THE MEDITATING HEART (1)

“Be angry, and do not sin. MEDITATE within your HEART on your bed, and be still” – Psalm 4:4

The Psalmist understood the power of the MEDITATING HEART: "Be angry, and do not sin. MEDITATE within your HEART on your bed, and be still. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord” (Psa.4:4-5). A major way by which Believers in Christ guard their hearts is by meditating in God’s Word. To meditate in the Word is to spend time mulling over a verse, phrase, idea or characteristic of God. It’s a process by which we open up our hearts and minds to receive revelation from the Holy Spirit.

As we meditate, we “chew” on Scripture and really take time to think about all it means for us personally. We endeavour to apply the truths of God’s Word to life’s circumstances. God’s Word is not meant only for hearing, reading, and studying – like a textbook. It is as we discover the spiritual discipline and practice of meditation that our lives begin to be transformed by the powerful, applicable truth of Scripture. Christian meditation differs from practices of emptying the mind that’s common to mystical and Eastern religions.

Psalm 4:4 links meditating with the emotion of anger. The Psalmist says, “Be angry, and do not sin.” Ephesians 4:26-27 adds: “…do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.” James 1:19b-20 goes further to say: “Be…slow to wrath, for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” This was exemplified in the life of Jesus when He healed a man with a withered hand. Jesus asked the crowd: “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” Their response of silence made Him angry: “And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts” (Mk.3:4-5). But He channelled the anger aright: He healed the man. Anger didn’t make Jesus to sin; but was transformed to healing.

Of course, when we witness or experience injustices in our world – if we didn’t feel anger there is something wrong with us. If we carry the nature of God – when we see orphans being abused, children being trafficked for sex, unethical behaviour and lawlessness, we should feel “anger”, but it is what we do with this anger that really matters. The worst thing we can do many times is to react rashly, scream, and show our anger to the world. The right response should be: "...Meditate within your heart on your bed and be still. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord” (vv.4-5).

We are supposed to be angry at sin, but not condemn the sinner or allow sin in our heart against the sinner. David calmed himself not to sin by directing himself to meditate within his heart, and to be still. His example teaches us to take away thoughts of anger by meditating on God's Word: “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks" (Mk.12:34). When we allow anger to stay in our heart, we start dwelling on it and we might end up becoming tools of carnal violence. It may also result in us reaching wrong conclusions or making undesirable decisions. When we think in anger, we can never be still, as diverse thoughts rush in, making our heart unsettled and troubled. We should learn to pause. Anger when not directed rightly will adversely affect our spiritual life.

Psalm 1:3 promises that if we meditate on Scripture we will be “like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither.” God wants us to meditate rather than get agitated, and be still rather than get disturbed. The Meditating Heart is so filled with God’s Word that the enemy can never find even a minute place to stack his thoughts of anger, bitterness, doubt, fear, hatred, self-righteousness, pride, or any negativity. The Meditating Heart dwells in peace and safety (v.8).