Psalm 39 shows us how meditation functions practically for the Christian:
Psalm 39:3 My heart became hot within me. As I mused, the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue: 4 “O LORD, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!
David meditated (mused), became hot, and began to pray. You could alliterate it like this: His mind brooded, burned, and besought God in prayer. The heat of his meditation led him to ejaculatory prayer. Meditation brings heat. Heat brings prayer.
Thus often in the beginning of a Psalm we find his heart low and discouraged, but as this musing was acted and heightened, his spirit grew hotter, and at last flies all on a flame, flies up to a very high pitch of heavenly heat (Nathanael Ranew).
Meditate with diligent application of the Word of God, and especially the promises of the gospel, until your heart grows warm from its teaching:
Luke 24:32 They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”
The Word of God is a flame that needs to be stirred through meditation. Substitute the idea of meditation for preaching in the following quote and it rings true:
Thomas Cartwright…said, ‘As the fire stirred giveth more heat, so the Word, as it were, blown by preaching, flameth more in the hearers than when it is read.’ That is, to me, a very striking and most valuable statement. It tells us, incidentally, something of the purpose of preaching. The real function of preaching is not to give information, it is to do what Cartwright says; it is to give it more heat, to give life to it, to give power to it, to bring it home to the hearers…He is to inspire them, he is to enthuse them, he is to enliven them and send them out glorying in the Spirit (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Puritans: Their Origins and Successors).
The Word of God is a fire that must be set ablaze through meditation and then put into vocalization and action:
Jeremiah 20:9 If I say, ‘I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.’
Jeremiah 23:29 Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?
The Word of God is like a lion that needs to be let out of its cage through meditation:
The Word of God is like a lion. You don’t have to defend a lion. All you have to do is let the lion loose, and the lion will defend itself (Charles Spurgeon).
Christian, are you cold? Let your heart burn with meditation. Hot thoughts thaw out frozen Christians:
Meditate so long till thou findest thy heart grow warm in this duty. If, when a man is cold you ask how long he should stand by the fire [the answer is] till he be thoroughly warm, and made fit for his work. So, Christian, thy heart is cold; never a day, no, not the hottest day in summer, but it freezes there; now stand at the fire of meditation till thou findest thy affections warmed, and thou art made fit for spiritual service. David mused till his heart waxed hot within him (Thomas Watson).
Meditation takes a cold heart and makes it warm with affection for Christ on account of his great promises. It finds temptation as a harbinger of brooding on the Scriptures. It finds death as something pointing the mind toward resurrection and causing it to burn. It finds depression as a prodding toward bursting out in prayer.
Is your heart cold? God graciously gives us the means to kindle a fire that will warm our souls – the contemplation of the Word and Gospel of God.
