Morning, October 12

Charles Spurgeon · Morning and Evening: Daily Readings

"I will meditate in thy precepts."

  Psalm 119:15

   There are times when solitude is better than society, and silence is
   wiser than speech. We should be better Christians if we were more
   alone, waiting upon God, and gathering through meditation on his Word
   spiritual strength for labour in his service. We ought to muse upon the
   things of God, because we thus get the real nutriment 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 joyfully upon the bunches, or else
   the juice will not flow; and they must well tread the grapes, or else
   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 muscle, and the nerve,
   and the sinew, and the bone, is the process of digestion. It is by
   digestion that the outward food becomes assimilated with the inner
   life. 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 inwardly 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 corn, 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, and be this our resolve
   this morning, "I will meditate in thy precepts."