The Value of Memorizing

Friday morning worship service gave us many rewards.  The first was worship itself, of course.  The second was the idea of reading one book of the Bible and reading a bit of it each morning, every morning, for a whole year (see this post for more on this idea).  We read the first verse of hymn 269 in the green hymnal, "Awake, my Soul, and with the Sun," and then we sang the first verse.  I wasn't familiar with the hymn, which is beautiful with or without music.

Our worship leader, also the director of the certificate program, suggested that we spend some time memorizing.  Sure, we can access anything on our phone, if we have those types of phones.  But memorizing makes a verse our own, in a way that's different.

We looked at Psalm 103, and read it several times.  The last time, we were asked to choose a verse that spoke to us and memorize it.  Verse 5 leapt out at me:

"who satisfies you with good as long as you live[a]
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s"

I read it a few times and thought I had memorized it.  Later, when I returned to it, it seemed unfamiliar to me.  Clearly I had work to do.

We returned to this Psalm throughout the day.  In our small group, we talked about the verse that appealed to us.  It was a vigorous discussion.

As I thought about the verse again, I was intrigued by how often the eagle imagery appears.  My mind goes immediately to Isaiah 40: 31: 

"but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not faint."

Every time I hear these words, I also hear the U2 song from the album War.  The album was released back in 1982, but I can still hear Bono singing "40."

I should figure out a way to set Psalm 103:5 to music.  Then I might still remember it 40 years from now.