Gnawing the Word

Ps 119:11
I have hidden your word in my heart
that I might not sin against you.
In his book titled “Eat this Book” Eugene Peterson compares the exercise of study to his dog worrying a bone. “He gnawed the bone, turned it over and around, licked it, worried it. Sometimes we could hear a low rumble or growl, what in a cat would be a purr. He was obviously enjoying himself and in no hurry.”

Peterson has noticed that the Hebrew word HAGAH, translated as “Growl” is also translated as meditate, as in Ps. 1:1-2

Blessed is the man whose …delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

To meditate is to growl. To savor. To enjoy. To be lost in. To meditate upon.

Sometimes we imagine study as gathering information. We get our background information. Do our word studies. Understand the context. Become experts. We master the word. This seems to be inherent in our educational system. The more you know the more informed decisions you can make and the more money you can make. So what you need is to master the information.

But Peterson reminds us that “It is entirely possible to come to the Bible in total sincerity, responding to the intellectual challenge it gives, or for the moral guidance it offers, or for the spiritual uplift it provides, and not in any way have to deal with a personally revealing God who has personal designs on you”.

What Peterson is getting at is that the goal of studying God’s word is more about the word mastering us than us mastering the word. It’s about the word capturing our hearts. It does so as we gnaw/meditate it, worry it over and over in our hearts like a dog with a bone. In this process God’s world enters us and we enter into him.

This process carries us into a different world – the world of God; a world much different than our own. We are invited to see as God sees, to love as God loves, and to think in godly ways. The image that continues to come back to me as I think about comparing God’s world to our own is the 3-D images in autostereograms. These images cannot be seen in the way that one normally views things. One must immerse oneself into the picture.

The purpose of study – gnawing the bone – is to help us keep this image in mind. As with the 3-D image, we quickly lose it when we look away. We are brought back to the world in which we live where, as Peterson puts it, the unholy trinity prevails – my holy wants, my holy needs, and my holy feelings.

Peterson seeks to help the reader engage in an ancient practice known as Lectio Divina (Divine Reading). Lectio Divina is a way of gnawing on the bone. It allows the word to sink deep into our hearts and shape us. If you are seeking a way to let the word of God truly shape your life, I would suggest practicing Lectio Divina over a period of time. For further help with Lectio Divina I would recommend Peterson’s book, “Eat This Book”.

For more information on Lectio Divina, click on the tab above.