David | - Part 2

“Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” (Joshua 1:8 NIV)

In this passage, Joshua is commanded to keep the Book of the Law on his lips, that it shall never depart from his mouth. Instead, God tells him to “meditate in it day and night” and to “observe to do according to all that is written in it.” In doing so, Joshua is promised prosperity and good success.

God’s promise is the same to us, as Christians. We are not to depart from the Book of the Law—meaning that we must not cease, go back, remove, take away, or withdraw from the Bible. Instead, we are to meditate in it and follow it, that we may become prosperous, being given the ability to push forward and break out mightily, as well as become successful and wise.

But what does it mean to meditate in the Law? For many, the term “meditate” throws up a red flag. The word is essentially associated with Old Eastern or New Age religions. Meditation often conjures up the image of people folding their bodies into pretzels and contemplating the lint in their bellybuttons. That may be Eastern or Buddhist meditation, but that’s not what God is referring to in this verse. The dictionary definition of the word “meditation” is actually something along the lines of “rumination”, that is, to think over, ponder, reflect, chew or digest. When God says to “meditate” on His Word, He wants us to ruminate on it, to think about and ponder what we’re reading and what He’s trying to tell us.

Rumination is what a cow does when it chews cud, and rolls it over and over in its mouth. Cows actually go through a very extensive digestion process, as they eat the grass, chew it, up, and send it to their stomachs. Then, after a while, the cow burps it back up and chews it again along with new grass, and repeats this process over and over until they squeeze out every ounce of nutrition from each blade of grass.

This example doesn’t exactly paint the prettiest picture, but it’s exactly what we should be doing when we devour the Word. Biblical meditation is just like that—it’s thought digestion. Just as cows go through the rumination process to get the maximum possible amount of nutrients from their cud, God wants us to eat every last bit of spiritual nutrition out of his Word. He wants up to chew on it, digest it, and then chew on it some more. Meditating on the Book of the Law is reading the Word, thinking about it, pondering it, mulling it over and being able to comprehend what God is trying to tell you through His Word.

By going through this Biblical meditation process, we will be able to hear God’s word, become more prosperous and have good success. As we grow in our daily walks with God and absorb every bit of spiritual knowledge and instruction He imparts to us through His Word, we will indeed grow in wisdom and prosperity.

Pastor Paul & Joyce Tan