The Middle Ground in Prayer

The one and only prayer book of the Bible is the Book of Psalms but it does not begin with a prayer but with a meditation, what Tim Keller calls “a meditation on meditation” (Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God, 146). That is, Psalm 1 is a “pre-prayer act” of recollection. We cannot jump from business to prayer or from academic theory into prayer, but we need he says “middle ground,” that is, meditation on Scripture.

This kind of meditation on Scripture as seen in Psalm 1 gives us stability, substance in character, and blessedness. [Source for image.]

This is where Keller’s book on prayer is going to make a very important contribution in the conversation about prayer. Some discussions of prayer suggest that whatever comes into our mind while we are praying is from God, and some folks hear all kinds of things (utter nonsense included), while Keller keeps us grounded in the Word. Meditation is not just inner cogitations but meditation on the Word. Meditation is not mindlessness but mindfulness (tweet that, it’s from me).

The word for “meditation” in the Bible means to “mutter” (148) and this often meant to mutter slightly aloud from memory. That is, it refers to memorized recitations (see similar ideas at Psalm 77:3, 6, 12). What does he mean then by meditation?

To meditate is to ask yourself questions about the truth, such as: “Am I living in light of this? What difference does this make? Am I taking this seriously? If I believed and held to this, how would that change things? When I forget this, how ioes that affect me and all my relationships?” In every case, meditation means to use the mind intensely (148).

He offers a warning about lectio divina or “divine reading”:

A great number of books advise “divine reading” of the Bible today, and define the activity uncarefully as reading “not for information but to hear a personal word of God to you.” This presents a false contrast. It is certainly true that meditation personalizes the Word, but before we can meditate on what the text personally means to us and our time, we must first need to know as much as possible what the author meant to say to his readers when he wrote it (149).

Mantra meditation, too, needs scrutiny:

Mantra meditation seeks to suppress the analytical side of the mind. Christian meditation, however, stimulates our analysis and reflection—and centers it on the glory and grace of God (150).

But Keller, however theological he may be, knows that meditation is deeper than the mind: it penetrates the heart. I like this expression:

… meditation is taking the truth down into our hearts until it catches fire there and begins to melt and shape our reactions to God, ourselves, and the world (151).

What does meditation look like?

An example of meditation is Psalm 103:1-2: “Praise the Lord, my soul; and all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits.” Notice that David is not speaking directly to God, though he is aware of being in the presence of God. He is talking to himself, to his soul. He is taking truth down into his heart before the face of God. That is meditation (151).

We can do this, and here he draws from John Owen, by fixing the mind on a truth from the Bible, asking what the text tells us about God, about human nature, about Christ and about the church. Or to read the passage thinking about personal example, about commands, promises, and warnings. Or follow the words of a specific verse carefully. (You may know Bonhoeffer advocated this from the Moravian daily texts.) Or paraphrase the verse in your own way. Or to memorize it.

At this point we are to incline the heart toward the truth of the Bible — to preach to our own heart. This will lead to the heart enjoying the truth or crying out to God about that truth. In summary:

According to Owen, meditation means analyzing the truth with the mind; bringing it into the feelings, attitudes, and commitments of he heart; and then responding to the degree to which the Holy Spirit gives illumination and spiritual reality (162).

He finishes off by turning this all toward Christ: “Jesus is supremely the one also on whom we meditate, because he is the meditation of God. I He is God’s truth become “real,” made concrete, and applied. He is the one who enables us to stand in the Judgment Day. He is the one who gives us the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22ff)” (164).