Part 1 – The Discipline of Meditation
By Richard Foster
In contemporary society our Adversary majors in three things: noise, hurry, and crowds. If he can keep us engaged in ‘muchness‘ and ‘manyness,’ he will rest satisfied. Psychiatrist Carl Jung once remarked, ‘Hurry is not of the Devil; it is the Devil.’
If we hope to move beyond the superficialities of our culture, including our religious culture, we must be willing to go down into the recreating silences, into the inner world of contemplation. In their writings all the masters of meditation beckon us to be pioneers in this frontier of the Spirit. Though it may sound strange to modern ears, we should without shame enrol as apprentices in the school of contemplative prayer.
The discipline of meditation was certainly familiar to the authors of Scripture. The Bible uses two different Hebrew words to convey the idea of meditation, and together they are used some fifty-eight times. These words have various meanings: listening to God’s word, reflecting on God’s works, rehearsing God’s deeds, ruminating on God’s law, and more. In each case there is stress upon changed behaviour as a result of our encounter with the living God. Repentance and obedience are essential features in any biblical understanding of meditation. The psalmist exclaims, ‘Oh, how I love thy law! It is my meditation all the day.. I hold my feet from every evil way, in order to keep thy word. I do not turn aside from thy ordinances, for thou hast taught me’ (Ps. 119:97, 101, 102). It is this continual focus upon obedience and faithfulness that most clearly distinguishes Christian meditation from its Eastern and secular counterparts.
Those who walked through the pages of the Bible knew the ways of meditation. ‘And Isaac went out to meditate in the field in the evening’ (Gen. 24:63). ‘I think of thee upon me bed, and meditate on thee in the watches of the night’ (Ps. 63:6). The Psalms virtually sing of the meditations of the people of God upon the law of God: ‘My eyes are awake before the watches of the night, that I may meditate upon thy promise’ (Ps. 119:148). The psalm that introduces the entire Psalter calls all people to emulate the ‘blessed man’ whose ‘delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night’ (Ps. 1:2).
The old priest Eli knew how to listen to God and helped the young boy Samuel know the word of the Lord (1 Sam. 3:1-18). Elijah spent many a day and night in the wilderness learning to discern the ’still small voice of Yahweh’ (1 Kings 19:9-18). Isaiah saw the Lord ‘high and lifted up’ and heard his voice saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ (Isa. 6:1-8). Jeremiah discovered the word of God to be ‘a burning fire shut up in my bones’ (Jer. 20:9). And on march the witnesses. These were people who were close to the heart of God. God spoke to them not because they had special abilities, but because they were willing to listen.
In the midst of an exceedingly busy ministry, Jesus made a habit of withdrawing to ‘a lonely place apart’ (Matt. 14:13). He did this not just to be away from people, but so he could be with God. What did Jesus do time after time in these deserted hills? He sought out his heavenly Father; he listened to him, he communed with him. And he beckons us to do the same