Hiding the Scriptures in your heart is a command of our Lord. I’ve been trying to memorize the Psalms and use a method which may work well for you as well.

For Bible Memory I have pictures in my head and I place them  in certain rooms in which the Chapter in the Bible resides. For instance:

Bible Memory of Psalm 1 is in my bathroom. It begins at the Bathroom Door. I picture myself  knocking  on the door going into the bathroom and on it I picture a rifle. What do rifles do? They BLAST… which sounds like Blessed.  So… I begin my Bible Memory with " Blessed   is the man that walketh not in the

counsel of the ungodly,"

I then picture a man walking.. and what does he do next?  he  STANDS… so I memorize,  "Nor Standeth in the Way of sinnners."  What next? I think about what do you do after you walk and stand? Well, I  SIT… "nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful."

 

You see…I don’t ALWAYS have a picture for each word… but have a basic outline to remember the rest of the verse.

So far we have our rifle on the door… and the man walking over to the shower… (we’re not yet at the shower) and he walks…stands…sits…

VERSE 2: I now proceed, in my mind, to my shower: In the shower there are the two tables of the law… Do you see them?  In front of the two tables of the law is a flashlight.  Anytime I use a flashlight I know to use the word "delight". So, I have my two pictures to continue my Bible Memory!

 

" For his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates both day and night." 

(If anyone asks me how I "meditate" my answer is on God’s Law, as our Lord commanded.)

If you need more pictures here, put them in. My pictures may not work for you. My husband’s pictures certainly don’t work for me! Write the pictures down in the back of your Bible and use them over and over in Bible Memory.  Try to make the pictures bold and easy to remember. The Stranger the Better. Picturing a LION for the word Proud. Picture an Arrow when you need an Arrow. My picture for Cry is my mother. There is a true story that when my father went to the Korean War in the 50s, they had just been married. She and my father, ( i was not yet born…nor conceived)  went to the train station with my dad’s sister and family. The family said goodbye to him, and my mother and father walked alone down the steps, around the corner to the train so they could say goodbye. Quite a bit of time went on and my aunt, my dad’s sister, decided to go see what had happened to my mom. They found her, huddled in a corner…sobbing uncontrollably. She had said her goodbye and was overwhelmed with grief. She, therefore, is my picture for cry. It can also be used for grief, but cry is used more in my Bible Memory than grief.  You can generally differenciate when you need to.

Now, on with our Memorizing of Psalm 1.

VERSE 3:  I have a window in my bathroom which works out well for this Psalm. There are trees outside of my window, so I take advantage of that.  "He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water," You guessed it.. a pretty picture, that tree by a

stream…right outside my window  (it happens to be  a peach tree in my mind) "and bears its fruit in its season,  his leaf also shall not whither"   ( still working my tree in my mind)

 

"and whatever he does he prospers"  ..For me, the picture for prosper gets the golden egg. A picture that may work better could be a prop in a play you once saw. Make it a SILLY prop, or a HUGE prop… for it will be like proper…but you’ll know in everything he does he props? no… He Prospers!

VERSE 4: Is on the back of my toilet… where I have a wicket gate … you know, like the one in Pilgrim’s Progress. So …
"the Wicked are not so, but are like the chaff that the wind drives away." There I picture on the back of my toilet a roll of toilet paper, which I knock off in my head. with a staff… therefore I think staff..chaff… .. and think of Chaff that the wind drives away.

VERSE 5: For the word therefore… i have three dots in the shape of a triangle…So i simply see that triangle lying on my vanity, but not a triangle… just three dots that make a triangle… because Triangle is my picture for Triumph…which we don’t happen to need in this Psalm, but keeping the same pictures for each memory verse is very helpful..or you’ll get lost in your pictures.

 

"Therefore the"…there’s that wicket gate again…"wicked shall not Stand in the Judgment" ( I have my  picture of the man, the picture I use for stand. He is getting clobbered on the head with a judge’s gavel. Gavel is the picture I use for judgment. )

 

 

"nor sinners in the congregation  of the Righteous".

 

( for that last part… I have a bunch of cinders in a church where there is a huge WINE GOBLET…

like the one on Indiana Jones… you rembmer… "he chose wisely!" I find a WINE GOBLET to be the Perfect Picture for RIghteousness. I use it ALL THE TIME in Bible Memory.

VERST 6: Jump in my tub for the last verse, where you’ll find 10 Lord’s a Leaping… (No I am not being sacriligious. This is helpful for memory! The more preposterous the picture…the more likely you are to remember it! ) so you have

 

"For the Lord knows the way of the Righteous"… ( these Lords are dancing around a HUGE WINE GOBLET…"but the way of the wicked will perish… (here I have the wicket gate in my tub…  and the wicked dying…perish. 

You’ll notice the Psalm in King James does not say Wicket, but ungodly. I sometimes allow myself that much liberty. You’ll know when you can or can’t do that. I have yet to find a good picture for ungodly.

Bible Memory is quite a discipline. . It has become  my devotion time everyday. I find that if my pictures are not strong enough…or crazy enough, that I cannot recall the Psalm well in a  month or two.

If you have a particular Psalm you are working on, and are struggling, let me know. I’ll do my best to help! 

Psalm 1

¹Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

 ²But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

 ³And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

 ⁴The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

 ⁵Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

 ⁶For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

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