Compare it with the ISthverse, 'I have declared;' now ' I will meditate.' To be warm and affectionate in our expressions of respect to the word before others, and to slight it in our own hearts, argueth gross hypocrisy ; therefore David would not only confer, but meditate. Many talk with others, but not with their own soul : 'Commune with your hearts, and be still.' True zeal is uniform ; when there is no witness but God, it acts alike.
Refer it to the 14th verse, David had spoken of his delight in the
138 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. XVI.
law : now, that he would meditate therein ; in both not to boast, but to excite others b}^ his example : that is to be understood all along when he speaketh of his diligence in and about the law of God. But mark, first tlie word was his delight, and then his meditation, Delight causeth meditation, and meditation increaseth delight : Ps. i. 2, ' But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night.' A man that delighteth in the law of God will exercise his mind therein. Our thoughts follow our affections. It is tedious and irksome to the flesh to meditate, but delight will carry us out. The smallest actions, when we have no delight in them, seem tedious and burdensome. It was no great matter for Haman to lead ]\Ior- decai's horse, yet a burdensome offensive service, because it was against his will. The difficulty that we find in holy duties lietli not in the duties themselves, but in the awkwardness of our affections. JMany think they have no parts, and therefore they cannot meditate. He that findeth a heart to this work will find a head. Delight will set the mind a- work, for we are apt to muse and pause upon that Vv^hich is pleasing to us. Why are not holy thoughts as natural and as kindly to us as carnal ? The defect is in the heart : ' I have rejoiced in thy testimonies,' saith David, and therefore * 1 will meditate in thy statutes.' In the words there is a double expression of David's love to the law of God: —
1. I IV ill meditate in tliy 'prece'pis.
2. I loill have respect to thy ways. Concerning which observe —
1. In both the notion by which the word of God is expressed and diversified, -precepts^ ways. The v;ox<i 'precepts implieth God's authority, by which the counsels of the word are ratified. Ways implieth a certain direction for our walk to heaven. There are God's ways to us declared in his promises. So it is said, Ps. xxv. 10, ' All the paths of God are mercy and truth.' Our ways to God, ver. 4 of that psalm : ' Show me thy ways, teach me thy paths.' These are his precepts.
2. Observe, the one is the fruit of the other : ' I will meditate ; ' and then, ' I will have respect.' Meditation is in order to practice ; and if it be right, it will beget a respect to the ways of God. We do not meditate that we may rest in contemplation, but in order to obedience : Josh. i. 8, ' Thou shalt meditate in the book of the law day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein.' So Phil. iv. 8, 9, ' Think of these things,' ' do these things ' — Xo^i^^eade. When you cast up your accounts, and consider what God hath required of you, it is that you may set upon the work. Meditation is not a flourishing of the wit, that we may please the fancy by playing with divine truths (sense is diseased that must be fed with quails), but a serious inculcation of them upon the heart, that we may urge it to practice. Nor yet an acquainting ourselves with the word that we may speak of it in company : conference is for others, meditation for ourselves when we are alone. AVords are but the female issue of our thoughts, works the male. Nor merely to store ourselves with curious notions and subtile inquiries ; study searcheth out a truth, but medita- tion improveth it for practical use: it is better to be sincere than subtile.
VeR. 15.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 139
3. Observe, this practical obedience is expressed by liavinj^ respect unto tlie waj's of God. To respect God's ways is to take lieed that we do not turn out of them, to regard them and ourselves : ' Observe to do them,' Josh. i. 8 ; and it is called elsewliere, pondering our path : Prov. iv. 26, ' Ponder the patli of thy feet/ that we may not mistake our way, nor wander out of it. Kespect to God's word was opened ver. 6 and 9. The main point is this —
That one great duty of the saints is meditating on the word of God, and such matters as are contained therein.
Let us incpiire what meditation is, because the practice and know- ledge of the duty is almost become a stranger to us. Before I can define, I must distinguish it. Meditation is —
1. Occasional.
2. Set and solemn.