How to Remember God’s Word

This is a critical discipline for the godly. It is what keeps us walking in obedience. And in Psalm 119:49-56, we learn how to practice this form of remembering, how to make God’s Word a lasting memory, and how we can recall it when we need to.

We remember God’s Word by asking God for help to remember it (vs. 49-50). It really starts here. Acknowledge your own strength is insufficient to the task. We need God’s assistance for this discipline of remembering. Think about the last time, you were engaged in a battle against your flesh? What gave you hope? When you were able to recall an exact verse or passage that equipped you for spiritual victory (I Cor 10:13). And God – or more literally, the Holy Spirit – brought that hopeful truth to your remembrance (John 14:26).

We remember God’s Word by planning to remember it (vs. 51-56). We must take the initiative. We need to have, as Charles Spurgeon called it, sanctified memories. And one way we get those is by memorizing Scripture. This is one of the reasons that the unchanging nature of God and His Word is so helpful. The old truths are still applicable today. What I memorized when I was 5 still works for me at 55.

This discipline of remembering God’s Word is going to become more and more important the closer we get to end of ages. In II Peter 3, the apostle is addressing false teachers and teaching his readers how to respond to them. He says these men and women pose a real threat to the Christian, because they will entice is to forget God.

We read, “¹ Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder), ² that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior,  ³ knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, ⁴ and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.’ ⁵ For this they willfully forget that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, ⁶ by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. ⁷ But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men” (I Pet 3:1-7).

They forgot God’s Word and brought others into their practice of forgetting. And the church needed a reminder to not do the same and we ought to heed this same godly counsel.

We read in the next 2 verses – ^“8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. ⁹ The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (I Pet 3:8-9).

Remember Him. Remember the One who promises to return! Remember…and be ready!