Fill, Don’t Empty

(Psa 119:99 KJV)  I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation.

(Proverbs 30 also read)

New Age philosophies have made “meditation” (7881) popular among the heathen.  Often we find true believers who discount it because of that.  This verse points out the big difference between pagan meditation and Biblical meditation:  What you meditate on.

For the world of eastern religions meditation means to empty your mind.  You have a mantra, a sound repeated over and over, which draws you out of the world by emptying your mind.  The goal is the peace of nothingness.

Christian meditation, or in this case Jewish meditation, is focusing on something profound, in this case the “testimonies” (5715), and looking into the meanings that might not be obvious at first glance.  It has the sense of reflection and study.

So?  We are called to make the truth of God ours.  That does not come by learning by rote the sayings of a guru or authority but by actually concentrating on the things that God said.