TEXT: Psalm 119:11

SUBJECT: A Memory Verse

The sermon that aims at nothing is sure it hit its mark. Let me tell you what my aim is today: I want you to start memorizing Bible verses. I don’t care if you memorize ten chapters a day or one verse a month, I just want you to start committing God’s Word to memory. This is more than a personal wish, of course. In the next half-hour or so, I want to show you that Jesus Christ wants you to memorize His Word. And, by His grace, you can.

Not everyone has the same memory, the same opportunity, the same discipline, or the same support. But everyone here can memorize some of God’s Word.

Before we get to the exhortation, though, let me give you a little history.

At one time, memory was considered the foundation of all knowledge. Students were not asked to analyze things, but to memorize them. And they did it, often in ways that seem incredible to us. Let me give you some examples from the last hundred years.

• In 1914, German cadets marched on the British reciting Homer’s Iliad in Greek. That is 600 pages of non-rhyming verse in a foreign language. Were they all brilliant scholars? No they weren’t; they were teenagers!

• At the turn of the century, Dutch ministers assumed all the children in their churches would know the canons of Dordt by heart. In my edition, that is 22 pages of small print.

• In the 1950’s John Murray said every Presbyterian child should have memorized the Westminster Shorter Catechism by the age of twelve. That’s 107 questions and answers.

That’s the way it was. Education started with memory. But this spring millions of young people will graduate from high school and college without having committed anything to memory. No Bible, of course, no poetry, no lines from Shakespeare, and—in many cases—no multiplication tables!

How did the change come about?

It’s easy to blame laziness. And that should never be discounted. But the cause is deeper than that. People quit memorizing things because of a change in philosophy.

Let me explain: At one time truth was thought to be outside of a person and could only be gotten by hard work. Now, though, truth is thought to be inside a person and can be had without reading, listening, or memorizing.

Here’s an example. If you’ve ever been in a Sunday School class or a home Bible study, you’ve heard it. Someone reads a passage of Scripture, and instead of asking, "What does it mean?", the teacher or leader will ask, "What does it mean to you?"

Without meaning to do it, the teacher has made the Word of God subjective. The vocabulary, grammar, and context are set aside in favor of what effect it has on you.

If conservative Christians are doing this, you can imagine what radical teachers are doing to the young minds they have six hours a day.

In the last fifty to one hundred years, the philosophy of learning has changed a lot in school and in church. Someone has described it as

What used to be primary is now secondary or even excluded.

What do we make of the change? In assessing any change, we have to avoid two pitfalls.

Some people love novelty. To their way of thinking new is good, old is bad. Therefore, the change has been beneficial.

Others take the opposite approach. They think all change is bad. If it’s new, it must be bad; if it’s old, it must be good.

C.S. Lewis quipped, "You don’t judge an argument with a calander". Old and new mean old and new—not true or false, good or bad, godly or Satanic.

AIDS is a new things, and it’s bad. Flush toilets are a new thing, too, and they’re good.

Good and bad are determined by God’s Word.

What does the Bible say about remembering things?

It commands us to remember some things. At the Lord’s Table, we remember the death of our Savior, "This do in remembrance of Me".

And not just "things", but exact words, too. Deuteronomy 6:4-9 is the best known example. Joshua 1:8 says the same thing.

It strongly criticizes forgetting things we ought to remember. Psalm 78 says Israel "Forgot His works"; Psalm 106 says they "forgot God their Savior who had done great things in Egypt".

The use of literary devices is suggestive. Did you know that Psalm 119 corresponds to the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet? The first eight verses begin with aleph, the next eight with beth, the third with gimel, and so on? Assuming the author is not just trying to be clever, why would he do that unless he wrote it in the hope that you’d memorize it?

The example of our Lord is also helpful. In the first century, Jewish boys went to schools that emphasized the memory. According to Luke, Jesus Christ did very well in school, which means he committed the Word to memory. This may be what Psalm 40:8 means,

I find these arguments quite convincing. They teach us that God wants us to memorize His Word.

Memorizing verses is not only the right thing to do, it’s also one of the most helpful things you can do.

1. It will help you make good decisions. What you ought to do is not always clear. The best way to clarify your decision is to consult God’s Word. But you don’t always have a Bible with you, or the time to study it, yet some choices just can’t wait. If you want to choose wisely, hide God’s Word in your heart.

Not every decision can be made by calling a verse or two to mind. Some require—not memory verses—but godly principles. Yet where do the godly principles come from? From verses in the Bible. The most creative thinkers have been drilled in the basics. If you want to think creatively, know God’s Word by heart.

2. It will help you avoid sin. That’s the meaning of our verse. It was put to good use one day by the Lord Jesus Christ. In the wilderness, He resisted the devil by quoting the Bible. Verses He had memorized helped Him that day. It will do the same for you.
3. It will help you to witness more effectively. If an unsaved man asks you if he should live with his girlfriend, you’d tell him No. But if he followed it up by asking Why, what would you say? You’d say Because God says so. If he then went on to ask, Where does God say that?, what would you say? Uh, let me get back to you on that one? But that night he moved in with his girlfriend and the question is now moot.
4. It will help you occupy "dead time". You sit in traffic every day, you sit in waitng rooms, you stand in line. Why not spend that time going over the Word? You want to, maybe, but if you haven’t memorized it, what will come to mind?
5. It will help you to praise and to thank God. The Bible is full of praise and thanksgiving. When you can’t think of anything to praise God for, quote the last verse in Psalms. When you don’t feel very thankful, recite some verse that shows your gratitude.

People have memorized the Word in various ways. If you go to a Christian book store, you can find tools to help you. If one is no good, try another. Make up your own, if you need to. Technique is helpful, but what you really need is commitment.

First of all, evaluate yourself. Some people respond to a challenge. The bigger the job is, the better they like it. If you’re this way, commit yourself to memorizing a big part of the Bible—Psalm 119, maybe, or John 3 or whole books if you like. It a challenge motivates you, take it.

Other people, though are more easily discouraged. They started a million things, only to fail at them all. Nothing breeds failure like failure! If you’re this way, start out with something small and easy. Start with John 11:35. Work on that for a month or two, and move on to John 3:16. When you’ve got that, go to the Lord’s Prayer or the Twenty Third Psalm. And so on.

Be honest about yourself. Don’t be intimidated by what others are doing. Do what you can do.

Secondly, stay with one Bible version. For 250 years, pretty much every English speaking person in the world read the King James Bible. It was easier to memorize the Bible in those days, because you had the same words in every Bible. Nowadays, though, things have changed. I counted 17 different English Bibles in my study. Now, if I’m trying to memorize Romans 3:23, I better stick with one or the other! Or I’ll never do it.

Thirdly, set regular times to do it. If you read the Bible in the morning, spend some of your time trying to memorize a verse. Stick with it; in a few days you’re almost sure to have it by heart. If you have Family Devotions, that’s an even better time to do it.

Fourthly, use your spare time to go over the verses you’re trying to memorize. Busy people have more spare time than they think. Time spent in the car, in line, between classes, while you’re getting dressed, brushing your teeth, and so on, can be used to memorize God’s Word.

Fifthly, find a partner to help you. Make sure he’s both sympathetic and firm. If he’s a bully, you’ll be mad all the time; if he’s a wimp, you won’t do your homework.

Sixthly, if you fail, don’t waste your time saying what a failure you are, just get back to it.

Lastly, pray to be a better memorizer of God’s Word, I John 5:14.