“Happy are those who reject the advice of evil people, who do not follow the example of sinners or join those who have no use for God. Instead, they find joy in obeying the Law of the Lord, and they study it day and night. They are like trees that grow beside a stream, that bear fruit at the right time, and whose leaves do not dry up. They succeed in everything they do.” Psalm 1:1-3 GNT

The happy man is described as one who avoids the way of wicked persons. The tragic folly of the wicked is that they neglect the chief thing to be remembered, namely, that there is a God, that they are his creatures, and, being his creatures, ought to live for him. They give God no part of their lives, and he is in none of their thoughts.

The godly man, however, does not consider first how the world regards a thing but rather how God looks at it. “His joy is in the Lord’s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night.”

Reading reaps the wheat. Meditation threshes it, grinds it, and makes it into bread. Or, put another way, reading is like the ox feeding and meditation is it digesting when chewing the cud. It is not only in the reading, but also in the soul inwardly feeding on it and digesting it.

Adapted, Spurgeon Study Bible