The first time I heard this, I imagined myself sitting with my legs crossed and eyes closed thinking really really hard about a verse in the Bible I had read...and I thought that was weird. But I have been corrected in my understanding of meditation. For one, I didn't realize that the Lord commanded this of us in multiple places:
"This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it." -Joshua 1:8
"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer." - Psalm 19:14There are many more within Scripture telling us to dwell on, meditate on, think about the Word of God. But how? Well, today I tried one particular method that my professor, Dr. Donald Whitney, taught us in class from his book, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life.
I read a Psalm and then put the Psalm into my own words. Specifically, I read Psalm 18. The outcome was a beautiful reminder of what the Lord has done in my life in short 3 years, and the pure salvation I have experienced through Him. I wanted to document this to serve as a reminder to me and anyone else who reads it of the powerful redemption of our God, and to serve as an example of how you can spend time dwelling on one passage in Scripture.
Read Psalm 18 either before, after, or side by side with this entry...it'll make more sense that way!
Psalm 18
My Lord is my rock. My refuge.
A mighty fortress is our God.
The cords of death encompassed me;
in my sin the snares of death confronted me.
In my distress I called upon the Lord;
to my God I called for help.
From His temple He heard my voice,
my cry to Him reached His ears.
And He answered me. In power He came,
the foundations trembled and quaked,
because He was angry.
A righteous, powerful anger for His chosen daughter,
crying out for His rescue.
He sent from on high, He took me;
He drew me out of the water that was encompassing me.
He rescued me from my strong enemy,
for satan and sin were too mighty for me.
He rescued me, because He delighted in me.
And now, the Lord deals with me according to my righteousness,
a righteousness not earned through what I do,
but through the sacrifice of His Son.
The perfect sacrifice.
No longer must I pay for my sins sacrifice after sacrifice
after sacrifice to earn my Lord’s forgiveness.
He gave us the perfect, ultimate sacrifice through Christ.
Through Him we are forgiven. (Romans 5:12-21)
Now He deals with me according to the cleanness of my hands.
For by grace, through Christ, I am now blameless before Him
and able to keep myself from guilt.
With the merciful, You show Yourself merciful;
with the blameless, You show Yourself blameless;
with the purified, You show Yourself pure.
I am these things because You have made me so.
For it is You who light my lamp;
the Lord my God lightens my darkness.
This God - His way is perfect;
the Word of the Lord proves true;
He is a shield for all those who take refuge in Him.
For who is God, but the Lord?
And who is a rock, except our God--
The God who equips me with strength
and makes my way blameless?
You’ve equipped me; bow, shield, and armor (Ephesians 6:11-18)
to fight this war with sin that wages against my soul (1 Peter 2:11).
With You, the battle is won.
The Lord lives, and blessed be my rock,
and exalted be the God of my salvation--
the God who delivered me from my enemy.
I will praise You, O Lord, among this nation and others
and sing Your Name and tell of the
great salvation You bring to Your people.
