One of the things that teachers train young students to do when they are first learning to write is to begin with a “hook”. A hook is a compelling thought or bold claim in the first paragraph that grabs the reader’s attention and makes them want to read more. It can be a shocking statement that ensures people want to listen to the author.
Applying that concept, the hook in this blog post is as follows: your goal should not be to read scripture every day. Yes, your goal should not be to open up God’s word on a daily basis and read it.
Well with many hooks, there is a caveat that follows. Obviously reading scripture on a daily basis is good, it is foundational. But the reason why that should not be your goal is that it is not quite sufficient; reading, and reading alone, is not enough. Rather, your goal as a Christian should be to meditate on and remember God’s word every day. Too often, we read in the morning and then forget what we read. Therefore, we see God commands constant meditation and an active calling to mind what he has said in the scriptures. This flows from reading, but goes beyond what reading alone accomplishes.
A Mandate to Meditate
In Psalm 1, which along with the second Psalm serves as a foundational pillar to the whole Psalter, the psalmist contrasts the righteous with the wicked. We read,
1 Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
3 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 that he does, he prospers.
Psalm 1
One of the key differences between the two contrasted groups (the righteous and the wicked) is that the righteous man delights in and meditates on the law of the Lord day and night (Ps 1:2). He is constantly thinking about God’s law and, therefore, lives a prosperous, fruitful, and rich life (Ps 1:3). Hence, Psalm 1 is laying out a clear choice to the reader, then and now: if you want to be the righteous man instead of the wicked, you must likewise meditate on the law of the Lord.
Now unfortunately, when we think of meditation, we often think of Eastern meditation, in which the goal is to empty your mind. That is not biblical meditation. Rather, meditation according to God is a filling of your mind with God’s truth. We could define it as thinking about something constantly, night and day being consumed by thoughts about a certain verse or passage or concept. Subsequently, memorization is simply doing that to such an extent that you commit those verses to long term memory.
Meditation is commanded in God’s word far more often than simply reading. There are many reasons for this, but at a high level it is because meditation is more effective at actually changing our hearts compared to only reading. To borrow an analogy from Don Whitney, reading scripture is like putting a tea bag into hot water for a single second, and then pulling it out, while meditation is letting a tea bag sit and steep in the hot water for a long time. One actually makes tea, while the other simply gets the tea bag wet. So our aim is meditation and not simply reading but letting the word steep in our mind.
And if we meditate well, we will kill two birds with one stone. If we routinely think about what God has said in his word, the natural outflow will be a greater memorization of that word, because it is always on our mind.
The Why
But, you might ask, what do these two things actually accomplish? What is their purpose and fruit biblically? We can highlight a couple chief reasons why these are so important to the Christian life. First, we are called to be saturated in God’s word to such an extent that it impacts every single thing we do. Like Joshua, who was commanded to “meditate on [the Law] day and night, so that [he would] be careful to do according to all that is written in it (Josh 1:8, emphasis mine), we also are to think about God’s word enough that we might follow all that it commands. Since God’s word has application to all of life, we must be thinking about it enough that we can actually apply it to all that we do.
Second, what we do, how we act, flows from what we think about. We are commanded to think about what is true, think about what is honorable, think about what is lovely, and think about all things that are excellent (Phil 4:8). This is a command to meditate—to ponder all that is good and beautiful in God’s word. And then, only after we think about those things, we can move from thinking to doing, and actually “practice these things” that we have thought about (Phil 4:9). If you struggle to think about God’s word, then you will find it impossible to obey God’s word. Thinking always precedes any sort of action.
A last purpose, specifically in regards to memorization, is that knowing God’s word from the heart is one of our biggest defenses against sin. We are to follow the example of the Psalmist and “store up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” (Ps 119:11). By storing up, memorizing, the commands and words of God, we are actually kept from our sin. Having truth already stored up in our mind is one of the primary means by which the Lord protects us from our fleshly desires.
How to Get Started
Practically, putting this into practice should not be overly complicated. You can pick one verse from what you read in the morning to come back to throughout the day. You can look at nature and think, “what scripture can I remember that talks about some object I am looking at?” For example, a tree or a stream of water could bring your mind back to Psalm 1, referenced above, to remind yourself of the importance of meditation. Or you can simply try and bring to bear scripture you know to a situation you are in. If you are interested in learning more, consider listening to this sermon on the importance of meditation as well.
In regards to memorization, there is strength in numbers. In other words, have some sort of accountability in order to actually build the habit. This can be a spouse or friend that holds you accountable to be regularly memorizing scripture or, better yet, you should just memorize scripture with that spouse or friend regularly. Getting practical, the Bible Memory app is one of the best tools to help you build this habit, especially for individual verses.
However, I would strongly recommend also memorizing larger passages of scripture, not just individual verses. You can pick one passage (maybe Psalm 1 above to remind you of the rationale for memorization) and just work through it verse by verse until the whole passage is committed to memory. The best way to do this is on day one, read verse 1 five to ten times, then say it from memory five to ten times. Then on day two, read verse 2 five to ten times, then say it from memory five to ten times, and then say verses 1 and 2 together five to ten times. Keep repeating this process until you have the whole passage down. For a deeper explanation of this process, see the bottom of this article.
Regardless of how you get there, what matters is that you land in a place where you are meditating on and memorizing the word of God, as he commands us. This will not happen with weak effort or mere verbal assent, however; some system or habit will be needed, as we by nature will not do these things. A boulder does not need any force to roll downhill. But to get a boulder uphill requires a plan and effort. In the same way, for one to grow in the discipline of meditation will require a concerted plan and a formation of regular habits.
The Weight of the Command
In the church, we have a tendency to pick and choose which commands are most weighty and which can almost be viewed as optional—like the Pharisees, we can tithe our dill and cumin but ignore justice and mercy (Matt 23:23). Relevant to us, we can emphasize our daily Bible reading but ignore meditation and memorization. For whatever reason, we view reading as mandatory and meditation as optional.
This ought not to be. We must follow all of God’s commands and steward our thoughts and minds well. Just like we steward our time and treasure and talents for the glory of God, we also ought to be intentional in stewarding our thought life well, for his glory. It is a stewardship issue that ought to be taken seriously, just like other aspects of our life.
So we conclude with a pointed question—will you put in the effort to meditate on and memorize God’s word? Failing to do so is not an issue of interpretation nor an issue of ignorance; rather, it is an obedience issue. As Joel Beeke has said, “Thinking takes time; thinking is work. But thinking is not wasted time. Many Christians get nothing from the Bible not because they are ignorant but because they are thoughtless. At the very least, this exhibits irreverence toward God’s holy word.” Said differently, though it is hard, we must take seriously the command to fill our minds with thoughts about the word of God. A lack of meditation shows a lack of care and respect for the word and the author of the word.
So let us not be thoughtless Christians. Let us be Christians that taste and see that God’s word is sweeter than honey and more to be desired than gold (Ps 19:10), fixing our mind and eyes on his commandments all our days (Ps 119:6).
Discussion Questions
What, if any, are your current habits with reading, meditating, and/or memorizing?
What are the benefits and purposes of meditation/memorization? Can you think of others not mentioned in the above blog post?
What are other biblical examples of someone meditating on God’s word or being obviously filled with scripture?
What could a plan or habit look like to make this a regular part of your discipleship?
