Why is it Important to Meditate on God's Word?

 Jack Gutknecht ABC/DTS graduate, guitar music ministry Baptist church

Ken Puls says, "Meditation is pondering the Word in our hearts, preaching it to our own souls, and personally applying it to our own lives and circumstances."

David also speaks of remembering God: When I remember you upon my bed And meditate on you in the watches of the night (Psalms 63:6). 

This is the verb hagah in the Hebrew.
The verb hagah in the Hebrew: 

It is found in numerous places in the Old Testament and is translated as “ponder” or “meditate”: This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success (Joshua 1:8). 

But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And on his law, he meditates
day and night (Psalms 1:2).When I remember you upon my bed and meditate on you in the watches of the night (Psalms 63:6). 

In Psalms 2 it is used of the nations “plotting” against God: 
Why do the nations rage and the peoples PLOT in vain? (Psalms 2:1) 

The word literally means “to let resound.” It is used in Psalms 92:3 of the
sound or tones of a musical instrument as it resonates. 

On an instrument of ten strings, 
On the lute, And on the harp, With HARMONIOUS [or
resounding] SOUND (Psalms 92:3). 
We find the term also at the end of Psalms 19: 
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer (Psalms 19:14). 
In other words: Let the inward tones of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord... 

This is how we want the truth of Scripture to fill us and impact us—as we hear it and sing it and pray it—as Paul tells us in Colossians 3:16, let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly! Let it dwell in us in a way that resounds and reverberates in and through our lives. 

We see another use of the word in Isaiah 31:4 that helps us understand its intent. Isaiah uses the word in reference to a lion: 
For thus the LORD said to me, “As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey” (Isaiah 31:4) 

The word for growl or roar is this word for meditation. Have you ever heard a lion when he roars? He does not just use his voice. His entire being reverberates. This is meditation. Letting God’s Word resound from within the very center of our being. 

Meditation involves remembering, and resounding, but finally, Asaph speaks of MEDITATING:
I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds (Psalms 77:12). 
This word siyach means to muse and wonder and dwell on—to 
think deeply about something. Used literally it means to murmur, mumble or talk to yourself. 

In a negative sense, it can mean “to complain.” It is the idea that
something has so taken hold of your thinking that you can’t stop thinking about it. So on the negative side—it troubles you and disturbs you and draws out complaint; but on the positive side—it captivates you and enraptures your thinking so that you “dwell on” it. This is the way we want God’s truth to lay hold of us—so that we can’t but dwell on it, so that it captures our thinking and finds it way into our choices and decisions. 

The Puritans thought of meditation this way as they described it as “preaching to yourself.” We take the Word of God that we hear and read, and we mull it over in our minds and then bring it to bear upon our lives in personal exhortations. It is a word that is found often in the Old Testament, especially in the psalms:May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the LORD (Psalms104:34). I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways (Psalms119:15). Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day (Psalms 119:97). 

When we meditate we think about God’s Word. We dwell on it and
then as opportunities arise, we preach it to ourselves. We inject it into our thoughts as we make decisions, as we admonish and instruct our souls to choose right things and walk down right paths.

What are Some Good Techniques for Memorizing Verses from the Bible?

1. Choose a verse to memorize that speaks to something in your life right now. A Bible verse that’s relevant to what you’re going through is easier to memorize than one that speaks to a topic that’s abstract to you. I.e. I often choose verses relating to my weakness, temptation to immorality.

2.  Choose a short verse to start with… and make it even shorter by breaking it down into pieces. Memorize the first five words in the verse first, and when you’ve got them down, add the next five. As you become more confident, you can add more words, sentences, and even entire verses—but don’t add anything new until you’ve got the previous words down pat.  Example:  John 11:35 "Jesus wept."  or 1 Thessalonians 5:16 "Rejoice evermore." Or even, tongue-in-cheek, New Revised Standard
Exodus 16:36
"An omer is a tenth of an ephah. "

3.  Write the verse you’re memorizing down on paper. But don’t just write it once; write it many times—five or ten times is a good start (and some people write out their memory verses up to 50 times!). Physically writing the words out is an extremely useful tactile memory aid.

4.  Just as writing a verse out can help in memorizing it, so speaking the words aloud is an excellent way to burn them into your memory. One person suggested turning the radio off during your commute to work or school each day and reciting your memory verse out loud instead!

5.  When you pray, include elements of the verse in your words to God. Pray that God will help you understand and apply the verse to your life. Pray for God’s help in fixing the verse in your heart and mind.

6.  Write your memory verse out on multiple index cards or sticky notes and putting them all over the place, so that you’ll see the verse many times throughout your day. Tape the verse to your bathroom mirror or computer monitor. Tuck it into your purse, lunch sack, car glove compartment, school textbook, pockets… anywhere you’ll see it. Make it your desktop background, or go so far as to laminate the verse to hang it in the shower!

7.  Do you find it much easier to remember lyrics than spoken words? Try setting the Bible verse to a simple tune (perhaps repurposing a song you already know well) that you can sing to yourself. (many famous hymns and worship songs use Bible verses as their lyrics, and were written specifically as aids for Bible verse memorization.)

8.  Turn the act of memorizing into a personal challenge! write the verse out on cards, leaving key words blank, and quiz yourself. Get some friends or family members to help quiz you, or even to memorize the verse along with you and encourage and challenge you.

9.   This tip isn’t for everyone, but if you’re comfortable in more than one language, try translating your verse into different languages. Translation requires an intense focus on the meaning and language of a verse.  This works for me when I change my native tongue, English, into my second language, Spanish.   Or I could do it into Greek or Hebrew.

10.  Write it down, speak it out loud, sing it out, pray it—but whatever you do, do it over and over until it’s a natural, reflexive action. The goal isn’t to reduce it to a mindless, repeated activity, but to slowly press the verse into your memory through repetition. Repeat your memorization activity over the course of several hours, days, or even weeks to pace yourself—there’s no prize for memorizing a Bible verse fastest; the point is to internalize it over time. And that means you shouldn’t be discouraged if it takes a while for the verse to “stick”—keep at it, and it will take root!