"Bind them continually on your heart; tie them around your neck"
This is the what-do-you-find-yourself-thinking-about proverb; the what-are-you-meditating-on proverb. In our day and age, we have the ability to not think but to have lies pumped into our minds constantly so that we never have to face the way life really works. When we meditate through popular songs, movies, radio, TV, or magazines on the idea that whatever would make us happy should be what we receive, we find ourselves absolutely appalled when God does not give us everything that would make us happy.
Solomon – like Paul, Jesus, and other prophets of the Scripture – declares that we should meditate on what the Bible says our thoughts and ways ought to be. We can expect to find our desires not being accomplished when those desires disagree with the Lord Jesus.
continually
This is the Hebrew word “tamia,” which means continuity. The meaning is that it must be done constantly. There is an element in which wisdom must be constantly retied to our thinking. It slips off in the normal course of events. God requires us to fill our mind with the right stuff, or we will not act in the right way. Biblical meditation is about saturating your mind with key biblical ideas.
tie
This is the Hebrew word “anad,” which means to bind around. The idea clearly is that you must keep the wisdom that you need, close to you. Keep filling your mind with these ideas.
The early church memorized five documents and said them every day: The Ten Commandments; The Lord's Prayer; The Fruit of the Spirit; The Apostle's Creed; The Beatitudes. These passages were committed to memory and repeated as the major instruction manuals of Christianity. We would do well to memorize these kinds of documents and squeeze all the life of the Lord out of them.
Until tomorrow,
Gil Stieglitz