Daily Bible Nugget #256, Psalm 119:16

The Nugget:

Psalm 119:16 I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.

My Comment:

Saints keep the Scriptures in remembrance (The New Topical Textbook, subheading under the major heading “The Scriptures,” on page 240). The New Topical Textbook contains 20,000 topics and subtopics with 30,000 Bible references. I don’t know who counted them, but this Bible study resource is a good one. Saints, as you may well know by now, are not persons canonized and officially declared such by the Roman Catholic Church, but rather in the Bible’s use of the term saints are all Bible believing Christians. The Psalmist said “I will not forget thy word.” Of course, to forget something, you must have first learned or remembered it. The price of remembering what you have learned is eternal review. When in college I learned about the “One-Two-Five-Ten System” for remembering what you have learned. Notice on the first day how long it took you to learn what you are studying with the purpose to remember what you studied. On the second day, spend the same amount of time reviewing or practicing what you learned on the first day. On the fifth day review what you learned that first day, spending enough time to practice or review it to reach the full recall or skill that you had achieved the second day. On the tenth day spend enough time in practice and review for the final time to recall perfectly what you learned that first day now ten days previous. This may likely be the most efficient use of study time when you want to learn and remember something perfectly. This 1-2-5-10 System is designed to counter the normal curve of forgetting, and it works. Another helpful study technique is the 100 percent recall system. When reading a textbook, or the Bible, read a paragraph or verse. Then literally close your eyes and think that paragraph through. Then, upon opening your eyes again, check back through that paragraph to see if there is something you failed to recall, and do it again if necessary. Then go on to the next paragraph (or, if using this method for Bible study and meditation, the next verse) and repeat the process by reading the paragraph or verse and then closing your eyes to think back through the first and now second paragraph or verse. Probably do this for no more than about five paragraphs or Bible verses at a time. The key is to always spend 80% of your time reviewing or thinking back through, and 20% reading new material. Use this procedure to learn lists, to associate names with paintings for art history, or to really learn something you must master and retain perfectly. Most likely you can only do this in a setting where there are no distractions. Using these procedures would certainly, and most efficiently, help you to learn, understand, and retain or remember material you will be required to know. Another way in Bible study to keep God’s Word in remembrance is to study a verse by means of the cross references that have been assembled for that verse. Using such a combination of memory enhancement procedures for material you want to seriously retain in your memory, whether for school or college, work or Bible, will fix in your mind at a deeper level faster what you wish to learn, or for some reason are required to learn. The Psalmist employed yet another procedure to help remember God’s Word–he delighted in it. The more you know about a subject, the more interesting it becomes, and the easier it is to learn still more. That is true for all subjects–including the Bible.

For those who desire to DIG DEEPER into this subject:

(1) Consult the cross references given in Nelson’s Cross Reference Guide to the Bible on page 627 for Psalm 119:16.

(2) Consult the cross references given in The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge on page 672 or in Logos 5 Bible software for Psalm 119:16.

(3) Lacking access to those two resources, consult the cross references for this passage as I have developed them as given below:

Psalm 119:16. delight. ver. Ps 119:14, 24, 35, 47, 70, 77, 92, 143, 174. +*Ps 1:2. 19:8. +*Ps 37:4. 40:8. 104:34. +*Ps 112:1. Ne 8:12. Pr 21:15. **Je 6:10. Ro 7:22. He 10:16, 17. not forget. T#1086. ver. **Ps 119:11, +Ps 119:83, 93, 109, 141, 153, 176. *Pr 3:1. Jn 14:26. **He 2:1. 12:5. *James 1:23-25.