I have better understanding and deeper insight than all my teachers, because Your testimonies are my meditation. Psalm 119:99 (AMPC)
We’ve been on a series about biblical meditation, and over the next few days, we’re going to cover some of its benefits. The first is outlined in Psalms 119:99: we gain better insight and understanding when we meditate on God’s Word.
In today’s rush, rush world, we are often too busy to think. When we don’t take the time to think, we believe whatever the news or social media says instead of searching out the truth. We have an overload of information coming at us today, which is why it’s even more important that we develop the capacity to think and discern. Meditating on God’s Word gives us this capacity. We build the ability to gain insight, and not just into doctrine, but in every area of life.
We need to remember that biblical meditation is not about emptying the mind. In Psalm 63:6, David wrote, “I lie awake thinking of you, meditating on you through the night” (NLT). In this scripture, the word meditate comes from the Hebrew word hagah, which Thayer’s lexicon defines, “to moan, growl, utter, speak, muse, or meditate.”
Biblical meditation is becoming aware of God’s presence, thinking about His Word, imagining it, talking about it with others, repeating it out loud to yourself, and filling your internal dialogue with it. That may seem overwhelming at first, but as you practice this skill of focusing your attention, Holy Spirit will help you to develop the capacity to decipher layers of understanding from God’s Word, even to the point where you’ll read a verse you’ve come across a hundred times before, and you’ll discover something brand new.