Psalm 1

1 Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

I've been thinking about this recently. You know, for many Christians it is enough to do the first verse. To not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers. And these are important things. I'm not denying that - indeed, I wish more Christians would actually apply verse one of this Psalm.

But it isn't ENOUGH. We need to be meditating on the law of the LORD, day and night! Staying away from immorality is not enough, like Sodom did with Lot, it will draw us closer, bit by bit, until we are immersed in it, even if still repulsed by it.

No, we need to have God's word in our mind, contantly reminding us of His ways, so that we may not sin against God (I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you - psalm 119:11). That is what will keep us from being drawn into the counsel of the wicked.

The thing is, memorising Scripture is not easy. Especially if you want more than a verse here and there, but want passages, chapters, even whole books of the Bible to be in your heart.

It's something I'm working on. I don't have the level of passages memorised that I would like. Here are some ways that I use that help me.

1. Music
This is one of the easiest ways. Choose a passage and either find a song for it or make one up yourself. The main problem with this is that many Scripture songs are either very tacky or annoying (so you don't WANT to be meditating on them day and night) or they only have an isolated verse or two in them. Which if you want to be memorising passages is not great.
One group I like is Sons of Korah. They set entire psalms to music - pretty much word for word, usually NIV version - which is beautiful to listen to!

2. Write it out and Just Do It!
The other method I'm using sucessfully at the moment is to write out a passage on a piece of card and carry it around with me. Writing it out helps me to remember it a bit better. I then am able to look at it throughout the day. At the moment I spend two hours of my work day putting children to sleep - and this means I have time to bring out the card and read over it, slowly commiting it to memory. On one good day I memorised all of Psalm 1! Yay!

So, are you meditiating on the law of the LORD day and night? Do you even have enough Scripture memorised to be able to?