The Duty & Necessity of Meditation

The Puritans stressed the need for meditation in six major thoughts, they are the following.

1. Our God who commands us to believe, commands us also to meditate, sufficient for doing it. Deut. 6:7; Psalm 19:14; 119 7x; Luke 4:44, John 4:24, Eph. 1:18; Heb. 3:1; used biblical characters, Melchisedec, Isaac, Moses, Paul, Timothy, Joshua, David, Mary.

2. Meditate on the word because it is God’s letter to us; not run over God’s letter in haste, but meditate on his love in sending it, Ps. 119.

3. One can not be a mature Christian without meditation; Manton: faith is lean and ready to starve without meditation.

4. Without meditation the preached word will fail to benefit us; reading without meditation is like swallowing raw and undigested food, Baxter, a man may eat too much, but cannot digest too well.

5. Without meditation our prayers will not be effective; a middle sort of duty between word and prayer; word feeds med. and med. Feeds prayer; hear that we be not erroneous, meditate so that we be not barren.

6. Christians who fail to meditate are unable to defend the truth, no backbone, no self-knowledge, Manton: man who is a stranger to meditation does not know himself; Watson: tis meditation that makes a Christian.

HT: Notes taken from Puritan Theology, taught by Dr. Joel Beeke.