Psalms DAY 19

DAY 19 - Thinking With to Talk To

Psalm 119:9-16
 
What’s the connection between thinking ABOUT and talking TO God?

Psalm 1 and others, like Psalm 119, encourage us to meditate on God’s word. Biblical meditation isn’t just a thinking, it’s think-talk. Again, a littler Hebrew lesson. The word for meditate is hagah. It has the sense of “mutter,” like talking to yourself. Meditating on Scripture is chatty! It’s think-talk, verbal processing, thinking out loud.

Some of you might be like me. Sometimes it’s easier for me to read a question out loud to really “get it.” Or when I’ve tried to memorize something - answers to a test or even Scripture - I think-talk it out loud. Last year, I memorized Psalm1 that way while walking the dog, just repeating phrases over and over, then adding more phrases, out loud.

We’re one big step closer to making the connection between thinking ABOUT and talking TO, but there’s one more puzzle piece we need. We’ve talked about what Psalm 1 SAYS but we need to ask what it’s DOING. It SAYS we should meditate on God’s word WHILE it helps us meditate! Psalm 1 is a prayer-meditation! It gets your imagination going with word-pictures that invite you to chew on it: walk, stand, sit, tree, river, fruit, chaff, assembly, road.

Put it all together. When we read God’s word with faith, ready to hear from God and ready to respond, we’re not so much thinking ABOUT God as we are thinking WITH God. Thinking WITH God helps you talk TO God. It should be easier to talk TO God the more you meditate on Scripture because Scripture helps you think WITH God. This wonderfully weird library called the Bible is God’s wisdom graciously given to you. It’s there, not just to think ABOUT, but to think WITH, so you can better talk TO the Lord who loves you. Thinking with God helps you talk to God.

REFLECT
What is something you have thought about so much you practically have it memorized? Can you see yourself doing that with Scripture?

PRAY
Lord, I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. I delight in your decrees,I will not neglect your word. Amen.