Some time ago, I learned about youversion.com. I signed up, and started reading through a chronological plan of the Bible. I love YouVersion, it has all my favourite translations of the Bible online (for free) and wonderful study material to help me get into God's word!
Today's bit of reading was made up of some Psalms that David wrote (actually yesterday's, but I was a bit behind). Now, it so happens that the Psalms aren't in chronological order... which doesn't make sense, but doesn't bother me either - I'm happily reading them as set out in the chronological plan. Which brings me to the verse that stood out for me today.
"May the words of my mouth
and the meditation of my heart
be pleasing to you,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer."
Psalm 19:14 (NLT)
I loved it. I carried on reading, but I decided to remember that verse. That is going straight to facebook! As always when I like a particular verse, I also like to compare it in various translations. And, silly, I know, I don't use YouVersion's compare tool (I'm sure it has one?), but I just Google the scripture reference and open the first page's results all in new tabs (you gotta love Google Chrome!). Anyway, one of the pages that came up, was one with the heading Mentoring and a sub heading When longing to please God, the scripture, and three links, all on a white background. Plain and simple. The links included Return to Bible Meditation, which I promptly clicked out of sheer curiosity. What a lovely article!
It talks about how meditation isn't really a form of self-centered mindlessness as advocated by Eastern religions... it literally means to attend as translated from the Greek word "meletao". The article continues to give five points on how to meditate on God's word:
1. Understand the Perimeter of the verse.
I liked that! So often, people take a verse out of context, and proceed to build doctrine (albeit shaky) on that. Not wise.
2. Paraphrase the verse.
I liked that too. It doesn't sound like much, but try it, and see what a difference it makes in your understanding of the verse!
3. Pulverize the verse.
Huh? Basically, you say the verse aloud, thinking about the meaning of each word. You then choose one or two keywords out of that verse and ask yourself some basic questions around the keyword. You'll see just now.
4. Personalise the verse.
The Bible wasn't just written for David, you know. Make it personal, make it yours. Take the promise of God and say it aloud. The guy explains it in the article - think about the process of speaking the verse aloud as carpenter's glue. Glue the promise to the problem. Say it.
5. Pray the verse into your life.
Talk to God. It's your relationship with Him that all of this is about, after all! He gives you promises through His word, and you talk to Him about it.
Lastly, the article links to a meditation worksheet that is so simple and practical to use.
So here goes my first try:
Scripture reference: Psalm 19:14
1. Understand the perimeter:
Verse 13 says Keep your servant from deliberate sins! Don't let them control me. Then I will be free of guilt and innocent of great sin.
Verse 14 is our scripture that we're meditating on: May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, Oh Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
That is the last verse in the chapter. But then, when the Bible was compiled, they didn't have chapters and verses, so what follows? According to my chronological reading plan, after reading Psalm 19, the next Psalm to read was 21. So what does Psalm 21:1 & 2 say?
David says How the king rejoices in your strength, Oh Lord! He shouts for joy because you give him victory. For you have given him his heart's desire; you have withheld nothing he requested.
Wow. God helps us to keep from deliberate sins! His grace keeps us from wanting to sin! His strength helps us to bring Him pleasure! He gives us our heart's desire, when our heart's desire is to please Him!
2. Paraphrase the verse:
May what I say and what I think make you happy, God, you are my Strength and my Saviour.
3. Pulverize the verse:
OK, so read it out loud. Read it many times, each time with the emphasis on a different word. The keyword for me, is pleasing.
Who do I want to be pleasing to? God. I want to please God!
What should be pleasing? My words and thoughts.
When must it be pleasing? All the time!
Where must it be pleasing? Everywhere I go!
Why must it be pleasing? Because God has saved me from my sinful nature - I want to please Him!
How will it be pleasing to Him? God is my Rock, He is my strength. When I can't do it out of my own nature, I can look to Him to fill me with His Spirit and lead me with His strength to have words and thoughts pleasing to Him!
4. Personalise the verse:
God, thank you that you give me strength to say and think things that make you happy. You truly are my strength, my Rock, my Redeemer!
5. Pray the verse into life:
This is where I speak with God. Where I am amazed at His goodness, at His guidance in my life, at the fact that He doesn't want me to stay the way I am. He is awesome. I am in awe of Him!!
I love how He just guides you in simple things like Google searches. I really do want to be pleasing and acceptable to Him with everything I say, think and do. He teaches me so much. He is such a graceful, and patient and loving Dad. I cannot help but be overwhelmed by Him. How awesome is He!
No comments:
Post a Comment