שויתי ה׳ לנגדי תמיד
“Shiviti Adonai le’negdi tamid.”
Psalm 16:8

Meditation has become very popular in the last 20 years. Millions of people seeking to learn eastern wisdom for emptying the mind to find peace. Emptiness of mind is thought to be the bridge to detachment, and ultimately happiness.

Biblical meditation is not emptiness, it is fullness, as the Hebrew word for meditation means to be full and ruminating. What are we full of? God’s Word.

Psalm 122:1 says, “I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.” I rejoiced? Rejoicing when entering the house of God is from drawing near to the One we have meditated on, as Psalm 16:8, in Hebrew above, says, “I set God before me always.”

Setting the Father before us always is contrary to meditation practices popularized today, as setting Him before us places us in His fullness, and as we read in Psalm 16:11, “in your presence there is fullness of joy.”

So joy and happiness is not from attempting to become empty, but full in the presence of the Lord.

Be well. Shalom.