2. To open his work to you, ' to meditate,' or, as it is in the margin, to pray, "^l^*?, the word used in the original is indifferent to both senses ; it properly signifies muttering, or an imperfect and suppressed sound. The Septuagint sometimes renders it by deiSeco, to sing, but here they render it by dSoXeaxijo-at, which signifies to exercise himself, and most properly a sportive exercise, as if his going abroad had been only to sport and recreate himself after the toil of the day. But that is not so probable ; the Holy Ghost would not put such a mark upon such a cir- cumstance. Therefore I suppose the Septuagint's word must be taken more largely to comprise also a religious exercise. But how is it ? To pray or meditate ? I would not recede from our own translation with- out weighty cause ; most other translations look that way. Symmachus renders it \aXi)(xai, to speak ; Aquila, b^iCkrjaai, to discourse as with others, that is, with God and his own soul ; and so it suiteth with the force of the original word, which properly signifies to mutter, or such a speaking as is between thoughts and words. So that the meaning is, he went aside privately to discourse of God, and the promises, and of heavenly things.
3. The place, ' In the field.' Partly for privacy ; deep thoughts require a retirement. Many of David's psalms were penned in the wilderness. He that would have the company of God and his own thoughts had need go aside from other company, and be alone that he may not be alone, that the mind, being sequestered from all distractions, may solace itself the more freely in these heavenly thoughts : Exod. iii. 1, ' Moses led the flock to the back-side of the desert and came to
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the mountain of God, even to Horeb." He goeth aside from the other shepherds, that he might converse with the great shepherd and bishop of OTir souls, and there he seeth the vision of the burning bush. When God woukl communicate his loves to the church, he inviteth her into the wilderness : Hosea ii. 14, ' Therefore behold I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.' The most familiar and intimate cor^verses between God and the church are in private. So the spouse inviteth the bridegroom: Cant, vii, 11, ' Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field, let us lodge in the villages.' In these solitary and heavenly retirements, to which no eyes are conscious and privy, we have most experience of God and of our- selves. Duties done in company are more easy ; by ends and man's eye and observance may have an influence upon our worship, and therefore meditation is difficult and tedious, because it is a work of retirement, that hath approbation from none but our Father that seeth in secret. Partly because the field is an help to meditation, fancy and invention being elevated and raised by the sweetness, variety, and pleasure of it, there being on every side so mauy objects and lively memorials of God. However in this sense the circumstance is not binding. Some do better in a closet than in a field or garden, where the senses being locked from all other objects, the mind may fall more directly upon itself, which otherwise in a field or garden would skip from object to object, without pitching upon any seriously.
4. The last circumstance in the text is the time, ' In the even-tide,' Avhich is also a matter of an arbitrary concernment. Time in itself is but an inactive circumstance ; all hours are alike to God ; he taketh no more pleasure in the sixth or ninth hour than in the first hour ; only you should prudently observe when your spirit is most fresh and smart. To some the morning is quickest, the fancy being fittest to offer spiritual and heavenly thoughts, before it hath received any images and repre- sentations from carnal objects abroad. Morning thoughts are, as it were, the virgin thoughts of the mind, before they have been prostituted to these inferior and baser objects, and so are more pure, sublime, and defecate ; and then the soul, like the hind of the morning, with a swift and nimble readiness climbeth up to the mountains of myrrh and frankincense : Cant. iv. 6, ' Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frank- incense ; ' and it tendeth much to season the whole day when we can talk with the law in the morning: Prov. vi. 22, ' When thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.' To some the evening seemeth fitter, that, when the gayishness and vanity of the spirit hath been spent in business, their thoughts may be more serious and solemn with God ; and after the weights have been running down all day through their employ- ments of the world, they may wind them up again at night in these recesses and exercises of piety and religion ; as David says, Ps. xxv. 1, ' Unto thee, 0 Lord, do I lift up my soul.' To others the silence and stillness of the night seemeth to be an help, and because of the curtain of darkness that is drawn between them and the world, they can the better entertain serious and solemn thoughts of God. David speaks everywhere in the psalms of his nocturnal devotions : Ps. Ixiii. 6, * When I remember thee upon my bed. and meditate on thee in the