God's Battle Plan for the Mind: The Puritan Practice of Biblical Meditation

In our day, Christians are much more apt to be familiar with Yoga and eastern meditative practices than with biblical meditation. While some discerning Christians can utilize the positive benefits of Yoga without becoming involved in unbiblical forms of meditation, few really know how to engage in biblical meditation.When I researched the subject of biblical meditation several years ago, the best I came up with is some good material by Edmund Clowney (Christian Meditation, Reagent College Publishing) , but I did not find anything that helped me overcome some of the hurdles in beginning a regular practice of biblical meditation. Well, now I have it. The Puritans give me exactly what I need and what you need to know and to engage profitably in the practice of biblical meditation.The author’s goal in writing this book is “to convince God’s people of the absolute necessity of personal meditation.” His aim is to motivate and to teach people how to do this in a biblical way. He draws heavily on the scriptures and on the “rich spiritual experience of Puritans who were committed to practicing spiritual meditation.”Chapter 1 covers the importance of recovering the habit of biblical meditation. Drawing on the Puritans he says “Divine meditation has a multifaceted value. It provides us spiritual discernment; improves our Bible reading and prayer lives; applies the general truths of the Bible personally and specifically; strengthens our hearts by focusing on spiritual truths; and provides lasting benefit from dwelling on the truths we know.” In this and later chapters he adds much detail to these values.Chapter 2 covers unbiblical forms of meditation. “Modern Christians have neglected the biblical practice of meditation to such an extent that many believe the entire practice is based in a pagan or Far Eastern religious concept. Certainly, when people speak about meditation today, they usually are not referencing the biblical practice. Thus, this chapter will identify and explain the common false notions of meditation.”Chapter 3 defines and examines biblical meditation in the Old Testament, the New Testament and in the Puritans. I counted 42 Puritans in the Bibliography, so this chapter is well documented with a generous number of quotes to clarify the Puritan view.Chapters 4 and 5 give definition to Occasional and Deliberate Meditation and spell out the benefits, dangers and proper use of each.Chapter 6 is one of the most useful chapters in the book. As the Puritans were always quite detailed in their examination of things, so too are they in spelling out how to practice meditation. What follows is an outline of chapter 6. The Best Time of Day for Meditation The Best Place for Meditation The Amount of Time Necessary for Meditation The Importance of Consistency in Meditation Steps in Beginning Effective Meditation Praying for the Spirit’s Help for Fervency Choosing a Scriptural Thought by Bible Reading Questioning, Considering, and Examining Oneself Concluding with Personal Application, Resolution, and PrayerChapter 7 has extended discussions on important occasions for meditation.Chapter 8 provides needed help in choosing subjects for meditation.Chapter 9 is a very convincing chapter exploring the reasons why each believer should be regularly meditating upon God, His Word, and His works.Chapter 10 considers eight benefits and blessings of cultivating a life of meditation.Chapter 11 identifies the impediments and hindrances to meditation and gives suggestions for overcoming them.Chapter 12 gets you started in developing the habit of meditation.In the Conclusion author David Saxton takes a look at how the practice of meditation in the Christian life becomes a joy rather than a burden.The Bibliography is a wonderful resource of primary and secondary Puritan Sources.One of the strengths of this book is its fair and detailed handling of unbiblical forms of meditation, particularly Roman Catholic Spirituality, mysticism and contemplative prayer. While the following quote is rather long, it is worth reading.“One further caution should be made regarding a more recent, popular movement within broad evangelical circles called contemplative worship or prayer. Similar to traditional Roman Catholic mysticism, contemplative prayer is an unbiblical form of meditation that seeks a spiritual experience through some kind of existential encounter with God apart from His written revelation. Though not a new danger, many evangelicals have begun to fall prey to the false idea of maintaining spiritual communion with the Lord apart from His ordained means of the Bible and prayer. The contemplative prayer movement seeks to experience God’s voice apart from His written Word. This movement is a product of a larger evangelical departure from an absolute conviction in the sufficiency of Scripture. It does not use Scripture alone to address the spiritual needs of the inner person. These various fads of spirituality that minimize Scripture have come and gone over the centuries, but truth remains the same: “O how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day” (Ps. 119:97) and “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Ps. 119:105). We should heed the counsel of Thomas Manton: “Do not try to pry further than God hath revealed; your thoughts must be still bounded by the word. There is no duty that a fanatic brain is more apt to abuse than meditation…. Do not leave bread and wine and gnaw upon a stone.””As the publisher says: “With the rich experiential theology of the Puritans, this book lays out a course for enjoying true meditation on God’s Word.”

David Saxton has done in incredible amount of research to bring together a wonderfully informative book on puritan meditation. It has very practical implications that are certain to help us grow into spiritual maturity if we will put them into practice.

Biblical meditation has become a lost art today. Yet it is prevalent throughout Scripture as a necessity for Christians. Why? because how we think affects our actions and feelings. And due to our sinful flesh, we are prone to meditate and act on what is sinful (i.e lust, anger, etc). So biblical meditation is needed to help us grow spiritually. And that’s what David Saxton’s seeks to address in this book.Saxton seeks to reconcile biblical meditation, demonstrating the Puritans example in doing so. This book is chock full of Puritan quotes, demonstrating their vast knowledge on the subject. Books and sermons were written so that biblical meditation would develop as a daily practice. Some of the main goals is to develop deeper fellowship with God and put God’s Word into action.What I enjoyed about this book is the great emphasis the Puritans made on biblical meditation. They made the effort to meditate on Scripture in their every day walks. Quite the contrary, today’s Christians can’t even spend 5 minutes in God’s Word, much less meditate on it. Reading this book would make one repent from such complacency.Aside from defining and addressing the importance of biblical meditation, application is also stressed. For instance, choosing a time every day to meditate and try to do it at the same time. Also the length of meditation, which the Puritans split twofold: 1) spontaneous (throughout the day ) and 2) deliberate mediation (planned/set time). It is suggested in studying a verse Scripture then creating application . It’s best to consider context first lest the verse or passage is taken out of context. Additionally, the benefits and obstacles to meditation are addressed.Overall, this book is probably the best book I’ve read on biblical meditation. One cannot help but desire to meditate in reading this book. Is it easy? No. That’s the challenge since we face distractions every day. Yet biblical meditation must not be neglected but emphasized as much as possible. It is more than random thinking but how the Scripture applies to our lives? As Christians, we must take that into consideration.Highlights“What does it mean to meditate? It means to think personally, practically, seriously, and earnestly on how the truth of God’s Word should look in life.”“Why is meditation so neglected when it is so important and delightful? Simply put, meditation is difficult work—work that is opposed by the distracting spirit of our age, our adversary the devil, and the carnal raging of our hearts. Since modern Christianity stresses an instant, easy kind of spirituality, it is not difficult to see why the practice of meditation is so often neglected.”“Without a return to the delightful duty of biblical meditation, the believer will continue to handle God’s Word merely intellectually. He will fail to digest the Scriptures to make them his daily walk and practice.”“Why have the past few generations of believers not focused on biblical meditation? Although we could answer this question in different ways, the primary reason is a lack of confidence in God’s Word to sufficiently deal with the issues, problems, and temptations that believers face.”“Just as there would be no true healing from a surgery without a serious commitment to physical rest, so there is no spiritual healing without a commitment to meditation.”“Without meditation the truth of God will not stay with us; the heart is hard, and the memory slippery, and without meditation all is lost; meditation imprints and fastens a truth in the mind…. As a hammer drives a nail to the head, so meditation drives a truth to the heart. Without meditation the word preached may increase notion, not affection.”

This book really helped with my battle with prayerlessness. I’m so thankful to the author who has beautifully and concisely included the work of the Puritans in his book.

Nothing airy here: it's a 'go, do' sort of book with lots of examples and (even better, to my mind) oodles of references. The language is (mostly) modern and reads smoothly. If the size of this book intimidates, but the subject appeals, go find Joel Beeke's pamphlet on the same subject.

An informative handbook on meditating on Gods truth. It is well written and you come away with a better understanding, and why it is important to include meditating on Gods Word in our daily lives - a much overlooked practice in our modern world. Highly recommended.

Great and helpful survey on the Puritan's teaching and practice on scriptural meditation. You don't get much from the author himself, but perhaps this is not a bad thing. It seems like three quarters of the book is quotations. As far as a topical survey of a highly important discipline among those who had experience in practice, it succeeds admirably. I have been blessed in my own walk with the Lord Jesus through this book and have been led back to original sources and great secondary readings.

I was expecting more from the book than just passages from other authors put together. But it helped a lot with my essay on meditation.