Meditating on the Lord
Walter Beuttler|
(Edited Version)

(One evening some years ago when I first began teaching at Green Lane) I was fast asleep in my bed – when somebody spoke aloud, and said, Brother Beuttler.  I knew it was the Lord that had awakened me, but I did not know what to do. Well now, let’s see here what King David had to say about this?

Psalm 63:6-7 When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches, because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.

The activity here that David speaks of is meditation. You know as well as I do that we’re living in a very -- in the age of electronics. People these days are losing the art of meditation.  And this is a universal thing, especially in the western world. Somehow people don’t seem to like to think anymore. That’s true. People (Especially church people) want to have their thoughts thought by others. (Note here that Beuttler spoke these words before first mention of Discipleship, Shepherdship, or a believer or a fellowship ever needing spiritual coverings was made. The here irony of this is Bob Mumford was one of Walter H. Beuttler’s most promising students.) People like others to do their thinking for them. You find that throughout the world, especially in the west. People today are losing the art of meditation, and contemplation.

We have a television in our house. Now you are lucky in one respect. Unless I’m mistaken, you get television only from one channel here. Is that correct? Well, in the States in our metropolitan centers, you have a dozen or more stations from which you can select anything. You can get almost any kind of program you want. If you don’t like one, you turn to the other. If you don’t like that, you turn again. Like New York City, you get a basket full of stations. The result is that people, instead of thinking and meditating, and reading the Word, and contemplating God; they have turned to television.  (We see here that by Brother Beuttler having a TV in his house, and his reference to Pentecostal believers in the States, as well as the members church he is visiting in Australia of all having televisions, -- that the argument over television in Christian households had already been long lost among Pentecostals. But as we all well know this battle to captivate [to place in captivity] believer’s minds only began there with each successive layer of electronic gadgetry becoming more seductive than the last, VCR’s, Cable Television, Video Gaming, The Internet, and now online gaming. The pull in people’s lives of these virtual trees of knowledge of good and evil is exponential above and beyond what TV was in its heyday. 

In many churches our Sunday night services are all but abandoned. Why? People are at home watching television (Or any of the more updated things we are captivated by today) You take a trans-Pacific flight: I go on a 10-11 hour non-stop flight. All right, you have your meals and after awhile it’s movie time. Pull down the shades, and now comes the movies. And people sit there hour after hour watching all of that junk. They want to be entertained. (But there was and still is a lot more going on here than just being entertained – things are entering the eye-gate and the ear-gate and making imprints in our minds, in our souls, and dare I suggest in our spirits.  What was once outrageous, or in poor taste, or altogether unclean by listening to the “ungodly’s” multitude of council day in and day out and week in and week out becomes common placed, and just the regular talk. The power of the media regardless of its form  -- should not be underestimated. In the book “The Media” experts from the industry boast on how they have turned American society inside out, and have shaped political opinion for decades – and have the graphs and charts to prove it.)  What a God-given opportunity to read and think, to review your life, to contemplate things. That’s where I use my time for meditation, for waiting on the Lord, for reading the Word or even magazine, for sitting there and doing some thinking. (The) people (in the church) don’t want to think (either). They want to be entertained (too). So you are lucky. You have only one station. In the States, you can turn to a dozen stations. Here if you don’t like one program, you have to turn the thing off. The best part of a television set is the switch to turn it off, especially in light of the junk you get on it,- at least we do at our home.

Now then: In the night watches: When I remember thee upon my bed. Contemplating the Lord. Meditating on Him. Look now at what he says: Because thou hast been my help.  Reviewing for an instant, what God has done for us.  Reviewing His great works on our behalf.  David meditated on the Lord in the night watches.

He didn’t get up at 1:00 o’clock in the morning and say, "Well now, I’m awake. What shall I do? I’ll think I’ll go to the television set and watch the late show." I don’t know what you have, but we have ‘The Evening Show;” we have “The Late Show; we have “The Late, Late Show;” we have “The Late, Late, Late Show. And now halfway through the morning, programs are still going on. Well, David did some meditating. Notice what God says is Psalm 1:1-3:

Psalm1:1-3 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. 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.

Do you notice in passing, how people (These days are) deteriorating in their relationship with God? (The truth is most churches and believers have been asleep for the last three decades and few and noticed anything even slightly amiss.) First, you have walking, then you have standing, then you have sitting. First we walk with the sinners. Then we stand with them, and finally we sit with them. And then we are one of them. (Beuttler knew, Beuttler foresaw this day, and what has replaced the life and spirituality that those of his generation sought God for, and found of Him.)

And in his law doth he meditate day and night. What better thing to do at night than to contemplate the Lord and to meditate in His Word? David used the night season to meditate on the Lord and His Word. Psalm 119:55 gives us another activity related to this: I have remembered thy name, O Lord, in the night, and have kept thy law.  (Meditatation, contemplation, remembering and delighting, none of these words imply accidentally running into God. All of these words are deliberative acts, deliberate in that they have to been knowingly done, and knowingly in the place of something else. Another point is most of these words are deliberating calling to memory things that most believers never give a second thought to. – In other words here we see someone treating as precious, that which others taken in by the cares of the world normally treat as common and trod under foot.) David remembered His name during the night.

Now to think upon the name of the Lord is to think upon what God is. His name is what He is. His name is His character. In other words, if we could invent (which is impossible) one word, which in one word would embody the sum total of all that God is. If all that God is could be put into one word, that would be His name. In the Bible, the Lord has many names. The reason the Lord has many names in the Bible is that the Lord is so much that there is not any one name that could possibly be a descriptive name of what He is. When we call upon His name, we call upon the characteristics and attributes of God.

I’d like to now turn to Isaiah 50:10:

Isaiah 50:10 Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of His servant, (and) that (ends up) walking in darkness, and hath no light?  Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God.

 Look here: There is such a thing in our Christian experience as going through a period of darkness when misfortune has befallen us, sorrow has touched us, trouble has come our way, and we are unable to account for or find our way through it. I have heard it preached, Folks, if you are obeying the Lord, and walking daily with God, you’ll never be in the dark."

There are those in evangelistic faith healing circles who teach Job was not upright, that he was not perfect in his ways before God  And that all that befell Job occurred because Job sinned and let his hedge down  when he feared.

Folkses You know, that just is not so.

Job was a choice saint of God, and God said so. He was a man that feared God, stayed away from evil, was an outstanding and righteous man, and he was in thick darkness for over a year with the things that had befallen him.

But look here, look at who these scriptures address, Who is among you -- You! that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light?" Here you have a situation in Job, of a believer in God, who fears God, and obeys God, and yet has trouble. In fact, it is true. (And these things happen more than you think.)  (Pardon me here as I do not have time to develop this thought.), that there are people who are going through severe trouble, not because they failed God, but because they had walked with God. And Job is an example of this.

The devil gets other (Believers) eyes on Job (And then gets other believers to stand in his place accusing Job night and day.) . Now what is such a person to do? Let him trust in the name of the Lord, in what God is. And when we go, as it were, through deep waters (Of deep trouble, deep darkness, not because we have failed God, but because we have walked uprightly with the Lord) 

and when the Lord visits us in the night, and awakes us in the night in one way or another, what are we going to do?  Let him contemplate the name of the Lord. – (Let him meditate) what He is: He’s good, He’s faithful, He’s righteous, He is a thousand and one things. The night season is a good time for thinking upon His name.

Psalm 16:7 I will bless the LORD, who hath given me counsel: (He who pulls) my reins also instruct(s) me in the night seasons.

In Psalm 16:7, we see the night seasons are also for instruction. And we also see we (can) learn things in the night (Through our meditation, contemplation, remembering and delighting in the Lord) that we (can not and) do not learn, or are not likely to learn, at any other time. I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel; (He who pulls) my reins also instruct(s) me in the night seasons.

Now this word reins is a difficult word in the Hebrew. It really means my kidneys, but in those earlier years, the kidneys were regarded as the seat of our personality. We know better now. What David is saying is that during the night, God gives me instruction, and I learn things from my own contemplation, from God speaking from within my own spirit. My own spirit will teach me during the night. In my walk I have received from the Lord many instructions during the night. So did Jesus.

Remember last Sunday? "The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned. He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth my ear as things that are taught." The Lord instructs us during the night. We learn from our own spirit. We see things more clearly often during the night when we can concentrate on one thing or another.

I’m moving rapidly trying to cover as much as I can. I’ll see what I can do.

Psalm 42:8 Yet the Lord will command his loving-kindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.

His song shall be with me. Now we’ll turn to Job for a minute.

Job 35:10 But none saith, Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night?

Folkses, there are times when during the night God gives us a song. Have you ever experienced this? Who giveth songs in the night." I had one the other night. I can’t go into detail, I suppose, but I got a song from the Lord during the night that changed my attitude toward the person. I told Wife in the morning, "I have to take a different attitude toward that person. The Lord gave me a song." It was a strange song for the occasion and I wondered what to make of it. Then I made the connection.

I had an attitude toward a person, though not totally wrong, was nevertheless, it was tarnished by a wrong attitude. Which I would say, was at least contrary to Him. That song taught me to modify my attitude, and consequently, my actions.

During the night He gives us songs of worship, songs of David. I was up with the Lord one night while we were here, and I was sitting there and happened to think about my itinerary. I had a question. Should I, or should I not stop in a certain place. At once, a song rose up, Publish glad tidings, tidings of peace, and I knew right away I was to stop there. The Lord will guide you many times with a song. (If you are not asleep with everyone else.) He gives songs in the night.

I was up another time when I was last here, up for a little while with the Lord. And I had questions in my mind about my having visiting a certain place. It was another one. In regards to that place, I wanted to know whether I had made a mistake? That’s more accurate. And as I wondered, a song came up, It is well with my soul.  Do you sing that here?  It is well with my soul.

Then I knew everything was all right, and was able to leave it alone. He giveth songs in the night. If you only knew that, (Deep within) you, you would then  discover many times the song that comes to you is not simply there as a song, but it is a song to give us instructions.

One night I was awakened out of a deep sleep in the States, and I am a poor sleeper, but I was in a deep sleep that time. I was awakened by a song that sang so -- shall I say, loud.  I heard it sing in my spirit, and there it was. The song woke me and the song was: Up from the grave He arose. I knew what it meant: It’s meant it was time to get up. That’s the school of the Spirit. Who giveth songs in the night. You must watch for that thing. (Or they will pass you by.)  Many times I get these songs - by day too. I get one very often. Oh can I think of it? I’m trying to hurry, and I’m not made for hurry.

I can’t think of it. It will probably come to me. It’s a chorus the Lord often uses with me to alert me that’s He’s going to call on me with something later on. Very often, it’s prayer or intercession. The Lord uses songs by day. He gives songs by night. If it comes to me, I’ll weave it in.

Turn to Ephesians 5:18-19 because the songs are not always a special message or for guidance. Here is another purpose:

Ephesians 5:18-19And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in Psalm and hymns and spiritual songs (Songs of the Spirit), singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.

Here we see that the Lord, by His Spirit, puts into our hearts a melody by day or by night. And when you get (This song of the Spirit) it by day or night: Well, what will you do with this melody? That is if it does not seem to be for guidance or anything. What do you do with it? Oh, (I’m trying to make up a word) You melody it unto the Lord. It doesn’t have to be loud, just let this thing (Beuttler holds his hand over his chest) sing aloud, and let it sing unto the Lord like,  (Beuttler sings:) How Great Thou Art, or whatever it is that wells up within you. Don’t just let this thing go around and around, and around and around, and around and around, until it all dissipates into nothing.  Take it and make melody in your heart to the Lord.

You don’t have to wake the family up in the middle of th night and shout all over the place. It doesn’t say make melody with your voice, but it says Make melody in your heart to the Lord"

So the Lord gives those songs. And Job knew it. Who giveth songs in the night.

Isaiah 26:9 With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early.

(And all we have to do is begin to meditate, contemplate, remember and delight in the Lord -- and then see what He will do.)