“I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You.” ~Psalm 119:11
This verse is written on a rectangular piece of yellow construction paper that I use to mark the place of whatever Scripture I am memorizing at the time. My lifelong goal is to memorize the entire book of Psalms (I know I’m crazy), and I recently decided to tackle Psalm 119 this summer…the very Psalm from which my “bookmark verse” comes.
With this crazy goal of mine, sometimes I wonder if it is even possible. I fear that with each Psalm I memorize, I will lose one that I have already memorized. Memorization is more that something you can just mark off a list and be done with. Really, it is more than memorization – it is meditation and reflection.
Though verse 11 talks about “hiding” or “storing up” God’s word in our hearts, verse 15 of Psalm 119 says, “I will meditate on Your precepts and fix my eyes on Your ways.” This afternoon as I thought about what this verse really means, I realized that what I’m doing is much more than just rote memorization. Having such an extravagant goal as memorizing an entire book of Scripture sometimes leads to viewing this as a task I want to accomplish just to say I’ve done it. Someday I do hope to be able to “quote the Psalms”…but it is more than that. It’s about the journey – about saturating my life with the truth of the Lord, that it may be reflected in the way I speak, act, and live. It’s about knowing the Lord so well that I begin to look like Him.
“Oh, that my ways may be steadfast in keeping Your statutes! Then I shall not be put to shame, having my eyes fixed on all Your commandments.” (vs. 5-6) “With my lips I declare all the rules of Your mouth.” (vs. 13)