Commiting Scripture to Memory...

So after reading a lovely book on the Hebrew alphabet in Proverbs 31, I remembered that Psalm 119 is also a alphabetical Poem like Proverbs 31:10-31.

Upon investigating I realised that Indeed Psalm 119 is such a poem and it is written this way most probably to help commit it to memory. And as this Psalm is about God's word and me and a friend the other day were talking about memorising scripture I am going to give it a go.

I don't really know how I will do it but I plan to meditate on the Psalm daily, probably focusing on 8 verses a week. Now this would be a teadious process, except that is one a day and that would prove to be very quick, meaning I could probably memorize the whole 176 verses in nearly 1 Year.

I will probably blog my meditations, not to show them as 100% right, but in the hope that my thinkings might help you as a reader have a greater love for God's word. So enjoy.

Psalm 119

א Alef

¹How happy are those whose way is blameless, who live according to the law of the LORD!

²Happy are those who keep His decrees and seek Him with all their heart.

³They do nothing wrong; they follow His ways.

⁴You have commanded that Your precepts be deligently kept.

⁵If only my ways were commited to keeping Your statutes!

⁶Then I would not be ashamed when I think about Your commands.

⁷I will praise you with a sincere heart when I learn Your righteous judgements.

⁸I will keep Your statutes; never abandon me.

Verse 1 Seems to be a title to not only this group but also the general idea of the whole Psalm.

The Word of God is so powerful and is such that we cannot remain the same upon reading it.

Some practical things which come from the reading of the Word of God; “way is blameless”(v1);”keep His decrees and seek Him with all their heart”(v2); “They do nothing wrong; the follow His ways”(v3); “I will praise you with a sincere heart”(v7); “I will keep Your statutes”(v8).

All of the above actions come from reading, walking, keeping our ways/attention on the word of God. One would think that they first would need the desire to read the word, when in fact what little desire we have will be multiplied by reading/walking/obeying/holding to the word of God. It is in a way a vicious cirlce of perpetual motion. If you don't have the passion you won't read it and then won't gain more passion and insight. But if you do have some passion and read it then you will gain more. So I guess this is where habit and even some might say duty comes into play. Without the duty of Bible reading, we might not read the word,and so not be encouraged or enlightened.

I believe that it is not a duty at all, but this being said I have an intense passion and love for the Word of God. But of course there are times when I do not feel like reading the Bible, and then I do my duty. I still love God, I still want to seek Him, I still want to serve Him and so I read not nessesarily out of duty but maybe more-so out of nessesity. As I know that without God I am nothing and will soon wither away to nothing. So I read, even when I don't want to because I desire to be filled with God's spirit and knowledge and the Bible is the main way I can do this. And I trust that I will be guided to read what I need to read by the Holy Spirit and that God will reward me for seeking him.