Worldly meditation primarily focuses upon clearing the mind and making it devoid of thought. The Bible reveals the opposite process. Today’s passage comes from a more extensive letter that Paul sent to his son in the faith, Timothy. In this letter, Paul encouraged Timothy to be an example to those around him. As a young man, Timothy was instructed not to allow his youth to hinder his service to the Lord. In Paul’s absence, Timothy was to major upon three things: reading, exhortation, and doctrine (1 Timothy 4:13). Paul told Timothy to “meditate upon these things” (1 Timothy 4:15), or give himself wholly to them. In doing so, Timothy’s profiting would appear to all.
When a believer meditates upon the things of God, those truths become more firmly planted in the heart. Eventually, the contents of the heart become evident from the words that escape the mouth (Luke 6:45). Therefore, the meditations of our heart will eventually be the words of our conversations. This is exactly the truth conveyed by Asaph in our passage from Psalm 77. He understood that meditation upon the work of God would eventually cause him to talk of God’s doings. It is right for God’s people to speak truth, especially when it concerns testifying to the truth of God’s holy words. Yet, this is not possible unless a believer first hides the words of God in his heart (Psalm 119:11), and one way to do so is through meditation.
Psalm 119 is filled with statements promoting the necessity of the word of God. Seven times in this psalm we find a statement declaring the writer’s desire to meditate upon the words of God. Three of these times he states emphatically that he will meditate in God’s statutes or His precepts (Psalm 119:15, 48, 78). Not only was meditating upon God’s words something that the psalmist desired to do in the future, but he had formed this habit long ago (Psalm 119:23, 99). The writer of this psalm, like other successful believers in the past, made it common practice to meditate in the words of God both day and night (Psalm 119:97; Psalm 1:2; Joshua 1:8).
Meditation can be a godly practice, but can also express the exact opposite connotation. Nonbelievers go to great lengths to push their concept of meditation upon the world, but their meditation remains ungodly in every aspect. Rather than asking whether or not we should meditate, we should ask upon what we should meditate. Perhaps the Christian’s most important question in this matter should be, “Is my meditation pleasing to the Lord?” Interestingly, David, a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22), prayed, “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD” (Psalm 19:14). David wanted to insure that his meditation was acceptable to the Lord.
The Bible’s built-in dictionary defines meditation as taking thought. The world most often thinks of meditation in its own man-made context which is pagan in origin and practice. However, Bible-believing Christians should not allow this to discourage them from practicing scriptural meditation. Notice the phrase in today’s verse: “take no thought beforehand” followed by the word premeditate. The prefix pre means beforehand, while the word meditate means “to take thought.” Thus, a person who takes thought on something, perhaps a Bible verse or some particular truth in a sermon or a hymn of the faith, is said to be meditating. Unfortunately, far too many of our busy lives have choked out the quiet moments of meditating upon the things of God.
It has often been said that ignorance is bliss, meaning that to be wise is folly. Nothing can be further from the truth. As with most areas of life, a man must recognize the benefits of integrity before he will truly find its protection of utmost importance. Our passage describes one benefit of integrity when it says that integrity preserves a person. Preservation can refer to several areas like being kept from trouble or kept from death. Both of these would be considered invaluable. Additionally, the Bible says that integrity upholds the believer (Psalm 41:12). This means that the Lord holds men up in the midst of troublous times. Proverbs 11:3 declares another benefit: “The integrity of the upright shall guide them.” Praise God! Integrity guides men in the right way and keeps them from trouble!
Simply for being a man of integrity, Job suffered greatly. No matter what obstacles Job was forced to overcome, he would not relinquish his integrity. In the midst of Satan’s attacks, the Lord commended Job for his integrity when He said that Job “holdeth fast his integrity” (Job 2:3). When Job’s wife verbally joined in the attacks, she pressured him to relinquish his integrity. Job wisely responded to her by saying, “Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh.” Job was not willing to relinquish his integrity. There are things men consider important in life, but few realize the paramount importance of maintaining one’s integrity. The Bible repeatedly stresses the importance of integrity: “Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity, than he that is perverse in his lips, and is a fool” (Proverbs 19:1). This passage illustrates that the most important things in life cannot be purchased with money, nor can they be lost due to the absence of wealth.
As this study has shown, integrity is a matter of the heart, yet it also affects every other aspect of a man’s life. Though men sometimes try to separate an individual’s walk from his true heart’s condition, the Bible reveals the futility of such. Testifying to this truth, the Bible speaks of walking in integrity (Psalm 26:1, 11; Proverbs 19:1; Proverbs 20:7). The Bible says that “by their fruits ye shall know them” (Matthew 7:16, 20) and this principle applies to one’s integrity too. Our passage from Proverbs reveals that as the “just” man walks in his integrity, his children are likewise blessed because of his walk. The secrets of a person’s heart are often unveiled in his walk. Furthermore, a man who walks in his integrity does not fear the judgment of God (Psalm 26:1). Men need integrity of heart, but that integrity must manifest itself in their daily walk.
The Lord blessed the throne of David and desired to do the same for his posterity. Because the Lord wanted to establish Solomon’s rule, He provided some guidelines for Solomon. One prominent issue involved Solomon following in his father’s footsteps by living with integrity of heart. Integrity is very much a matter of the heart. In fact, four times in scripture integrity is associated with the heart. Twice the Bible refers to the integrity of Abimelech’s heart (Genesis 20:5-6) and another two times it refers to the integrity of David’s heart (1 Kings 9:4; Psalm 78:72). Though these men had little else in common, both understood that integrity involved a matter of the heart. A lack of integrity is first and foremost a heart issue.
Men used to be commended for their level of integrity and one's handshake was considered a man’s bond. As societies continue to crumble from the pollution of immorality, men of integrity are quickly disappearing. Unfortunately, churches seem far from immune to this moral decline. What is integrity? In a narrow sense, integrity as used in scripture can be difficult to pinpoint. The word integrity occurs sixteen times in scripture. By considering each occurrence, one can discover clues that provide insight as to its meaning. Integrity is contrasted with the words like perverse (Proverbs 19:1) and perverseness (Proverbs 11:3). Conversely, integrity is used in conjunction with words like upright (Job 2:3; Proverbs 11:3) and uprightness (1 Kings 9:4; Psalm 25:21). In our passage, the word integrity is used alongside the word innocency (Genesis 20:5). These facts would lead the believer to realize that integrity speaks of a moral purity and moral correctness.
