【Beseeching】Day 236 附中文

2021-02-16 精明的管家 Good Land

Day 236: Prayer for the saints』 attitude toward the Word of God (3)

February 13, 2021

Pray that the saints, by the Lord’s grace, would learn to muse on the Word of God (Psa. 119:15, 23, 48, 99, 148).

Psa. 119:15—I will muse upon Your precepts / And regard Your ways.

Psa. 119:23—Princes as well have sat and spoken against me, / But Your servant mused upon Your statutes.

Psa. 119:48—And I will lift up my hand to Your commandments, which I love; / And I will muse upon Your statutes.

Psa. 119:99—I have more insight than all my teachers, / For Your testimonies are my musing.

Psa. 119:148—My eyes anticipated the night watches, / That I might muse upon Your word.

MINISTRY PORTION:

Rich in meaning, the Hebrew word for muse, or meditate, implies to bow down, to converse with oneself, and to utter. According to the Old Testament, to meditate on the Word of God is to enjoy it by musing upon it.

To muse upon the Word is to 「chew the cud,」 like a cow eating grass (Lev. 11:3). As we muse upon the Word of God, we should 「chew the cud.」 If we take in the Word too quickly, we shall not have very much enjoyment. But if we 「chew the cud」 as we take in the Word, our enjoyment will increase.

When we muse upon the Word of God, enjoying it and even chewing it as a cow chews the cud, we shall spontaneously pray. Prayer is also included in musing upon the Word. Furthermore, we may converse with ourselves or begin to praise the Lord. We may be so inspired by the Word that we want to shout our praises to the Lord.

Usually musing upon the Word will be slower and finer than pray-reading the Word…In all our musing upon God’s Word, talking to the Lord or conversing with ourselves, we should be spontaneous and full of enjoyment. We may bow down to worship the Lord, ponder the Word, remember, or give ourselves a rebuke. All this is included in the practice of musing upon the Word of God. Any genuine seeker of the Lord who muses upon the Ten Commandments in a living way will enjoy the Lord, worship Him, pray, converse with himself in the Lord’s presence, and also praise the Lord. Surely one who takes the law of God in such a way will not apply it as dead letters, but will take it as God’s living word.

To muse upon the Word of God is to enjoy His Word as His breath. It is to contact God in the Word and to have fellowship with Him, to worship Him, and to pray to Him through and with the Word. By musing upon the Word of God in this way, we shall be infused by God, breathe Him into us, and receive spiritual nourishment.

Concerning musing upon the Word, verse 147 [of Psalm 119] says, 「I anticipated the dawn and cried out; / I hoped in Your words.」 Here we see that the psalmist rose up before dawn, cried out, and hoped in God’s word. Verse 148 goes on to say, 「My eyes anticipated the night watches, / That I might muse upon Your word.」 The psalmist woke up during the night to muse upon God’s word. Musing upon the Word involves more than just meditating on it. We muse upon the Word by talking to God, worshipping Him, enjoying Him, receiving grace from Him, and conversing with ourselves in the Lord’s presence. We cannot describe adequately the practice of musing on the Word of God and the enjoyment this affords us. (Life-study of Exodus, msg. 57, pp. 670-671)

相關焦點