The Big Idea
An Experiment: Memorizing the Psalter
I has been my experience that the more I am in the word the more easily things bubble up in my memory.
I have decided to work toward memorizing the whole book of Psalms. But not just as rote memorization, actually having it functionally memorized for meditation and retelling. So that I can use what is memorized and not just have it recitable. I want to be able to access each psalm from many angles. Rote memorization has only one starting point and the rest is all just recited after so while it is a tool. I do not want to use it as the primary form of memorization I am after.
As I have started this journey I have been surprised how the Psalms feel like they are literally designed to be memorized. The more I spend time with them the more their flow and continuity begins to be something that impresses itself on my memory and consciousness.
For example, time and time again I have started to see echoes of the psalms in Jesus teaching or the rest of the new testament has started to put things in a much more comprehensive context than I have ever thought about Scripture before.
Note
This idea started to form in me after reading/listening through the whole Bible in 40 days. My journal of that is here: Shredding Spiritual Muscles
In order to try to get my head around such a large memorization project I first did some smaller scale memorization projects. You can find my notes on these projects here: Memorizing the Lords Prayer Memorizing the Ten Commandments
Info
Also I find it interesting that the Second Council of Nicaea 787 A.C. made it a requirement to become Bishop to memorize the whole Psalter.
Similar Notes: Memory, the Things We Keep with Us Psalms-The Language of Our Heart Christian Meditation Embodiment of Community I Heard Them Singing Lament Epistle Series Meditation on Psalm 8 Quiet Muttering Reading Scripture Devotionally Reading Scripture for Familiarity Sacred Space Telescope of Scripture, the Law and Doctrine The Struggle to be in God’s Word The Chiasm or the Chasm
Companion Project: Inhabiting the Place Where Heaven and Earth Meet
Attempt 1
My first attempt was to learn the overall structure of each book withing the Psalter so that I have a basic roadmap for navigating the psalter in my mind. My overall hermeneutic for finding this structure has been to focus on the structural elements that are physically in the psalms themselves as the basic way to divide things. Therefore superscriptions and repeated word and similar start and end phrases are the clues I am looking for to see how the psalms hold together with each other.
This approach has been edifying in noticing many patterns and things that hold together but it has become very unwieldy as an actual memorization method. I feel like I could get lost forever trying to drill down the “structure” that I want to use for memorization.
This was not all for nothing however. It is amazing how even having some rudimentary structure memorized has started to facilitate my ability to look at psalms next to each other and in the context of one another in was that are impossible with out holding things together in your mind.
Attempt 2
In response to this, I have zeroed in on Athanasius’s letter to Marcellinus as a wise laying out of the Psalter from many different angles. Here is a first dive into how I am using that to memorize the core 8 psalms he outlines for personal formation: The Pattern to Manage Souls
Using that acronym I now have that set of 8 Psalms clearly organized in my mind and can walk through them. It will be fascinating to see how learning the text of the Psalms next fit into that.
Also here are more extended notes on the Letter to Macellinus: Athanasius’s Categories and Chain Method Also the full text of the letter: Letter to Marcellinus translation-jce edit 08242016 final changes accepted (1).pdf
Other collected Notes
As my work and study in this area has continued I have started to split the content of this note into smaller more manageable sections:
Seeking Overall Shape and Structure of the Book of Psalms
Thematic Phrases and Words in the Psalms
Number Symbolism
- Numbers are everywhere in the Psalms from the given number of a psalm to the grouping of psalms in specific sets (songs of accent being in 15, etc.). I want to look at the coherence and picture these numbers can help teach and the memory aid they can be
Memorization Methods
Overall notes on memory as I have been thinking about things: Memory, the Things We Keep with Us
(I do not think that I will pursue this method very far or at least not using it alone) Peg Method for Psalms