Mine eyes prevent the night-watches. "Prevent" is here used in the sense of "anticipate." When the night-watches come he is wide awake; he does not let them interrupt his meditations by their demand for sleep. He is not taken at unawares. According to the psalmist's thought, morning is the fitting time for earnest resolves, and evening the time for quiet meditation. Meditation can be understood when contrasted with study. Study deals with something outside the mind, and presented to it. Meditation deals with the contents of the mind itself, and that which may be suggested by the indwelling Spirit. A panorama of the contents of our mind is continually moving before us. Usually we rapidly select to meet the need of the moment, according to the mental laws of association. In meditation we let the panorama move by more slowly, pay more quiet heed to its varied contents, End so discover and enjoy much that usually escapes attention. Apply this to the panorama of our knowledge of God's Word, and we have
religious meditation.
I. MEDITATION HELPS US BY MAKING US KNOW' MORE. Illustrate by the difference between the tourist who rushes through delightful scenery, getting no more than general impressions, and the tourist who tarries awhile in one place, finding out ever-fresh charms, and seeing everything beautiful in new moods and settings. The man who only read God's Word may know much, but the man who quietly meditates therein knows more.
II. MEDITATION HELPS US BY MAKING US KNOW BETTER. Illustrate by the stereo-scope. Just look into it, and you can see nothing unusual. Look fixedly, quietly, and everything in the picture seems to get place and relation. You realize vistas and distances, and the full charm is revealed. The Word of God has but little to give in response to a mere look; all its best things come to view when the soul is quiet enough to fix its gaze, and look long and lovingly. - R.T.
Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in Thy Word.
There is something very surprising in the fact — but that it is a fact admits of no debate — that the Bible is not of a size to alarm any one, be his time ever so occupied, and yet that it is of a size to engage all his time, be that time ever so completely at his disposal. You cannot find the individual, however many the years, and however great the diligence, which he has given to the study of the sacred volume, who feels that there is no more to be learnt from that volume; and that it is useless for him to re-peruse that volume. Yet, on the other hand, if you wish to guide a man into an acquaintance with "the things which belong to his peace," and accordingly press upon him the duty of reading the Bible, you can be met with no plausible excuse from the greatness of the prescribed task. It is not a huge library; it is only a single, and not very large book, which we entreat him to investigate; and with what fairness can a man of the most engrossing occupation plead " want of time " as his apology for refusing? We say again, this is one of the most extraordinary things to be observed in regard of the Bible. If the inspired writings together had filled a vast array of volumes, the great mass of men would have argued that the quantity sanctioned neglect. In our every endeavour at enforcing on them the duty of studying the Scriptures, we should have been met with the apparently reasonable statement that the necessary engagements of life forbade the embarking on so gigantic an undertaking. Then, on the other hand, had the Bible not been of so condensed and comprehensive a character that its chapters are libraries and its sentences volumes, the "righteous of the earth," having nothing but this single book to study, would presently have been left with nothing to study — nothing to ponder. A few short weeks would have finished a common book of the same size. What, then, is it but the Deity in the Bible which makes it like a fire for ever consuming and yet for ever unconsumed? These are two features which, in their combination, strongly mark off the Bible from all other books: these are two features, I say — that it is so small, that in regard of its study no one can be afraid of making a beginning; and that it is so large, that no one is ever able to make an end: and he who "prevents the night watches" may always find fresh matter for meditation. Who amongst us that is accustomed to read the Bible with diligence and prayer can be ignorant that the contents of this Book seem to grow with the being examined; so that in place of exhausting, we multiply materials of thought? and that passages in which we observed no particular beauty or force, though they had been a hundred times read, will suddenly strike us as being full of the most valuable meaning, and words which we had overlooked as unimportant, dilate into sermons, preaching to us of duties and unfolding mysteries? There are texts in the Bible which we have often given up as hopelessly obscure; but with greater experience has come greater light; and dark sayings have burst forth as amongst the most brilliant and precious in Scripture. He is, indeed, a rare character amongst Christians who should feel the want of a larger Bible! There may undoubtedly be many points on which men long for fuller information, and many subjects which they may wish elucidated with greater clearness than is derivable from the pages of Holy Writ — but can any say that there remains nothing for him to examine in Scripture; that he has gone the whole length that revelation would carry him, and that he is at a standstill for want of a larger Bible? A larger Bible! Who is there of us who will dare to say that he has so exhausted a single chapter of the Bible that he may be confident that there is nothing more of instruction, nothing more of warning, nothing more of consolation to draw from its statements? And if it he thus true that the Bible is still unexhauted, though the world has for many centuries been diving into its treasures — that there are yet unexplored stores and riches to stimulate the industry and recompense the toil of every lover of its glorious truths, then must it on all hands be admitted that the Bible is adapted in its size, as well as in every other respect, to the capacities of human kind, since now in the old age of this creation, the sacred volume still presents fresh veins of precious ore, like a mine which, the more it is worked, the more it seems to contain and to yield. And since the world, if we may so express it, will not have finished the Bible when the concerns of humanity are wound up, and time itself shall die in eternity, then, indeed, we may well assent to the saying of St. John, that had all which Christ did been written — had, that is, great additions been made to the inspired volume of God Himself — "the world could not have held the books." But we also learn that the student of Holy Writ will never come to a stand in the study, as though the book were mastered, and had nothing further to yield to patient inquiry: nay, not even if from youth upwards to extreme old age, he could give as descriptive of himself the words of David in our text — "Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I may meditate in Thy Word."
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People
Heth,
Nun,
PsalmistPlaces
JerusalemTopics
Anticipate, Anticipated, Awake, Forestalled, Meditate, Night-watches, Open, Prevent, Promise, Promises, Saying, Stay, WatchesOutline
1. This psalm contains various prayers, praises, and professions of obedience.2. Aleph.9. Beth17. Gimel25. Daleth33. He41. Waw49. Zayin57. Heth65. Teth73. Yodh81. Kaph89. Lamedh97. Mem105. Nun113. Samekh121. Ayin129. Pe137. Tsadhe145. Qoph153. Resh161. Sin and Shin169. TawDictionary of Bible Themes
Psalm 119:148 1614 Scripture, understanding
8166 theology
8662 meditation
Psalm 119:147-149
8613 prayer, persistence
Library
Notes on the First Century:
Page 1. Line 1. An empty book is like an infant's soul.' Here Traherne may possibly have had in his mind a passage in Bishop Earle's "Microcosmography." In delineating the character of a child, Earle says: "His soul is yet a white paper unscribbled with observations of the world, wherewith at length it becomes a blurred note-book," Page 14. Line 25. The entrance of his words. This sentence is from Psalm cxix. 130. Page 15. Last line of Med. 21. "Insatiableness." This word in Traherne's time was often …
Thomas Traherne—Centuries of MeditationsLife Hid and not Hid
'Thy word have I hid in my heart.'--PSALM cxix. 11. 'I have not hid Thy righteousness in my heart.'--PSALM xl. 10. Then there are two kinds of hiding--one right and one wrong: one essential to the life of the Christian, one inconsistent with it. He is a shallow Christian who has no secret depths in his religion. He is a cowardly or a lazy one, at all events an unworthy one, who does not exhibit, to the utmost of his power, his religion. It is bad to have all the goods in the shop window; it is just …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture
A Cleansed Way
Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to Thy word.'--PSALM cxix. 9. There are many questions about the future with which it is natural for you young people to occupy yourselves; but I am afraid that the most of you ask more anxiously 'How shall I make my way?' than 'How shall I cleanse it?' It is needful carefully to ponder the questions: 'How shall I get on in the world--be happy, fortunate?' and the like, and I suppose that that is the consideration …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture
'Time for Thee to Work'
'It is time for Thee, Lord, to work; for they have made void Thy Law. 127. Therefore I love Thy commandments above gold, yea, above fine gold. 128. Therefore I esteem all Thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way.' --PSALM cxix. 126-128. If much that we hear be true, a society to circulate Bibles is a most irrational and wasteful expenditure of energy and money. We cannot ignore the extent and severity of the opposition to the very idea of revelation, even if we would; …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture
A Stranger in the Earth
'I am a stranger in the earth: hide not Thy commandments from me.... 64. The earth, O Lord, is full of Thy mercy: teach me Thy statutes.' --PSALM cxix. 19, 64. There is something very remarkable in the variety-in-monotony of this, the longest of the psalms. Though it be the longest it is in one sense the simplest, inasmuch as there is but one thought in it, beaten out into all manner of forms and based upon all various considerations. It reminds one of the great violinist who out of one string managed …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture
May the Fourth a Healthy Palate
"How sweet are Thy words unto my taste." --PSALM cxix. 97-104. Some people like one thing, and some another. Some people appreciate the bitter olive; others feel it to be nauseous. Some delight in the sweetest grapes; others feel the sweetness to be sickly. It is all a matter of palate. Some people love the Word of the Lord; to others the reading of it is a dreary task. To some the Bible is like a vineyard; to others it is like a dry and tasteless meal. One takes the word of the Master, and it …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year
Inward Witness to the Truth of the Gospel.
"I have more understanding than my teachers, for Thy testimonies are my study; I am wiser than the aged, because I keep Thy commandments."--Psalm cxix. 99, 100. In these words the Psalmist declares, that in consequence of having obeyed God's commandments he had obtained more wisdom and understanding than those who had first enlightened his ignorance, and were once more enlightened than he. As if he said, "When I was a child, I was instructed in religious knowledge by kind and pious friends, who …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII
A Bottle in the Smoke
First, God's people have their trials--they get put in the smoke; secondly, God's people feel their trials--they "become like a bottle in the smoke;" thirdly, God's people do not forget God's statutes in their trials--"I am become like a bottle in the smoke; yet do I not forget thy statutes." I. GOD'S PEOPLE HAVE THEIR TRIALS. This is an old truth, as old as the everlasting hills, because trials were in the covenant, and certainly the covenant is as old as the eternal mountains. It was never designed …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 2: 1856
The Dryness of Preachers, and the Various Evils which Arise from their Failing to Teach Heart-Prayer --Exhortation to Pastors to Lead People Towards this Form Of
If all those who are working for the conquest of souls sought to win them by the heart, leading them first of all to prayer and to the inner life, they would see many and lasting conversions. But so long as they only address themselves to the outside, and instead of drawing people to Christ by occupying their hearts with Him, they only give them a thousand precepts for outward observances, they will see but little fruit, and that will not be lasting. When once the heart is won, other defects are …
Jeanne Marie Bouvières—A Short Method Of Prayer And Spiritual Torrents
Of Deeper Matters, and God's Hidden Judgments which are not to be Inquired Into
"My Son, beware thou dispute not of high matters and of the hidden judgments of God; why this man is thus left, and that man is taken into so great favour; why also this man is so greatly afflicted, and that so highly exalted. These things pass all man's power of judging, neither may any reasoning or disputation have power to search out the divine judgments. When therefore the enemy suggesteth these things to thee, or when any curious people ask such questions, answer with that word of the Prophet, …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ
Seven-Fold Joy
"Seven times a day do I praise Thee because of Thy righteous judgments."--Ps. cxix. 164. Mechthild of Hellfde, 1277. tr., Emma Frances Bevan, 1899 I bring unto Thy grace a seven-fold praise, Thy wondrous love I bless-- I praise, remembering my sinful days, My worthlessness. I praise that I am waiting, Lord, for Thee, When, all my wanderings past, Thyself wilt bear me, and wilt welcome me To home at last. I praise Thee that for Thee I long and pine, For Thee I ever yearn; I praise Thee that such …
Frances Bevan—Hymns of Ter Steegen and Others (Second Series)
And in Jeremiah He Thus Declares his Death and Descent into Hell...
And in Jeremiah He thus declares His death and descent into hell, saying: And the Lord the Holy One of Israel, remembered his dead, which aforetime fell asleep in the dust of the earth; and he went down unto them, to bring the tidings of his salvation, to deliver them. [255] In this place He also renders the cause of His death: for His descent into hell was the salvation of them that had passed away. And, again, concerning His cross Isaiah says thus: I have stretched out my hands all the day long …
Irenæus—The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching
The Christian Described
HAPPINESS OF THE CHRISTIAN O HOW happy is he who is not only a visible, but also an invisible saint! He shall not be blotted out the book of God's eternal grace and mercy. DIGNITY OF THE CHRISTIAN There are a generation of men in the world, that count themselves men of the largest capacities, when yet the greatest of their desires lift themselves no higher than to things below. If they can with their net of craft and policy encompass a bulky lump of earth, Oh, what a treasure have they engrossed …
John Bunyan—The Riches of Bunyan
Excursus on the Choir Offices of the Early Church.
Nothing is more marked in the lives of the early followers of Christ than the abiding sense which they had of the Divine Presence. Prayer was not to them an occasional exercise but an unceasing practice. If then the Psalmist sang in the old dispensation "Seven times a day do I praise thee" (Ps. cxix. 164), we may be quite certain that the Christians would never fall behind the Jewish example. We know that among the Jews there were the "Hours of Prayer," and nothing would be, à priori, more …
Philip Schaff—The Seven Ecumenical Councils
The Daily Walk with Others (I. ).
When the watcher in the dark Turns his lenses to the skies, Suddenly the starry spark Grows a world upon his eyes: Be my life a lens, that I So my Lord may magnify We come from the secrecies of the young Clergyman's life, from his walk alone with God in prayer and over His Word, to the subject of his common daily intercourse. Let us think together of some of the duties, opportunities, risks, and safeguards of the ordinary day's experience. A WALK WITH GOD ALL DAY. A word presents itself to be …
Handley C. G. Moule—To My Younger Brethren
The Talking Book
In order that we may be persuaded so to do, Solomon gives us three telling reasons. He says that God's law, by which I understand the whole run of Scripture, and, especially the gospel of Jesus Christ, will be a guide to us:--"When thou goest, it shall lead thee." It will be a guardian to us: "When thou sleepest"--when thou art defenceless and off thy guard--"it shall keep thee." And it shall also be a dear companion to us: "When thou awakest, it shall talk with thee." Any one of these three arguments …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 17: 1871
How to Read the Bible
I. That is the subject of our present discourse, or, at least the first point of it, that IN ORDER TO THE TRUE READING OF THE SCRIPTURES THERE MUST BE AN UNDERSTANDING OF THEM. I scarcely need to preface these remarks by saying that we must read the Scriptures. You know how necessary it is that we should be fed upon the truth of Holy Scripture. Need I suggest the question as to whether you do read your Bibles or not? I am afraid that this is a magazine reading age a newspaper reading age a periodical …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 25: 1879
The Obedience of Faith
"Is there a heart that will not bend To thy divine control? Descend, O sovereign love, descend, And melt that stubborn soul! " Surely, though we have had to mourn our disobedience with many tears and sighs, we now find joy in yielding ourselves as servants of the Lord: our deepest desire is to do the Lord's will in all things. Oh, for obedience! It has been supposed by many ill-instructed people that the doctrine of justification by faith is opposed to the teaching of good works, or obedience. There …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 37: 1891
Faith
HABAKKUK, ii. 4. "The just shall live by faith." This is those texts of which there are so many in the Bible, which, though they were spoken originally to one particular man, yet are meant for every man. These words were spoken to Habakkuk, a Jewish prophet, to check him for his impatience under God's hand; but they are just as true for every man that ever was and ever will be as they were for him. They are world-wide and world-old; they are the law by which all goodness, and strength, and safety, …
Charles Kingsley—Twenty-Five Village Sermons
What the Truth Saith Inwardly Without Noise of Words
Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth.(1) I am Thy servant; O give me understanding that I may know Thy testimonies. Incline my heart unto the words of Thy mouth.(2) Let thy speech distil as the dew. The children of Israel spake in old time to Moses, Speak thou unto us and we will hear, but let not the Lord speak unto us lest we die.(3) Not thus, O Lord, not thus do I pray, but rather with Samuel the prophet, I beseech Thee humbly and earnestly, Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth. Let not Moses …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ
That the Body and Blood of Christ and the Holy Scriptures are Most Necessary to a Faithful Soul
The Voice of the Disciple O most sweet Lord Jesus, how great is the blessedness of the devout soul that feedeth with Thee in Thy banquet, where there is set before it no other food than Thyself its only Beloved, more to be desired than all the desires of the heart? And to me it would verily be sweet to pour forth my tears in Thy presence from the very bottom of my heart, and with the pious Magdalene to water Thy feet with my tears. But where is this devotion? Where the abundant flowing of holy …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ
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