I have remembered thy name, O LORD, in the night,
And have kept thy law (Psa 119.55).
The only real Christians are radical Christians—that is, those whose faith has been and still is truly internalized, and whose good works are then but the expression of their renewed hearts. Job seems to have affirmed his spiritual sincerity by saying, “the root of the matter is found in me” (Job 19.28).
In almost every plant it is at the root that disease begins. If ever you see even a plant in a flowerpot unhealthy, depend upon it there is something wrong at the root. It is over-watered or under-watered, or from some other cause the root has become diseased, and what is called ‘root-action’ is suspended or unhealthy. So it is in religion: if there is anything wrong with a man, it is almost sure to be something wrong at the root.
It is altogether wrong-headed and futile to aim for faithfulness in the Christian life while neglecting the acquisition and cultivation of a new heart. It is like sticking the top part of a dead orange tree in the earth and then expecting to see it produce luscious oranges, or like waiting for a corpse to go about vigorously serving others without a resurrection.
In other words, “ye must be born again” (John 3.7), and even as one alive in Christ, you must “keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Prov 4.23). The Lord completely rejects apparent good works that are merely superficial, but those spiritual fruits which grow from the inward life of His Spirit and the conscious, faith-filled thoughts of His dear children, though flawed, yet are accepted of Him by grace, for they are His own redeeming work in operation. “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His own good pleasure” (Phil 2.13).
In our text the psalmist testifies of his thoughts and his deeds, that they were both centered upon God, and there is the strong suggestion that the former fostered the latter. “A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things” (Matt 12.35). “But that [seed which fell] on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience [or, steadfast endurance]” (Luke 8.15). By grace alone, there must first be a good man with an honest and good heart before there can be a truly good life that pleases God (Heb 11.6).
One of the most important heart activities that promotes evident godliness is meditation.
MY MEDITATION UPON GOD’S NAME
The psalmist describes his meditation as “remembering” which can have the sense of “recalling with a focus on responding in an appropriate manner” (see our study on Psa 119.52).
The object of his remembrance was the “name” of the Lord, and this term “comprehends the divine character as far as it is revealed.” It amounts to remembering—meditating and dwelling upon—God Himself as He really is.
The psalmist further mentions the time of this particular spiritual contemplation: “in the night,” which probably ought to be taken literally here, rather than figuratively of a time of distress, for example. While others were asleep and solitude was most easy, the psalmist was sometimes awake and seizing the special opportunity for deliberately fixing his thoughts upon the person of God in all His glorious attributes performing all His wonderful works. This can turn insomnia into a blessing, and may even help cure it.
Many a tried believer has found this cordial [used figuratively, a pleasant-tasting medicine] for the restlessness of a wakeful night more restorative to the quiet and health of his earthly frame, than the most sovereign [most potent] specifics [i.e., prescriptions] of the medical world.
This kind of meditation upon God Himself seems to be almost completely lost among professing Christians today. Pop-Christianity (a counterfeit) is quite narcissistic, more about self-fulfillment and self-improvement and self-exaltation than about God. Ironically, this obsession with self spiritually ruins self! God must be the center of our deliberate spiritual thoughts, and only then will we be edified.
The stark contrast between pop-Christianity and biblical Christianity is illustrated by books associated with each. For example, we have seen Joel Osteen’s wretched titles, Your Best Life Now and Become a Better You, modern bestsellers in the spirit of idolatrous navel-gazing. Instead of these consider reading the excellent books, The Attributes of God by A. W. Pink and The Thought of God by Maurice Roberts—wonderful, extended meditations with a God-centered focus in the long tradition of orthodox and Reformed Christianity. “I have remembered thy name, O LORD, in the night.”
Remembering God is a catalyst to the sanctification of heart and conduct.
MY OBEDIENCE UNTO GOD’S LAW
“And [I] have kept thy law,” that is, my actual experience is consistency and progress in genuine obedience to Your revealed will in Scripture, O LORD. This the psalmist could say without a shred of boasting because of his conscious debt to sovereign grace for it. God showed great, unmerited favor to the psalmist in revealing Himself to him for remembrance, and in the revelation to him of His good, acceptable, and perfect will for his spiritual and moral guidance, and in the inclination of his heart to believe and keep these precepts, and in the blessing of his resolve to put them into practice. All these were gifts of God’s free grace, and therefore the unworthy and sinful saint is rather humbled when he discovers his possession of them, even as Paul said:
For who maketh thee [gifted Corinthian Christians] to differ from another? [God alone] and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? [absolutely nothing] Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it? [a rhetorical question, exposing the impropriety of glorying or boasting in one’s spiritual gifts] (1 Cor 4.7).
Our text seems to highlight the immense practicality of remembering God’s name this way.
“I remembered . . . and have kept thy law.”
Our heavenly Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward it openly (Matt 6.6). And the blessing of time well spent in secret, or a few serious thoughts of God in the night, will publicly appear in their carriage [in a moral sense, the manner of carrying oneself; behavior; conduct; deportment; personal manners] before men. If we are frequently and seriously with God when we are solitary, the fruit and benefit of it will be manifest by our holiness and heavenliness when we are in company. Your most private duties do not lose their reward. As a man’s pains in study will appear in the accurate order, strength, and rationality of his discourse; so his converse with God will be seen in the fruits of it, in his holy, profitable, and serious conversation.
Like the psalmist, the Puritans considered meditation to be very important and quite indispensable. In Joel Beeke’s excellent book Puritan Reformed Spirituality, and in the chapter entitled, “The Puritan Practice of Meditation,” he distills their guidelines for how to conduct this discipline. Here is a bare summary (paraphrased and abridged):
Begin by praying for assistance in it. Next, read the Scripture portion for meditation. Now memorize something of what you read for meditation without having a Bible in front of you. Then try to remember everything the Bible says about that topic, as well as what you have read in godly books or heard in sermons. Consider what illustrations of truth may come to mind from nature and everyday life. Examine yourself regarding your belief and practice of the truth before your mind. Turn your applications of it into resolutions, even writing them down. Conclude the exercise with prayer, thanksgiving, and private psalm-singing, using a good metrical Psalter. Finally, don’t shift too quickly from meditation to engagement with the things of this world, or you may quench that spiritual frame of mind which meditation has awakened within you.
This meditation-driven obedience is a great part of what it means to be a real and radical Christian. This is how Christ’s yoke becomes easy and His burden becomes light. I conclude with a golden sentence of Charles Bridges:
Obedience will partake far more of the character of privilege than of duty, when an enlightened knowledge of God is the principle of action.
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