The Aspen Grove

Memorizing the Psalms

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The Big Idea

I have decided to work toward memorizing the whole book of Psalms. But not just a rote memorization, actually having it functionally memorized for meditation and retelling. So that I can actually use what is memorized and not just have it recitable.

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

I am still trying to get my head around how I want to approach such a large memorization project. I have decided that I will undertake practicing memorization of things with the basic texts of the catechism and have started journaling about that here: Memorizing the Lords Prayer Memorizing the Ten Commandments

Similar Notes: Memory, the Things We Keep with Us Psalms-The Language of Our Heart

Foundational Texts for this Project

These are books the influenced me as I have been getting my head around this project:

  • Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible

    • A powerful yet short book on how to see Jesus praying the Psalms with us and for us and how we can pray them faithfully.

  • Athanasius, Letter to Marcellinus, trans. and ed. Joel C Elowsky. New Haven, CT: ICCS Press, 2021.

  • Timothy Saleska. Concordia Commentary on Psalm 1-50

    • Introduction has a ton of resources and well laid out information about how to read and apply the psalms.

  • Martin Luther. First Lectures on the Psalms: Psalms 1-75. Luther’s Works, Vol. 10. St. Louis, MO: Concordia Pub., 1974.

    • Started to read through and am surprised I have never hear this part of Luther quoted much.

Suggestions from Dr. Joel Elowsky

These are potential texts that Dr. Elowsky suggested to me:

  • Blaising, Craig and Harding, Carmen, eds. Psalms 1-50, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2007.

  • Homilies on the Psalms: Codex Monacensis Graecus 314 by Origen, trans. Joseph Trigg. Fathers of the Church, Vol. ___ Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2020.

  • Didymus Lectures on the Psalms, trans. and ed. Jonathan Hicks. Ancient Christian Text Series. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2024.

  • The Homilies of Saint Jerome, Volume 1 (1–59 on the Psalms) (The Fathers of the Church, Volume 48). Trans. Marie Ewald. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1964.

  • Theodoret of Cyrus: Commentary on the Psalms 73-150. Trans. Robert C Hill. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2000.

  • Cameron, Michael. Essential Expositions of the Psalms by Augustine. Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2015.

  • Martin Luther. Selected Psalms. Luther’s Works, Vol. 12. St. Louis, MO: Concordia Pub., 1974.

Suggestions from Dr. Timothy Saleska

These are potential texts that Dr. Saleska suggested to me. They are especally focused on Biblical Poetry as a whole:

  • Robert Alter. “The Art of Biblical Poetry,”
  • Adele Berlin. “The Dynamics of Biblical Parallelism.”
  • Wilfred Watson. “Classical Hebrew Poetry: A Guide to its Techniques.”

Other Possible Reads

  • Martin Luther. Selected Psalms. Luther’s Works, Vol. 11,13-14

An Experiment: Memorizing the Psalter

One way to approach things is using the peg method. If I chose this I will memorize handles for each Psalm as a way to start to navigate them within my memory and recall them when needed.

Step one is to come up with a sentence or phrase that captures a key theme or element of that Psalm. this will be the kind of “tag” that I start to memorize

Once I have all 150 tags memorized then we will see how deepening it can go and the way I can use that mental navigation.

I has been my experience that the more I am in the word the more easily things bubble up in my memory.

I think that focusing on individual books will help make things more manageable. I still need to figure out the large picture structure that I can use to help organize it all in my head. Pegs is one but that seems like i will get overwhelming quickly. I think that a story or image or memory palace is the way I want to go I just need to figure out how I want to plan that.

Psalm One and Two as portal of Prayer

As I have thought and read and also super procrastinated this project I have come across the start of an image that will help me keep Psalm 1 and 2 firmly placed in my mind.

The image is that of walking up to the beautiful temple of Solomon and seeing the big grand pillars at the entrance. This correlates with treating the Psalter as a spiritual temple with which to worship God. I love this imagery and it helps keep the purpose of the psalms right up front as well as being memorable.

The description of these pillars being built on the physical temple are: 1 Ki 7:21 and 2 Ch 3:17

The basic identity of each pillar:

  1. Right Pillar (primary pillar like right hand is primary) and is the first to be erected. Named Jachin. Which translates to “He Will Establish.”
  2. Left Pillar named Boaz. Which translates to “In Him Is Strength.”

This imagery even lines up with the content of the Psalms themselves.

Psalm 1

  • Priestly in character. Specks of the ideal reader and meditator of God’s word and abiding in the presence of God. Jesus is the ideal mean who lived this which we are then branches of the tree that is Jesus as He abides by the stream.
  • If we map the first pillar to this Psalm we see that “He will establish” fits well with the overall message of the psalm and who is the one establishing (not us but God).

Psalm 2

  • Kingly in character. Jesus is the true Davidic kind that the nations cannot overcome.
  • Second pillar means “In Him is Strength” which is the best short hand description of Jesus as king that I can think of for the messianic ruler of the universe.

This already is a very compelling image and one that fills the Psalms themselves with a deep sense of place and purpose. I think it will also be a strong anchor to possibly keep developing the “tour of the temple” style memorization as we go.

Heavenly Temple Memory Palace

Brief description of the memory palace method and goal: Memory Palace Method

As I am diving into this I have realized the Ezekiel’s temple vision (chapters 40-48) is literally an offer of a memory palace in Scripture. The fact that the only object that gets a height measurements is the outside temple is a clear clue that this is meant to be a space to have in your mind and do a mental walk about. So the first piece I will do is the actually get this temple vision in my mind so that I have a clear space with which to fill it with Psalms.

The purpose of this memory palace (Memory Temple really) is to place the psalms spatially and in a way that facilitates imagination and easy recall. I have chosen the temple vision because the temple is a place deeply connection with the psalms as songs that would have been sung in the physical temple for many reasons. In this memory palace keeping them in my mind functions as a way to enter (in a small way) the heavenly temple that Jesus cleansed with His blood and tore open the veil to allow us in by faith.

The images and placement of things are starting vaguely but as I study Ezekiel’s vision I will work to flesh it out more clearly. While also allowing my imagination to create an image that is memorable and engaging for me.

Notes on the books for reference: The Book of Ezekiel

Description of overall setting:

Imagine a kind of zoomed out view. A high huge Mountain covered in trees and plants with a kind of temple complex at the top. A city is off to the south below.

Tour of Ezekiel starts at the eastern gateway. And follows the diagram below:

The overall measurement that governs the plans is 25. This maps very well to 150 Psalms. If you were to even basically break the temple into 25 zones like this:

You would have discreet collections of 6 Psalms for each location. The zone generally line up with the outer and inner walls and the central temple compound.

The math by the five books is not quite as clean. If you divide 25 by 5 you get 5 zones per book:

  • Book 1 Psalms 1-41 (41 Psalms)
    • Psalm 1 and 2 as introductions
    • Psalms 9 and 10 one Psalm in Septuagint
    • Psalms 15-24 (10 Psalms) Open and close with calls to covenant faithfulness
      • Psalm 15 Opening Psalm
      • Psalms 16-18 David as model of such faithfulness.
      • Psalm 19 praising God for the Torah
      • Psalms 20-23 symmetrical pair of Messianic king being the ultimate faithful one
        • Psalm 21 is chiastic center of book
      • Psalm 24 closing Psalm
    • Psalm 41 ends with Doxology
  • Book 2 Psalms 42-72 (31 Psalms)
    • Psalm 42-43 hope for return to the temple
    • Psalm 58 is chiastic center of book
    • Psalm 72 future reign of messianic king over all nations. ends with Doxology
  • Book 3 Psalms 73-89 (17 Psalms)
    • Psalm 82 is chiastic center of book
    • Psalm 89 Reflect on God’s promise to David in midst of exile. ends with Doxology
  • Book 4 Psalms 90-106 (17 Psalms)
    • Psalms 90-92 (3 Psalms) living with God
      • Psalm 90 prayer of Moses return to roots. the difficulty of dwelling well with the Lord
      • Psalm 91 Lord as refuge and place of protection
      • Psalm 92 a sabbath psalm. thanking God for rest
    • Psalm 93-99 (7 Psalms) group that announces the Lord God as the true king of all creation.
      • Psalm 99 is chiastic center of book
    • Psalm 100 psalm of thanksgiving
    • Psalm 101 Davidic psalm
    • Psalm 102 prayer of the afflicted
    • Psalm 103 Davidic psalm
    • Psalm 104 bless the lord
    • Psalm 105 give thanks to the lord
    • Psalm 106 praise the lord. ends with Doxology
  • Book 5 Psalms 107-150 (44 Psalms)
    • Psalms 107-110 (4 Psalms) God hears the cry of his people and will one day send the messiah
    • Psalms 111-112 (2 Psalms) Praise the lord pair of acrostic psalms
    • Psalm 113-118 (6 Psalms) “Egyptian Hallel” or praise psalms focused around deliverance from Egypt
      • Septuagint combines 114 and 115 and splits 116 in two (verses 1-9) and (10-19). This places Hallelujah at the beginning of all six psalms
    • Psalm 119 (1 Psalm1) super long acrostic psalm
    • Psalm 120-134 (15 Psalms). 15 explicit Psalms of Ascent.
      • Same number as the number of steps up both the outer (8 steps) and inner (7 steps) gates combined.
    • Psalms 138-145 (8 Psalms) Final collection of Davidic Psalms
    • Psalms 135-136 (2 Psalms) pair of history psalms
    • Psalm 137 (1 Psalm) exile lament/ imprecatory psalm
    • Psalms 146-150 (5 Psalms) final conclusion to Psalms
      • Psalm 148 center of the five and says all creation is summoned to praise God
      • Psalm 150 Ends with Major Doxology
  • Off of this initial breaking of things this gives 9 “groups” of Psalms

another possible division of the book http://www.bible.literarystructure.info/bible/19_Psalms_e.html

Note: Need to Edit below white marble stair way that leads straight up the side of the mountain. On the stairway flows a river. As you follow the stairs and river upward it reaches the top of the mountain and ends in a large square plaza that extends straight back off the top of the mountain suspended in space with a starry night sky behind it. Sitting on top of this plaza is a brighter and other worldly temple designed like the old testament temple. All in white marble that has a kind of glow within it.

Ezekiel 40:49 - Very short description of the two pillars at the entrance of the temple itself The front of the temple is tall and square with two huge bronze pillars at the entrance on either side of the door. The river flows out of the doorway and down the stairs.

Psalm 1 - He will Establish

You stand at the top of the stairs and look at the right hand pillar. On it in bright lettering forming the name Jachin. As you look at the name letters change to say “He Will Establish.” Suddenly the sides of the pillar light up with writing and you hear these words:

Blessed is the man Who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked nor stands in the way of sinners nor sits in the seat of scoffers But his delight is in the law of the Lord and on His law he meditates day and night.

As the writing reaches the top of the pillar a tree sprouts and grows from the top of the pillar and you hear the Psalm continue:

He is like a tree Planted by streams of water

You notice the river flowing out of the temple by the pillar to your feet. You look back up at the tree and see large fruit of all kinds growing on its’ branches:

That bears fruit in its season and its leaves never wither In all that he does, he prospers.

You look back down to you feet and notice bits of dry and broken chaff like the floor of a barn:

The wicked are not so they are like chaff that the wind drives away

A powerful wind blows out of the doorway of the temple and the bits of chaff swirl and then fly off the temple plaza and out of sight:

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous for the Lord knows the way of the righteous but the way of the wicked will perish

Psalm 2 - In Him is Strength

Major Recurring Themes

Not sure how helpful this will be for memorizations sake.

  • The King
  • The Temple/Sanctuary
  • The way of the Righteous vs the way of the wicked

Peg Words

Book I

(Psalms 1-41) 1 - Tree 2- Kiss 3 - Hair 4 - Bed 5 - Morning 6 - Bones 7 - Sword 8 - Stars 9 - Throne 10 - Net 11 - Bird 12 - Lips 13 - Face 14 - Bread 15 - Tent 16 - Cup 17 - Wings 18 - Rock 19 - Sun 20 - Banner 21 - Crown 22 - Worm 23 - Shepherd 24 - Seas
25 - Paths 26 - Altar 27 - House 28 - Pit 29 - Voice 30 - Dancing 31 - Fortress 32 - Summer 33 - Harp 34 - Crazy 35 - Shield 36 - Clouds 37 - Grass 38 - Arrows 39 - Tongue 40 - Mud 41- Sickbed

Conclusion 41:13

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! Amen and Amen.

Book II

(Psalms 42–72) 42 -

Conclusion 72:18-19

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things. Blessed be his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory! Amen and Amen!

Book III

(Psalms 73–89) 73 -

Conclusion 89:52

Blessed be the Lord forever!
Amen and Amen.

Book IV

(Psalms 90–106) 90 -

Conclusion 106:48

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! And let all the people say, “Amen!” Praise the Lord!

Book V

(Psalms 107–150) 107 -

Closing Hallelujahs

146 - 147 - 148 149 150

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