Ps 5:1 CONSIDER MY MEDITATION

CONSIDER MY MEDITATION

Give ear to my words, O Lord. Consider

my meditation. Ps 5:1

What is meditation? To meditate means to think about what things mean. Ever since there were philosophers, men meditated on life: “What does it mean?” “What are its purposes?”, “What are its values?” For all their meditation, they never could or did arrive at real meanings.

Today we ask our Lord to consider our meditations, but why should He? Namely, because our meditations are based on His Word. Spiritual meditation is important; without it, I’m afraid the words we speak would be just words without much meaning. There is not much point in simply rattling through the Commandments, or the Creed or the Lord’s Prayer. Dr. Luther recognized as much. Any grade school child knows the many times he was asked the question in the Catechism, “What does this mean?” Just because little children are not mature enough for meditation, Luther wrote a Small Catechism to explain what the Commandments and the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer mean. As our ability for meditation increases, our interest is shifted to the Bible passages and references on which the Catechism is based. In this way our attention is focused on the word of the Bible. It is interesting to note how the devil does everything in his power to keep us from meditation: a hectic pace of getting and spending and questionable diversions, like much of TV, that precludes any thought on our part.

As we grow older, life begins to take on deeper meaning; we find ourselves faced with problems that we as little children did not have. We begin to ask, “What is my life all about?” “Where am I headed?” “Why do I especially have so many problems?” The answers to all our problems are found in meditation on God’s Word. We learn to trust our Lord to care for us, to forgive our sins, and to give us strength for a new life. These are the meanings that the Lord himself supplies.

O Lord, consider Thou my meditation.