Dear Members and Friends of Bedok Methodist Church, how have you been this season? For me, it has been a time of much inner reflection with most of the time spent at home. Besides the time spent with family, time spent exercising to keep the body from being too lethargic, I have also been spending some time reading through the Psalms.
The first Psalm in the Bible is one of my favourite Psalms, and I want this week’s encouragement to be a reflection on this Psalm. It is a beautiful Psalm and I have personally found great treasures in it to help me in my daily living. I am certain that this Psalm will help you in a similar way too, and so I will like to share more about it with you.
The Psalm begins in the most impactful way. It says that how “blessed” we are, or in other words, how well and happy we will be in life, depends upon our finding delight in God’s Word. It doesn’t say that your blessedness in life is dependent upon your circumstances, nor does it mention worldly success or wealth. The main thing that would lead to a blessed life is to find delight in God’s Word.
Since delighting in God’s Word is so crucial, most of us would then ask the question, “How do we delight in God’s Word?” Does it mean that we must read scripture every time with a smile on our face? Of course not! That will be very superficial. The Psalmist answers it for us. He says that to delight in God’s Word is to meditate on it day and night. It is achieved by constant meditation upon His Word.
Now how many of us can truly say that we meditate on God’s Word day and night? Some of you might say, “Pastor, I am already so busy, where to find the time for it?” However, do you know that you meditate upon many things in your life daily even when you are not intentional about it?
Our days are often interspersed with self-talk and self-reflection as we go about our activities at work, at school and at home. If we are honest about it, this self-talk and self-reflection is often negative, filled with worry, unbelief and criticisms of ourselves and others. This self-talk or self-reflection is the act of meditating.
Imagine what would happen if we were to replace this daily negative, worldly meditation with godly meditation – the meditation of His Word. I believe we will begin to see change and transformation in our own lives. Not only that, we will also begin to see how it will transform our family and relationships.
My friends, let us heed the words of the Psalmist and learn to practice this in our daily lives. Let us begin to delight in God’s Word, to meditate upon it day and night, that our days may be blessed by the Lord.
Here are some suggestions on how we can start:
• Memorise a key verse and repeat it to yourself as often as you can each day.
• Turn the words of the Bible verse into a prayer. When we pray them, we own them, and when we pray them, we reinforce them in our hearts and wills.
• Print out copies of it, and put them on the doors of your bedroom, bathroom, study, office, kitchen, fridge, dining table and in your car.
May you truly find delight in God’s Word!
Rev Timothy Yong