Psalm 121:6

Psalm 121:6
⁶ the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.

This verse infers around the clock protection.  Not necessarily physically.  Satan is our enemy and he hates us and he will attack us.  But God is watching, 24/7, around the clock, day and night.  He is sovereign and nothing will happen to us without His knowledge, without His presence to get us through it.  This verse could also mean that God protects us from natural threats (such as the heat of the sun, the coldness of night).  It could even mean from actual threats (sunburn) and perceived threats (moonburn? no such thing, but God will protect us, even from our fears)

Once again, begin your day by reviewing the first verses of the passage.  Then add on today's verse.  All the verses so far have been fairly short - we're easing you in to things here!

Every day you do this, you're making it a habit.  This is not difficult, but it still requires a choice to do it.  This is one of the easiest ways I've found to make the Word a daily part of life.  But it still requires a deliberate decision to redeem the time.  It is worth it!

Psalm 121:5

Psalm 121:5
⁵ The LORD watches over you - the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
Begin the day by reviewing the first four verses of this psalm.  Then add on today's verse - isn't it a marvelous word picture?  If it wasn't for shade we could literally die in the desert.  This verse doesn't promise us a desert-free life, but it promises us that God will be our shade.  Meditate on the meaning of this verse as you memorize it.

Recite and review throughout idle moment in your day.  Laundry day?  Perfect opportunity!  Combing your kids hair?  Recite it to them!

In fact, I'm reciting these verses aloud with my kids as I make their school lunches in the mornings, so they're learning it with me! (Course, today's Good Friday, but I can still squeeze it in at some point today) They memorize so quickly, they can easily memorize during that one short stretch.  We review again after school or at bedtime.  Even if you don't "make" them memorize, it's good for them to hear you reciting scripture, both to see it's importance to you, and to benefit from simply hearing the Word of God spoken.

Psalm 121:4

Psalm 121:4
indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
Slumber can mean the appearance of sleep, or inactivity.  Not only will God not sleep, He won`t even ever have the appearance of sleep or inactivity.  He is sovereign and He is watching over you, no matter what time of day, or what type of circumstances you are in.  God is also concerned about the group (Israel, the church) and the individual - you!

Begin by reviewing the first 3 verses.  Then work on just today`s verse.  Then all 4 of them together.

Start first thing when you wake up - whenever you have your first idle thought time - whether that`s lying in bed for a few minutes before you get up, showering, fixing breakfast.

Continue to review throughout the day, whenever you have a minute to spare.  You can get a lot of reviewing done in just a minute or too!

Developing the habit of memorizing and meditating on scripture takes commitment, but it so worth it.

Psalm 121:3

Psalm 121:3
He will not let your foot slip - he who watches over you will not slumber;
Start off this morning by reviewing the first two verses of Psalm 121.  Can you do it without looking?

Now move on to today`s verse.  Repeat it over and over again.  Once again, it`s a fairly short verse, so it shouldn`t take you too long to learn this one.  Just keep repeating it over and over again - while you`re brushing your teeth, blow drying your hair, putting on your makeup.

Once you have the 3rd verse down, start repeating all 3 of them together.  So far you`re still under 20 seconds.  Who can`t find 20 seconds in their day?  You can!!

Meditate on the verses and what they mean to you.  After all, we`re not memorizing for the sake of memorizing.  We`re memorizing to draw closer to God.

Isn`t it amazing that our God - the very Maker of heaven and earth - will watch over us with such care?!  He never sleeps, and He will never let you down.

Psalm 121:2

Today is Tuesday so review the book of Titus.

Psalm 121:2
My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.

Today's verse answers the question from yesterday's verses.  David's help came, not from the altars of false gods on the hills, not from the hills themselves, but from the very Maker of those hills.  And that's where our help comes from too.

Start off today by reviewing yesterday's verse.  Then add on today's.  It's another short one thankfully!

Repeat it over and over as you get ready in the morning, as you're folding laundry or vacuuming.  Find moments that would otherwise be filled with mindless tasks and redeem the time!

Psalm 121:1

Today is Monday so don't forget to review Psalm 1.

Today is our first day in Psalm 121.  This is probably a very familiar psalm to you.  One of my daughters memorized this Psalm in either Sunday School or Girls Club, so this will be an easier one for me as I have some of it in my head simply from helping and hearing her memorize it.  A great reminder to memorize these portions verbally, out loud, and those around us will memorize without even trying to!

Psalm 121:1
I lift up my eyes to the hills — where does my help come from? 

One thing interesting to keep in mind about this verse is that at the time David wrote this, altars to false gods were built on the hills.  David was looking at this display of misled devotion and misplaced guidance and recognizing that his hope was not in these false man-made gods, but in the Almighty God, the Maker of heaven and earth.

This is a short verse, it likely only takes you about 5 seconds to say it once.  You could probably say this verse 10 times in 1 minute.  We easily have 1 minute in our day where we can redeem mindless time with the joy of meditating on and memorizing scripture!

Prop your spiral notebook (or iPhone, or whatever you're using!) on your bathroom counter and read it over and over while brushing your teeth or blow drying your hair.

Bring it in the kitchen and review while making school lunches or fixing breakfast or cleaning up the dishes.

By now you'll have it memorized I'm sure.  Continue to review it throughout the day - while driving or running errands.   Take a couple of minutes to review before turning on the radio.

Review the verse again before going to bed.  What could be better than going to sleep at night with the Word of God running through your mind?

Titus Review and Psalm 121 tomorrow

Hopefully you've spent the last 10 days reviewing Titus 3 and the entire book of Titus.  You've memorized an entire book of the Bible - congratulations!

From now on we will always review the entire book of Titus on Tuesdays so that you will never forget it, and not lose the benefit out of all that hard work!

Tomorrow we will start on Psalm 121 - so write out your verses on your spiral notebook!  Only 8 verses this time, so we're tackling an easier project after that long one.  We will likely do several psalms now before moving on to another large portion of scripture. I look forward to our continuing journey together!