Psalms 1:2-3 (KJV) But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
One who meditates on the word of God day and night is one who occupies their mind on God instead of the what-ifs of life. So if you hear sermons and even memorize the Scriptures, but you don’t meditate, you’ll become like what Jesus said:
Mark 4:18-19 (KJV) And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word, And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.
So if you meditate (mutter, whisper – הגה – hagah) the word of God throughout the day, you’ll be like a tree planted by the rivers of water. To meditate on this part, you realize that trees live long lives, those with deep roots weather the storms of life. The tree is planted, meaning it’s not just “there” but specifically planted and if planted, then tended. Moreover, there are rivers, plural, for one tree, meaning God’s abundance is more than you’ll ever need. Now this tree will bring about fruit in his season. Before there is fruit, the tree brings about flowers. But a flower cannot bring fruit, but only when a bee pollenates it. The word for bee is דבורה – deborah – and the root of this word is דבר – debar – meaning word, thing, speak, matter, object, pest, message, commandment and guide. The bee is the word of God. This is why you can hear a message and it speaks to you, but someone else hears the same words and it does nothing – the bee (God’s word) did not come to them. When you share God’s word (preach) through the Spirit you are acting like the bee, pollinating people; planting the seed in them, to grow and eventually produce fruit, continuing the cycle. Furthermore, the bee produces honey which in Hebrew is דבש – devash.
Deuteronomy 30:14 (KJV) But the word (debar) is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.
Romans 10:8 (KJV) But what saith it? The word (rhema) is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
Paul quote Deuteronomy and the word in Hebrew is debar, and in Romans it is rhema, meaning utterance.
Jesus used this word rhema in this verse:
Matthew 4:4 (KJV) But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word (rhema) that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
And Paul uses it here:
Romans 10:17 (KJV) So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word (rhema) of God.
But how can they hear:
Romans 10:14 (KJV) How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
Now you understand why the Lord says to mutter His word – you are allowing the Holy Spirit to pollinate you!
To continue, the leaf shall not wither. Leaves are green. Trees whose leaves are green year-round are called evergreen. Green in vernacular means new or young – he’s green. Green is also a primary color and most pleasing to the eyes. A leaf brought hope to Noah (Gen 8:11) and fear to the enemy (Lev 26:36) and shall bring forth medicine (Eze 47:12, Rev 22:2) – healing to the nations by bringing the word of God!
Finally – whatsoever he doeth shall prosper! The best idiom is “garbage in, garbage out“. If you focus on the junk of the world, you’ll be filled with the junk of the world. But if you mutter the word of God then you will be able to prosper in life because of the goodness of His word will fill you. Goodness in, goodness out. This is the bread of which Jesus spoke.
The following is recommended reading for Christians who find themselves weak in Spirit. George Mueller opened 117 schools and hosted over 120,000 kids in orphanages. While having never received government support and only accepting unsolicited gifts, his organisation received and disbursed £1,381,171 (£90million in today’s money). Read what he said was the most important act a Christian can do – and it’s not prayer.
Soul Nourishment First
A Booklet by George Mueller
May 9, 1841
It has pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, the benefit of which I have not lost, for more than fourteen years.
The point is this:
I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, or how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. For I might seek to set the truth before the unconverted, I might seek to benefit believers, I might seek to relieve the distressed, I might in other ways seek to behave myself as it becomes a child of God in this world; and yet, not being happy in the Lord, and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, all this might not be attended to in a right spirit.
Before this time my practice had been, at least for ten years previously, as an habitual thing, to give myself to prayer, after having dressed myself in the morning. Now, I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God, and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that thus, by means of the Word of God, while meditating on it, my heart might be brought into experiential communion with the Lord.
I began therefore to meditate on the New Testament from the beginning, early in the morning. The first thing I did, after having asked in a few words the Lord’s blessing upon his precious Word, was, to begin to meditate on the Word of God, searching as it were into every verse, to get blessing out of it; not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word, not for the sake of preaching on what I had meditated upon, but for the sake of obtaining food for my own soul.
The result I have found to be almost invariably this, that after a very few minutes my soul has been led to confession, or to thanksgiving, or to intercession, or to supplication; so that, though I did not, as it were, give myself to prayer, but to meditation, yet it turned almost immediately more or less into prayer. When thus I have been for a while making confession or intercession, or supplication, or have given thanks, I go to the next words or verse, turning all, as I go on, into prayer for myself or others, as the Word may lead to it, but still continually keeping before me that food for my own soul is the object of my meditation. The result of this is, that there is always a good deal of confession, thanksgiving, supplication, or intercession mingled with my meditation, and then my inner man almost invariably is even sensibly nourished and strengthened, and that by breakfast time, with rare exceptions, I am in a peaceful if not happy state of heart. Thus also the Lord is pleased to communicate unto me that which, either very soon after or at a later time, I have found to become food for other believers, though it was not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word that I gave myself to meditation, but for the profit of my own inner man.
The difference, then, between my former practice and my present one is this:
Formerly, when I rose, I began to pray as soon as possible, and generally spent all my time till breakfast in prayer, or almost all the time. At all events I almost invariably began with prayer, except when I felt my soul to be more than usually barren, in which case I read the Word of God for food, or for refreshment, or for a revival and renewal of my inner man, before I gave myself to prayer.
But what was the result? I often spent a quarter of an hour, or half an hour, or even an hour, on my knees, before being conscious to myself of having derived comfort, encouragement, humbling of soul, etc., and often, after having suffered much from wandering of mind for the first ten minutes, or a quarter of an hour, or even half an hour, I only then began really to pray. I scarcely ever suffer now in this way. For my heart, first being nourished by the truth, being brought into experiential fellowship with God, I then speak to my Father and to my Friend, (vile though I am, and unworthy of it), about the things that He has brought before me in His precious Word.
It often now astonishes me that I did not sooner see this point. In no book did I ever read about it. No public ministry ever brought the matter before me. No private intercourse with a brother stirred me up to this matter. And yet, now, since God has taught me this point, it is as plain to me as anything, that the first thing the child of God has to do morning by morning is, to obtain food for his inner man. As the outward man is not fit for work for any length of time except we take food, and as this is one of the first things we do in the morning, so it should be with the inner man. We should take food for that, as every one must allow.
Now, what is the food for the inner man? Not prayer, but the Word of God; and here again, not the simple reading of the Word of God, so that it only passes through our minds, just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what we read, pondering over it, and applying it to our hearts. When we pray, we speak to God. Now, prayer, in order to be continued for any length of time in any other than a formal manner, requires, generally speaking, a measure of strength or godly desire, and the season, therefore, when this exercise of the soul can be most effectually performed is after the inner man has been nourished by meditation on the Word of God, where we find our Father speaking to us, to encourage us, to comfort us, to instruct us, to humble us, to reprove us. We may therefore profitably meditate, with God’s blessing, though we are ever so weak spiritually; nay, the weaker we are, the more we need meditation for the strengthening of our inner man.
Thus there is far less to be feared from wandering of mind than if we give ourselves to prayer without having had time previously for meditation. I dwell so particularly on this point because of the immense spiritual profit and refreshment I am conscious of having derived from it myself, and I affectionately and solemnly beseech all my fellow believers to ponder this matter. By the blessing of God, I ascribe to this mode the help and strength which I have had from God to pass in peace through deeper trials, in various ways, than I had ever had before; and after having now above fourteen years tried this way, I can most fully, in the fear of God, commend it.
In addition to this I generally read, after family prayer, larger portions of the Word of God, when I still pursue my practice of reading regularly onward in the Holy Scriptures, sometimes in the New Testament, and sometimes in the Old, and for more than twenty-six years I have proved the blessedness of it. I take, also, either then or at other parts of the day, time more especially for prayer. How different, when the soul is refreshed and made happy early in the morning, from what it is when without spiritual preparation, the service, the trials, and the temptations of the day come upon one.
This is what his friend said about George Muller:
Further Recollections Of Mr. Müller
MR. PERRY furnishes also the following reminiscences:
As George Müller was engaged in free, homely conversation with his friends on a Sunday afternoon within about three weeks of his departure to be with the Lord, he referred to two visits he had made during the previous week to two old and beloved friends. He had fully appreciated that, though they were about ten years younger than himself, his power to walk, and specially his power to continue his service for his Lord, was far greater than theirs. So that he playfully said, with a bright smile:
“I came away from both these beloved brethren feeling that I was quite young by comparison as to strength, though so much older,”
and then at once followed an ascription of praise to God for His goodness to him:
“Oh, how very kind and good my heavenly Father has been to me! I have no aches or pains, no rheumatism, and now in my ninety-third year I can do a day’s work at the orphan houses with as much ease and comfort to myself as ever.”
One sentence aptly sets forth a striking feature in his Christian character, viz.:
George Müller, nothing. The Lord Jesus, everything. In himself worse than nothing. By grace, in Christ, the son of the King.
And as such he lived; for all those who knew and loved this beloved and honoured servant of Christ best would testify that his habitual attitude towards the Lord was to treat Him as an ever-present, almighty, loving Friend, whose love was far greater to him than he could ever return, and who delighted in having his entire confidence about everything, and was not only ready at hand to listen to his prayers and praises about great and important matters, but nothing was too small to speak to Him about. So real was this that it was almost impossible to be enjoying the privilege of private, confidential intercourse with him without being conscious that at least to him the Lord was really present. One to whom he turned for counsel, in prayer, or in praise, as freely as most men would to a third person present; and again and again marked answers to prayer have been received in response to petitions thus unitedly presented to the Lord altogether apart from his own special work.
His leaf never faded, he was ever-green!!!
Now see how Jeremiah puts it:
Jeremiah 17:7-8 (KJV) Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.