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I. THIS PSALM IS NOT A COMMENDATION OF A MEDITATIVE LIFE ONLY. We cannot in this world of imperative work live such a life. Those in cloisters and convents have tried and failed. As when we fix the eyes on one object only, they get weary, filmy, dull. But rightly understood, our life is to be fat more than meditation. It is to be like a tree planted and bringing forth fruit. The man is to be a doer, and what he does is to prosper. The law on which he meditates is specially related to men's active life. It is not merely to be thought about, but practically obeyed. Merely to meditate on it would be as if a soldier, having received from the general's hand the order book, were to take that book to his tent and were to sit down and spend all the hours of the day admiring his general's skill and the grasp of his mind instead of proceeding to obey the orders and to prepare the army for the impending battle.

II. THE MEDITATION HERE COMMENDED IS ONE THOROUGHLY CONSISTENT WITH WORKING, ACTIVE LIFE; indeed, is for this very thing. And the happy man is he who through meditation on God's law comes to live the life of holy service. He is to be "like a tree" as contrasted with "the chaff ." Our lives must be as one or the other.

III. NOTE THE FORCE OF THE IMAGE EMPLOYED. For a tree vividly sets forth the connection between thinking and working; between the roots and the fruit of conduct. Strong characters are produced only by strong thinking. Occasional, weak, fugitive thinking, even on good things, may exist — too often does — with evil lives. Thoughts must be deep, and go down to the roots of the soul and take possession of it. The ungodly man is he who does not take God into account. He acts upon expediency. Hence he is like the chaff. There are different sorts of trees, but any tree is better than the chaff. But seek to be like the tree told of here.

IV. How? You must be "planted," that is, "transplanted." The tree has been put where it is designedly. And this is what meditation means. It is the self-planting of the man by the rivers of waters God has caused to flow forth for us from His Word. The rivers told of are not natural rivers, but artificial streams made for the purpose of irrigation. Solomon made many such in his day. And Hezekiah also. The Turkish Government has let them fall into decay, and hence Palestine is now nearly desert. Lord Lawrence made such streams for Northwest India, to its vast advantage. Merv in Central Asia is an oasis in the desert, for the Turcomans have dammed up the streams that flow down form the Afghan mountains and led their waters along artificial canals, and so the country is watered and reclaimed. Day and night the dam is watched by Turcoman sentinels, for if it were once destroyed the country would again become desert. But the herbs and the trees will never lack for water while these streams are preserved, and as long as the snows abide on the hills which lift their white peaks against the distant sky. What a parable all this is! If we would toil so to bring the living waters of God's Word into the moral desert of our souls, what a reclamation of waste places there would be, what lives like trees bearing fruit! Missions, churches, worship are all such endeavours. And what a channel for such streams is a godly, consistent life! Such lives are ever a blessing. As a tree is a thing both of beauty and of use, so are they. And every God-filled man and woman is such a tree. This is the secret of the happy life.

(J. Vincent Tymms.)

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KJV: But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

WEB: but his delight is in Yahweh's law. On his law he meditates day and night.