MEDITATION: TASTE AND SEE
“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; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yield its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.” Psalm 1:1-3 ESV
Early in my Christian journey I would have reasoned that mediation on scripture mostly meant memorizing a verse and considering what it meant for me to put righteous action into my life. This isn’t wrong, and definitely had a place in my early formation, but it stopped short of encountering something truly joyful in my relationship with the Lord.
Over time, I became acquainted with a slower, contemplative way of reading scripture which included meditation. Eugene Peterson’s words in Eat this Book illuminated to me the way the practice of scripture meditation could be much like the delight a dog has as he gnaws on a bone – completely lost in the experience of it. Peterson pointed out Baron Friedrich von Hugel’s comparison to this slow meditative reading of scripture as similar to “letting a very slow dissolving lozenge melt imperceptibly in your mouth.” Peterson says that the words of scripture are,
“intended, whether confrontationally or obliquely, to get inside us, to deal with our souls, to form a life that is congruent with the world God had created, the salvation that he has enacted, and the community that he has gathered.”
In other words, I started to see that meditation was meant not just for instruction, but for encountering God himself! I gave myself permission to slow down as I read scripture and to focus on smaller, bite-sized passages. I listened for what God might want to say to me personally. Meditation became a way of prayer. I found God to be personal and kind.
Further still, last year I participated in an abbreviated version of the Ignatian Exercises which included thoughtful, meditative imagining of the life of Jesus. It was the lengthiest time I had spent focusing on such short scripture passages, and it had a surprising effect on me.
Joy.
The key for me was using my imagination to watch the scene. As I considered what the tangible, actual life of Jesus would have been like and the details that we are not given but are inevitable in the story, I saw the beautiful humanity that Jesus stepped into for our sake with such vivid color. Jesus is God, but his humility to put on flesh and live the life we couldn’t, abiding perfectly with the Father was striking to me and enhanced my own human-abiding and attachment relationship with God.
An excerpt from my journal reveals that as I reflected on Luke 2:1-7, the awe of this Jesus filled my heart with joy:
“…that newborn Jesus was very clear in my mind’s eye and the feeling of wanting to gather him close like a mother…that sweet instinct to care and nurture this sweet new creature…and yet He is not new at all(!!)…He is the creator himself(!!)…humbling Himself even to being nurtured and cared for by a young girl and her new husband…being born in a dark cave with fragile animals around…forming an attachment with the mother, learning how to survive…being visited and awed over by the shepherds. Oh, how I love Him.”
Perhaps our meditative practices that go deeper and deeper as we sit with his word over time, yield the fruit of an intimate attachment to Jesus. Maybe this was what the psalmist was hoping we’d recognize with his imagery of a tree planted by living water.
For reflection:
What have your scripture meditation practices looked like over the course of your life?
What do you hope for most from God as you meet with Him in his word?
As you attempt to practice meditation more contemplatively, I would recommend sitting still for a few minutes with question #2 in prayer as you enter your practice.