Psalm 19 v 14 - Memorizing the Bible

I could never do it!

          Do what?

Memorize a whole Psalm from the Bible!

          Yeah that's not so easy,  BUT  you can learn one verse of a Psalm.

Let's look at Psalm 19

Many people think they could never manage to memorize a whole Psalm or a whole chapter of Scripture.

It is a rather daunting challenge especially if you have never learned any scripture before.

So we are not going to tackle all of Psalm 19 here but we will take on verse 14.

So in memorizing this verse we will look at 3 things:

• Memorising Tips
• A Video of Psalm 19 v 14
• Some Freebies to help you.

Before we start let me say that I am using the King James version here for 3 reasons

1.   I like to stick to versions that I know are not paraphrases because I want to concentrate on the Word of God and not adding in other ideas.

2.   I was brought up learning from the KJV as a child and so those verses and passages have remained in my mind and I do not mind the somewhat older type language most of the time.

3.    Often the KJV gives a more poetic feel to the verses and that makes it easier to learn.

• Memorising Tips

If you read the Top 10 Ways to Learn Scripture you will see that I give 10 tips to help in this process but we don't have to use all 10 of them on each verse - just the ones that suit best with the verse.

For Psalm 19 v 14 I'm going to advise using tips 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 10

1.  Read the verse often, every day, multiple times in the day.

This verse (and many of the verses in the Psalms) has a kind of rhythm or flow to it because of course the Psalms were written originally as songs so it is easy to read so if we write it as follows we can feel the rhythm

" Let the words of my mouth, 

and the meditation of my heart,

 be acceptable in thy sight,

 O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer."

2.  Write out the verse several times.

Writing helps us learn anything.

Use the 4 lines as in tip1 above for the reading when you are writing and naturally you will be saying it in your head as well.

7.  Understand the meaning of the verse.

We will never memorize anything properly without having understood the meaning of it and knowing the meaning helps us remember the order of the parts of the verses.

In the verse we have a prayer to God.

The first 3 lines (as written in tip 1 above) are asking God for help to speak, think & behave properly as God would want us to.

Then the last line is acknowledging who God is and that we know He is able to do as we request.

8.  Make it easy to see the verse clearly and regularly each day.

We cannot have our Bible at hand every moment of the day so if you feel you need frequent readings of the verse like pop-up reminders then do the following:

Get a post-it pad and write the verse out clearly on it then tear off the post-it and stick it on

• the mirror you will use first thing each morning and last thing each night
• the front cover of your Bible
• the front cover of the book you are currently reading
• the door of the fridge
• the door of the cupboard where you go to get your favourite mug for that cup of coffee

9.  Make or use Bible Verse Graphics 

The picture of Psalm 19 v 14 near the start of this post is an example of a Bible Verse Graphic.

A picture with the words written on it clearly.

By making these yourself you will learn as you create them.

I post a bible verse graphic every morning on my Facebook Page for Sandra's Ark  so if you want to be encouraged by a verse each day or have a graphic you can Share to your timeline or Save in Facebook then click through to my Facebook Page and be sure to like and follow the page to see those graphics in your feed each day.

or Colouring Pages

While colouring in a Bible Verse Page you will be spending time around the words and this also helps to learn the verse.

or Phone Screensavers / Wallpaper

What better use of your phone - to keep that verse in front of you each time you go to check your messages.

For this you will need it to be a suitable portrait shape and size so most of the normal verse graphics you see will not suit.

I have a few verses made out for screen savers & you can download them from

 My Resource Library

and finally my favourite way but it is not always possible to use this method

10.  Sing it.

It is well known that in singing a song you can easily learn the words of the song.

Fred & I have made several short videos of songs/choruses to help you memorize certain verses and you can watch the one for Psalm 19 v 14 below 

• A Video of Psalm 19 v 14

I've also prepared a playlist of Short Songs to memorize Scripture on YouTube:

  Sandra's Ark Youtube - Bible Memorization

• Some Freebies to help you.

Don't forget that many of my posts on the blog have bible verse graphics and I have some of these available as free downloads in my

RESOURCE  LIBRARY

10 Bible Verses of Encouragement When We Need Comfort

We all need encouragement and the best place to go is to the Bible.

In this blog Post I have tried to gather some Bible passages or Bible verses which will encourage us all when we are in need of comfort

I do believe that we should not just grab a verse and read it on its own but we should always lift our bibles and read a passage of scripture to make sure that we know the real meaning and context of each of the verses we are putting our trust in. 

I pray that you will do the same and only use this list to guide you as to where you may find help.

So here are 10 Bible verses or short passages for us to turn to in times when we are in need of  Comfort

1.   John 14 v 16-17     

The first thing to encourage us in times when we feel broken hearted or that our spirit is broken or those times when we need to be comforted because of feeling that we have lost someone or something, is that Jesus knew from the start that His disciples would need comforting and all of us to come after them would also need comfort in this world.

Jesus told His disciples in advance that He would not leave them comfortless and He means the same for all of us as well.

We find this in John ch. 14 v 16-17

Jesus says He will pray to God the Father to give us another helper or comforter who will be the Hold Spirit, the third person in the trinity.

Jesus knows how we all need to be comforted over aspects of life and so He asks God to give us a permanent helper.

2.   2 Corinthians 1 v 3-4

    

Here are two verses that prove how much God is a comforter to us.

Not just once but five times we have the reminder in this passage of the comfort He gives us.

Not only has He provided comfort for us but He is active in comforting us.

3.   Psalm 23 

This psalm is a Psalm of great comfort to us because if we read it carefully and thoughtfully we will see that the Psalmist is acknowledging how God is with us in everything and takes care of all our needs.

No matter what situation we are in we can take comfort from this Psalm

When we feel we may be in need:

The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
 He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
 He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.

When we feel we may be near death:

 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

When we feel we may be forgotten as people are against us:

 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.

When we feel we may face only hardships in life :

 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;

When we feel we have no future :

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord
Forever.

He comforts us with the greatest future in Him.

You may want to look further into Psalm 23

Here in the series Pondering the Psalms

4.   Psalm 119 v 50    

He gives us comfort to experience through His Word when we face hardships and afflictions of any kind.

We have the Holy Spirit as our helper and comforter and now we see we also have His Word to comfort us.

His Word is Truth.

5.   Psalm 147 v 3

Look at the comfort we can see in this verse.

Not only will God heal our broken hearts but He cares enough to bind up the wounds that we are agonising from.

This always reminds me of the care and comfort given by the Samaritan who stopped and saw to the wounds of the man attacked and left by robbers at the side of the road.  

Our God is greater than a good Samaritan - He tends our wounds giving us comfort as He heals us.

6.   Luke 4 v 18-19

Jesus himself read from the old testament to remind us all of the promise already given 

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,

Because He has anointed Me

To preach the gospel to the poor;

He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,

To proclaim liberty to the captives

And recovery of sight to the blind,

To set at liberty those who are oppressed;

To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” 

and He was the anointed one - He brings us comfort when we are brokenhearted.

7.   Isaiah 49 v 13

Looking to past instances of how God has acted always encourages us that He will act in a similar way again.

31 

Sing, O heavens!

Be joyful, O earth!

And break out in singing, O mountains!

For the Lord has comforted His people,

And will have mercy on His afflicted.

Here we have the proof that He has comforted His people so knowing our God never changes we know He will comfort us again.

8.   Psalm 34 v 18

I love the phrase here in this verse - near to

The Lord understands our hearts and knows how we feel so He will bring comfort and salvation.

9.   Matthew 5 v 4

In the Beatitudes the second blessing is on those who mourn - Jesus cares and He promises comfort.

10.   John 16 v 22

Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.

This comfort was given by Jesus to His disciples even though they did not fully understand at the time that He was going to die and what the future would hold.

We can take comfort in these words of Jesus too and more so because we have all the New Testament to back it up.

We may have sorrow and need comforted but our comfort is in the knowledge that we will one day rejoice with Him.

Top 10 Ways To Learn Scripture. Bible Memorization.

I could never do it!

          Do what?

Memorize Scripture!

          Yes you could.

Many people think they could never manage to memorize one verse of the Bible let alone 4 verses or a whole Psalm.

But it can be done if you really want to do it.

I'm going to Teach you how you can memorize any verse you want to.


When someone asks me which is my favourite Psalm I normally have not trouble in replying because I have always loved Psalm 34 since I was a teenager.

But no I have never tried to memorize the whole Psalm, that would be 22 verses and I'm not sure I would ever have the will power to learn all 22.


There are verses within the Psalm that I have memorized simply because I have liked them and read them so often that I do know them off by heart.


That is my first words of advice to anyone wishing to know how they can memorize any bible verses



1.  Read the verse often, every day, multiple times in the day.


Let's take verse 1 of Psalm 34 as an example.

This verse is easier to memorize than other verses because it is not a long verse and the two parts of the one sentence flow easily together.

Just read it out loud to yourself right now and you will see what I mean.

Yes?

Leave your bible open at the verse and come back often to lift up your bible and simply read the verse a few times.

Come back to it tomorrow and do the same thing throughout the day.

I am sure that you will have memorized that verse in a few days and will be saying it to yourself even as you are reaching for your Bible.

2.  Write out the verse.

It is well-known that writing something out helps us to remember better so use that now to help you memorize the scriptures.

Look at Psalm 34 v 2 

My soul shall make her boast in the Lord:

the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.

Get a notebook and turn to a new page.

Write the verse on two lines - it easily falls into 2 sections so one section to each line.

As you write it read it out loud.

Leave a line and repeat and repeat until you are at the bottom of the page in your notebook.

By now you will have seen the flow of that verse (this is one of the reasons that the Psalms are easier to learn than other passages because it feels like they have a flow to the words, remember they have a rhythm because they were originally songs) and this rhythm or beat will help you as you speak it out.

Think of that verse doesn't it make you feel glad because when others hear of our trust in the Lord they will be glad too - in other words we will have encouraged others.

3.  Feel the excitement of a verse that is an exaltation to praise the Lord.

Psalm 34 v 3  is a good example of this.

The Psalmist David was urging united praise to God in this verse, what better than having the sense of others praising God with you.

If you and I are both praising His Name we are united.

4.  Personal Testimony - Action from you and Result from God.

Psalm 34 v 4 is a great verse to know when sharing your testimony because it is so much a part of our testimonies.

Haven't we all been in this position of being fearful of something and when we take it to God we have proved that He has answered our prayer.

It certainly was part of David's testimony because he wrote this at a time when he had been very afraid for his life.

This is an example of a verse where once you have learned the first part of the verse the second is natural follow-on.

So always think of the meaning of the first part of a verse and in a lot of instances it will help you to remember the second part.

5.  Instruction and the reason why it is good advice.

This time we are going to look at Psalm 34 v 8

When we instruct or teach or tell someone the way to do something  or what is good for someone we normally then give them the explanation of why this is a good instruction or teaching or the result that has been seen in the past.

The instruction or recommendation here is to taste and see that the Lord is good.

The explanation is that we know people have been blessed when they do this. 

So if a verse has an instruction mostly it will also have that reason why it is a good instruction and they go hand in hand so we have another help to memorize.

6.  Question and Answer within a verse.

If you ask a question you expect an answer to that question and in some verses we see that pattern so use it to your advantage when memorizing.

When the first part of the verse poses a question check if the second part answers it and if so then learn it as a question and an answer - it really will help.

I'm going to go to another Psalm here to use 2 very well-known verses to help you see my point.


Psalm 121 v 1 & 2

In verse 1 we have the question

From whence does my help come?

and

 in verse 2 we have the answer.

My help comes from the Lord who made

Heaven and earth.

Logical to have an answer follow a question and hence verse 1 is not complete without verse 2.

Listen to anyone quoting from the start of this Psalm and they never quote verse 1 on it's own.

7.  Understand the meaning of the verse.

Let's Look at Psalm 34 v 1 again 

A verse like this one has only one sentence which is in two parts.

Things are always easier to learn if they are logical or make sense to the learner.

The first part of the verse is a statement

I will bless the Lord at all times:

You say this to yourself even 3 times and you almost have it learnt off by heart.

I say almost here because for the rest of the next hour you will remember it and maybe for the rest of today you will remember it but perhaps you might not be so fluent in it by tomorrow.

But you are on your way to memorizing this verse.

The second part of the verse is another similar statement which is a logical follow-on from the first part

His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

it's a natural follow-on statement because if we want to bless God all the time then we will have to have words of Praise and Adoration and Love for Him coming to our thoughts throughout our waking hours and hence we will be speaking out words that represent that.

By now you know the meaning of the verse and it is always easier to learn a verse when you understand it.

That is not to say that if we do not understand a verse fully we cannot memorize the verse and hopefully we will try to learn verses we don't understand and pray that through the memorizing of the verse God will give us understandng of it.

Also when a verse has the words  AND  or  BUT  in it then we will have two parts of the verse in accordance with each other or in opposition to each other.

So a follow-on coming naturally from the first part,  or two parts in agreement using the AND, or two parts in opposition using the BUT give you clear definition and meaning in a verse and make it easier to learn.

8.  Make it easy to see the verse clearly &  regularly each day.

We cannot have our Bible at hand every moment of the day so if you feel you need frequent readings of the verse like pop-up reminders then do the following:

Get a post-it pad and write the verse out clearly on it then tear off the post-it and stick it on

• the mirror you will use first thing each morning and last thing each night
• the front cover of your Bible
• the front cover of the book you are currently reading
• the door of the fridge
• the door of the cupboard where you go to get your favourite mug for that cup of coffee

Psalm 34 v 1 and 3  (see pics above)  are great ones for the mirror.

9.  Make or Use Bible Verse Graphics

A.  The verses you have seen above are all graphics that I have made and I can tell you that in making the graphics I learn the verses.

In making and working with something we spend (a good deal of) time thinking about the words and especially with the shorter verses we tend to end up learning them. 

So if you want to try your hand at making a graphic or writing the verse and illustrating it then this can help you learn it and you can put it in all the places you could put a post-it note.

I post a bible verse graphic every morning on my Facebook Page for Sandra's Ark  so if you want to be encouraged by a verse each day or have a graphic you can Save in Facebook then click through to my Facebook Page and be sure to like and follow the page to see those graphics in your feed each day.

B. Another way to use a graphic is to set it as wallpaper or lock screen pic on your phone - then you always have it on hand.

For this you will need it to be a suitable portrait shape and size so most of the normal verse graphics you see will not suit.

I have a few verses made out for screen savers & you can download them from

 My Resource Library

And now for the last Way to learn your Bible Verse and I have to say it is my favourite way.

10.  Sing It.

For years we have known that singing is one of the easiest ways to learn and memorize.

When we were teenagers my husband Fred and I learnt a song and loved it and it is one of the ways I have always remembered the start of Psalm 34.

Many others have benefited in memorization from putting words of scripture to music so

if you can find a song based very closely to the scripture passage then use it.

If you want to learn the song I used to memorize the first 4 verses of Psalm 34

 you can hear it in the video below.