This past week I have been focusing on Psalm 51 and learning what it means to meditate on the word of God. I have been doing this for one of my classes at Biblical Seminary called “Formation and Mission”. The project at hand was to learn two new spiritual disciplines and put them into practice in our lives. Our group choose simplicity and meditation. Before you start getting all up tight thinking I’ve become too eastern or anything understand that meditation for a Christian is far different than any other form of meditation. Richard Foster in his book “Celebration of Discipline” explains it like this:
“Eastern meditation is an attempt to empty the mind; Christian meditation is an attempt to fill the mind. The two ideas are quite different. Meditation of Scripture centers on internalizing and personalizing the passage.”
After practicing this discipline for a few short days, I have really appreciated the discipline. Now, on to the good stuff.
As I mentioned our group chose meditation, and we chose the passage of Psalm 51 to meditate on. One of the coolest things that I came across after meditating on this psalm was verse 10. Listen to how the Message paraphrase puts it.
“God, make a fresh start in me,
shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.” Psalm 51: 10
Can you imagine what that would be like? We know that Psalm 51 is a psalm of David that was written after he had an affair with Bathsheba. His life is wildly out of control and he was chasing after the desires of his own heart at this time. Then brokenness hits him. The reality of what he had done has struck him in the face through the prophet Nathan. David begins to pour his heart out to God in repentance in this psalm.
Have you had seasons or decades in your life where you were like David? Okay, maybe not running around spying on naked women from your roof, but maybe you were living a life that was wildly out of control and seeking after the desires of your own heart. Can you resonate with the words of David? I can.
I love the beauty in the way the Message put it; “shape a genesis week from the chaos of my life.” That’s powerful! A genesis week, the week when all that we know to exist was created. Shape it from the chaos in my life! Wouldn’t you love to turn over your life’s chaos and have it shaped into something beautiful?
I know I would.
~Peter
Check out this video by Gungor called “Beautiful things”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqy1a_Gz0zQ]
