Soliloquy

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Andy Griffith is quite humorous in his definition of soliloquy, but his understanding of the concept is correct.  A soliloquy is that self-talk, which is constantly running through our minds, in spoken form.

Psalm 1:2 says that the righteous man "meditates day and night" on the law of God.

My definition of meditate conjures an image of a Buddhist monk perfectly still and perfectly silent.  But Webster says meditation is "a discourse intended to express its author's reflections or to guide others in contemplation."  Martin Luther agrees with this idea of meditation as he states, "To meditate, as it is generally understood, signifies to discuss, to dispute; and its meaning is always confined to a being employed in words, as in Psalm 37:30 "The mouth of the righteous shall meditate wisdom."  Hence Augustine has, in his translation, "chatter"; and a beautiful metaphor it is - as chattering is the employment of birds, so a continual conversing in the law of the Lord, ought to be the employment of men."

So to meditate on the law of God is more like Andy Griffith than like the Dalai Lama.  What would I become if I meditated on the law of God day and night?  The flow of my internal monologue would be driven by godly themes.  I would "kinda look a-way off and kinda talk to (myself)" and my soliloquies would change.  I would discuss heavenly motifs and guide others in contemplating the beauty of Christ.  "Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all." (1 Timothy 4:15)

Sleep (Psalm 3:5)

The mighty man after God's own heart did not accomplish his greatest exploit on a battlefield.  Rather he did it on a pillow.  With the kingdom lost, the army at his heels and his heart broken by the betrayal of his unnatural son, David said, "I laid me down and slept." (Psalm 3:5)  His was the sweet sleep of peace.  He lay down under a blanket of night fully confident in the saving power of God.  "And the king said...if I shall find favor in the eyes of the Lord, He will bring me again..." (2 Samuel 15:25)  Fretting the night awake would have been natural; sleeping when all was lost was a mammoth feat of faith.

Our mighty God worked His most glorious act not in creating the heavens, nor in breathing life into man.  Rather He did it while closing His eyes in sleep.  With the enemy exultant and my sin braking His heart He said, "It is finished: and He bowed His head..." (John 19:30)  His was the sleep of a conquerer.  He closed His eyes confident in the saving power of God.  "And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, He said, Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, He gave up the ghost."  (Luke 23:46)  Rousing His strength to destroy His foes would have been expected; sleeping in death to save the lost revealed His glory.

Psalm 2:4

"He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision." 

"They scoff at us, God laughs at them. Laugh? This seems a hard word at the first view: are the injuries of his saints, the cruelties of their enemies, the derision, the persecution of all that are round about us, no more but matter of laughter? Severe Cato thought that laughter did not become the gravity of Roman consuls; that it is a diminution of states, as another told princes, and it is attributed to the Majesty of heaven? According to our capacities, the prophet describes God, as ourselves would be in a merry disposition, deriding vain attempts. He laughs, but it is in scorn; he scorns, but it is with vengeance. Pharaoh imagined that by drowning the Israelite males, he had found a way to root their name from the earth; but when at the same time, his own daughter, in his own court gave princely education to Moses, their deliverer, did not God Laugh?
    Short is the joy of the wicked. Is Dagon put up to his place again? God's smile shall take off his head and his hands, and leave him neither wit to guide nor power to subsist. . . . . We may not judge of God's works until the fifth act: the case, deplorable and desperate in outward appearance, may with one smile from heaven find a blessed issue. He permitted his temple to be sacked and rifled, the holy vessels to be profaned and caroused in; but did not God's smile make Belshazzar to tremble at the handwriting on the wall? Oh, what are his frowns, if his smiles be so terrible!"  Thomas Adams.