Meditation - Tim Keller
I listened to this leadership training seminar on Meditation by Tim Keller today at work. It’s rather, well, novel actually. This talk is based on Psalm 1, and the reasons why it is the first book of the 'bible’s prayer book', when it is not actually a prayer itself. Keller says this is because it describes the gateway to prayer, that being meditation, on the ‘law of God’, which is a step between bible study and prayer. Then he talks about ways to go 'higher up and deeper in' and calls in some interesting sources, including George Müller, to describe exactly what meditation is. (I should add that as I listen to it it runs to 26.20, then starts again, so you can just begin at 26.20 and listen to the end.)
I’m thinking of purchasing the rest of the series, called Gospel Spirituality, because he has whet my appetite and curiosity with this one.
On a related note, before Christmas I was ordering some children’s books (also reviewed by Dave MacDonald here) for my nieces and nephews from Matthias Media, and I got them to add in a sale copy of God Is Enough by Ray Galea. This book is a meditation on several Psalms, if you will. I’ve only read Psalm 139 so far, but that has been good. He begins with describing the hunger of a human soul; to be known, to share their life with someone, someone who understands and accepts them. Then he delves into the Psalm to show how God meets this longing.
Other Psalms covered in the book are 8, 2, 22, 51, 90, 19, 15, 73 and 78. I was really encouraged by Paul Tripp’s books meditating on Psalms 27 and 51 last year, and this looks like a similarly encouraging book.