Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word.
This verse belongs to a psalm that exalts God's law and shows the value of attending closely to His Word. The psalmist anticipates the night watches, waking before them to meditate on God's word even during the night, in earnest devotion and sustained attention that expresses love for God's law and word. Such delight in the law expresses itself in making truth the theme of study, meditation, and conversation day and night with earnest desire for divine light. For truth is like gold not lying on the surface, and is obtained only by earnest thought and study.
This meditation fits the Word's purpose to guide life and teach the difference between right and wrong, truth and error, requiring the divine precepts to be brought into the daily life with the life fashioned after God's great standard of righteousness. Dwelling on the revealed will stores the mind with the most valuable knowledge, makes it strong in the truth, strengthens and expands the mental powers, and gives a true estimate of eternal things. It reveals a beauty and harmony in Scripture that captivates and elevates.
It brings sanctifying power, transforming influence, and the love of God into the heart, softening, molding, and ennobling the life and strengthening the whole character. For workers for God, giving much time to prayer and diligent study and meditation keeps open the communication between God and the soul so they recognize their Captain's voice. It gives inspiration and energy of argument powerful to convict and convert souls, and qualifies a minister to rightly represent the life of Christ by precept and example instead of presenting theory only.
This verse belongs to a psalm that exalts God's law and shows the value of attending closely to His Word. The psalmist anticipates the night watches, waking before them to meditate on God's word even during the night, in earnest devotion and sustained attention that expresses love for God's law and word. Such delight in the law expresses itself in making truth the theme of study, meditation, and conversation day and night with earnest desire for divine light. For truth is like gold not lying on the surface, and is obtained only by earnest thought and study.
This meditation fits the Word's purpose to guide life and teach the difference between right and wrong, truth and error, requiring the divine precepts to be brought into the daily life with the life fashioned after God's great standard of righteousness. Dwelling on the revealed will stores the mind with the most valuable knowledge, makes it strong in the truth, strengthens and expands the mental powers, and gives a true estimate of eternal things. It reveals a beauty and harmony in Scripture that captivates and elevates.
It brings sanctifying power, transforming influence, and the love of God into the heart, softening, molding, and ennobling the life and strengthening the whole character. For workers for God, giving much time to prayer and diligent study and meditation keeps open the communication between God and the soul so they recognize their Captain's voice. It gives inspiration and energy of argument powerful to convict and convert souls, and qualifies a minister to rightly represent the life of Christ by precept and example instead of presenting theory only.