Storing up God’s Word (Psalm 119:11)

“I have stored your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”
– Psalm 119:11

What a potent verse. What a powerful picture of how God desires his word to penetrate, saturate the depths of our heart in such a way that it’s stored there. I’ve stored your word in my heart. Like picture a storage place, where you put something in it and it contains all of these things that are valuable to you, that you store away. So this is the way God’s word is intended to be in our lives. Store up God’s word in your heart.

How are you internalizing Scripture? O God, make us a people who store up Your Word in our hearts.

This Verse Encourages Scripture Memorization

One of the clearest, most practical ways we can do that is through memorization of God’s word. And so, based on Psalm 119:11, I just want to ask you, how are you memorizing God’s word right now? What are you doing to store it up in your heart, so that it just flows from you? Whenever you memorize God’s word, I think it’s one of the most practical ways we can meditate on God’s word. We see this in Psalm one, we see that in places all throughout scripture. Meditate on God’s word. It’s literally like mumbling God’s word over and over to ourselves, so that it becomes a part of us, so we internalize it. That’s what is being envisioned here with storing up God’s word in our hearts.

Just think about a verse you maybe have memorized. Think of maybe one of the most famous verses in the Bible, John 3:16. It just flows from people who know that verse. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him, will never perish, but have everlasting life in heaven. Like, it just flows from you, you don’t even have to think about it. That’s the way we want God’s word to work in our lives, but that only happens when we memorize God’s word.

Psalm 119:11 Values the Word of God

I know different people have different capacities to memorize. At the same time, I would just encourage us to realize, okay, yes, we have different capacities to memorize, but we can all, by God’s grace – unless we have particularly serious challenges intellectually, mentally – we can memorize. I just put it this way, what if I were to offer you a thousand dollars for every verse you could memorize between now and this time tomorrow? I’m guessing you could learn to memorize pretty quickly. Like, Jesus wept. John 11:35. Two words, a thousand bucks. And you could keep going on. There are many verses. I think you could, if you gave time to it, could work to memorize between now and tomorrow. So I guess the question is, is God’s word worth it to us?

So obviously, you’re not going to get a thousand dollars for every verse you memorize, but I would maintain you are going to get something infinitely more valuable than thousands of dollars. You’re going to get knowledge of God, intimacy with God, relationship with God. Power against temptation to sin. I store your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. This is so much more valuable than thousands of dollars, so I just ask you right now, what is your plan for storing up God’s word in your heart? And if you don’t have one, I would encourage you to make one today. Like, here’s Psalm 119:11 as a clear encouragement from God in his word to you, to store up his word in your heart.

Psalm 119:11 Prays for Meditation on God’s Word

God, we pray that this would be true of our lives. I pray for this in my own life. I pray that you would help me. Help me to make the most of the mind you have given me. I pray this over other’s lives who are listening to this right now. Help them to make the most of the minds that you’ve given to them, the hearts you’ve entrusted to us. God, we want to store up your word in our hearts.

Forgive us for neglecting this, for not filling our hearts with storage from your word. God, we pray for your grace to memorize, for your grace to meditate in these ways, remember your word. Please help us. I think about one woman who is over 100 years old recently, and she can hardly remember anything, but she’s like quoting different verses from your word, that she memorized when she was a kid.

Oh God, I praise you for the storage of your word in her heart. I pray for that in my own life. I pray for that in many others’ lives. Everybody that is listening to this right now. God, help us. Help us, we pray today, to store your word in our hearts in ways that, when everything else is passing away from our minds, your word remains. Oh God, may it be so. Make us a people who store your word in our hearts, today and tomorrow. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.