| “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee” (Psalm 119:11). |
| “David … chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherd’s bag which he had” (1 Samuel 17:39-40). |
| When I was a boy going to Sunday school (that was a few years ago!), it was expected that we would memorize a verse from the Bible every week. Our Sunday school teacher would have verses printed on little pieces of paper that you could tear apart, somewhat like postage stamps. Our verse was stuck in a small cardboard folder, and we were expected to memorize it and say it to the teacher the next Lord’s day. Then the teacher would give us another one, so that we memorized quite a few verses during our time in Sunday school. Later, as we got older, our teachers would often ask us to memorize whole sets of verses, and maybe even a whole chapter. It was good for us, and impressed the Word of God on our minds. |
| It is much easier to memorize things when we are young. If I try hard, I can still memorize something, but it is much harder than it was when I was a boy, or when I was a teenager. It is good to hide the Word of God in our hearts, for then we have it when we need it. The Lord can bring something to our remembrance, if we have read and memorized it, but He will not bring something into our minds that we have not put there first ourselves. |
| We see a picture of this in what David did when he went to meet Goliath. David did not know now many stones he might need, so he chose five from the brook, and put them in his shepherd’s bag. No doubt he had used his sling many times before, and was confident that with those five stones, he could defeat Goliath. |
| How many stones did David need on that occasion? According to the Bible, he used only one. Yet he had five available, in case he needed more. For you and me, it is good to spend time not only reading the Bible, but memorizing parts of it. You will be surprised at how much you can remember, if you try! Then, like David, you will have the right stone available when you need it. |
