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I will meditate in thy precepts; "In his Law doth he meditate day and night." There would be no need to explain to an Eastern man what is meant by meditation, and wherein lies the pleasure of it. He can sit still and think; both the physical and social atmosphere of the East encourage quietness, slowness, broodiness, and these favor meditation. Perhaps the proper warning of Eastern religious persons would concern the exaggeration of meditation, which tends to give men sentiment rather than truth. They need to be aroused to the exercise of the intellectual powers in the study of God's Word. But in the West meditation is almost despised. It seems like doing nothing, and that is offensive to active and energetic Westerns, who are so keen for results. Consequently, meditation on God's Word has become almost a lost art. It has little or no place in the ordinary routine of a Christian life. The West has much to learn from the East, but it need not copy any of its exaggerations. Perhaps we are misusing the Bible, failing to make it in our lives what it was intended to be, because we do not meditate in the precepts, dwell on them long and lovingly, so as to realize their helpfulness.

I. MEDITATION IS A NECESSARY METHOD OF DEALING WITH THE REVEALED WORD, It is necessary that we should see this clearly. There are some studies which only call for active mental application. Put your whole mind into them while concerned with them, and put them wholly out of your mind when you have done. But these lie outside the man himself, and are but matters of knowledge. The revealed Word gives truth in relation to men - truth for the sake of men; and the relations will only appear in response to that kind of mental action which we call "meditation."

II. MEDITATION DEPENDS MUCH MORE UPON HEART-MOOD THAN UPON BRAIN-POWER. It is really moral faculty using brain-power as its agency, and carefully keeping the brain-power in subjection. Interest in meditation is found to be in precise relation to spiritual culture; and it is akin with the spiritual insight that gets to the heart of things, and the deeper relations of things, and cannot be trammeled by the mere forms and settings of things.

III. MEDITATION PROVIDES THE MOST SATISFYING PLEASURES OF THE RELIGIOUS LIFE. It unfolds the most precious truths, and gives them personal relations and personal interest. And it brings to a man the most satisfying sense of Divine communion; for God speaks his best things to the soul that is still and open to receive Divine thought. - R.T.

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KJV: I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways.

WEB: I will meditate on your precepts, and consider your ways.