Do we Meditate?

Psalm 39 (full chapter)

Meditation is a powerful tool for us as Christians. No wonder there’s a counterfeit for this act.
When Joshua took over from Moses, it was a huge role / a big gap to fill – but, God gave him a key to succeed: MEDITATION

Often people think of meditation as something complicated.
But we all do that every single day of our life, even without being taught how to do it.
For eg: Do we know how to worry? The answer is YES, almost all the time.
That is, meditation - dwelling on something which is negative.

Meditation is nothing but thinking about a certain thing over and over again. So, there can be negative meditation, as we just saw – ie: when we start worrying about an issue / being anxious / dwelling on impure thoughts / etc.

Meditation leads us to something – usually an action.
Hence, the need and challenge for us to fill ourselves with Godly thoughts, so our actions are geared towards living a holy life-style.

There is a wonderful reflection of who we are as human beings in God’s perspective in this chapter (Ps.39): that we are mere phantoms (one who comes and goes without a trace – in light of eternity), like a breadth that can’t be traced.
And in light of that kind of life, how we relate towards these 3 things becomes a very key issue:
a) Sin (vs.1)
b) Tongue (vs.1,2)
c) Wealth (vs.6)

And we see in the opening verse that David is pro-active in making a commitment to watch his ways. If he didn’t, he would be ensnared in this fleeting world.
The good thing about this Psalm is that, David in his usual style unlocks the mystery as to how to go about it – and that’s what we see in vs.3 - “My heart grew hot within me, and as I meditated, the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue”.

Here we see a positive reflection of who God is and seeing ourselves in that light. And it helps David to keep his focus right.

There are scores of NT reference, where we are called to dwell on things which are godly (cf. Col.3:1-17; Heb.12:2; II Peter 1:3-11; Rom.12:1,2; I Cor.1:26; Phil.4:8,9) – which will yield positive results.

Those who dwell on earthly things bring out the acts of the sinful nature (cf. Gal.5:19-21). Usually, dwelling on such things, lead to actions which are devastating to self and others.


As we are about to enter another year - let’s keep our eyes fixed on our Lord Jesus. As we reflect on Him and allow His Spirit to kindle us, we will be prompted to live a life-style reflecting His image and also perfecting our likeness to Him who formed us.