We Muse upon the Word of God and Remain in Continual Fellowship with God and Glow with God

As believers in Christ, we love the Word of God, and as those in the process of being recovered by the Lord to His original intention, we love pray-reading the Word; however, musing upon the Word is even richer, broader, and more inclusive than pray-reading.

Again and again, in the psalms, we see how the psalmists loved the Word, regarded the Word, took delight in God’s word, and mused upon the Word.

The Word of God was their delight and enjoyment to the extent that even at night they would wake up to muse upon the word of God.

We love to pray and read the Word of God, for we obtain life and spirit as we do this; however, we need to learn to muse upon the words in the Bible, having a richer, broader, and deeper enjoyment of the Lord in His word.

When we are musing upon the Word of God, it becomes our delight, our gladness, and our joy (Jer. 15:16).

When we find God’s word and take them into us with much prayerful consideration, many conversations with the Lord and with ourselves, we have much enjoyment in God’s word and we’re inwardly nourished.

For example, we may like a particular kind of ice cream or chocolate; we may not even have a way to describe how good that feeling is when we enjoy our favourite ice cream or chocolate, but we enjoy it so much.

Similarly, we need to delight in God’s word by reading it, conversing with the Lord with it, speaking to ourselves with it, and even enquiring of the Lord with it, asking Him concerning it, thanking Him for it, and praising Him for it.

The Lord’s word needs not only to be read but “chewed”, masticated; it may sound quite rough to do this, but the Word of God is spiritual food to us, and we need to exercise to chew it and masticate it to make it digestible and ingestible.

We can’t just swallow a piece of potato or a steak; we need to chew it, masticate it, bring it back and forth in our mouth, mix it with other things and with saliva, and eventually, it becomes ingestible and then digestible.

This is what we do with the Word of God; in a pleasant way we open to the Lord and we mix the reading with our prayer, our thanking, our praising, our singing, our weeping, our yearning, and our delight.

Being honest with the Lord in His word and by means of His word is the best, for the more we pour out our heart to Him, the more He pours out His heart into us.

The more we chew on the Word of God, open to the Lord with His word, and take in the Word by means of prayerful consideration, conversations with the Lord, and speaking to Him and to ourselves, the more we get nourished in a lasting way.

Musing upon the Word includes Prayer, Worship, Enjoyment, Conversation, Bowing down, and Lifting up our Hand to Receive His Word

We need to realize that musing upon the Word of God is richer, broader, and more inclusive than pray-reading, for it includes our worship, our enjoyment, our conversation, our bowing down, and even our lifting up our hand to receive God’s Word (Psa. 119:48).

We can pray-read in a group, but musing upon the Word is personal and intimate – it is between us and the Lord. When we muse upon the Word of God, we receive it warmly and gladly by saying Amen to it (Neh. 8:5-6).

The Psalmist even rose up before dawn, he cried out, and he hoped in God’s word (Psa. 119:147).

When we practice musing on the Word, the Word becomes our enjoyment to such an extent that we may wake up during the night to muse on God’s word – not just to meditate on it, but muse upon it.

We muse upon God’s word by talking to God with it, worshipping Him with it, enjoying Him with it, receiving grace from Him, and conversing with ourselves in the Lord’s presence.

We realize and experience that God’s word is His breath, and we can receive His breath into us by enjoying Him in His word, by musing upon the Word.

As we muse on the Word, we are infused with God, we breathe Him into us, and we receive spiritual nourishment.

We may even wait for the Lord’s word, hope in it, and arise before dawn to cry out to the Lord that we need His word.

We speak to ourselves with the Word and instruct ourselves with the Word of God.

In our personal time with the Lord, as we are musing upon the Word, we are so enthralled with the Lord that we bow down to Him and we lift up our hand to receive His word.

It is not “charismatic” for us to lift up our hands to the Lord in His word; when we receive the word warmly and gladly by saying Amen to it, we lift up our hands to the Word of God.

As we are musing upon the Word of God, the Lord is inwardly nourishing us, strengthening us, and comforting us; His word is enlivening us and gives us comfort and strength (Psa. 119:49-50).

This is how we can go on with the Lord in our Christian life; this is how we can live Christ, and this is how God is real to us day by day.

We may even converse with ourselves during the day, encouraging ourselves with the Lord and in the Word, and being comforted by the words we have been enjoying.

It is in this way that the Lord is near to us, He is real to us, and He can speak to us.

We may read something in the Bible that may have nothing to do with our situation, but the Lord shines on our particular situation and condition, and He has a way to eliminate things that His light exposes, while at the same time He adds His holy element to our being.

This will cause us to have a lasting change in our being and solid nourishment that supplies us throughout the day.

This is how the Lord works Himself into us for the fulfillment of His economy; this is how we offer Him the worship He desires, and this is how we gain God in a practical way.

By musing upon the Word, we pray with the Word, worship the Lord with His word, enjoy the Lord in His word, converse with the Word, bow down before the Lord, and even lift up our hand to receive God’s word.

Lord Jesus, we love to muse upon Your word early in the morning. We love to pray over the word, worship You in the Word, enjoy Your riches in the Word, and converse with You and with ourselves in the Word. Amen, Lord, we lift up our hand to receive the Word, receiving the word warmly and gladly by saying Amen to it. Thank You for being so real and near to us in Your word. We hope in Your word. We are comforted by Your word, and Your word enlivens us. Keep us musing upon the Word daily so that we may be infused with all that You are and everything of our natural man would be gradually removed and discharged. Amen, Lord, remember the words that You have spoken to us and make them real to us; make Your word so sweet and real to us, even real in us and through us in a daily way.

Remain in Continual Fellowship with the Lord by Musing upon His Word to be Infused with God to Glow with God

Concerning the matter of meditating and musing on the Word of God, George Muller said that the first and primary business to which we need to attend every day is to have our soul happy in the Lord.

The first order of business every day shouldn’t me how much we might serve the Lord but how to get our soul into a happy state and how to have our inner man nourished.

We do this by musing upon the Word of God – not merely praying, not merely reading, but conversing with the Lord in a prayerful way so that we may remain in fellowship with Him.

When we touch the Lord’s word with our spirit, converse with Him in His word, and remain in continual fellowship with Him, we have the feeling of being bathed in the Word of God.

As we remain in an attitude of musing upon the Word, we feel as if our whole being were taking a bath in the Bible; this is so refreshing, so comfortable, and so joyful.

It is not something of work or a “must-do”; it is something organic, something vital, that comes out of our living touch with the Lord.

If we read the Bible and muse upon the Word for thirty minutes, we will feel warm in our spirit, and we will be refreshed, moistened, supplied, and satisfied.

If we feel hot, dry, scorched, or burned, this is not the way to read the Bible; the Bible is the embodiment of the Triune God to be a flowing river of water of life to water us, refresh us, and moisten us.

At the end of our time with the Lord, we should feel that we are nourished and supplied, and we are refreshed in our inner being.

The one thing, the best thing, that we should do especially in the morning, is to touch the Lord, worship Him, believe in Him, absorb Him, enjoy Him, pursue Him, and gain Him (Psa. 27:4; Phil. 3:8, 14).

May our primary thing be to make our soul happy in the Lord so that we may be nourished, strengthened, and bathed in the Word of God.

As we remain in a continual fellowship with the Lord, making our soul happy in Him as we muse on the Word, we can face the spiritual trials, take care of our service to the Lord, and we can confront what we have to confront.

When we truly take time to muse upon God’s word, we are being infused with God to glow with God, and we will shine forth God, for we behold Him in His word and we cannot but reflect Him to others (2 Cor. 3:15-18).

What others see in us and through us is the Lord whom we have enjoyed and experienced in the Word, for we are infused with God to glow with God and shine Him forth.

Our Lord and our God has commanded us to enter into and enjoy Him as the reality of the all-inclusive good land, we should say Amen to His word to be strong, to take courage, and take the land.

He has told us that He is with us until the consummation of the age, as we teach people to observe the Lord’s word to make them the kingdom people (Matt. 28:20).

As we muse upon the Word in our continual fellowship with Him, we are not afraid, we take courage, and we know that the Lord is with us wherever we go until the consummation of the age. Praise the Lord!

Dear Lord Jesus, we love You and we love Your word. We turn our heart to You – make our heart happy in You today. We muse upon Your word so that our soul would be happy and cherished in You. Amen, Lord, how refreshed and supplied we are as we muse upon Your word! How we love to be bathed, warmed, refreshed, moistened, and supplied by the word in the Bible through our musing upon the Word of God! Amen, Lord, infuse us more with Yourself as we spend time with You in Your word so that we may glow with God and to shine forth God! We love to pray to fellowship with Jesus, bathing in His countenance! Amen, Lord, saturate us with Your beauty so that we may radiate Your excellence!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1959, vol. 3, “Lessons for New Believers“, lesson 24, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth (2021 summer training), week 1, God’s Charge, Promise, and Encouragement to Joshua.
• Recommended further reading on this topic:
  – 7 tips on how to meditate or muse on God’s word (via holdingtotruth.com);
  – Discovering the lost art of musing on the Word of God (via holdingtotruth.com);
  – How the Old Testament seekers of God enjoyed His law (life-study of Exodus, msg. 57);
  – the day-by-day Christian life (by Ed Marks, via Affirmation and Critique).
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Thou art the Word with God’s fulness in Thee, / Thou too the Spirit that God my life be; / Thee in the Word I enjoy as my food, / Thou as the Spirit art water to me. (Hymns #811)
  – Pray to fellowship with Jesus, / In the spirit seek His face; / Ask and listen in His presence, / Waiting in the secret place. / Pray to fellowship with Jesus, / Bathing in His countenance; / Saturated with His beauty, / Radiate His excellence. (Hymns #784)
  – In such a fellowship / Thou, Lord, art grace to me; / My heart and spirit gladdened, filled, / I enter rest in Thee. / Lord, I would linger here, / Still seeking after Thee, / Continue in the Word and prayer / Till Thou dost flow thru me. (Hymns #812)