---

I. A VERY PROFITABLE EXERCISE — MEDITATION. Do not imagine that the meditative man is necessarily lazy; contrariwise, he lays the best foundation for useful works. He is not the best student who reads the most books, but he who meditates the most upon them! he shall not learn most of divinity who hears the greatest number of sermons, but he who meditates the most devoutly upon what he does hear; nor shall he be so profound a scholar who takes down ponderous volumes one after the other, as he who, reading little by little, precept upon precept, and line upon line, digests what he reads, and assimilates each sentiment to his heart by meditation, — receiving the word first into his understanding, and afterwards receiving the spirit of it into his own soul.

1. Meditation is the couch of the soul, the rest of the spirit.

2. Meditation is the machine in which the raw material of knowledge is converted to the best uses.

3. Meditation is to the soul what oil was to the body of the wrestlers. Who are the authors to write your books, and keep up the constant supply of literature? They are meditative men. They keep their bones supple and their limbs fit for exercise by continually bathing themselves in the oil of meditation. How important, therefore, is meditation as a mental exercise, to have our minds in constant readiness for any Service!

II. A VERY PRECIOUS SUBJECT. "My meditation of Him shall be sweet." To whom does that word "Him" refer? I suppose it may refer to all the three Persons of the glorious Trinity: "My meditation upon Jehovah shall be sweet." And, verily, if you sit down to meditate upon God the Father, and muse upon His sovereign, immutable, unchangeable love towards His elect people, — if you think of God the Father as the great Author and Originator of the plan of salvation, — if you think of Him as the mighty Being who, by two immutable things, wherein it is impossible for Him to lie, hath given us strong consolation who have fled for refuge to Christ Jesus, — if you look to Him as the Giver of His only-begotten Son, and who, for the sake of that Son, His best gift, will, with Him also, freely give us all things, — if you consider Him as having ratified the covenant, and pledged Himself ultimately to complete all His stipulations, in the ingathering of every chosen, ransomed soul, you will perceive that there is enough to engross your meditation for ever, even were your attention limited to the manifestation of the Father's love. Or, if you choose to do so, you may meditate upon God the Holy Spirit. Consider His marvellous operations on your own heart, — how He quickened it when you were dead in trespasses and sins, — how He brought you nigh to Jesus when you were a lost sheep, wandering far from the fold, — how He called you, with such a mighty efficacy, — how He drew you with the bands of love which would not let you go. But I prefer rather to confine this word "Him" to the person of our adorable Saviour: "My meditation of Him shall be sweet." Ah! if it be possible that the meditation upon one Person of the Trinity can excel the meditation upon another, it is meditation upon Jesus Christ. Jesus may be compared to some of those lenses which you may take up, and hold in one way, and you see one light; you hold them in another way, and you see another light; and whichever way you turn them, you will always see some precious sparkling of light, and some new colours starting up to your view. Ah! take Jesus for the theme of your meditation, sit down and consider Him, think of His relation to your own soul, and you will never get to the end of that one subject.

III. A VERY BLESSED RESULT. "My meditation of Him shall be sweet." What a mercy that there is something sweet in this world for us! We need it, I am sure; for, as for most other things in the world, they are very, very bitter. "My meditation of Him shall be sweet;" so sweet, that all the other bitters are quite swallowed up in its sweetness. Have I not seen the widow, when her husband has been called away, and he who was her strength, the stay and sustenance of her life, has been laid in the grave, — have I not seen her hold up her hands, and say, "Ah! though he is gone, still my Maker is my Husband; 'The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away;' blessed be His holy name"? What was the reason of her patient submission to the will of God? Because she had a sweet meditation to neutralize the bitterness of her reflections. And do I not remember, even now, seeing a man, whose property had been washed away by the tide, and whose lands had been swallowed up, and become quicksands, instead of being any longer profitable to him? Beggared and bankrupt, with streaming eyes, he held up his hands, and repeated Habakkuk's words: "Although the fig tree shall not blossom," etc. Was it not because his meditation on Christ was so sweet, that it absorbed the bitterness of his trouble? And oh! how many, when they have come to the dark waters of death, have found that surely their bitterness was past, for they perceived that death was swallowed up in victory, through their meditation upon Jesus Christ!

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

---

---

KJV: My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the LORD.

WEB: Let your meditation be sweet to him. I will rejoice in Yahweh.