“Growing in Christ: Meditation” Psalm 1

I only remember having a family garden one time growing up. We picked a spot away from the house. We picked out what vegetables we wanted to plant. We dug in the dirt. Planted. And waited. And waited. The yield from our garden was tiny at best. Carrots no bigger than my pinky. A handful of potatoes. There may have been some green beans. But most of the crops died.

Looking back, my brothers and I liked the idea of a garden a lot more than actually taking care of one. We didn’t cultivate the soil well before we planted. We didn’t read the instructions about the best way or time of the year to plan each crop. And we only watered our little patch of land when we felt like it and remembered. 

As sad as our little garden was, what breaks my heart more is that how we treated that garden is how most people treat their spiritual life. Not really cultivating their inner life. Only seeking to practice spiritual disciplines when they feel like and remember, instead of seeing them as vital to spiritual growth and survival. Choosing to get caught up in the busyness of the day instead of dwelling in the word of God. And the result is a parched spiritual life.

Once we neglect our souls, what happens? They start to cry out. Sometimes we even know that our spiritual lives are hurting, but we choose instead to ignore it by being consumed in other things that we think are more important. In the words of Dallas Willard, one of the prolific writers on the spiritual life, “Only once we clearly acknowledge the soul, we can learn to hear its cries.”.

For the next ten weeks we are going to do just that - acknowledge the soul. We are going to delve into scripture together to come up with spiritual practices to try as individuals and in community in order to find spiritual grounding. Some of the disciplines may not seem to be your thing, but I would encourage each of us to earnestly try them for one week, only one week, in order to find the best way to feed your soul. Who knows, maybe God is waiting to reach out to you a new way through one of these disciplines.

We are made for relationship with God. In fact, our relationship to God is the most important relationship we have. Yet, sometimes we act as if God is the least important relationship in our life, putting off the work of the spiritual life until we have more time. Or we run to God when circumstances are trying, but turn back to our old habits and schedules when things are going well. This isn’t living from the center of a healthy soul, brothers and sisters. And as a result our spiritual lives become more focused on knowing about God, instead of really knowing God personally. Spiritual practices are tools to help us connect to this first and primary relationship with God, cultivating it. No one else can do the hard work of cultivating your soul for you. No one else can practice spiritual disciplines for you. Its up to you - and flows from the importance you place on your relationship with God. 

We live in a day and age of superficiality. As a result, our faith lives have started to look like the world around us, shallow at best. We need people of faith, who reject the noise, hurry, and crowds of the world, to dwell in a deep relationship with God. Spiritual disciples are truly for everyone, not the spiritual elite. In fact, we are all called to cultivate our inner lives in order to be able to hear God’s voice and more faithfully obey God’s word. 

Today’s Psalm speaks of one of these spiritual practices - meditation. “Happy are those who...delight in the law of the Lord and meditate on his law day and night.” Meditation is one of those words that has gotten a bad reputation over the year. For some of us we may think of other religious practices when we hear chanting, and become uncomfortable, others may think of those who seem to space out of society. Still others may claim that meditation is only for those who have lots of time to fill. But at its very core, Christians believe that meditation is gaze deeply into God’s word and reflect upon God’s works. Meditation allows us to give God our undivided attention so we can more fully know about God’s nature and see God’s heart for us. 

There are many different things we could choose to meditate on in order to fall more deeply in love with God, but the Psalmist speaks on meditating on God’s law, the word of God. Scripture reflects God’s nature and purpose for us. In this Psalm, the author speaks of two different types of people - those who love scripture and use it to feed their souls, and those who aren’t grounded in the Word, so they blow too and fro. In a way the Psalmist is asking if we live by God’s law or our own? If we allow God to search us and be our judge, or if we use our own rules and logic to justify what we are doing, even if we know that it is wrong. The Psalmist is essentially asking, do you allow yourselves to be instructed by God’s word? And this is a question that still penetrates each of our faith lives today. 

Another botched planting story. When I was in elementary school we had to have science projects. Both of my projects had disastrous consequences, but for one of them I watered plants with different kinds of beverages. Some with water. Some with soda. Some with kool aid. Only one plant survived - the one that was nourished by water. The others began to grow mold and smell, so much so that we had to move them out of the main living area, to a back room so they didn’t make the whole house reek. 

Where are you getting your nourishment? From dwelling in the word of God? Or from superficial sources? Are you like a tree with deep roots, drinking from the living water, or do you think that you can absorb the word through other people instead of putting in the hard time and work yourself?

In order to find life giving nourishment in the word through meditation, we can’t just pass over a scripture superficially. Instead we have to read bits of passages slowly, over and over again, until we find the reality of what the passage is speaking to us, or in the words of Richard Foster, until “The written word becomes the living word addressed to you”.

The best way to meditate on scripture is find a time to be alone, just you, the Lord, and the Word. Plan this time daily and make sure it happens. It doesn’t have to be a long period of time, try starting out with 15 or 20 minutes. Find a passage that speaks to your heart and read it slowly. Don’t read the passage to absorb facts so much as to seek the truth it has for your life. Reflect upon it with your mind and your heart. Absorb it, letting it sink in and transform you from the inside out. Let it be integrated into your life. 

Meditation is an act of faith. It requires with drawing from the things that distract us from God, so that we can intentionally be present to our Creator, leading us into deeper relationship. Its not rooted in a desire to study, but rather a desire to love God more fully. 

But here’s the thing - meditation is hard work. It keeps us from being spiritually lazy, which means automatically there are some people who will give up on it because its difficult. But how many of you are married? Or have a child? Or a friend? All of those relationships are hard work too. Somewhere along the way, we’ve tricked ourselves into thinking that our relationship with God should be easy. But how easy can it possibly be to fill your mind with God in a world that is trying to pull you every other possible direction? No wonder the Psalmist describes those who do not meditate on the law of the Lord as chaff that the wind drives away.

What makes the righteous, righteous in this Psalm is that they dwell with God. They seek to integrate the law in  a way that helps them live with integrity, living a life that is authentic and whole. Can we say the same things about our faith lives currently? Today, do you feel more like chaff blowing in the wind, or a tree with deep roots? Do you feel like a plant that is being nourished with living water, or one that is molding and starting to smell? And, what are you willing to put into your relationship with God in order to cultivate your soul and bear the fruit of the righteous? Amen.