One special evening many years ago a small group of family members began sharing memorized passages from their school days.
I don’t remember the quotes of the others, but I recall the warm emotion that stays with me of that charmed evening as we reached back and brought the past into our memories. A couple that I recall quoting are Wordsworth’s poem Daffodils, ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud..’, and Sir Walter Scott’s, ‘Breathes there a man with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land...’
Recently I’ve felt the urge to memorize again, this time to memorize more Scripture. As a child around the breakfast table we often quoted Psalm 1 as a family, ‘Blessed is the man...’. Psalm 23 and The Lord’s Prayer were similarly imprinted upon my memory. Through subsequent years of Bible study I have memorized many more Scriptures. These are a great comfort when I awake in the night and at times of stress. Sleeplessness can be a blest time by recalling passages of holy writ.
Through memorization and meditation upon the word of God we can rejoice with Jeremiah who said, “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts.” (Jeremiah 15:16)
One incentive, among many, to rely on Scripture is Psalm 119:130, “The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.” The world is not getting to be a friendlier place, so we desperately need the anchor to our souls that the word of God alone supplies.
Picture originally found here
