What Is Meditation?

Psalm 4:4 (KJV) Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.

(Proverbs 30 also read)

I first read this today in the NASB.  I noticed that it has the word “meditate”.  That made me think that perhaps there is something here having to do with the definition of what it means to meditate.

I looked over and saw that the KJV had a different word.  The Hebrew seems to mean “talk or speak”.  So what does meditation mean?  What does it mean to commune with your heart?  I would suggest that there’s an element here of talking to yourself.  It doesn’t mean you’re crazy.  It means you’re throwing around ideas.  You can even involve talking to God or to the Holy Spirit, who lives within you.

So meditation in the Christian world is not emptying your mind and humming a mantra like the eastern religions do.  It is a matter of taking a truth and wrestling with it.  Argue with it.  Give it a piece of your mind.  Get closer to truth.

So?  That gives you something to do when you can’t sleep at night if nothing else.  Meditate.  Think about the things of God.  Talk them over even when no one else is around.