Core Competencies - Meditating on the Word of God

"Core competencies" of Christian living are beliefs, practices, and skills central to living out our faith in the real world. They are the beliefs, practices, and skills we can leverage to our practical advantage in a wide variety of contexts and situations. The first of these is "A 5-Finger Grip on the Word of God." The five fingers stand for: reading, memorizing, studying, meditating on, and applying the Word of God. Of these five, "meditating" is perhaps the most misunderstood.

In the original languages of the Bible (Hebrew and Greek), several words are used for meditation (I have found at least nine of them). The meaning and connotations of these words contribute significantly to our understanding of how to meditate. Over the next few days, I will share some of them with you. Here's the first:

 

Chashab

One of the words used for meditation in the Old Testament is chashab (pronounced khaw-shab).

You can find this word in Malachi 3:16.  The ESV translates it with the word esteemed.  The verse talks about people esteeming the Lord’s Name. However, the word means to think, plan, calculate, and invent. The NKJV actually uses the word meditate for the translation.

The significance of chashab for this study is its emphasis on creative thought.  For example, back in Exodus 31, God called on two men, Bezalel and Oholiab, to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver, and bronze.  God picked these men to design certain articles for the Tabernacle.  And He endowed them with the ability to think about the design of these articles with creativity and to draw up plans for how to make them, and, of course, then to fabricate them.

So the word chashab in Exodus 31 points to engaging in creative thought with precious raw material in order to produce artifacts useful for worship and service.

In the context of how to meditate, the word chashab suggests taking the precious raw material of God’s Word and thinking about creative ways to express the truth found therein. The Psalms as poems are packed with examples of the fruit of this form of meditation. Poems all by themselves are creative ways of expressing truth. But even within the Psalms, writers often layered creative device on top of creative device to share what they were thinking about God and all things related to Him. Their creativity stands as a testimony to their engaging in chashab.

If you want to meditate with an emphasis on chashab, try taking some precious nugget of eternal truth, some verse of Scripture, and writing a poem or song about it. Or perhaps you could painting a picture about it or do something else with the arts to express the meaning found in that precious nugget of eternal truth.  (Keep in mind, you can’t take creative license with the truth, but you can express it creatively!)