As a young Christian we sang Bible songs such as “I am the Resurrection and the Life,” “Behold, Behold, I Stand at the Door and Knock, Knock, Knock,” and “I Know Whom I have Believed”. Many times I was not aware that I was actually singing a Bible verse. But when once I read the verses in the Bible, I found I already knew them.
Bible verse songs are a wonderful means of memorizing Scripture. Music has a rhythm and when that rhythm locks the words of the Bible into it, the verse is much easier to recall. This is why songs on commercials are easy for children to remember. It works too for I can still remember commercial tunes I learned over 50 years ago!
Of course, Scripture was not written as metric rhyming poetry and this makes it more difficult to match the words to a melody. Ways to do so successfully is the subject of another article. However, when this is done well, the words and meter of the song are locked together.
Learning Bible verse songs also helps us remember the verses. When I am speaking, I often think of a verse set to music and am able to quote it accurately. However, as I do so, I am mentally singing to song quickly so I get the words right. The rhythm of the song helps me retain the Bible words
A number of years ago I taught third grade in a Christian school. Some of my students had difficulty learning the memory verse for the day and I wanted to help them. I found music provided that aid. By singing the verse, they were much quicker about learning and remembering it.
This has also been for me a means of meditating on the Bible. A Bible verse song runs over and over in my mind and, of course, so do the words. The Spirit has thus used this to apply the Bible verse to my life in numerous situations.
A song can actually clarify the mean of a verse. One example is 2 Corinthians 5:21 that contains a misplaced modifier in modern English. “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin”. Obviously, the last phrase refers to Christ, not us. The song for this verse, by repeating the words, clarifies this.
Bible songs can present the Gospel in a way that is not offensive to unbelievers. One year for a parent meeting in our Christian school, I taught my class the entire Roman’s Road of verses and they sang them as their part of the program. Any unsaved people who were present heard God’s way of salvation without a sermon.
Finally, a Scripture song is a means of retaining Scripture as we get older. I find it much more difficult to memorize anything and retain it now than I did when I was younger. But I can still remember a song and thus, music, for me, helps me learn and retain what I am learning.
God made music. God gave us His Word. When the two are linked together, the result is a blessing available no other way.
