Theopolitan Bible Memorization
BINDING THE WORD TO YOUR HEART
Memorization has been an important tool for humanity since the beginning. In an age where smart phones are ubiquitous, memorization appears outdated. Why memorize anything that could be looked up on a phone in seconds? This new technology leaves many unable to memorize, partially from a lack of desire and partially from a lack of practice. But the scriptures speak highly of memorization because memorization does much more for the person than simply enable a quick recall of information.
Living Temples
To understand the importance of memorization, I must first turn to what may appear to be an unrelated topic, the Temple. The Temple of the Old Covenant was broken down into three sections: the outer court, the holy place, and the holy of holies. The outer court held the bronze altar and wash basin, the holy place held the showbread, candle stand, and incense altar, and the holy of holies held the arc of the covenant. For my purposes, the holy of holies is the most important section; in the arc of the covenant there are key items from Israel’s history: Aaron’s staff, pieces of manna, and a copy of the Ten Words (Commandments). Inside the most important piece of Temple furniture, which resides in the central room of the Temple, sits the Ten Words.
Why is this important? It matters because the Temple, in addition to all the other purposes it served, is a model for the human person. We can learn true things about ourselves from the Temple because we are living temples, not just symbolically, but true temples of Yahweh. Let me explain. Paul, in 1 Corinthians, very clearly says,
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?” (1 Corinthians 6.19)
Paul’s whole theology of the body is built upon the fact that we are temples of the Holy Spirit. He gives his advice upon this assumption. Furthermore, in 2 Corinthians, Paul connects the human heart to the tablets of stone that the Ten Words were written on. Paul’s anthropology is templine in nature.
What, then, does this mean? If we are temples and our hearts are tablets of stone, what does this mean for memorization? The temple structure corresponds to the body of a person and the tablets to the heart. The tablets of the Temple are at its core and center, just as our hearts are at the core and center of who we are. This correspondence establishes a new way to think about the scriptures’ instruction on the practice of memorization.
Bind These Words on Your Heart
In the Old Testament, Moses, David, and Solomon all exhort the same lesson to Israel: lay up, bind, store, these words on your heart. (See Deuteronomy 11.18, Psalm 37.31, 119.11, Proverbs 6.21 3 Psalm 37.30-31) These great leaders of Israel all had the same idea, if you want to live a life faithful to Yahweh then you must not simply read God’s word, but truly know it. And each understood that simply having the Bible “at hand” was not enough, it had to be inside of you. And the way to bring the word of God into the person was through memorization. When the scriptures are stored up in your heart you have them in you, whether you are thinking about them or not. They become a conscious and even subconscious reminder.
When the word of God is bound to your heart it becomes the core of who you are and the well by which a person thinks and speaks. David, in Psalm 37, says,
The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks justice.
The law of his God is in his heart; his steps do not slip (Psalm 37.30-31).
When the word of God is not merely in a book nearby, but so deeply steeped in you that you know it by heart, it becomes the source of your action and life. Moses and David and Solomon exhort Israel to bind the word of God to their heart because memorization of the Bible builds a foundation for the way a person lives.
This language of binding words to the heart gains new meaning when imagined through the lens of a temple anthropology. Our hearts are tablets that were made to be written on. They are tablets that will be written on. The catch to the tablet nature of our heart is that it will not stay blank. By the very nature of our design we are meant to have our hearts carved, carved with words. The exhortation to bind the word of God onto your heart is an exhortation to engrave the words of God on the tablet of your heart. We memorize the scriptures so that our hearts will be guarded and formed (think of the words that were engraved on the stone) by every word of God.
Think of Jesus’ teaching about defilement in light of the imagery of binding God’s word to the heart. Jesus, teaching his disciples, said, “But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander” (Mt 15:1-19). Jesus explains that the speech, thoughts, and actions of a person come from the heart. In this case, Jesus highlights the wickedness that can come from the heart, but the opposite is true too. The heart can also be the source of faith, hope, love, shalom. The heart is the well that fuels the word and deed of man. Thus if the heart is filled with truth, goodness, and beauty then it will overflow with truth, goodness, and beauty. If the scriptures are bound, laid up, and stored in the heart of man then it will be the scriptures that flow out of him.
If Paul’s teaching is true, which it is, and we are temples of God, and our hearts are tablets, then memorization of God’s word is foundational to the guarding of my heart. And if Jesus’s teaching is true, which it is, then the memorization of the scriptures is key to living a life that pours out love. Memorization becomes the tool by which we steep our hearts in truth.
The Fruit of Memorization
The memorization of scripture is powerful in shaping the core of the human person, but that is not all it does. Memorization is powerful in shaping the person in two more ways. First of all, memorizing scripture, or as David says, binding God’s word to your heart, is important because the word is living and active. The word of God is living and active because it is Yahweh’s word. Yahweh’s words do not simply describe or communicate, they are power; Yahweh’s words change things.
The church is exhorted to store up God’s living and active word in our hearts. God’s mighty word has the power to convict, reveal, and change the human heart. The church should practice memorization because it stores up the Lord’s living word in the tablet of our souls, the heart, which has the power to transform us from the inside out.
Second, it is important to memorize the scriptures because the word of God is a guide to man. The psalmist in Psalm 119 says,
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. (Psalm 119:105)
Yahweh’s word functions as a guide to humanity in two ways. (1) It reveals to mankind how to live. The scriptures describe and train humanity in the good life; that is, how to live in such a way that leads to human flourishing. (2) Just as lamps do, scripture exposes the darkness. The word works as a light that reveals our own sin and brokenness, that we might overcome the sin and find healing.
When Yahweh’s word is stored up in our hearts we are able to be led by this light, moment by moment. As the church, we should memorize the scriptures so that we will always have the light that reveals paths of the good life and exposes our sins, deep in our hearts. When we memorize the scriptures we will be ever more ready to live rightly and to repent when we fail.
Memorization Techniques
Memorization of the scriptures is of the utmost importance, but many people may find the actual act of memorization difficult. In this final section, I give a few tips on how to memorize written text in a lasting and powerful way.
- First and foremost, memorization is difficult; there is no easy way to memorize. The first thing to remember is that memorization takes time.
- Writing out the passage you want to memorize is helpful. Give yourself a daily quota and write out the verse that many times. The physical movements of writing will help ingrain the information.
- When you practice your verses, say them out loud. Saying them out loud forces you to hear them and form the words with your mouth. Both of which help with retention.
- Create a simple tune or rhythm to say the verse to. Hand signs/gestures that go with the words can also help.
- There are also more advanced memory techniques. One of the more helpful ones is the memory palace. This is a mental technique in which you imagine a physical place that holds all the information that you want to remember. The mental exercise creates a series of images that help anchor the words you want to remember. The link HERE gives a detailed explanation on how to use this technique.