Top 6 Bible Verses About Scripture Memorization

Here are six great Bible verses about memorizing Scripture.

Psalm 119:111 “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”

This might be the single greatest Bible verse in Scripture that tells us the reason we are to hid God’s Word in our hearts, which can be thought of as memorizing Scripture. The psalmist says that he stored up God’s Word in his heart in order that “I might not sin against” God. That’s a key verse because it tells us why we memorize Scripture. The purpose of recalling Scripture from memory is that it can help us avoid sin and that’s always a huge positive.

John 14:26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”

Before Jesus was to go to Calvary to suffer and die for our sins, He promised the disciples that He would send a Helper; the Helper being the Holy Spirit Himself. The disciples were anxious over Jesus’ coming departure to return to the Father so Jesus promised the Helper Who would help to bring to their minds all things that He had taught them. Today, He is still doing that with believers. No wonder the psalmist wrote “I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word” (Psalm 119:16).

Joshua 1:8 “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”

Joshua chapter 1 is one of the most encouraging chapters in the Bible because just after Moses had passed, God reassures Joshua that He would be with Joshua just as He had been with Moses and because of this, God will make his “way prosperous” and that would lead to “good success” but the very important factor in that success is that Joshua “meditate on [God’s Law] day and night.” If he mediates on God’s Law them he can be more “careful to do according to all that is written in it.” If you mediate on the God’s Law, you will be more careful to walk in it, thus, if the “The law of his God is in his heart; his steps do not slip” (Psalm 37:31).

Deuteronomy 11:18 “You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.”

I really like the wording in this verse because it shows that we can lay up God’s Word in our heart and in our soul and that they should be like a frontlet “between your eyes” and “bind them as a sign on your hand” which could mean that God’s words are internalized (“between your eyes”) and can be bound “as a sign on your hand” just as you have a Bible in your hand. The psalmist asks a question but quickly gives the answer, “How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word” (Psalm 119:9).

John 16:13 “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.”

Here again is Jesus reminding the disciples before His death and departure back to the Father that the “Spirit of truth” will come and He “will guide you into all truth.” The “Spirit of truth” is clearly the Holy Spirit and we know this because the Spirit always points to Christ and seeks to glorify Him and “he will declare to you the things that are to come” and if you read the Book of Acts, that’s exactly what happened, beginning with the Day of Pentecost when God’s Spirit was poured out on the church.

Proverbs 6:21-22 “Bind them on your heart always; tie them around your neck. When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you.”

When Solomon wrote that we are to bind God’s words on our hearts, “always,” he was saying that wherever we go, they will lead us, when we go to be, they’ll be watching over us and when we wake up in the morning, they will speak to you. Don’t miss that conversation with God that’s found in the Word of God. The Apostle Paul writes in Colossians 3:16 to “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

Conclusion

God reminded Israel that “these words that I command you today shall be on your heart” (Deut 6:6) and so we should “meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways” (Psalm 119:15) and a great way to do that is to “Bind them on your heart always; tie them around your neck. When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you” (Prov 4:20-21) and just as Jesus told Satan in the temptation in the wilderness, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt 4:4). Can you say as Job did, “I have not departed from the commandment of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food” (Job 23:12)? I hope you can.

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.