The alarm goes off at 5:30 A.M. to the sound of your clock radio. You sit down to eat your bowl of Wheaties and click on the TV. After finishing the dishes, you dash to your car, start the engine, and tune your radio to your favorite station. All day long, your computer or cell phone dings or chirps or buzzes you with sounds or flickering lights or shocks known as “jolts.” With each jolt, you experience a small release of adrenaline in your brain. We live at an ever-increasing level of sensory stimulation.

So when we read Psalm 1 and discover the happy person is one who delights in the law of the Lord day and night, we wonder, Can we possibly add one more thing to the “to-do” list spinning in our heads? How can I shut out the noise and listen to that still small Voice?

Why can’t I seem to meditate on God’s Word without jumping up every five seconds to tend to a new text, call, or e-mail? How do I even begin to meditate? What does it mean to meditate? On hearing the word meditation, you might envision sitting cross-legged for hours in a state of mental emptiness.

The Hebrew word for meditate, hagah, is difficult to express in a simple phrase. It is a word that can mean to speak to oneself in a low voice—murmuring, as is often done by those who are musing. I must admit that as I get older, I discover sometimes when I’m alone, I am mumbling, musing to myself about something! But in what sense does the Scripture use this interesting word to describe this very important spiritual discipline?

Maybe I should begin by saying what it isn’t. Biblical meditation isn’t anything like Eastern meditation. Eastern meditation involves a mental exercise of emptying the mind of conscious thought and looking “within” to gain enlightenment and peace. In contrast, Christian meditation must always engage the mind by focusing upon the Scriptures and responding in prayer. It calls for us not to look within ourselves, but rather to look to the Word of God and the Spirit of God.

Meditation is thinking, musing, asking questions of yourself and the Word; it takes mere information and works it deep into our minds until it begins to affect our hearts.

Psalm 1 puts it this way: “Blessed is the man…[whose] delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law does he meditate day and night” (NKJV).

In place of the TV or computer, find a quiet place to muse upon the Word of God, turning it over and over in your mind. Ask yourself questions. (Mutter to yourself out loud if you like!) As you discover more and more of a passage’s beauty, it will become a delight to your soul. Take time to reflect on each precious God-chosen noun, verb, adverb, adjective, and preposition!

You might think in terms of how you gaze at a beautiful sunset, drinking in the colors as they grow more and more intense, or how you study the intricate delicacy of a flower, or savor the subtle flavors of a delicious meal.

I hope you find yourself standing in line at the bank or waiting at a stoplight and you discover that your mind is musing over a passage you read that morning. I pray, should you wake in the night for no reason and your conscious mind is barely engaged, in that half-wakefulness of daybreak, it automatically guides you toward God’s Word.

Turn off the noise and listen. And keep at it! You’ll discover your times of meditation will get better and better until it becomes a hunger, a thirst…a delight!