Several well known verses are in this passage that speaks pretty exclusively on the necessity/benefits of studying, meditating, memorizing the Word of God. I'm sensing a pattern here lately. More on that later.
I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. v11
Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law. v18
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. v105
John Piper has 4 sermons on this chapter and they are all an excellent read.
Thy Word I have Treasured in my Heart
Open My Eyes That I May See
Wonderful Things in Your Law
The Anatomy of Backsliding
It's not just one thing, but two things that keep us from sinning and move us to glorify and enjoy God. It is not just having the word stored. Nor is it is just valuing the word. It is both. Both are crucial. We value the word and therefore we have it stored in our hearts. And the two together give us the power to stand against the temptations to sin. It is a (1) superior treasure, (2) present and active, that conquers sin.
So I believe that the Bible teaches us to memorize scripture the way an ant gathers food in summer: because it is so valuable and will be needed in the winter months. "[The ant] prepares her food in the summer, and gathers her provision in the harvest" (Proverbs 6:8). Memorizing scripture is not a discipline for its own sake. It is because the scriptures are a treasure and will be needed before the day is done to help you escape a sinful attitude and live a life that glorifies God. (from Thy Word commentary above, emphasis mine)
On Tuesday I publicly announced that I was going to get more serious about memorizing scripture and that I was going to start by memorizing Psalm 1 this week. Guess what one of the scripture passages was that Piper referred to in his sermon? Yup, Psalm 1. Guess who has not finished memorizing Psalm 1 yet? Yup, me. I've only memorized verse 1 so far. Good thing the week's not over yet.
But I have been working on memorization with the girls this week - which means I've been memorizing too.
We had gone through several stories in My ABC Bible Verses book (highly recommended, btw!) which has one verse for every letter in the alphabet, along with an explanation of the verse and a story to go along with it. Because, obviously, memorizing scripture you don't understand is not as helpful as when you do understand it and know how to apply it. It also has a suggested prayer (which of course you can change) asking God to help us apply the Word we've hidden in our hearts to our lives.
Anyway, I decided to start the book over again. We are doing approximately 3 stories/verses per week and then using the remaining days to review the verses.
So, this week we learned....
A gentle answer turns away wrath. Proverbs 15:1
Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called sons of God. Matthew 5:9
Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Colossians 3:20
And yes, I was able to type those out without looking them up. I know you can't see me, but you'll have to take my word for it! :)
Thankfully, as you can see, these are also very applicable verses for children to be memorizing and we have referred to them several times per day, which, of course, aids in not only the memorization aspect, but also in teaching them how applicable the Word truly is to our daily lives.
As Piper stresses in his Open My Eyes sermon, we need to pray and ask God to open our eyes to His Word in order to truly learn how wonderful it is. Without prayer we may understand some of it in a superficial sense, but we will never go beyond that and delve into the riches of the text's meaning without supernatural eyesight.
Piper refers to seven things this Psalm tells us to pray for: that God Himself would teach us His Word, that He would not hide His word from us, that He would help us understand His Word, that He would incline our hearts to His Word, that God would give us life and energy to keep His Word, that He would establish His Word in our lives/hearts, and that He would seek us when we go astray.
In his Wonderful Things sermon, he adds that God opens our eyes to the glory of God, to the beauty of Christ, when we look at the Word. So we need to pray AND....
We need to pray AND read the Word, pray AND study the Word, pray AND ransack the Word (seek with all your heart), pray AND think, pray AND speak. But all of those - read, study, ransack, think, speak - must be done WITH prayer, or it will be in vain.
Tomorrow's passage: Psalm 120, 121, 123, 125, 126
4 comments:
Sounds like the Spirit has been nudging us in the same area. I've been getting that nudge for quite some time now, but this time I've actually set out to do something about ~ and am actually getting somewhere!!
I wasn't sure if I was going to say it 'out loud' or not, but maybe this way I'll keep at it ~ if you ask me how it's going from time to time.
(deep breath...)
MygoalistohavePsalm119memorizedbyChristmas. There. I said it.
That means one 8-verse section per week and leaves about two weeks either for reviewing and solidifying at the end or just extra time for parts that end up taking longer than just 7 days. I started last Thursday and have the first 6 verses down pat. Haha, only another 170 to go!!!
(OUCH!!! Just finished listening to that first Piper sermon. Found this statement particularly painful:
"I have never known a strong Christian who did not have much scripture memorized. There is a reason for this. God designed faith to feed on the promises of Scripture all day long. Faith depends for its life on steady access to precious Biblical truth."
Guess I'm not quite the warrior I thought I was. I've been humbled today.)
Wow - Psalm 119?!! When you go for it, you really go for it don't you?! I'll definitely remember to ask you about it from time to time.
Yeah - I found that exact quote pretty convicting - surprised I forgot to add it into my post, I was planning to. Good thing you did it for me! :)
I know, nothing like starting small, eh?! I skimmed through all the Psalms and NT epistles trying to pick something satisfactory to start with, but I kept coming back to Ps 119 because it so specifically deals with committing ourselves whole-heartedly to getting to know God better through His Word ~ loving it, meditating on it, studying it, committing it to memory, relying on it, teaching with it, learning with it, and being able to call on it at any time because it's always there, even when our Bibles might not be close by.
It really astounds me to think that the only Bible most people had in NT times was a memorized Pentateuch!! Can you imagine?! I want to love God's Word like my kids love their books and movies ~ tirelessly watching and re-watching, or reading and re-reading, until they can basically recite the entire thing.
I love how Piper said he doesn't remember his mom reading any other book than her Bible and while I desire to read (and watch) other things, I'm hoping my kids will be able to tell that my Bible is by far the most important media I consume and obviously what I turn to most.
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