How do we listen?

David delighted in meditating on God’s words because they brought him closer to his creator. What images come to mind when you hear the word meditation? Is it someone sitting on the ground cross legged with their eyes closed? That’s what typically comes to my mind.

For a definition on Christian meditation, I turned to Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline where he explained, “Christian meditation, very simply, is the ability to hear God’s voice and obey. It is this continual focus upon obedience and faithfulness that most clearly distinguishes Christian meditation from its Eastern and secular counterparts.” ¹ Foster clarified that while Eastern meditation focuses on emptying the mind, Christian meditation is an attempt to fill the mind with God’s words.

Consider these Old Testament characters who practiced listening for God’s voice:

• Eli the priest taught a young Samuel to listen for God (1 Sam. 3:1-18)
• Elijah learned to hear the still small voice of God in the desert (1 Kings 19:9-8)
• Isaiah heard God speaking, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” (Isa. 6:1-8)

Foster pointed out,

“God spoke to them not because they had special abilities, but because they were willing to listen.” ²

That is good news for us. We don’t require special abilities; we only need the ability to listen.

Foster described meditation using a digestive metaphor: “Meditation is to the soul what digestion is to the body. When we digest food, it becomes a part of our body. When we assimilate God’s Word into our thinking and living, it infiltrates our spirit and our soul. It becomes a part of our lives.”³

Eugene Peterson took the digestion metaphor to a more intense level in reading Isaiah, “When a strong young lion stands growling over a sheep it has killed …” (Isaiah 31:4). The Hebrew word used for growling is ‘hagah’ which is the same word that is used for meditating in Psalm 1:2. “When Isaiah’s lion meditated it’s prey, it chewed and swallowed, using teeth and tongue, stomach and intestines.” ⁴ “A lion over a catch and a person over the Torah act similarly. They purr and growl in anticipation of taking in what will make them more of themselves, strong, lithe, swift.” ⁵ Meditation is going over and over, savouring the texture and the flavour, until it eventually becomes a part of our being.

When do we listen?

So often that it becomes part of our being. When Jesus was tempted in the desert, he also compared God’s word to eating when he said, “People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). As often as a lion eats meat and as often as the people in Jesus’ day took in bread, this is how often to take God’s word into our lives.

Speaking about the daily and incremental effort in our relationship with God, D.A. Carson commented, “People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, and obedience to scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord.” ⁶

It takes discipline to make meditation a regular rhythm in our lives. The word ‘discipline’ is often associated with punishment or correction to obtain conformance to a certain code of behaviour. It’s Back to the Future’s high school principal, Mr. Strickland, lurking and watching for late students wandering the halls so that he can hand out tardy slips for detention. This type of discipline is punishment in the form of a consequence or boundary to eliminate or transform unwanted behaviour.

The same principle can be applied for desirable or wanted behaviour. James Byran Smith referred to discipline as “soul-training exercises”. ⁷ We should consider discipline as training that molds and perfects us. Picture an elite athlete. How do they get to that elite level? Through training, which includes having a goal and a plan, being committed to repetitive routines, and doing the work independent of feelings. The apostle Paul used the image of athletic training to portray our Christian life on several occasions (1 Cor. 9:25; 1 Tim. 4:7-8; 2 Tim. 2:5).

Henri Nouwen framed discipline with boundaries, “Discipline means to create boundaries around our meeting with God. Our times and places can’t be so filled up that there is no way of meeting. So, you have to work very hard to say this is the time in which I am with God, whether I like it or not, whether I feel like, whether it satisfies me.”⁸

Discipline or training is doing something over and over because there is a goal and greatness on the horizon. It may not always feel like it in the moment. It’s easy to give up too quickly when we don’t see immediate results. The repetitive and incremental effort, that is meditating on God’s words, may feel more mundane than glorious in some moments, but in time yields a bountiful harvest. Other moments when we are meditating, we feel like God is sitting next to us.

Our job is to show up. God will take care of the talking and guiding.

Direction

The psalmist highlighted the benefits of light and guidance in Psalm 84, “For the Lord God is our sun and our shield. He gives us grace and glory. The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right. O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, what joy for those who trust in you.” (v11-12, NLT)

The images of sun and shield show the light, direction and resulting protection we have in God as we journey along the path. In addition, he gives grace and glory. Like Psalm 1:1, we are reminded that God wants to bless us. Our part is to put ourselves intentionally and regularly on the godly pathway. Not only does a guide provide light or direction but they also provide a shield of protection.

Notice the name of God used in this verse is Lord of Heaven’s Armies. While on the godly path, we are not immune to being distracted, lured off the path or outright attacks from the enemy of our soul. Peter reminded us, “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8, NLT). Jesus protected himself by using God’s words to counter Satan’s temptations. Consistently putting ourselves in the path of God’s word gives us direction and protection.

Protection

Derek King, a retired NHL player and now an assistant coach for the Chicago Blackhawks, described the benefits of discipline to his players. “He reinforced his mantra of ‘habits protect you,’ constantly reminding players that if they have good habits on the ice, their mistakes will be minimal and minimized.” ⁹

Good habits protect you!

This is illustrated in the Chronicles of Narnia book, The Silver Chair. At the beginning of the book Aslan sends Eustace and Jill on a mission to seek a lost prince. Aslan gives Jill four signs that will both guide and protect them on their journey. As he sends Jill, he admonished her, “Child perhaps you do not see quite as well as you think. But the first step is to remember. Repeat to me, in order, the four signs.” ¹⁰

And to reinforce the point he continues, “But, first, remember, remember, remember, remember the signs. Say them to yourself when you wake in the morning and when you lie down at night, and when you wake in the middle of the night. And whatever strange things may happen to you, let nothing turn your mind from following the signs.” ¹¹

As the story progresses, Jill drifts away from the advice that would protect and guide them on their quest. She neglects to repeat the signs to herself, and this leads to unnecessary hardships along the path. In the same way, God’s words are guidance and protection for our lives so long as we continually put them in our path.

Meditation Suggestions

How do we go about meditation? It is straightforward but not easy to connect ourselves to God through meditation. It does not come naturally to us, so it requires practice.

Connecting ourselves more intentionally with God and his words first requires that we disconnect ourselves from the distractions around us.

Our world is a noisy, hurried, and distracted place that crowds our minds with all sorts of thoughts and images. “It is a pushing, shoving, demanding world. Voices within and without harass, insisting that we look at this picture, read this headline, listen to this appeal, feel this guilt, touch this charm.”¹²

In meditation we leave an ego centred world and enter a God-centred world. To do this we need to stop and be still. God can reach us when we are quiet. Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still, and know that I am God.” The word ‘still’ means to abandon, withdraw, leave alone, to hang limp.¹³ Stop trying so hard. Stop trying to make something happen. Stop trying to manufacture something. God’s words come when we give up our own efforts and wait quietly for God to show up.

Here are some suggestions for meditation:

1. Slow down
2. Remove distractions
3. Get in a quiet and uninterrupted place
4. Put yourself directly in the path of God’s words

Develop this into a daily rhythm. Start with five minutes a day and build slowly. Try different things and see what works for you. Here are a few ideas:

• Read or listen to a chapter or part of a chapter
• Focus on a single verse
• Memorize a verse
• Journal your insights while meditating
• Lectio Divina (a Latin term, means “divine reading” and describes a way of reading the Scriptures whereby we gradually let go of our own agenda and open ourselves to what God wants to say to us.) ¹⁴

I encourage you to try to find five minutes each day to sit in silence. Get a cup of something warm and delicious, find a comfortable chair and just sit quietly.

That’s all.

It’s not terribly difficult, but it yields some great benefits. It will be challenging at first, like developing any new habit. But the rewards of developing ‘rests’ (pauses) in your life will make the ‘notes’ (your actions) become beautiful music. ¹⁵

Summary

If I were to paraphrase David’s advise in verse 2, it would say something like this: God has provided an instrument to navigate life – his words. When we intentionally and regularly put ourselves on the path of his words, they will guide and protect us on life’s journey.

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Up Next

Moving from digestive to agricultural metaphor, the psalmist describes the outcome of meditating on God’s words.

Notes

1. Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline (San Francisco: Harper One, 2018), 16-17.
2. Foster, 16.
3. Foster, 15.
4. Eugene Peterson, As Kingfishers Catch Fire (Colorado Springs: Waterbrook, 2017), 109.
5. Eugene Peterson, Answering God: The Psalms as Tools of Prayer (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1989) 29.
6. D.A. Carson, For the Love of God, Vol. 2: A Daily Companion for Discovering the Treasures of God’s Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1999) Jan. 23 entry.
7. James Byran Smith, The Good and Beautiful God (Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 2009), 26.
8. Henri Nouwen, The Only Necessary Thing New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 1999), 95.
9. https://theathletic.com/3901328/2022/11/16/blackhawks-assistant-coach-derek-king/
10. C.S. Lewis, The Silver Chair (New York: Harper Collins, 1995), 26.
11. Lewis, 27.
12. Peterson, Answering God, 23.
13. John R. Kohlenberger III, NIV Exhaustive Concordance Dictionary, Third Edition (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2015).
14. https://carmelites.org.au/lectiodivina
15. Smith, 27.