MEDITATION!

MEDITATION!

Ps 104:33-34

33 I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.

34 My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord.

          Glad for a break in the weather, my wife and I boldly ventured toward Christmas-shopping-land. Once again I found myself in a Christian bookstore and my wife and I had gotten separated. Like a lost little boy, I know that if I take a comfortable seat near the door, I will not exhaust myself by searching for her. Eventually she will find me and all will be well.

          I sat in one of my favorite chairs between the coffee pot and the Christmas tree. From this vantage point I could see shoppers coming and going. Just in front of me was a table full of small bins loaded with what I call Christian junk. Although it was early in the shopping season, one young lady seemed to be already gripped with shoppers panic. She was “coon fingering” the junk. She picked up a stick-on plastic chrome fish symbol and then replaced it. Next she picked up a cheap bracelet of braided string and beads but that also would not do. She was shopping for stocking stuffers and it was clear that her heart was not in it.

          That’s when it happened! I began to meditate! Meditation is the art of mulling things over. It is observation but much more than observation. It is the intentional sorting of information and placing things in their proper perspective. It is the reason teachers scold bright students for “daydreaming.” When that happens it is, in my opinion, the teacher that is at fault for not understanding.

          Charles Haddon Spurgeon tells this short story about the wisdom of a little girl. "How is it, my dear," inquired a school teacher of a little girl, "that you do not understand this simple thing?"

          "I don't know," she answered, with a perplexed look, "but I sometimes think I have so many things to learn that I do not have enough time to understand." And so it is with the rest of us. “We are ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth!” (See 2 Timothy 3:7)

          The word “meditation,” as used above is the Hebrew word siyach and it literally means “babbling or prayer talk.” Yes, prayer talk is the correct meaning of meditation. It is when I pull away from doing to observe what is being done. In meditation, I allow my mind to join with God in informal prayer which is much like conversation. I open my mind to hear his opinions and conclusions. I think it is like two old men on a park bench. Both are seasoned and experienced and both comment on the world as it walks by. At the end of the day understanding has grown.

          I don’t play golf – at least not well! I just sit, observe people, and think. I understand more doing that than reading books. I like the quiet times and quiet places where God doesn’t have to shout when He talks to me and I don’t have to strain to hear Him. The Bible calls it a “closet” but sometimes it is just a comfortable chair between the coffee pot and the Christmas tree.

Ps 19:14

14 Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord , my strength, and my redeemer. AMEN