SCRIPTURE MEMORY: the Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How of it works for us

“I have set the Lord always before me...

Because He is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.”

Psalm 16

“Setting the Lord always before me” feels a bit like a gripping the handrail of a boardwalk, putting one foot in front of the other, over a wild swamp full of alligators and snakes. 

The pathway is narrow. It can feel treacherous. One cannot prioritize the left or the right… one prioritizes the straight-ahead. 

Walking on this boardwalk one day, I thought of Psalm 16, and how I desperately need the unshakeable-ness it speaks of.

Who doesn’t want to know that even if they DID trip, they would ultimately be safe from the lurking threats below? Who doesn’t want to be unshakeable?

This is where Scripture memory comes in: it’s one way I have discovered to set the Lord continually before me and my children.

We memorize and sing Scripture because in a culture gluttonously gorging on content it is the only content that will endure forever.  We memorize and sing Scripture so that it’ll get SO deep into us that we can recall it on walks, or amid sleepless nights, or in a sudden crisis.  So that it will carry us and our children through grief, loss, trials, tests, temptations, fears, loneliness, and confusion. Ushered to the forefront of their thoughts by the Spirit Himself, the Living Word will be the continual soundtrack playing under the chapters of their story, as it has been in my story. Like the deep, strong undercurrent of the ocean, it will carry them where they are going. 

The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever.

Isaiah 40:8

It will outlast all else. It will never get updated or upgraded.
Years ago, we made a commitment to keep our Scripture songs:

1. Quick!
2. Catchy!
3. Singable!

…because we believe that those three ingredients have served our family well, keeping the melodies and words accessible to our minds and hearts.

Keep singing and reciting God’s Word.  It’s getting into your heart.  It’s getting into their little hearts.  “It will not return void”. (Isaiah 55:11)