17 March 2015 A.D. 22 Benefits of Meditating on Scripture
17 March 2015 A.D. 22 Benefits of Meditating on Scripture
Joel Beeke, in his essay
on “The Puritan Practice of Meditation,” writes that “The Puritans
devoted scores of pages to the benefits, excellencies, usefulness, advantages,
or improvements of meditation.” Dr. Beeke lists some of the benefits as
follows:
Taylor, Justin. “22
Benefits of Meditating on Scripture.” Gospel
Coalition. 13 Mar 2015. http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2015/03/13/22-benefits-of-meditating-on-scripture/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+between2worlds+%28Between+Two+Worlds%29. Accessed 13 Mar 2015.
1.
Meditation helps us focus on the Triune God, to love and
to enjoy Him in all His persons (1 John
4:8)—intellectually,
spiritually, aesthetically.
2.
Meditation helps increase knowledge of sacred truth. It
“takes the veil from the face of truth” (Prov. 4:2).
3.
Meditation is the “nurse of wisdom,” for it promotes the
fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom (Prov. 1:8).
4.
Meditation enlarges our faith by helping us to trust the
God of promises in all our spiritual troubles and the God of providence in all
our outward troubles.
5.
Meditation augments one’s affections. Watson called
meditation “the bellows of the affections.” He said, “Meditation hatcheth good
affections, as the hen her young ones by sitting on them; we light affection at
this fire of meditation” (Ps. 39:3).
7.
Meditation is a great friend to memory.
8.
Meditation helps us view worship as a discipline to be
cultivated. It makes us prefer God’s house to our own.
9.
Meditation transfuses Scripture through the texture of
the soul.
11.
Meditation helps us to hear and read the Word with real
benefit. It makes the Word “full of life and energy to our souls.” William
Bates wrote, “Hearing the word is like ingestion, and when we meditate upon the
word that is digestion; and this digestion of the word by meditation produceth
warm affections, zealous resolutions, and holy actions.”
12.
Meditation on the sacraments helps our “graces to be
better and stronger.” It helps faith, hope, love, humility, and numerous
spiritual comforts thrive in the soul.
13.
Meditation stresses the heinousness of sin. It “musters
up all weapons, and gathers all forces of arguments for to presse our sins, and
lay them heavy upon the heart,” wrote Fenner. Thomas Hooker said, “Meditation
sharpens the sting and strength of corruption, that it pierceth more
prevailingly.” It is a “strong antidote against sin” and “a cure of
covetousness.”
14.
Meditation enables us to “discharge religious duties,
because it conveys to the soul the lively sense and feeling of God’s goodness;
so the soul is encouraged to duty.”
15.
Meditation helps prevent vain and sinful thoughts (Jer. 4:14; Matt. 12:35). It helps wean us from
this present evil age.
16.
Meditation provides inner resources on which to draw (Ps.
77:10-12), including direction for
daily life (Prov.
6:21-22).
17.
Meditation helps us persevere in faith; it keeps our
hearts “savoury and spiritual in the midst of all our outward and worldly
employments,” wrote William Bridge.
20.
Meditation helps us benefit others with our spiritual
fellowship and counsel (Ps. 66:16; 77:12; 145:7).
21.
Meditation promotes gratitude for all the blessings
showered upon us by God through His Son.
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