Many years ago, in what I consider to be my final turning to Christ without looking back, I understood that Scripture was the lynchpin in this decision. If I believed God, then I had to know what it was He said that I believed. If I would combat those things in my mind that didn’t line up with God’s Word, I had to know His Word in order to fight those battles. And so I dove not only into systematic and consistent Bible reading, I began to memorize Scripture.
Over the course of many years this habit of Scripture memory has ebbed and flowed for various reasons. I had been in a long spell of nothing new committed to memory, mostly because I didn’t feel a burning need to have a specific passage at my fingertips. But just before the first of this year I read Psalm 71 and my first thought was, “I need to memorize that.”
And so I began. And as I progressed through the verses on a daily and weekly basis, I continued to find myself in circumstances that brought this psalm to mind and in which it both calmed and sustained me. I know that Scripture memory in general is a good thing, especially if the verse(s) speaks to your specific struggles. But memorizing passages that the Holy Spirit illuminates and then realizing they are exactly what you need for moments you can’t yet see? That is amazing. And faith-building. And just plain awesome.
So I want to share Psalm 71 with you over the next few weeks though my Sunday Psalm pins. I hope you find it as encouraging as I have.