Different Lines to Memorize

God’s timing is so funny. So perfect.

After hearing a John Piper sermon about the importance of memorizing Scripture, I printed out a list of recommended verses and passages to memorize. I didn’t really scrutinize the choices its author made because, hey, it’s the Bible, and it’s all worth memorizing.

But the timing was perfect because I had just memorized Psalm 1 and needed to hear its words at those auditions last night:

“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night” (verse 1).

I do not wish to judge the others participating in the auditions, but I knew that the script was sinful and—through the power of God’s Word—was able to walk away.

How fitting then that next on my list is Psalm 19. Here’s a passage (19:9b-10) that is relevant to my no-play blues:

“[T]he rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.”

If God’s rules are to be desired more than gold, then they are definitely to be more desired than a role in a somewhat trashy local play. So far, I find that to be true: I would rather hide God’s Word in my heart than do other things that I used to find more enjoyable, or at least easier.

I would encourage you, my reader, to begin memorizing Scripture. Choose verses you love, verses that challenge you, or verses that someone else has already compiled. The means doesn’t matter so much as the end: when God’s Word is stored in your mind, it is always with you, even when temptation or unpleasantness lurks.