Feasting on God's Wordනියැදිය

Day 3 - Posture 2: Hagah

Another posture for interacting with the Word of God is found in Psalm 1. The book of Psalms is by far the largest book in the Bible. The psalter opens with this grand pronouncement:

Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night.

The word “meditate” is our focus here. What image comes to mind when you think of meditation? I often envision it as a quiet, contemplative practice. This is a great example of how cultures and languages define words differently. In the Hebrew text of the Old Testament, this word “meditate” is the word hagah. It carries the idea of growling the way a lion does as it devours its prey. When was the last time you bit your Bible? Hagah is energetic, focused, active, and all in. The psalter begins with the wisdom that it is through consistent meditating on the law of the Lord that one will be blessed. Do you view interacting with the living Word of the living God as a discipline, something to be done and checked off a mental list? Or as an invitation to feast, to hagah, to devour the Word of God?

In the Western church, we talk a lot about spiritual disciplines and practices. I believe—and have experienced it in my own life—that interacting with the living God and the Bible each day cultivates the reflexes of the kingdom in our lives. I’ve been an athlete my entire life, and I learned early on about muscle memory. I’m now a golfer—I would happily golf every day! As I spend time at the driving range practicing swings, I’ll take one or two clubs and hit fifty balls with each in an effort to cultivate muscle memory in my body. Then, when I’m out on the course playing a round of golf, my body recalls how to hit with my pitching wedge and is well-practiced in hitting with my driver.

Spiritually, this is what it means to cultivate memory with the Word of God so that it is stored inside of us. Not for knowledge’s sake, but so when we get bumped, the kingdom of God flows out of us rather than something else. When you are angry, lonely, or scared, what comes out of you? What are your spiritual reflexes? Have you ever been pressed and come out sideways on someone? I certainly have. Cultivating the reflexes of the kingdom of God help us pull from what has been stored up in moments when we are pressed. What would it look like for you to give more of yourself to interacting with the living God by chewing on and digesting the written Word of God so that the reflexes of the kingdom become more automatic in your life as a follower of Jesus?

In The Message translation, Psalm 119:11 says, “I’ve banked your promises in the vault of my heart so I won’t sin myself bankrupt.” Similar to the concept of compound interest with money, our investment in the living Word is us storing up Scripture, adding to the very fabric of our being. The Word of God is meant to travel this world inside us, shaping and forming us, cultivating the way of Jesus in us as His ambassadors in this world.