The Celtic Revival: Afterglow (13)

indithim – “meditation”

  - Cormac, Glossary, Irish, 10^thcentury

Wait on the LORD;
Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the LORD!

  - Psalm 27.14

Indeed, let no one who waits on You be ashamed…

  - Psalm 25.3

Meditation is a form of waiting on the Lord, as we see in Psalm 27 (cf. v.4). Or perhaps better, waiting for the Lord.

But what are we waiting for?

We’re waiting for the Lord to make Himself known, to bring us into the presence of His beauty, the assurance of His love, the safety of His grace, and the understanding of His Word and will. In meditation we wait for God to draw us into a kind of participation in or partaking of Him – experiencing His presence and being caught up in His glory. 

But for meditation to bear such fruit, we have to learn to wait. Meditation is not for those who practice their faith in activity, in doing things or participating in programs. Meditation requires time, patience, and a deep hunger for the Lord, a hunger that can only be satisfied in small bites over long periods of time.

Cormac, that enigmatic bishop/king, collected Gaelic words that were going out of use in his day (10^thcentury) because he thought they were important to preserve. The dusk of the Celtic Revival was upon Ireland then, and Cormac seemed to want to keep the candles burning for a while.

One of the words he thought worthy of preserving referred to the discipline of meditation. Celtic Christians practiced the discipline of meditation with gusto. We think of Brendan, as a young boy, singing his psalms throughout the night. Or Kevin, praying and meditating so long that a bird built a nest in his outstretched palm. Or brothers in a monastery gathering seven times a day to sing and meditate through the psalms.

Meditation requires three things: time, which you must set and keep, because meditation doesn’t just happen; focus, that is, something on which to concentrate your thoughts and affections for an extended period of time; and resolution– the will to stay at it and to repeat the discipline regularly. You need resolve to keep at the work of meditation, believing that your meditation will yield an acute awareness of divine presence – an encounter with the glory of God – if only you keep at it in prayerful contemplation and patient waiting. Like Jacob wrestling the angel.

Waiting. Yes, that’s an important key to fruitful meditation. We are not good waiters. We want what we want now, because, frankly, we have too many other things to do to wait for God to meet us in His way and time.

It is perhaps because we have so infrequently experienced God in His glory that we are not willing to take the time to wait on Him in meditation. Simply put, we don’t know what we’re missing.

Waiting on the Lord is a good way of describing meditation. Were he compiling his glossary today, Cormac would probably define indithim as “waiting on the Lord.” And I’m sure he would lament that it was passing out of use once again. 

Seek rich times of meditation, waiting on the Lord to draw you into Himself and His glory. Rich blessings of divine presence and favor await you in meditation, as you wait on the Lord. And if you really believe this, and really want to meet God in His glory, then you will make the time, gather the focus, and muster the resolution to wait.

Psalm 25.1-5 (Festal Song: Revive Thy Work, O Lord)
I lift my soul to You; O Lord, in You I trust.
Let me not come to shame, nor let my foes o’er me exult.

All they who wait on You shall never come to shame;
Yet they to shame shall come who stand against Your holy Name.

Make me to know Your ways, teach me Your paths, O Lord!
My Savior, all day long I wait and seek You in Your Word.

I’m not good at waiting, Lord; but I long to know You in Your glory. Teach me to wait for You so that I…

Personal Mission Field
If you have not yet mapped out your Personal Mission Field, please watch this video (click here), download your Personal Mission Field worksheet, and begin showing love to your neighbor by praying each day for the people in your Personal Mission Field. By starting with prayer and meditation, you will grow in love for those to whom God has sent you, and your witness from Christ will blossom in that soil.

Please prayerfully seek the Lord concerning this matter. The Kingdom of God advances through the lives and love of the people Jesus has saved. If righteousness, peace, and joy in the Spirit are to make progress in these darkening times, it will be through you and me and all who take up our calling daily to go in and with Jesus to the world.

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T. M. Moore
Principal
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All psalms for singing from The Ailbe Psalter. Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.