When the Psalmist speaks of meditating on the Law of God day and night (Psalm 1:2), he uses a word which means “to mutter.”6 This word was used to describe the murmurings of kings in Psalm 2:1, and for the chattering of doves in Isaiah 59:11. In fact, St. Augustine translated Psalm 1:2, “On his law he chatters day and night.”7 Meditation is intrinsically verbal. This means the Psalmist memorized God’s Word — for one cannot continually mutter the Scripture without memorizing it, and vice versa.
