From such folly deliver us, O Lord!

(Charles Spurgeon)

"I meditate on Your precepts and consider Your ways." Psalm 119:15

There are times when solitude is better than society, and silence is wiser than speech. We would be better Christians if we were more alone, waiting upon God, and gathering spiritual strength for labor in His service through meditation on His Word. We ought to muse upon the things of God, because we thus get the real nutriment for our souls out of them.

Truth is something like the cluster of the vine: if we would have wine from it, we must bruise it-we must press and squeeze it many times. The bruiser's feet must come down repeatedly upon the grapes, or else the juice will not flow and much of the precious liquid will be wasted.

So we must, by meditation, tread the clusters of truth, if we would get the wine of consolation therefrom.

Our bodies are not supported by merely taking food into the mouth, but the process which really supplies the muscles, and the nerves, and the sinews, and the bones-is the process of digestion. It is by digestion that the food becomes assimilated with the inner life.

In the same way, our souls are not nourished merely by listening awhile to this, and then to that, and then to the other part of divine truth. Hearing, reading, marking, and learning, all require inward digesting to complete their usefulness-and the inward digesting of the truth lies for the most part in meditating upon it.

Why is it that some Christians, although they hear many sermons, make but slow advances in the divine life?
Because they neglect their closets, and do not thoughtfully meditate on God's Word.

They love the wheat, but they do not grind it;
they would have the grain, but they will not go forth into the fields to gather it;
the fruit hangs upon the tree, but they will not pluck it;
the water flows at their feet, but they will not stoop to drink it.
From such folly deliver us, O Lord!

May this be our daily resolve, "I will meditate in your precepts."

"But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night." Psalm 1:2

"Oh, how I love Your law! I meditate on it all day long." Psalm 119:97

"I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on Your statutes." Psalm 119:99

"Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it." Joshua 1:8