The Meditation of Our Heart

Today's sermon will be the continuation of the series that I've been walking through on our spiritual disciplines. So this will be part four. Up to this point, I've covered the topic of prayer, Bible study, and fasting. And as we walk through these topics, brethren, hopefully we're seeing and acknowledging that these things go hand in hand to form an overall package. And the intent of these principles is to help to strengthen our spiritual relationship with God and us spiritually. So you can't take any of these specific elements of our spiritual disciplines and say, well, I'll just choose that one or I don't want that one. If you said, I'll just take prayer, but apart from Bible study, it would be insufficient.

Prayer is good. Prayer isn't important. But apart from God's Word, how would we know of the being we pray to? What it is that he would like to hear? What is his mind and his character and that which we're to be developing? How would we even approach God apart from knowing his Word and understanding those things? And so what we understand is prayer, Bible study, fasting, and meditation, which I will cover today, work together hand in hand as a package. And again, it strengthens that relationship. Because this very much is a relationship which is back and forth, communication, growth of interaction, and it's more than a friendship.

Again, that relationship that takes place. And it doesn't take place apart from effective communication. We communicate with God. He responds to us. We hear his words. We have his spirit. We consider what it is that he gives to us, and we respond back towards him. And our response towards him needs to be in terms of moving from the carnal man to now taking on his character and his nature. This is a relationship. It's a family relationship, as we heard in the first message, and we're all in this together.

So today I would like to talk about the spiritual discipline of meditation. When I say meditation, what comes to your mind? Well, there's meditation in the society around us, but is that the same as what we find in Scripture? When you think of meditation, maybe you're thinking of somebody sitting on the floor with their legs crossed in some fashion, their eyes closed, doing something with their hands, maybe humming or saying some word repeatedly. There are forms of meditation that involve that, but is that biblical meditation?

What does God want us to learn from his Scripture in terms of what this type of meditation should be? I want to open today in Psalm 49 and verse 3. We're just going to look at one verse today. We'll get more on one verse today, but one verse to start. Psalm 49 and verse 3, this sort of sets the groundwork for us in terms of what biblical meditation looks like.

Again, a very simple verse. Psalm 49 and verse 3. The psalmist says here, My mouth shall speak wisdom, and the meditation of my heart shall give understanding. He said, The meditation of my heart shall give understanding. At the core, and the base principle and purpose of meditation, as we find in Scripture, is for the gaining and the clarity and the understanding that God's Word provides. Meditation very much, as I said in society, and we'll walk into that a little bit, it takes on a different form than what we see in God's Word. But meditating on God's Word, internalizing it, taking the time to study and think and process, the end result and point is to lead to understanding.

And then, out of response to that understanding, we draw closer to God in our relationship with Him. Now, again, meditation, as the concept is in our society around us, is oftentimes different than that. What we see promoted and what's common, maybe what's right down the street from you, or what you find just turning on the television and flipping through the channels, is oftentimes an Eastern form of meditation, a transcendental meditation.

Perhaps it's yoga. Again, certain meditations that have sort of become the craze, I would say, in our society in terms of what we think of and what people around us would engage in in terms of meditation. But I want to compare those types of meditation to what we find, indeed, in the Scripture, and see what the outcome is to be. I want to read to you an excerpt from an article taken from webmd.com, and the title is Transcendental Meditation. Again, a common form of meditation in the society around us today.

It says, quote, Transcendental Meditation, or TM, as they call it, is a technique for avoiding distracting thoughts and promoting a state of relaxed awareness. And that of it by itself doesn't sound too bad, you know, distracting thoughts. Clear those out and get your mind focused and aware.

It says, the late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi derived transcendental meditation from the ancient Vedic tradition of India. He brought that technique to the U.S. in the 1960s, and from there it has increased in popularity. It says, while meditating, the person practicing TM sits in a comfortable position with eyes closed, silently repeats a mantra.

A mantra is a word or a sound from the Vedic tradition that is used to focus your concentration. According to supporters of Transcendental Meditation, when meditating, the ordinary thinking process is transcended. Hence the name, Transcendental Meditation. You're transcending from your normal conscious focus to another level.

It says, it's replaced by a state of pure consciousness. In this state, the meditator achieves perfect stillness, rest, stability, order, and a complete absence of mental boundaries.

Again, this is a common type of meditation that goes on around us and is taught and is researched and people are involved in. Is a consciousness that is transcended or a complete absence from mental boundaries, is that what God intends when we see meditation within the scripture?

Again, think back on what we read in that verse and what we described earlier. Meditation in the scripture is the focusing of one's thoughts. It's actually to ponder, to consider, to muse deeply on something. Again, it's for the purpose of achieving understanding. Pull a verse out of the Bible and you meditate on it in order to come to wrap your mind around it in an understanding that God would have us to achieve. That is different from transcending into a state of complete absence from mental boundaries.

I want to quote for you from one more article. This one comes from Christianity Today magazine from November 1st, 2004. The title is Dangerous Meditations. It's written by Douglas Gruthis. Again, Christianity Today. And it says, quote, Overstressed Americans are increasingly turning to various forms of Eastern meditation, particularly yoga, in search of relaxation and spirituality. Underlying these meditative practices, however, is a worldview in conflict with Biblical spirituality, though many Christians are unwisely practicing yoga. It says, Many Eastern religions teach that the source of salvation is found within, and that the fundamental human problem is not sin against a holy God, but ignorance of our true condition. These worldviews advocate meditation and higher forms of consciousness as a way to discover a secret inner divinity. It's the concept that everything that you need is actually within you. It's just a matter of accessing that resource, and that the divine is within you. If you can just transcend to that conscious level and access those things, you'll have what you need. It says, Yoga, deeply rooted in Hinduism, essentially means to be yoked with the divine. Yogic postures, breathing and chanting were originally designed not to bring better physical health and well-being, that is largely a Western marketing to the contrary, but a sense of oneness with Braham, B-R-A-H-M-A-N, Brahman, the Hindu word for the absolute being that pervades all things. It says this is pantheism, the concept that all is divine and not Christianity. Transcendental meditation is a veiled form of Hindu yoga, though it claims to be a religiously neutral method of relaxation and rejuvenation. Initiates to transcendental meditation receive a mantra, a Hindu holy word, to repeat while sitting in yogic postures and engaging in yogic breathing. The goal is to find God within their own beings, since God, Brahman, and Self, Atman, are really one. Differences in various forms of Eastern meditation aside, they all aim to supposedly a higher or altered state of consciousness. Meditation guides claim that normal consciousness obscures sacred realities, therefore the meditation is practiced in order to suspend rational patterns of thought. As you can see, brethren, this form of meditation is quite different than what we're going to see as we walk through Scripture in what God would have us experience as His people in the type of meditation we're to engage in. God's Word does not tell us to clear our minds, to transcend to another state of awareness or consciousness, or actually to fill our minds with certain things. Now, there are things we're to push out of our mind as well, but that comes by our conscious effort and our study of God's Word. Biblical meditation consists of reflective thinking. It's a deep contemplation on a specific subject in order to discern what is being addressed, what is the lesson I'm to learn, what would God have me to internalize in my life so that there is a change that takes place. It's never in any sense just opening our mind to see what comes in that enlightens us. Indeed, we have to be careful about those things, brethren. Again, it's reflective thinking. We won't turn here, but I want to give you just a couple of Scriptures to consider. 2 Corinthians 10 and verse 5 tells us to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Grab hold of those things that are in our mind, those thoughts, those concepts, and evaluate them against the stature of the fullness of Jesus Christ. How do they measure up? How do they compare? If they don't measure up in a positive way, we need to remove those concepts from our very thinking.

But again, the stature of the fullness of Christ, that's the focus that we should be meditating on. Also, Romans 12, verse 2, which tells us, Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And so there is a transformation. There's a renewal process that takes place, but it's not a transcending in terms of from your conscious state of awareness into another level. No, it's a renewal by which we move from the carnal man to the stature of the fullness of Jesus Christ by God's help in his spirit. It is a transformation and a renewal that we engage in on very much a conscious level. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. So the point is to come to understanding, to come to a deeper knowledge of who God is, what his purpose is, why he's called you, what is your purpose in the plan of God. Again, we do these things that we may prove that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. The goal of biblical meditation is to internalize and personalize the things of God so that they affect how we think and how we live. We're ultimately talking about a character change. It's not enough just simply to read the Word of God. Maybe we can memorize some scriptures as memory scriptures. We ought to be doing those things, but the point is, what change does it bring about in our life? Does it become instilled in us to the point that it becomes a change in character? That we live this way not simply because we've memorized the words, but we live it because it is now who and what we are. That we've meditated on these words, made them a part of our ongoing thinking. Now we live as God and Christ would have us live according to the same character. Again, because it is who and what we are.

That is the goal of in-depth meditation into the scripture. I want to caution all of us, again, to be careful. The type of meditation we would involve ourselves in. The type of mental rejuvenation practices that we might pursue. Anything that opens up our mind, that releases and lets our guard down. That's why alcoholism is a threat to our spirituality. That is a reason as well as why drug abuse can be a threat to our spiritual reality. Physical things aside, but spiritually, because it lets down the guard of our mind and it opens us up for other influences to come walking in. And scripture shows us, indeed, as God's people, we are to guard the door of our mind.

Careful what we let in. Careful what we would open ourselves up to, or even let our consciousness go in response to. Don't get hypnotized. Don't play games with these things. It is indeed a serious matter.

God's Holy Spirit is a spirit of power and of love. And you can finish the sentence, right? A sound mind.

So it's God's Spirit in us, working with us, in dwelling in our life, that brings sound-mindedness. If you want to meditate on something, meditate on the things of God by which the inspiration of God's Spirit guides and directs you.

I didn't look up the exact scripture reference. You can do that. But the verses that talk about the peace of God. Because you see, meditation claims around us tell us, well, this is for relaxation, rejuvenation, peace of mind, clarity of mind. Those are things that come by God's Spirit and by His Word. And the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your heart and mind through Jesus Christ our Lord.

What's the peace of God that surpasses all understanding?

It's the peace that's not dependent on the conditions on the ground around you.

It's the peace that comes by His Spirit if you, in fact, yield yourself to Him.

Jesus Christ told the disciples before His arrest and crucifixion, You know, my peace I leave with you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither be afraid. And yet He's getting ready to be delivered up to the Jews and then ultimately crucified. And Christ said, I'm at peace. And I'm offering you the opportunity to be at peace in that same way as well.

Again, that's a peace that surpasses the understanding of what the world would look at and say, You know what? You're in the midst of some great trial, some medical emergency, some financial catastrophe, and yet you're at peace. How can that be?

It's not because of transcendental meditation. It's because God and His Spirit dwell in you and you are yielded to Him.

I want to look at some scriptures that will help to illustrate for us meditation in God's Word. Let's go to Joshua, chapter 1.

Joshua 1. We'll pick it up in verse 5. The context here is Moses has died, now the mantle of leadership. Being past the Joshua, he'll now have the responsibility to bring God's people into the Promised Land.

This is God's message to Joshua. Joshua, chapter 1 and verse 5 says, So the instructions to Joshua was, take my people forward courageously, but according to this Word. According to the law that I've commanded you. That's to be in your lips and on your heart. Don't turn from the right hand or the left hand.

Verse 8, he says, So Joshua was to not only read the Word of God, but he was to study it. He was to meditate it on it.

And he was to internalize it. That's how it would be on his lips and how he would not turn aside from it. Because again, it would be ingrained in him, becoming who and what he was. That would be guided and led by the Word of God and the Spirit of God. And that is what his character would be yielded to. But to meditate on God's Word, it's more than just a mass consumption, just a quick readover.

It's taking time to slow down, to study, to think, what's the message God's delivering? How does this apply in my life? How do I live it today?

The point of meditation, again, is not simply to clear our mind, let anything fill our head. Rather, it's to be thinking deeply on the things of God, to be contemplating his laws and his ways, his commandments, considering how they work. Why do they work? Why did God even give them to us to begin with? And what is the benefit to my life through having lived these things?

Do you meditate on the blessing of God's Word in your life?

How many mistakes it saves you from?

The guidance and direction it gives you as you encounter circumstances in life, and you're not sure, do I turn to the left hand or do I turn to the right hand?

We'll look at a scripture in a few moments that indeed shows us God's Word is a counselor, and we need to internalize that if we're going to have wise counsel to draw upon.

Christian meditation is a peaceful activity.

That's what meditation is often touted for. It's a calming of the senses of the mind, and Christian Biblical meditation is a peaceful activity. We open our mind up to the Word of God and His truth and His Spirit, and it pushes out that which is in opposition, and it calms our spirit.

Again, the goal of Biblical meditation is to internalize and personalize the things of God so that they affect how we think and how we live each and every day.

Let's go to Psalm 1.

Psalm 1, King David, wrote very often about meditation.

It was a part of his regular routine and focus, and throughout the Psalms we can see his acknowledgement as to how it impacted his life each and every day.

Psalm 1, Psalm 1, Psalm 1, we have a song in our hymnal written on these words.

Psalm 1.1 says, Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. There's just some people fundraising you don't want to receive counsel from, some company you don't want to keep. There's places you don't want to go. And the Scripture says, blessed is the man who resists what they should be resisting, and drawing near to that which God has put before them. Verse 2, it says, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. His delight. It's what he loves. It's what he craves. It's what he embraces. And the question for us is, what is our delight in? Because you're going to delight in something. You're not just going to have empty space in your life filled with nothing, and you either are going to fill it with the things of God, or the things of this world are going to come in and fill that space. So the question becomes, what do we delight in? Where your treasure is there, your heart will be also. I hope we delight in the things of God, just as David did, because you see, if we do, then we'll fill our mind with them. We'll think on them. We'll meditate them, and they will direct our steps each and every day. The man who does that, verse 3, says, he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in season, whose leaf shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper. There's similar wording here to what we read back in the book of Joshua, which is, if you take these things and meditate on them, and implement them in your life, you will prosper. It's not a health and wealth gospel. God does offer us blessings, and some of those would be physical, but the ultimate end is that you will prosper spiritually. It be like that tree by the river, not affected in the drought, because your roots go down deep, and you drank from the rivers of living water of God's Spirit.

Psalm 119, again, a psalm of David. Psalm 119 and verse 9. I've noticed personally that my level of meditation has skyrocketed since I started giving sermons every week. You should try it sometime. Now, ask Mr. Crane. You prepare for a message, and that is your focus. You know, it's almost for me, it's now my obsession through the week, because there are times where I've finished speaking up here, and I haven't even gotten back to my seat yet. I think, all right, next week, now what? And I think, what do we need to hear as God's people? What is the message God would have brought? And very early on in the week, I'm generally trying to wrap my mind around what I want to speak on, and I'll take a topic, and I'll go and get on my computer, and I'll cut and paste about every scripture I can find on that topic into a clipboard, and I'll just read down those scriptures. And I just think, what are these scriptures telling us? You know, what's the lesson? What does God want us to learn, and what does He want me to present from this? And frankly, the rest of my week is spent obsessing, even if I'm not sitting there writing the message. Obsessing is probably not a good word. Meditating on the things of God. I'll wake up in the middle of the night, what comes into my mind? Bang! It's what I'm thinking about for the sermon. There's just something about having to gather your thoughts and put these things in together that tighten your focus in an incredible way. Psalm chapter 119 and verse 9. David asked the question here. He says, how can a young man cleanse his way? Have you ever made a mistake? Ever gone down the right path? You know, how do you turn that around? How do you right the wrong, or at least try to clean up the mess and rebuild and carry on in the right and proper way? David says, how can a young man cleanse his way? And the answer is, by taking heed according to your word. Again, it's not just knowing it, it's about living it. It's about making it a part of who you are so that then your response is according to this word. Verse 10. With my whole heart I have sought you, let me not wander from your commandments. Your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you. That is more than a rote's memorization. Hiding God's word in your heart is taking it and internalizing it and making a part of who and what you are. And by God's Spirit in you, it becomes a part of your character. Verse 12, he says, bless to you, O Lord, teach me your statutes. With my lips I have declared all the judgments of your mouth. I have rejoiced in the ways of your testimonies as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts.

I will contemplate your ways. I will delight myself in your statutes, and I will not forget your word. David recognized the importance of, what did he say here? He said, meditate, contemplate, delighting. I will not forget. He rejoiced in taking God's word and wrapping his mind around it to the point that it never departed from him. It was hidden in his heart, and each and every day as he walked through the course of the day, his decisions were based from the perspective of God's Word. It leads to right actions in our life. Verse 23 says, princes also speak against me.

So there's opposition. There's those that would rise up and oppose David. He said, but your servant meditates on your statutes, and your testimonies are my delight and my counselors. If you're facing a trial, a test, opposition in some way, again you don't know, do I turn to the left hand or the right hand? What is the answer here? The counselor is God's Word, and it's God's Spirit in you that would bring these things to remembrance, but they have to be there.

God's not going to call to remember it something that you have not put in there. And you and I may not even know how to use the counsel that's available to us unless we've meditated on those things. Turned them inside out and considered, how do they work? What's the benefit of these principles to my life? Verse 97, still in Psalm 119, Psalm 119 verse 97, David says, oh how I love your law.

It's my meditation all the day. It's what I think about, it's what I focus on, it's what directs each and every step that I take. Verse 98, you through your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation.

It's what he thought about and processed so that those who are actually his instructors, he says, I've achieved the level that I know more than them. It's not because I'm so bright, it's because it's God's wisdom that I've internalized that allows me to understand those things. Verse 100, I understand more than the ancients, those who are aged, those who are older than I am, those who have had more life experiences. I understand more than them because I keep your precepts.

It's about taking God's Word and internalizing it, meditating on it, understanding how it works, and then applying it. God's people, brethren, we need to make a habit of thoroughly thinking through the things that we've studied. Again, we have a book of, you know, multiple books, multiple chapters. I mean, this, you ever done them read the Bible through in a year?

That keeps you moving, doesn't it? It takes you a year to get through this Word. And it's important to read the Word of God all the way through for an overview, but as another form of study, it's also important to take the time to slow down, to dissect the Scriptures, to understand the lessons and the principles that God is looking to give to us, to consider the Word, to savor it.

Anybody here? I don't want to use the word wine snob. That's probably not such a wine connoisseur. Anybody here appreciate a good wine? All right? I'm not all that educated in wine. Some are, but I would submit to you there is a difference between drinking wine and tasting wine. Okay? We live in wine country. There's bus tours that go out, take people on bus tours around wine country, and you go from from vineyard to vineyard, and you can go wineries, and you can taste the wine, sample the wine, taste the different grapes from the different regions, the different processes for making the wine.

So there's a difference between tasting wine and maybe throwing it down like like the cowboy that walks up to the bar and throws down a shot, right? So there are people who make a hobby of this, and they become educated. I'm not one of them, so I had to go online and look up a few things, but from what I could determine, it basically comes down to three things. Sight, smell, and taste.

If you want to appreciate a good wine, it comes down to sight, smell, and taste. So they'll take a bottle of wine. I was in Lewiston this morning. They're a smaller congregation. They thought this part should have been interactive, but I'm not into 4D sermons yet, so we're going to just imagine. But take a bottle of wine, and you pour it into a glass, and they say, well, you know, you hold it by the stem. But you can tip that glass, and the wine kind of thins out to the edge of the glass, and you can see through it, and you can see the color of the wine, and maybe even texture.

I don't know if wine has texture, but you know, by looking at the wine, you can tell characteristics of it. Is it a new wine? Is it a good wine, a matured wine? Or maybe if it's kind of brownish, maybe it's a bad wine. Maybe it's gone bad, and you wouldn't even want to drink it. But you can assess the characters and the quality of that wine by intently looking at it. You can take that wine, you're probably seeing people kind of swirl the glass around, and the wine swirls around on the inside of the glass.

And you can tell, to some degree, the characteristics of the wine. What kind of body does it have? How does it cling to the side of the glass? Swirling it around oxygenates the wine, and it releases, they say it opens it up, so it releases this bouquet of aromas. So people will swirl the glass around, and then, you know, take a deep smell of the wine, and they say that prepares your palate for receiving it.

But what do they smell when they smell the wine? Well, maybe they come to understand the type of grapes that were used. You smell the bouquet of aromas, the different spices. Maybe you can smell what kind of barrel was that wine fermented in? You know, they could smell the oaky smell of the barrel. But again, a lot of our taste is through our smell.

So to smell that, you're priming yourself to receive that wine. And then finally, they taste it. Like I said, they don't just throw it down like a shot. There's usually a little following in there, unless you're maybe at the dinner table. But it's an experience.

Again, they're tasting, they're analyzing what's in here, what can I pull out of this? You know, it's an experience. And a couple of websites I was reading on, they actually had forms for writing down your thoughts and your feelings about the wine. But it's a savoring of the wine.

It's a considering. It's a lingering over it. And I want us to maybe think about meditating on the Word of God sort of being like that type of an evaluation. O taste and see that the Lord is good. Consider the Word of God. What is it telling us? You know, savor the lesson. Think about it. Swirl it around in your mind. How does it apply? What is God giving us through the Word? Again, overview is good, and we should read for context and overview, but we need to be careful that we don't treat the Word of God like a two-buck chuck. You know what two-buck chuck is?

Probably more like $3.95 by the time they ship it up from California, where it comes from. But it's considered generally a very cheap bottle of wine, and you just gulp it down, right? We shouldn't just gulp down God's Word because I got to consume something today. We need to take God's Word and savor it, meditate on it, work it over in our mind, consider the experience.

Why did God write what he wrote to those people that he wrote it to? So much of the Word of God is not written directly to us. Now, it is written for us, and it's preserved for us, but it was written to somebody at a day and an age that there was something that they needed to learn as God's people. Paul wrote the book of Corinthians, 1 and 2 Corinthians, to the church in Corinth, and he addressed problems and issues and praised them for the good things. And we read through that because it's recorded for us, and the lessons and the principles apply to us, but we have to pull them out.

We have to look at it and say, why did God inspire Paul to write that? What is the lesson? How does that principle apply in my life, and how do I live it? That's all a part of the of the savoring and the, you know, the opening up of God's Scripture and the smelling of the aroma of the bouquet of all that it encompasses, and then taking it and applying it in our life. Again, meditate on God's Word and consider it deeply. It is a benefit to us.

So we meditate on His Word. Another element of meditation as well is to meditate on God Himself. Take time to think about God. Meditate about Him, who He is, His characteristics, His majesty, His intervention in your life. Let's go to Psalm 77. Psalm 77, this is a Psalm of Asaph. Asaph is attributed to a number of Psalms, and it's not exactly clear if He was the author or if He was one involving in the in the compiling of this.

Some of these may have even been Psalms of David, but nonetheless, Psalm 77 and verse 4, the Psalmist says here, You hold my eyelids open. I am so troubled that I cannot speak. So He's apparently going through some difficulty, some trauma in His life here, and He's under a degree of distress and great distress. In fact, He says, I am so troubled that I cannot speak. Verse 5, I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times. I call to remembrance my song in the night. I meditate within my heart, and my spirit makes diligent search.

Verse 7, so Psalm 77, verse 7, He says, He's meditated. Now He's asking these questions. He says, Will the Lord cast off forever? And will He be favorable no more? Has His mercy ceased forever? Has His promise failed forever more? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has He in His anger shut up His tender mercies? So here He's thinking, He's considering, and He's asking these questions of God. God, where are You in this trial? Here I am in this distress. Have You withdrawn? Have You forgotten? Are Your mercies cut off? And yet mixed right in the middle of that, it said, verse 5 and 6, that He had considered the days of old in the years of ancient times, and meditated within His heart.

He's thinking about the fact that, what has God done to this point? You know, how has God worked with His people and delivered them? How has He worked in my life up to this point? So this is coming as He's facing this great trial before Him. But, brethren, when we are struggling, we don't want to just simply think, oh, whoa, God has deserted me. Where are you, God? The lesson here is, consider and remember His interventions and His mercy in your life and the life of His people preceding this trial.

And consider now how God will be with you as you move forward. Coming up to my mother-in-law's surgery, you know, she says, I'm sure not looking forward to this, but she would also say, you know what, but if I didn't know God was with me, if I did not know that He was with me, this would be distressing. She knew God was with her, and she says, you know, He's intervened so many times, I know He'll bring me through this. And frankly, that could mean whatever the outcome. When we trust in God in His perfect plan, we know He brings us ultimately through in the end, but we meditate on the fact that He has been there and He has carried us all along.

Verse 10, it says, and I said, this is my anguish, but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High. You know, the strength and the power and the miraculous mercies of God come by His right hand. I will remember the works of the Lord. Surely I will remember your wonders of old. I will also meditate on all your work and talk of your deeds.

Your way, O God, is in the sanctuary. He is who is so great a God as our God. You are the God who does wonders. You have declared your strength among the people. You have your arm, by your arm, redeemed your people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. And in our lives today, God has redeemed us through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ. So when you're facing trial and struggle and you're wondering, where is God in all of this? The example here is to meditate on where God has been all along and the fact that He has been invested in the life of His people all along and He will never leave us or forsake us.

Psalm chapter 63. Again, the Psalms are full of writings of not only saying meditate on this, but many of the writings themselves are meditations put to words. Psalm chapter 63 and verse 6. The heading in my Bible says, A Psalm of David would he is in the wilderness in Judah. Why was David in the wilderness of Judah? Well, he was running for his life. King Saul, the anointed king of Israel, was out to kill David. David was also the anointed of God. Samuel had come and laid hands on him and anointed him king.

Saul didn't like that too much. Now Saul wants to kill David and David's on the run. Psalm chapter 63 and verse 6. David says, When I remember you on my bed, I meditate on you in the night watches. So you kind of imagine David sleeping out with his men in a cave or in a field somewhere and he says, When I remember you on my bed, I meditate on you in the night watches.

What do you think David thought about when he woke up in the middle of the night? Again, Saul's trying to kill him. Probably thinking, God, what's the end result of this going to be? I've been anointed king. I'll be Saul's successor and yet he seeks my life. I think it's interesting, David's response, because as we know the story, David had opportunity to kill Saul. He just cut off the edge of his robe, the corner of his garment, and he felt badly even about that.

So here you had the anointed of the Lord seeking to kill the other anointed of the Lord, and David's response was to let God work it out. Submit to God. David had his fighting men. David was a warrior. David had brought the four skins of how many Philistines to Saul to have his daughter, his wife? I don't suspect they gave him up willingly. David lived his life and in his strength, and yet as he meditated on his bed, he let God handle the situation now that he was facing.

He says, I meditate on you, God, in the night watches. His thoughts were of God. His might, his power, serving him, submitting his life to him. Verse 7, David said, Because you have been my help, therefore in the shadow of your wings I will rejoice. My soul follows close behind you, your right hand upholds me.

Again, he's remembering who God is, and he found great comfort and peace by submitting his life to him. Meditation brings peace. It brings comfort. It brings a mind that is ready to yield to God in and his spirit. David also meditated on the awesomeness of God and his plan for mankind. Psalm chapter 8 and verse 3.

Psalm chapter 8 and verse 3. David says, When I consider your heavens and the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained, what is man that you are mindful of him and the Son of man that you would visit him. For you have made him a little lower than the angels, you have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of your hands.

You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, even the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the fish of the sea that pass through the paths of the sea. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth! You know, I read this Psalm, I think about David again laying out in the field in the night.

Ever been somewhere where there's no city lights surrounding and you can just look up and see the stars? Maybe after a while your eyes have relaxed, they've adjusted to the light, and you see more stars beyond the stars.

Maybe you can see more beyond that, and you realize, you know what, that is just a sliver. It's just a glimpse of the physical creation that is incredible in its vastness. And the fact that the physical creation is nothing compared to God and the spiritual things of God and the spiritual creation that God is creating in us. And David says, you know what, when I look and I behold these things, he was meditating in his heart, what is man that you are mindful of him?

You know, so small, so insignificant, and yet he is your jewel, and your focus is directed here. There's just something about looking up into the night sky that causes you to prayerfully meditate, to contemplate, to think on the awesomeness of God and who he is, and who we are by comparison, but also realizing what we will be by God's act of love and involvement in our life. Again, David spent his life meditating, searching out the scriptures, writing many that we search out today.

He was in his heart and his mind and his character to respond to God. Brethren, there are so many concepts that Scripture shows us we can be meditating on. I encourage you to go and study them out. Again, slow down. Take your time. Turn the Scripture inside out. The basic foundation of what it is we need to be meditating on, the Apostle Paul recorded for us in Philippians chapter 4 and verse 8.

So we'll conclude there today. Philippians 4 and verse 8. Again, this forms the foundation of the things that ought to be occupying our mind. Finally, brethren, Philippians 4 verse 8, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, these are all elements of God's nature in his character and what he produces by his power. Whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue, if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things.

If you're going to meditate, you're going to fill your mind with something, fill it with something good. It's so easy to meditate on the offense that somebody has caused you and fill your mind with that and to blow it up until now you can think of nothing else. So easy to meditate on, you know, maybe what my spouse said to me yesterday or what my fellow co-worker did the day before and we can just roll those things over and over in our mind.

Those things aren't helpful. Those things aren't productive, but on whatever is true and noble and just and pure and lovely and good and of good virtue, meditate on these things. Fill your mind with them. Allow yourself to become, by character, what these things are. Rather, in every good relationship requires solid communication, and our relationship with God is no less. Through prayer, through Bible study, through fasting, through meditation, we build our spiritual relationship with God and we come to know Him intimately. This goes beyond knowing about God. Knowing about God is a must and that is where we start, but it leads to something.

We know about God and it leads to a relationship. We respond to Him and it becomes an intimate relationship by the giving of His Spirit. Every relationship requires good communication and this is a family relationship and we're all in it together. God by His Spirit has blessed us with the opportunity to see His Word and to understand it and to pull the wisdom out of it.

Don't take those things lightly. Don't let the random thoughts of the day derail you or distract you from focusing your mind on the things of God and meditating on it throughout the day.

Again, our prayer and Bible study, our fasting and meditation are critical to this relationship. Those are the four that are generally considered in the package. I'm going to come back at a later time and add a fifth, which is fellowship. Because I think fellowship is important for the reasons that Mr. Crane was talking about today. God has created diversity among His people. As He's poured out His Spirit, He's given us all the ability to respond in different ways. Obviously, we respond according to His Word, but what it is that we can contribute is oftentimes different. I need what you have to offer. You need what I have to offer. What we have to offer as a group makes us a body. It's the body of Jesus Christ. So fellowship is very much an important part of our spiritual discipline to help to strengthen us spiritually and to strengthen our relationship with God as we utilize what He's given to each and every one of us. So, brethren, let's take these principles. Let's apply them in our life. And let's focus on the fact that we would like our meditation, the words of our mouth, the meditations of our heart, to be acceptable in the sight of God, our strength, and our Redeemer.