I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies, as much as in all riches. I will meditate on Your precepts and regard Your ways. (Psalm 119:14-15)

Our rejoicing in the testimonies of God will naturally flow in an habitual meditation in them. The thoughts follow the affections. They are no burden to the carnal man, so far as his heart is in them. But having no spiritual taste, he has no ability for spiritual meditation. Indeed many sincere Christians, through remaining weakness and depravity, are too often reluctant to it. They are content with indolent reading: and, with scarcely a struggle or a trial, yield themselves up to the persuasion, that they are unable sufficiently to abstract their minds for this blessed employment. But let the trial prove the work. Perseverance will accomplish the victory over mental instability, and the spiritual difficulty will give way to prayer—“Lord, help me.” The fruitfulness of this employment will soon be manifest. Does it not “stir up the gift of God that is in us,” and keep the energies of the heart in a wakeful posture of conflict and resistance? Besides this, it is the digestive faculty of the soul, which converts the word into real and proper nourishment: so that this revolving of a single verse in our minds is often better than the mere reading of whole chapters. “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and the rejoicing of my heart.” Thus the mind becomes the instrument of faith and love—of joy and strength.

But this meditation not only includes the stated times of thought, but the train of holy thoughts, that passes through the mind during the busy hours of the day. This maintains an habitual flow of spiritual desires, and excites the flame of love within, till at length the Psalmist’s resolution becomes the inwrought habit of our minds—“I will meditate in thy precepts.” (Bridges, Charles. Psalm 119, 31-32.)