Christian Living

Excerpt from I Will Meditate on All Your Work by John Piper

[Based on Psalm 77]

We know from the way the New Testament writers used the Psalms that the Psalms were the book of praise and meditation for the early church. In other words, the early church did not say, "Well, Christ, the Messiah, has come now, so everything written of old is out of date and unhelpful." On the contrary, they saw Christ in the Psalms, and they saw their own experience in the struggles and triumphs of the psalmists.

So we should read the Psalms like they did. Christ didn't come to abolish them, but to fulfil them (see Matthew 5:17). So we should read them as fulfilled, not as abolished. They should be fuller and richer for us, but not nullified. For example, when the Psalms call us to meditate on the Word of God we don't say, "We don't need to do that, we have the living Christ and his Spirit." Rather we say, "We have a richer, fuller Word of God, including the Gospels and the epistles - the testimony of the apostles - as well as of Moses and the prophets." So our meditation becomes richer and deeper - at least it should.

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My main claim this morning is this: Christian living means living on the Word of God. We live on the Word of God. Day by day, the written Word of God in the Bible is the means of our relation to Christ. We fellowship with Christ by knowing him in the written Word. We talk to him on the basis of what we know of him from the written Word. We hear him speak to us through what he has shown us of his character and purpose in the written Word. Moment by moment, our vital union with Christ, experientially, is sustained and shaped and carried by the Word of God.

If you don't read the Word and memorize the Word and meditate on the Word daily and delight in the Word and savor it and have your mind and emotions shaped by the Word, you will be a weak Christian at best. You will be fragile and easily deceived and easily paralyzed by trouble and stuck in many mediocre ruts. But if you read the Word and memorize important parts of it and meditate on it and savor it and steep your mind in it, then you will be like a strong tree planted by streams of water that brings forth fruit. Your leaf won't wither in the drought and you will be productive in your life for Christ (see Psalm 1).

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