As a Christian who wants to learn the Bible, you have probably joined the ranks of those who feel they ought to memorize Scripture, but simply don’t. Sure, you’ve started enough times, but something caused you to give up. It takes both hard work and successful methods to stick to it.
Music transcends language barriers. Good music contains melody, harmony, and a rhythm. When the rhythm of a verse is locked into the rhythm of a song, the resulting Bible song will help you learn it, help you remember it, and help you remember it correctly.
Let’s consider an example. Acts 4:28 in the KJV reads, “For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done,” speaking of the sovereign plan of God in His death on the cross. Now read this verse in 3/4 time, i.e. emphasizing every third syllable- do, ev, hand, coun, etc. You will notice the word and sentence accents are in perfect 3/4 time.
To aid you to remember this verse, simply say the words over and over as you match it to the rhythm of a Strauss waltz, or the verse of the song, “Oh How I Love Jesus” . Adjust the words so that the accent of the first word (“do”) matches the downbeat of the first full measure.
Or, how about writing your own tune to the verse, once you have determined a rhythm. It helps me remember the verse much better when I can’t get the words mixed up with other words associated with this tune.
We know, however, that most verses don’t accent in perfect rhythm as the example above. In such cases, it is necessary to hold some words longer, to repeat words or phrases, or squeeze two words or syllables into one beat. Here is the first part of a familiar example: “I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me though he were dead, yet shall he live” . Notice that the downbeat accents in the first two measures are on ‘I’ and ‘life’. Thus ‘resurrection’ is compressed with shorter notes and ‘life’ is held for a whole note. The two measures have 10 syllables in the words. However, the next two measures contain 11 syllables and must also be compressed. The next two measures contain but 4 syllables and these are repeated and held longer.
A caution is that you try not to change the accent of the word in order to fit it into the melody. The accent of the words would fall on the first beat of every measure. Adjust the words so that the beat of the song emphasizes the key words as much as possible. As much as possible, make the music submit to the words.
A rule I tried to follow when creating Scripture memory songs is to use the words of Scripture as they are in the Bible. Of course, words or phrases can still be repeated. But when we paraphrase part of a verse in order to fit it into a song, then the music is the master and the Scripture is submitting. For example, consider the song, “Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us”. Changing the KJV ‘bestowed’ to ‘given’, the accents fit better but the word is changed. Instead the author could have held ‘Father’ for two beats and then the accent on ‘bestowed’ would have fit the beat of the music.
Visit KJV Bible Songs today to hear some samples of the many songs I've written from Scripture.
