Below is a brief description of four practical methods for meditating on the scriptures, by four different authors.

You may want to ask the Lord to help you to choose the one that best suits you and your needs, or use two or three, or test all four and see which one works best for you. The Lord may lead you to change methods as time goes by.

Again, the method is not the important part. Ingesting and being nourished by the scriptures is what matters.

ENCOUNTERING JESUS: JOURNALLING AND PRAYER-READING by Mike Bickle
An Excerpt from his Song of Songs bible study; a very practical method applicable to the scriptures in general.

THE PROCESS OF LECTIO DIVINA , by Fr. Luke Dysinger
Lectio Divina is probably the most ancient method of Christian meditation and can be traced back to the desert fathers.
Lectio -reading/listening
Meditatio - meditation
Oratio - prayer
Contemplatio - contemplation

JOHN OF THE CROSS On Lectio Divina

TERESA OF AVILA's method for meditation
From The Life of Teresa of Avila (Autobiography)

Preparation: Accept the fact that God is right and true, and therefore, if your beliefs contradict his word, then your beliefs need fixing until they agree with his word. (Rom 3:4...Let God be true, and every man a liar. ...) Find verses that apply to the issue at hand (again, a good concordance is a handy thing to have.) The word is a powerful weapon against sinful habits and un-biblical, faith-damaging thought patterns.

Read and Repeat your selected scriptures out loud. Faith comes by “hearing”: therefore, you must hear the word, not just read it silently. The idea is that you involve more parts of your body: eyes, brain, voice, AND ears, so you involve more of your whole self in the process, and therefore the scripture sinks deeper into your soul. So, read it—“confess it”—repeat it so that you can hear yourself. (Low volume is OK.)
Rom 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (KJV)

Memorize it:
Ps 119:11 I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. (NIV)

Meditate: Once you have it memorized, ponder the Word of God often:
Ps 119:148 My eyes stay open through the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promises. (NIV)

Confess : audibly speak the Word of God (say it and talk about it) throughout the day:
Deut 6:6-7 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. (NIV)

In summary, Read, Repeat, Memorize, and Confess the word of God.

(HRW—I have edited out the specific references to Song of Songs and applied the principles to scripture as a whole. I believe this is consistent with Bickle's intent.)

The following is a practical aid to help give our heart to God and to receive from him. The purpose of this section is to show how to use as the springboard of inspiration for our heart. Write down (journal) the things that the Lord puts on your heart. ... The idea is to turn bible passages into meaningful conversation and dialogue with Jesus.

In scripture, I define 2 broad categories of truth related to meditation. First, truths that exhort us to BELIEVE God’s word. Secondly, truths that exhort us to OBEY God’s word.

1. Truths exhorting us to BELIEVE God’s word:

a. We respond by THANKING HIM for a particular truth. The Holy Spirit, on occasion, will tenderize our heart by such simple declarations of thanksgiving for particular truths. Take time to say thank you in a specific way. Don’t get in a hurry. We must be patient and speak slowly in our heart to God.

b. We respond by ASKING HIM TO MORE FULLY REVEAL this particular truth to us. Be persistent. Ask him to open the eyes of your heart like Paul prayed in Ephesians 1:17-18. The Holy Spirit will cause your insight to gradually increase.

2. Truths exhorting us to OBEY God’s word:

a. COMMIT YOURSELF TO OBEY Jesus in the particular way described in a particular passage. Specifically speak to Jesus the in tent of your heart to obey the passage. Making sweet resolutions to obey him in a specific way will strengthen your obedience over time.

b. ASK THE LORD TO EMPOWER YOUR HEART TO OBEY a particular truth. Specifically ask Jesus to empower your heart to obey the passage. Such requests for divine aid to obey will result in a growth in grace over time.

Take time to record your thoughts, prayers, and meditations as you “pray-read” through .

We must approach as much more than just an intellectual exercise. ... Informing the intellect is only a starting point much like studying the menu at a good restaurant. The point of studying the menu is to eventually enjoy the dinner.

A very ancient art, practiced at one time by all Christians, is the technique known as lectio divina - a slow, contemplative praying of the Scriptures which enables the Bible, the Word of God, to become a means of union with God. This ancient practice has been kept alive in the Christian monastic tradition, and is one of the precious treasures of Benedictine monastics and oblates. Together with the Liturgy and daily manual labor, time set aside in a special way for lectio divina enables us to discover in our daily life an underlying spiritual rhythm. Within this rhythm we discover an increasing ability to offer more of ourselves and our relationships to the Father, and to accept the embrace that God is continuously extending to us in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ.

Lectio - reading/listening
The art of lectio divina begins with cultivating the ability to listen deeply, to hear "with the ear of our hearts" as St. Benedict encourages us in the Prologue to the Rule. When we read the Scriptures we should try to imitate the prophet Elijah. We should allow ourselves to become women and men who are able to listen for the still, small voice of God (I Kings 19:12); the "faint murmuring sound" which is God's word for us, God's voice touching our hearts. This gentle listening is an "atunement" to the presence of God in that special part of God's creation which is the Scriptures. The cry of the prophets to ancient Israel was the joy-filled command to "Listen!" "Sh'ma Israel: Hear, O Israel!" In lectio divina we, too, heed that command and turn to the Scriptures, knowing that we must "hear" - listen - to the voice of God, which often speaks very softly. In order to hear someone speaking softly we must learn to be silent. We must learn to love silence. If we are constantly speaking or if we are surrounded with noise, we cannot hear gentle sounds. The practice of lectio divina, therefore, requires that we first quiet down in order to hear God's word to us. This is the first step of lectio divina, appropriately called lectio - reading. The reading or listening which is the first step in lectio divina is very different from the speed reading which modern Christians apply to newspapers, books and even to the Bible. Lectio is reverential listening; listening both in a spirit of silence and of awe. We are listening for the still, small voice of God that will speak to us personally - not loudly, but intimately. In lectio we read slowly, attentively, gently listening to hear a word or phrase that is God's word for us this day.

Meditatio - meditation
Once we have found a word or a passage in the Scriptures which speaks to us in a personal way, we must take it in and "ruminate" on it. The image of the ruminant animal quietly chewing its cud was used in antiquity as a symbol of the Christian pondering the Word of God. Christians have always seen a scriptural invitation to lectio divina in the example of the Virgin Mary "pondering in her heart" what she saw and heard of Christ (Luke 2:19). For us today these images are a reminder that we must take in the word - that is, memorize it - and while gently repeating it to ourselves, allow it to interact with our thoughts, our hopes, our memories, our desires. This is the second step or stage in lectio divina - meditatio. Through meditatio we allow God's word to become His word for us, a word that touches us and affects us at our deepest levels.

Oratio - prayer
The third step in lectio divina is oratio - prayer: prayer understood both as dialogue with God, that is, as loving conversation with the One who has invited us into His embrace; and as consecration, prayer as the priestly offering to God of parts of ourselves that we have not previously believed God wants. In this consecration-prayer we allow the word that we have taken in and on which we are pondering to touch and change our deepest selves. Just as a priest consecrates the elements of bread and wine at the Eucharist, God invites us in lectio divina to hold up our most difficult and pain-filled experiences to Him, and to gently recite over them the healing word or phrase He has given us in our lectio and meditatio. In this oratio, this consecration-prayer, we allow our real selves to be touched and changed by the word of God.

Contemplatio - contemplation
Finally, we simply rest in the presence of the One who has used His word as a means of inviting us to accept His transforming embrace. No one who has ever been in love needs to be reminded that there are moments in loving relationships when words are unnecessary. It is the same in our relationship with God. Wordless, quiet rest in the presence of the One Who loves us has a name in the Christian tradition - contemplatio, contemplation. Once again we practice silence, letting go of our own words; this time simply enjoying the experience of being in the presence of God.

(In Teresa's time Christians depended on familiar concepts in their memory to provide topics for meditation. Hence the popularity of meditating on “The Passion” which includes all the events leading up to and including the crucifixion. You could pick any Gospel story.)

... we begin to meditate upon a scene of the Passion -- let us say upon the binding of the Lord to the Column. The mind sets to work to seek out the reasons which are to be found for the great afflictions and distress which His Majesty must have suffered when He was alone there. It also meditates on the many other lessons which, if it is industrious, or well stored with learning, this mystery can teach it. This method should be the beginning, the middle and the end of prayer for all of us: it is a most excellent and safe road until the Lord leads us to other methods, which are supernatural.

I say "for all of us," but there will be many souls who derive greater benefits from other meditations than from that of the Sacred Passion. For, just as there are many mansions in Heaven, so there are many roads to them. Some people derive benefit from imagining themselves in hell; others, whom it distresses to think of hell, from imagining themselves in Heaven. Others meditate upon death. Some, who are tender hearted, get exhausted if they keep thinking about the Passion, but they derive great comfort and benefit from considering the power and greatness of God in the creatures, and the love that He showed us, which is pictured in all things. This is an admirable procedure, provided one does not fail to meditate often upon the Passion and the life of Christ, which are, and have always been, the source of everything that is good.

(here she digresses from this topic for a while, and then returns.)

... Returning to what I was saying -- the meditation upon Christ bound to the Column -- it is well to reflect for a time and to think of the pains which He bore there, why He bore them, Who He is that bore them and with what love He suffered them. But we must not always tire ourselves by going in search of such ideas; we must sometimes remain by His side with our minds hushed in silence. If we can, we should occupy ourselves in looking upon Him Who is looking at us; keep Him company; talk with Him; pray to Him; humble ourselves before Him; have our delight in Him; and remember that He never deserved to be there. Anyone who can do this, though he may be but a beginner in prayer, will derive great benefit from it, for this kind of prayer brings many benefits: at least, so my soul has found.