry