Bible Memorization
Discipleship Lesson 5
Joshua 1:8: This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
The Command to Memorize the Bible
The Bible should be your everything: your wisdom (Deuteronomy 4:6; Colossians 2:3), your righteousness (Deuteronomy 6:25), and your very life (Deuteronomy 32:47). Godly people value their life only insomuch as it is lived in Christ (see Acts 15:26; 20:24; see also Galatians 2:20), because Christ “is our life” (Colossians 3:4)—“for me to live is Christ” (Philippians 1:21). We should desire to become closer to and more like our Lord every day, thinking his thoughts and doing his work, caring about what he cares about and experiencing what he feels.
As Christians who know the Bible, “we have the mind of Christ” (I Corinthians 2:16), and we should be strongly connected to our Lord, in word and in deed. There is probably no better way to become like Christ than by letting his word “dwell in you richly in all wisdom” (Colossians 3:16). The blessed man is one who does not spend his time with wicked people or in wicked behaviors (see Psalm 1:1-2), but rather, with all of his heart and at all times, cries out, “Sir, we would see Jesus” (see John 12:21).
Psalm 40:8: I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.
Ezekiel 3:10 (cf. James 1:22-25): Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, all my words that I shall speak unto thee receive in thine heart, and hear with thine ears.
All of the moments we experience on this earth are blessings from God. Every cascading second of our time is graciously given to us by God (Job 12:10; Acts 17:25), and by him is our soul held in life (Psalm 66:9), so we ought to glorify the God in whose hand our breath is, always (Daniel 5:23; see also Psalm 31:15). The arrow of time advances ceaselessly forward, and time and tide tarry for no man. “What is your life?” James asks; “it is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” (James 4:14). Our days are “swifter than a post” (Job 9:25), “like a shadow that declineth” (Psalm 102:11), and “swifter than a weaver’s shuttle” (Job 7:9). He is unwise, then, and chief among the fools, who does not use his “talent” of time (see Matthew 25:14-30) for spiritual advancement, but instead wastes it away in sinful pursuits (see I Peter 4:3) or slothful idleness (see Proverbs 19:15; Ecclesiastes 10:18).
Psalm 90:12, 17: So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. . . .17 And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.
There are many activities which we do that don’t require much thought, and therefore we should use our mind in those times to memorize scripture. Whenever you travel, or are waiting, cleaning, cooking, eating, and so on, always utilize that time to be memorizing the Bible. Do not let your mind wander aimlessly, but rather “gird up the loins of your mind” (I Peter 1:13) and direct your thoughts heavenward through Bible memorization, “all the day” (Psalm 119:97). God commands us, “lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul” (Deuteronomy 11:18).
Deuteronomy 6:6-7: And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
Ephesians 5:15-16: See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
The Benefits of Bible Memorization
1) Memorizing the Bible will occupy your idle time with good things
God cares deeply about us, knowing every detail of our lives (Matthew 10:30). Therefore, because God continually thinks on us (see Psalm 139:1-4, 17-18), we should make it our goal to know everything we can about him and to continually think about him: “My meditation of him shall be sweet…” (Psalm 104:34); “…I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the works of thy hands” (Psalm 143:5). Instead of living like an animal, minded only about your carnal desires (see Matthew 6:32), or living like unbelievers, who walk “in the vanity of their mind,” “alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them” (see Ephesians 4:17-18), be one whose thoughts are always about spiritual, profitable things. “I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love” (Psalm 119:113).
Philippians 4:8: Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
God desires that our thought-life be pure and godly (Psalm 19:14). Sin is, first and foremost, a heart problem (Matthew 15:18-19; Romans 2:5), because sin has a progression which begins in the heart of man (see James 1:14-15). He who guards his heart from sinful and impure ideas, therefore, guards his life (see Proverbs 4:23). God says, “I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them” (Ezekiel 11:5). God’s thoughts are higher and better than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:7-9). By habitually memorizing the Bible, you will ensure that all of your thinking is righteous and godly, pleasant in God’s sight, and you will be “transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2).
Psalm 94:11: The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.
2) Memorizing the Bible will help you to better understand the Bible
Reading the Bible is important, but memorizing the Bible gives a deeper level of wisdom and understanding than just plain reading (see Psalm 49:3). We should do both, of course, but many of the Biblical “treasures of darkness” and “hidden riches of secret places” (see Isaiah 45:3) are inscrutable by a casual reading, and require prolonged, intense cogitation, which is practically afforded through Bible memorization. By going over a Bible verse or passage hundreds to thousands of times over many months, you will learn many things you would not otherwise have.
Psalm 119:99: I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation.
3) Memorizing the Bible will give you strength, especially against sin
God’s word is living and powerful (Hebrews 4:12). Memorizing it will fortify and strengthen you as a believer (Psalm 37:31; I John 2:14): “his truth shall be thy shield and buckler” (Psalm 91:4). When Jesus was tempted of the devil (Matthew 4:1-11; see also Luke 4:1-13), he quoted the scripture from memory in each temptation as a defense against sin (cf. with Deuteronomy 8:3; 6:16; 6:13). We, too, can memorize scripture for this same purpose, taking “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:17) to combat with temptations and cope in trials.
Psalm 119:11: Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
How to Memorize the Bible
The Mindset
To effectively memorize the Bible, you must be persuaded that it is the worthiest thing to spend your time thinking about. When you have a deep, abiding affection for something, you cannot help but ponder over it all day. “Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all” (I Timothy 4:15). We must genuinely love God our Savior (II Thessalonians 3:5) and his precepts (see Psalm 119:47), and always think about, and look forward to thinking about, him (see Psalm 119:147-148). As a thirsty man in a dry land abundantly craves water, so must our soul be desirous toward the Bible (see Psalm 42:1-2; 143:6).
Psalm 119:20: My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times.
Psalm 119:131: I opened my mouth, and panted: for I longed for thy commandments.
The Method
The most effective method to memorize the Bible is the rote-repetition method. There are other ways to commit scripture to memory (e.g., through song, through familiarity, etc.), but we must have a method by which we can systematically and efficiently memorize anything in the Bible. This method, therefore, works for single verses, passages, and also complete Bible chapters/books. One should first memorize all significant gospel-related verses, and then proceed to memorize entire chapters/books. There are three steps:
- Step 1 – Preparation: Write the Bible verses that you will be memorizing on index/flash cards. As a beginner, only use one card for each verse. Make sure you very accurately copy the text of the KJV verse onto the card, and double-check it for any error. These cards are a kind-of “training wheels,” and will be necessary (as physical, visual aids often are) to begin to teach one diligence and productivity.
- Step 2 – Repetition: Carry the cards with you everywhere. When you come to a new verse to memorize, mentally break the verse down into small word clusters (i.e., a small group of words which form a unit that is easy to repeat, between 3-8 words). Repeat each word cluster about 100 times without looking at it. Do all the word clusters (repeated approximately 100 times each) until you finish an entire verse. Combine all the clusters as you go. Finally, repeat the entire verse and citation—from memory—several times. If done correctly, you should at this point have a Bible verse in your short-term memory. This process will take anywhere between 3-30 minutes per verse, depending on (a) your mind’s strength in memory, (b) your focus, and (c) the length/complexity of the verse being memorized.
- Step 3 – Retention: Whatever verses you memorize, quote them from memory shortly before you go to sleep that day. To put a Bible verse/passage/chapter into your long-term memory, it will be necessary to put each verse you memorize into a spaced-repetition quotation schedule. A practical schedule to follow would be that you quote each verse you memorize once a day for a week, and then once a week for a month, and then once a month for a year. This is easier to implement for entire chapters than for individual verses.
Be committed to memorizing at least one Bible verse per day. Although OT verses are generally longer than NT verses, there are a total of 31,102 verses in the Bible, approximately 8,000 of which are of the NT. It really is possible, then, to become a walking Bible. Therefore, “lay up his words in thine heart” (Job 22:22).