Psalm 111 NLT
Praise the Lord! I will thank the Lord with all my heart as I meet with his godly people. How amazing are the deeds of the Lord! All who delight in him should ponder them. Everything he does reveals his glory and majesty. His righteousness never fails. He causes us to remember his wonderful works. How gracious and merciful is our Lord! (1-4)
A.W. Tozer stands as one of the greatest Christian authors who ever lived, and his work “The Knowledge of the Holy” is one of his best. In that book, he lays out in beautiful prose the very attributes of God and how studying them can change our lives. This sentiment is the heartbeat of Psalm 111. Instead of focusing on His attributes, the psalmist here focuses on God’s deeds. Yet, the instruction is the same, “all who delight in him should ponder them.”
I have said before that Christian meditation is a lost art; perhaps because it conjures images of monks or eastern mysticism that feel foreign to evangelical Christianity. Yet, true meditation means reading and meditating on the word of God in a way that leads us to focus on His attributes and on His works. Thinking deeply about “Who God is,” and “What God has done” will change your life and allow you to focus on what matters most. We tend to think a lot about ourselves, our problems, our dreams, and our needs. In this day and time, it seems that leads to self-absorption for some and anxiety for the rest. Our meditation must be “God-wards”—we must think about him and ponder who He is and what He has done.
This is echoed by Paul in Philippians 4 where he instructs us to think about what is honorable, just, lovely, pure, etc. This instruction is followed by a promise; if we ponder those things then “the God of peace will be with us.” We must thank the Lord with all our heart privately, and then publicly with the Saints. We should immerse ourselves in meditation on His attributes and deeds. As we consider His glory and majesty, and delight in His wonderful works we will find an unexplainable change come over us. Our focus will not be on us… it will be on Him, and that makes all the difference.
