…But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates, day and night – Psalm 1:2

Don’t count sheep! You have heard the old saying, if you can’t sleep count sheep!

FOR MONTHS NOW, pain and weakness and illness is the norm from my muscle disease, debilitating me even more. At times there are nights I get but a few hours of sleep. To the healthy person this is hard to understand for they have no reference point of chronic illness. So many a long night I am awake, I could count sheep, but that would not help my pain, so what can I do to help my soul have hope and comfort?

BLESSED

Psalm 1 gives some great insight, it compares the righteous to the ungodly. The chapter begins with Blessing and ends with perishing.. “Blessed” translates the Hebrew word “esher,” which has the idea of ~happiness or contentment. “Esher comes” from the Hebrew word ashar, which in its root means “to be straight” or “to be right.”

Blessed is the man speaks of the happiness, the blessedness, the contentment in the life of the man or woman who is right or “straight” with God. The righteous man will be a blessed man, a happy man.” – Guzik.

” The first verse begins with “blessed,” which in Hebrew is a plural of intensity and may be rendered, “Oh, how truly happy is the person!” or “Oh, the happiness of the person!” The word stems from a verb meaning to go on or advance. If you want to advance to the fullest measure of happiness, the psalmist is going to tell you how.” {Cole}

“Blessed means supremely happy or fulfilled. In fact, in Hebrew the word is actually a plural, which denotes either a multiplicity or blessings or an intensification of them.” (Boice)

The “Blessed ” {v1} person, the word being plural, Oh the many, many blessedness’s, true happiness of soul is the one “who delights in the Law of the LORD and in His law he “meditates” day and night.” The “Law of the Lord” was a Jewish phrase for the Scriptures.

The truly happy person is one who has a high and Heavenly view of the importance of the Word of God. This is what keeps them from compromising with sin in {v1.}.

They see things clearly and make choices based on what is right from God’s perspective, and as the choices are made we see the “delight” is found in the Word of God and he “meditates” on it day and night. Meditation is to reading what digestion is to the body.

He takes a portion of Scripture be it a passage, a verse and reads it, prays over it for understanding and in application to it,will give discernment how not to walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the path of sinners or sit with scoffers! The blessed one, oh the truly happy, happiness of this one is a person of the Word of God strengthening the soul, so in the spiritual realm taking God’s Word and meditating on it, filling the mind with it and learning to apply it is the way to happiness that is independent of all fleeting happiness’s.

DAY AND NIGHT

This blessed one “…DELIGHTS in the Law of the Lord and IN IT he MEDITATES, DAY AND NIGHT.”

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO “DELIGHT?”

The word means to “take pleasure or find enjoyment in. To experience emotional delight. A high degree of satisfaction…is an attitude that leads to action.”

The word is used in Genesis 34:19 and Esther 2:14 to speak of a man who “delights” in a woman. He does not “have to” spend time with her. He wants to! He desires to be with her and delights in her. He is focused, single-hearted. She has captured his attention and he loves it! She causes great delight in his heart. Think of a young man who finds such a one. He thinks about her, wants to be with her, prioritizes his life around her. He is be-spotted. He thinks about her, desires to be with her and in her company he is comfortable, at ease. He enjoys being with her. Enjoying her companionship. Even if she does not speak the fact she is by his side brings great contentment, joy, pleasure, experiencing emotional “delight!” This is not a “duty” for him to be with her, or think about her, but a “delight!” The Psalmist, “delights” in the Word of the LORD, and the proof, is he “meditates,” on it day and night. Anytime is God time!

It is not a duty but a delight! He desires the Word, he finds joy in it, satisfaction, emotional pleasure. He loves to think on the Word and speak to himself what it says, means, and how to apply it. For in the Word, it reveals the God of the Word. His heart, His thoughts, His character. His precious and magnificent promises. Oh what “delight” there is in HIM and His Word! You don’t have to carry a Bible with you but if you have been in the Word and carry the verse in your mind then anywhere anytime you can think on it. The Holy Spirit can recall it to you to feed your soul upon! His Word is a lamp onto our feet and a light onto our path! His Word, “delights” the heart. {Jeremiah 15:16}

YOUR RESPONSIBILITY- is to pursue the LORD in His Word, familiarizing yourselves with Him, His mind, His heart. Hiding it in your heart and speaking the truth to yourself. Going over what it says in your mind. What it means and how it applies. Coming to it to look for Him,to guide you, reveal to you of the character of the LORD whose Word it is! Scriptures says, “If you search for Me with all of your heart you will find me… He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him… Beginning with Moses and the prophets He revealed Himself in all the Scriptures… that I may know Him…”

THE RESULTS – will be spiritual discernment and delight in the doing of God’s Word out of love and reverence for Him.

The word “DELIGHT, ” means to “take pleasure or find enjoyment in. To experience emotional delight. A high degree of satisfaction…is an attitude that leads to action.”

WHAT ACTION DOES DELIGHTING IN THE WORD PRODUCE?- “MEDITATING!

“The word “meditation” in Hebrew means basically to speak or to mutter. When this is done in the heart it is called musing or meditation. So meditating on the Word of God day and night means to speak to yourself the Word of God day and night and to speak to yourself about it.”- {John Piper}

At night time if you ever cannot sleep, see it as an opportunity to commune with the LORD and choose to occupy your mind not with the cares of this world or the ways of this world but with the ONE who created the World and upholds all things by the power of His Word- the LORD! Think on His Word. Think on His truth and word by word, phrase by phrase on a verse, think on it, speak the truth to your own heart and you will find delight for your soul, as the Holy Spirit will illumine it to you. He will give you understanding that the natural person cannot ascertain.{1 Corinthians 2:14}, Shape your thinking with the Word.

When sleep won’t come, this blessed one turns his or her thinking to TRUTH. The truth of God’s Word and in complying WITH it finds the path to true happiness! The evil one, the world, the flesh attack is on the mind to attack your faith ultimately in the LORD.

If the truth is not your constant companion then a vacuum is being left and something will fill your mind- and this is what characterizes the Blessed ones- They Know the Value of God’s Word and they seriously pursue to Delight which produces the action of meditating upon it. They hear, heed, think and apply it!

The blessed person is a person of spiritual “DISCERNMENT”- v1.

And in v 2 “DELIGHTS” in the law of the Lord, and MEDITATES in the Word day and night. Loving God includes our mind. “You shall love the LORD your God with all your…MIND.” We are to “renew” our mind and allow the influence of The Word to illumine our mind to know Him better and walk with Him, His ways. Meditating on His Word to instruct and influence the way we live out our lives, directed and guided and empowered by the Truth of the Word.

*** Verse 1 – He has DISCERNMENT -he has discernment to know the character of the ungodly, sinners, mockers, their counsel, settled belief system and sinful ways and that is not for him! His counsel comes from the LORD through the Scriptures. His satisfaction and communion, friendship comes from the LORD and in His Word he “delights,” in the Word of God.

There is purpose in meditating on the Word of the LORD. There is “delight.” And the fruit of this delight is the continual “meditation” of it!

…His “meditation” in the Word, is not occasional and spasmodic—but regular and persistent; not only in the “day” of prosperity—but also in the “night” of adversity; not only in the “day” of youth and strength—but in the “night” of old age and weakness. – AW Pink

George Müller lived from 1805 to 1898 and is well known for his trusting the LORD to provide fro the many orphanages he had established. He and others saw the LORD undertake in wonderful ways. Listen to what he discovered for himself and shares how and why to meditate on the Scriptures.

While I was staying at Nailsworth, it pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, irrespective of human instrumentality, as far as I know, the benefit of which I have not lost, though now, while preparing the eighth edition for the press, more than forty years have since passed away. The point is this: I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not, how much I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man may be nourished. For I might seek to set the truth before the unconverted, I might seek to benefit believers, I might seek to relieve the distressed, I might in other ways seek to behave myself as it becomes a child of God in this world; and yet, not being happy in the Lord, and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, all this might not be attended to in a right spirit. Before this time my practice had been, at least for ten years previously, as a habitual thing, to give myself to prayer, after having dressed in the morning.Now I saw, that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that thus, whilst meditating, my heart might be brought into experimental communion with the Lord. I began, therefore, to meditate on the New Testament from the beginning, early in the morning. The first thing I did, after having asked in a few words the Lord’s blessing upon His precious Word, was to begin to meditate on the Word of God, searching, as it were, into every verse, to get blessing out of it; not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word; not for the sake of preaching on what I had meditated upon, but for the sake of obtaining food for my own soul. The result I have found to be almost invariably this, that after a very few minutes my soul has been led to confession, or to thanksgiving, or to intercession, or to supplication; so that though I did not, as it were, give myself to prayer, but to meditation, yet it turned almost immediately more or less into prayer. When thus I have been for awhile making confession, or intercession, or supplication, or have given thanks, I go on to the next words or verse, turning all, as I go on, into prayer for myself or others, as the Word may lead to it; but still continually keeping before me, that food for my own soul is the object of my meditation. The result of this is, that there is always a good deal of confession, thanksgiving, supplication, and intercession mingled with my meditation, and that my inner man almost invariably is even sensibly nourished and strengthened and that by breakfast time, with rare exceptions, I am in a peaceful if not happy state of heart. Thus also the Lord is pleased to communicate unto me that which, very soon after, I have found to become food for other believers, though it was not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word that I gave myself to meditation, but for the profit of my own inner man.The difference then between my former practice and my present one is this. Formerly, when I rose, I began to pray as soon as possible, and generally spent all my time till breakfast in prayer, or almost all the time. At all events, I almost invariably began with prayer, except when I felt my soul to be more than usually barren, in which case I read the Word of God for food, or for refreshment, or for revival and renewal of my inner man, before I gave myself to prayer. But what was the result? I often spent a quarter of an hour, or half an hour, or even an hour on my knees, before being conscious to myself of having derived comfort, encouragement, humbling of soul, etc.; and often, after having suffered much from wandering of mind for the first ten minutes, or a quarter of an hour, or even an hour, I only then begin really to pray. I scarcely ever suffer now in this way. For my heart being nourished by the truth, being brought into experimental fellowship with God, I speak to my Father, and to my Friend (vile though I am, and unworthy of it!) about the things that He has brought before me in His precious Word.It often now astonishes me that I did not sooner see this. In no book did I ever read about it. No public ministry ever brought the matter before me. No private intercourse with a brother stirred me up to this matter. And yet now, since God has taught me this point, it is as plain to me as anything, that the first thing the child of God has to do morning by morning is to obtain food for his inner man. As the outward man is not fit for work for any length of time, except we take food, and as this is one of the first things we do in the morning, so it should be with the inner man. We should take food for that, as every one must allow. Now what is the food for the inner man? Not prayer, but the Word of God; and here again not the simple reading of the Word of God, so that it only passes through our minds, just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what we read, pondering over it, and applying it to our hearts.I dwell so particularly on this point because of the immense spiritual profit and refreshment I am conscious of having derived from it myself and I affectionately and solemnly beseech all my fellow-believers to ponder this matter. By the blessing of God I ascribe to this mode the help and strength which I have had from God to pass in peace through deeper trials in various ways than I had ever had before; and after having now above forty years tried this way, I can most fully in the fear of God, commend it. How different when the soul is refreshed and made happy early in the morning, from what it is when, without spiritual preparation, the service, the trials, and the temptations of the day come upon one!

We have so “programmed” ourselves to follow a “program”- …”you need to have a quiet time, read the Word, pray…” and then when you have done “the time,”- you are “free!” How we rob ourselves of opportunities to know Him and commune with Him. The psalmist did not “confine” God to a “formula,” or a “set time.” But “all the time,” was a time to meditate on God and the things of God. We fail to see that we can relate to the LORD -all the time! He can refresh us, encourage us, instruct us, warn us, restore us, reveal Himself through His Word.

There was and is no time that it is “off limits” We follow a “formula” and often wonder why we are so dry. We walk with a “system” a “program” and not a Person- the Shepherd!

  • Sometimes less TV, social media and more time thinking on truth will do your soul to dance with delight.
  • Don’t become dull but follow the pattern of the “Blessed one ” in Psalm 1:2.
  • Don’t dull your spiritual senses which will affect your everyday living.

The battle is for your mind!

The truth of God’s Word produce “delight”- sheer joy to those who feed their soul and faith with it’s spiritual nourishment, refreshment, insight and who are DOERS of what the Word says!

Think about what occupies your thinking.

HOW TO HIDE THIS VERSE IN YOUR HEART

Perhaps you need to develop a new pattern to aid you in thinking through the lens of Scriptures. Write this verse out on a 3 by 5 card and carry with you and when you have opportunity, read it and think word by word, phrase by phrase commit to memory and doing it.

  • Think about what you think about!
  • Don’t Count sheep- Talk to the good Shepherd
  • Replace the sheep with the Scriptures!

Pray this verse for others they would be people who delight in the law of the Lord and in it meditate on it day and night, that they know Him better, His ways, his mind, His heart and receive their counsel from Him and do His Word out of love and appreciation to Him ! To the one who does they are characterized by great delight, joy, satisfaction, and invigoration!