Chewing the Bread of the Word: The Nature and Practice of Spiritual Reading

January 27, 2010

The Bible as My Bread and Bone

I. Bible DTR

I believe reading the Bible is a vital practice in order to grow

spiritually.

Disagree
Agree

I am currently satisfied with my own pattern/habit of reading

the Bible.

Disagree
Agree

II. Psalm 1: Two Ways . . . Two Images . . . Two Ends

1
Blessed are those
who do not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,

2
but who delight in the law of the LORD
and meditate on his law day and night.

3
They are like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.

4
Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.

5
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

6
For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will be destroyed.

Blacknall Women’s Bible Study  Spring 2010  Soul Feast

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 Chewing the Bread of the Word: The Nature and Practice of Spiritual Reading
January 27, 2010

III. A Closer Look at ‘Meditating’ on Scripture

A. Meditation as the key to being a tree

1. Blessed are the ones who don’t do evil things, but who
__________

2. Blessed are the ones who don’t do evil things, but who
___________ on ___________________________.

3. Implication: What you _________ about shapes how you

________.

• Psalm 2:1b “Why do the nations conspire and

the peoples plot (meditate) in vain?”

B. Meditate (hagah)

1. Word used by Hebrew ancestors for a way of reading

material that was gripping—that would change your life.

2. A Dog and a Bone

• ‘Meditate’ in Psalm 1:2 is same word used in Isa.

31:4 “as a lion growls over its prey”

3. A Person Eating Bread

• Prophets Ezekiel and Jeremiah eat scrolls. John in

Patmos is told to eat the scroll and he does (Rev.
10:10)

• “A person doesn’t live by bread alone, but on

every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
(Matt. 4:4/Deut. 8:3)

• “The statutes of the Lord are more precious than

gold; they are sweeter than honey from the
honeycomb.” (Ps. 19:10)

Blacknall Women’s Bible Study  Spring 2010  Soul Feast

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 Chewing the Bread of the Word: The Nature and Practice of Spiritual Reading
January 27, 2010

C. Bottom Line: Reading Scripture = Meditating on Scripture

1. There are different ways of reading.

2. Reading Scripture is for ___________________, not just

____________________.

• “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching,

rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that
all God’s people may be thoroughly equipped for every good
work.” (2 Timothy 3:16)

• “The Bible is useful for this: shaping and training you to be

the kind of person who walks in righteousness and is ready
to do good works, God’s works, in a fallen world. If you’re
not using the Word of God for that, you’re misusing it.”
(Buchanan, 202).

3. It doesn’t matter if you _______ Scripture! What matters

is if you _______ it.

IV. Chewing the Bread of the Word: Formational Reading of

Scripture

The Bread That Really Satisfies

• “I have discovered that the most difficult problem is not
finding time, but convincing myself that this is
important enough to set aside the time.” (Foster, 70).

A. Read (lectio)
• Take the bread and put it in your mouth.
• Read slowly—gingerly.
• Reading out lout will force you to slow down.
• Bite size is OK. The point is not to get through Scripture
—but to get Scripture through you.

B. Think (meditatio)
• Move it around in your mouth; chew; break it down.
• Move from looking at the words of the text to entering
the world of the text
• Requires imagination

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 Chewing the Bread of the Word: The Nature and Practice of Spiritual Reading
January 27, 2010

• What word/phrase are you drawn to? Why is it this?

• Where are the places of dissonance for you? Where
don’t you resonate? Pay attention to that.
• Imagine yourself in the story. Who do you identify with?
C. Pray (oratio)
• Swallowing it—or spitting it out if it is a hard word!
• Our response to God to this Word we have heard.
• Response will depend on the message: praise, rest,
peace, thanks, confession, lament, question, anger . . .
o “In prayer anything goes. Virtually everything human is
appropriate as material fro prayer: reflections and
observations, fear and anger, guilt and sin, questions and
doubts, needs and desires, praise and gratitude, suffering
and death. Nothing human is excluded.” (Peterson, 105).

D. Live (contemplatio)
• Digest it—keep working on it even hours after you’ve
read it.
• Let it nourish you and give you strength as you go about
your everyday, ordinary life.
• ‘Contemplatives’ are not perfect people. When we do
not live out the words we have heard, we are drawn
again to God to seek strength from Him.

V. Bringing It Home

What can you do this week to take one small step towards eating
this bread of life?

VI. Going Further/Resources for Study

Buchanan, Mark. Your God is Too Safe: Rediscovering the Wonder of a

God You Can’t Control. Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 2001.

Foster, Richard. Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth.

San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1988.

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 Chewing the Bread of the Word: The Nature and Practice of Spiritual Reading
January 27, 2010

Kidner, Derek. Psalms 1-72: An Introduction and Commentary on

Books I and II of the Psalms. Leicester, England: Inter-Varsity
Press, 1973.

Peterson, Eugene. Eat This Book: A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual

Reading. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006, especially chapters 6-
7.

The Message//Remix: Solo—An Uncommon Devotional. Colorado

Springs: Navpress, 2007.

Blacknall Women’s Bible Study  Spring 2010  Soul Feast

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