Psalm 119:11-16 (NIV)

I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Praise be to you, Lord; teach me your decrees. With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth. I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways.  I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.

A tradition of some of our family’s elk hunting camps years ago was a little poetic entertainment by an old family friend, “Doc” Dan Newbill.  Doc would  often recite, from memory two old Robert Service poems, “THE CREMATION OF SAM MCGEE” and “THE SHOOTING OF DAN MCGREW.”

I always loved to hear the evenings start…

“There are strange things done in the midnight sun.  By the men who moil for gold; The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold; The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge I cremated Sam McGee…”

It amazes me how we can remember such things and they never leave us.  Songs we heard has a kid we can still recite fifty plus years later.  Why is it that we don’t or can’t do the same thing with scripture?

The words of the Psalmist explain over and over again the needs, values and rewards of acquiring God’s scriptures and statutes.  But, we struggle so much with this.  We remember so much and can recite word for word, yet scripture escapes us.

The only way around this is to spend time in the word and pray that God will allow you to retain what you read and hear.  If we truly want to hold these words, God will grant it.

Psalm 19:16,

I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.