There is a verse in the book of Psalms 119 that is posted in my 4th and 5th grade Bible class. I have the children memorize it because I believe it is one of the most important verses we read in the Word of God.
It is the 11th verse; and it reads, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee” (KJV). The American Standard Version reads, “Thy word have I laid up in mine heart…”
When I was a child, my Bible school teachers assigned many memory verses, sometimes entire chapters. It never occurred to me that I wouldn’t memorize my verses for class. I remember that my mother use to take great pride in having me recite Psalms 1, Psalms 23, or I Corinthians 13. I once memorized the entire Sermon on the Mount and Acts 2.
Times have changed! Most of the children in our Bible classes don’t want to take the time to memorize Bible verses. I have two girls that have memorized every assignment this year. One of these young ladies has memorized every memory assignment for two years. This amounts to about 110 verses or other memory work.
The Psalmist surely knew something that we have either forgotten or have never known. If we know the Word, we will have a harder time sinning.
He says in verse 12, “Blessed art thou, O Lord: teach me thy statutes”. We certainly can’t learn what God wants us to do unless we learn His Word.
Verse 15 says, “I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways”. Once again, we have to hide God’s Word in our hearts in order to meditate on it. We can’t respect God’s ways if we don’t know what they are.
Do you read your Bible every day? Do you allow God to teach you His statutes? Do you meditate on His laws and respect His ways over the ways of man?
I fear that if we don’t commit God’s Word to memory, the time may come when a large number of people will not know that there is a God. I fear that someone, some group of people, some believers of other gods will come into our world and take away the precious book, The Bible.
What if that happened? Could you tell the stories of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Noah, David, Daniel, Esther, Ruth, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, and Jeremiah? Could you tell the story of Jesus? Could you recount the story of Paul? I hope that all of us can. We are a blest nation, but we are lacking in our knowledge of The Word.
Make it a priority! Read the Bible every day. Commit to memory those verses that teach us the commandments found in the New Testament. Study the stories of the Old Testament, “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope”.
–Sandra Oliver