By Jean E. Jones @JeanEstherJones

Did my last post, Why Memorize Psalms? 10 Good Reasons, leave you wondering just how anyone would go about memorizing psalms?
Now, I know people who can read a long passage a few times and it’s memorized. I’m not like that. So when I decided to memorize some psalms, I first read up on memory tricks. Here are six tips I’ve found particularly helpful.

1. Pick a Bible Version that Aids Memorization

Indented lines help you memorize psalms

Tips 1+3. Indented lines help you memorize psalms–so does drawing in your Bible

Memorizing will be easier if you choose a Bible version that breaks the psalms into stanzas and lines rather than printing them as paragraphs. Hebrew poetry consists of poetic lines with parallel parts, and being able to see those parts one above the other will help you see their relationships, and that will help you memorize. For example, look at Psalm 30:5 as it’s indented in ESV (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version)) below:

For his anger is but for a moment,

and his favor is for a lifetime.

Weeping may tarry for the night,

but joy comes with the morning.

See the relationships? That helps you remember.

2. Recite Aloud Every Day with One New Verse per Day

Andrew M. Davis wrote a helpful little book called An Approach to Extended Memorization of Scripture. In his method, you review every day and add one new verse per day, using these three steps.

  1. “Yesterday’s verse first”: Begin by reciting the verse you added the day before ten times aloud, looking if you need to.
  2. “Old verses next, altogether”: Recite everything you’ve memorized to date aloud, peeking if you forget anything.
  3. “New verse”: Begin memorizing the next verse in the passage by saying it ten times while staring hard at the words.
Memorize psalms with linked pictures

Tip 3. Hyssop linked to snow to remember Psalm 51:7

Davis emphasizes saying the verses aloud and “photographing the verses with your eyes.” To help me “photograph” the line, I cover everything below it with a white card while I say it and stare at it. When I’ve said it enough times to remember it, I’ll cover the line, picture it in my mind, and say it, then immediately uncover and read the line to reinforce it.

3. Use Linked Mental Pictures

Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas in The The Memory Book: The Classic Guide to Improving Your Memory at Work, at School, and at Play explain that “thoughts may be associated to each other, so that one thought will remind you of the next thought” (p. 24). They advise you to think of a mental image that reminds you of the first item you want to remember, and then associate it with a picture of the second item you want to remember. Then take the second picture and associate it with an image of the third, and so on until you’ve linked all the items you want to remember.
This is very easy with visual psalms such as Psalm 23, but let me show you how to do it with a passage that has intangibles. Here’s Psalm 51:7-8 with a key word in each line in bold:

Linked pictures help you memorize psalms

Tip 3. Snow linked to hear (ear) to remember Psalm 51:7-8

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;

wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Let me hear joy and gladness;

let the bones that you have broken rejoice.

For intangibles, substitute an image of something that sounds similar (ear for “hear” or Mary for “marry”) or connects in some way (a hand holding a tissue for “blot”). The pictures demonstrate how to associate each key word with the next. You can also sketch the pictures in your Bible.

4. Review with a Recording

When I’ve memorized several verses of a psalm, I play a recording while I recite it. This seems to engage a different part of the brain than reading: I stumble in different places! You can use the audio feature of Bible apps such as YouVersion or record yourself reading the psalm slowly and with feeling into your cellphone’s recording app, pausing between stanzas. (I usually start with YouVersion and switch to my own recording when I’m just about done with the psalm. By that time, I know how I want to read it.)

Memorize psalms with linked pictures

Tip 3. Hear linked to bones to remember Psalm 51:8

Of course, if you’re musically inclined, put the psalm to music like the Israelites did and you’ll learn it even faster.

5. Remember the Stanza Flow

Make a mental note of each stanza’s central point so you can remember their order. Here’s Psalm 30 by verse numbers:

  • 1-3: Praise
  • 4-5: Divine description
  • 6-7: Dilemma
  • 8-10: Dilemma’s prayer
  • 11-12: Thanksgiving

6. Pay Attention to Parallelism to Memorize Psalms

The most significant aspect of Hebrew poetry is its use of parallelism. Parallelism is a huge help in memorizing, as you can see in Psalm 1:1:

Parallelism helps you memorize psalms

Tip 6. Noticing parallelism helps you memorize psalms

See how much easier it is to remember how the line flows when you see the parallel parts laid out like this? The structure here is diagrammed like this: A / B C D / B’ C’ D’ / B’’ C’’ D’’. Most Hebrew poetic lines are either A B / A’ B’ or A B / B’ A’. Paying attention to how the parallel elements relate to each other helps your memory. I often write out stanzas with the parallel items stacked so I can visualize them better.

7. Use Tricks for Synonyms to Memorize Psalms

Memorize psalms with memory tricks

Tips 3+7. Face linked to blot and lips sighing (SI=Sins Iniquities) to remember Psalm 51:9

I found Psalm 51 difficult to memorize because of all the synonyms for sin. So I made a mental picture of “TIS” next to the first stanza (standing for Transgressions, Iniquity, Sin) and “TSSE IS” next to the second stanza (Transgressions, Sin, Sinned, Evil, Iniquity, Sin). For the third stanza, I took the mental picture of face linked to blot and added sighing lips to remind me of “SI” (Sins, Iniquities; see the illustration).

 ***

There you have it: the seven tips and tricks to help you memorize psalms!

Have you used these tips and tricks? What additional tips and tricks help you memorize?

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When I first read Gorden Wenham’s careful and convincing chapter in Psalms as Torah [1] that the Psalms were meant to be memorized, I asked myself, “So why haven’t you memorized any psalms?” Answer: I find memorizing long passages difficult—very difficult! But I’d recently read a book on memory tricks, so I resolved to give it a try. Besides, I loved praying psalms and knew that would be a way to add psalm praying to my regular prayer time rather than my Bible reading time.

Memorize Psalms

When we memorize Psalms, we store them in our heart

Was I surprised: I now love memorizing psalms! And it’s easier than I thought.

Here’s why.

1. When I memorize psalms I can pray them any time

Most psalms are inspired prayers meant to be sung.[2] Psalms teach us how to pray, and I’ve prayed them for years. Now that I’ve memorized four psalms, they’re available to me to pray at any time. I usually walk during my main prayer time, and I absolutely love beginning with something memorized.

2. When I memorize psalms they increase my joy & peace

I wanted to add a thanksgiving psalm to my regular prayers to help me give thanks for answered prayers. I chose the beautiful Psalm 30. Wow. Beginning each day extoling God for salvation and remembering how he brought me to him is so uplifting that it makes my heart sing. It increased my joy by leaps. It reminded me that just as God miraculously saved me, so he can get me through that day’s troubles, and that brings me peace. Yet those weren’t my goals. They are side benefits: I aimed to bless God and he blessed me!

3. When I memorize psalms I’m more likely to do what they say

Praying psalms commits me to obeying what they say. Praying, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked” (Psalm 1) commits me to obeying God, not the world. Praying, “I will extol you, oh Lord” (Psalm 30), commits me to extolling God—to magnifying him and to telling others of his good care. In fact, I now regularly follow reciting this line with a prayer, “God, how can I best extol you today?” In the midst of memorizing this psalm, I jumped at the chance to speak on overcoming fear, knowing this would be a perfect means to glorify God. Frankly, until I memorized Psalm 30, I wasn’t actively looking for ways to publicly glorify God for what he’s done in my life.

4. When I memorize psalms they prepare me to face any circumstance

Confidence songs like Psalm 23 (“The Lord is my Shepherd”) can be on my tongue the instance a difficulty strikes. This one is full of imagery, and just picturing the mental images I focused upon while memorizing this psalms brings me the peace of the psalm even before I recite the words.

5. When I memorize psalms I meditate on God’s words more frequently

The blessed man meditates on God’s words day and night (Psalm 1). In ancient times, you couldn’t meditate on God’s words at night unless you had them memorized: Torches just weren’t that efficient. With psalms memorized, I can meditate even when my Bible’s not open.

When Clay was a child his agnostic father would come into his room at bedtime and recite Psalm 23 with him. Clay quickly memorized it and remembers walking down the street to grade school reciting it to himself. He found this encouraging and spiritually formative as he was growing up even though he didn’t become a Christian until several years later in junior high.

6. Reciting psalms makes my sleep more peaceful

This was another surprise. When I awake in the middle of the night and my thoughts start racing, I can calm them by reciting psalms. This is turning out to be a good way to get back to sleep. The psalmists apparently knew this since they talk about night songs (Psalm 42:8), meditating in bed (Psalm 63:6), and awakening at night in order to meditate on God’s promises (Psalm 119:148).

7. Poetry is easier to memorize than prose

Martin Luther “described the Psalter as a mini-Bible, which sums up the whole message of the Scriptures.” [3] Since poetry is easier to memorize than histories and letters, it’s a good way to get more of God’s words into my heart.

8. Memorizing psalms is a good mental challenge

Okay, there’s nothing particularly spiritual about this. But keeping my brain active could give me more years to actively serve God.

9. Jesus memorized psalms

WWJD? Jesus quoted psalms regularly: He had them memorized. We’re called to imitate him.

10. The psalms were meant to be memorized

Why not memorize them if they were meant to be memorized? This was the clincher for me. I decided if the ancients could do this, then I could do it.

Coming next : Tips & tricks to make memorizing psalms easier

Related posts

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

  1. [1]Gorden Wenham, Psalms as Torah: Reading Biblical Song Ethically (Studies in Theological Interpretation) (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2012), 41-56.
  2. [2]Ibid., 63.
  3. [3]Gordon Wenham, The Psalter Reclaimed: Praying and Praising with the Psalms
    (Wheaton: Crossway, 2013), 40.