I found this website today when I was looking for music by Sons of Korah… It’s a very awesome site, and has free downloads of some songs by artists who base their music on scripture! http://www.scripturemusic.com/mp3.htm Have fun!
Psalm 119: 11-12 Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You. Blessed [are] You, O LORD! Teach me Your statutes. Part 1 The first part of this verse is a verse I hear all the time. It’s one children learn when they’re in kindergarten. Today it means to memorize a verse out of the Bible, but when it was written thousands of years ago there weren’t many written copies of Torah floating around. Each king was required to write out a copy of Torah, partly so that they would have their own copy (remember, no printing presses) and partly because when I write things down I tend to remember them better. The western world today is both blessed and cursed by our printed words. It’s awesome to be able to look up things in the Bible at the drop of a hat. I need to know something, and I have instant access via my phone, or via my printed Bible (usually there’s more than one running around). But the down side is that we don’t memorize anything anymore. When I was in school I used to have to memorize things like poems and little sayings and rhymes to help me remember things, like prepositions or states (remember those?). With the advent of the Internet, I don’t make my students memorize anything because they can just “google it.” Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the Internet, but we’ve definitely lost something valuable since we’ve stopped having to memorize things. Anyway, Biblically, Torah was transmitted from person to person through speaking. Rabbis learned by listening to and copying the lives of their Rabbis. In Torah school students memorized Torah by reading it. And every week Torah was read in the synagogues. Each holiday celebrated Torah. And temple sacrifices kept Torah at the forefront. At least, that’s how it was when it was done correctly. The point is that people wrote it in their hearts by hearing it out loud. By speaking it. By living it. And because Torah was something they did (instead of just another fact crammed into their head), it was something they lived and breathed, hiding in their hearts for quick and easy access was a way of life. Part 2 The second part of the verse asks YHWH to teach me Your statutes. The word for teach means to train/instruct/exercise in. It’s not about learning facts and storing them up in my mind. It’s about practicing them in my life. It’s about doing them. They’re exercises for my life. Sometimes they’re easy, and sometimes they require discipline (both mental and physical). Both of these verses hit home for me. I keep saying that I will memorize scripture, but I’m so bad at it that I don’t know where to start or even the best method to start with, nor do I know particularly what to memorize. And training is hard. It’s tiring. A part of me feels like I’ve been in training for so long and the race is even longer. But, for whatever reason God has brought me to this point and brought me to this place, where I’ve learned more about Him and His people than I ever thought there was to know. Ignorance isn’t an excuse. So, my question for myself is, will I step up and do what He asks? Will I learn the lessons and hide His word in my heart, learning to think differently and act differently? I want to, but I’m not entirely sure how. Perhaps that’s part of this hunt now, too. For more reading about this topic by Skip Moen, check out this post. Read more>>>
Psalm 119:9 How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word. This is about living, clean living. Or rather, it’s about cleaning up my life. Most people I know have something in their life that’s a mess. Heaven knows, I’ve made lots and lots of messes in my life! So, how do I clean it up? By to keep or to guard my life according to His word. In Hebrew, the word for word is dabar, and it means speech, spoken words. This isn’t just about reading the Bible (although that’s God’s written word), it’s about hearing His voice and doing what He asks. There are two important things we must do to clean our ways up, so we’re not walking through garbage every day: know His word (by reading and listening to Him) and acting on His words (to measure my life by what He says). We tend to think of knowing something as a purely cognitive practice, but if I don’t act on what I know, do I really know it? It’s easy to say I know how to obey, but if I don’t obey, do I really know what it is to be obedient? Similarly, I have the ability to go online, on my phone, or in a physical Bible to find God’s written words. This is a blessing, but it’s also a bit of a curse, in that I don’t know His words anymore. I can just look them up. They’re not written on my soul to be recalled at any time. Memorizing is not something I’m a huge fan of, especially when I can “google it”, but when it comes to God’s words I need to start trying to improve my memorization skills. However, the same question applies: if I read God’s words and “know” them but don’t obey, them how much do I really know?