Memorizing Hymns


In 100 Bible Verses Everyone Should Know By Heart, I present a case for lifelong Scripture memory. Hymn memory is almost as great a blessing. Hymns are often easier to memorize than Bible verses because they have built-in rhythm and rhyme. Still, it takes some effort. On a car trip to Illinois I recently asked my ten-year-old granddaughter, Christiana, to help me memorize Josiah Conder’s hymn, “Day by Day the Manna Fell.” Not knowing the tune, we memorized it as one would memorize a poem. She retained the words faster than I did, but I’ve had many occasions to quote it since. Best of all, I think Christiana will remember it all her life. Two of my favorite stanzas say:

Day by day the promise reads,

Daily strength for daily needs.

Cast foreboding fear away,

Take the manna of today.

***

Oh to be exempt from care,

By the energy of prayer.

Strong in faith with mind subdued

And elate with gratitude.

When children and adults memorize the words of our Christian music, it imparts a lifelong radioactive blessing that heals and helps us from the inside out.

From my new book Then Sings My Soul, Book 3.