People associate meditation with Eastern religions like Buddhism and Hinduism. Meditation conjures up people with eyes closed, breathing slowly, sitting cross-legged in lotus position chanting certain words and phrases (called a mantra). Yet meditation also features prominently in Scripture, particularly the Psalms. Psalm 1 sets the tone, “Blessed is the one whose delight is in the law of the Lord and meditates on it day and night” (Ps. 1.2). The goal of meditation in Eastern thought is to empty the mind and become detached from the world to achieve harmony with self and an impersonal divine being. Meditation for the Christian has a different purpose: to fill the mind with thoughts of God from Scripture that shape our everyday conduct.
Joseph Hall (1574-1656) was a Church of England priest with Puritan proclivities, known chiefly for his devotional writings. He wrote The Art of Divine Meditation in 1607 as a how-to book on all things related to meditation. He observed that we can engage in meditation anywhere we can be alone with God and anytime, day or night, although Joseph regards “the golden hours of morning and evening as fittest for meditation.” Most any posture is appropriate, whether standing, sitting, kneeling or walking. Joseph’s normal mode of meditation was a practice he called “meditated walking.” He advised four steps in practicing Scripture meditation: 1. begin each meditation with prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to guide the exercise, 2. fix your thoughts on Scripture (like Mary, who pondered God’s Word in her heart), 3. let the text lead you into prayers of praise, confession, petition or renewed confidence and 4. conclude with resolutions that flow from the passage to offer in prayer. While meditation for Joseph begins in the brain, it descends to the heart, which activates affection for God and results in resolutions that conform with God’s will. One of Joseph’s meditations leads him to pray: