Ladder-of-Divine-Ascent

You can never have too many Psalters. This year I set out on a 10-year journey to commit all 150 Psalms to memory. As Psalm 77:10 reads in the Greek (LXX): Now have I made a beginning, this change hath been wrought by the right hand of the Most High. I began preparations for this pilgrimage in the fall of last year. I had strong concerns I simply did not possess the requisite memory abilities to achieve my ambitious goal. I have always been dismal at remembering song lyrics, but I counted a glimmer of hope in my ability to recall movie quotes. I suspected some of my potential had been crippled by the progressive surrender of my faculties to the power and convenience of technology—a kind of iPhone and Google induced mnemonic atrophy. ...

This is the first in a series of articles in which I will chronicle my pursuit of memorizing Scripture. I want to discuss methods and transparently reveal my successes, failures, and the impact the exercise has on me. I say exercise, but lest you think this is a mere didactic curiosity of mine, know that I am integrating this into the fabric of my life as a defining habit. Perhaps you recognized that the title of this article is the opening line of the Psalms. I have always been captivated by Psalm 1—perhaps because it provides the thesis for the whole collection, or perhaps because I struggle to engage and stay motivated through all the psalms (something that has changed dramatically for me recently). My determination to memorize Scripture is a product of much reflection on the content of Psalm 1. Let’s have a look at how it opens. ...

Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a public record of their most vain thoughts and superficial opinions, erecting them as public monuments in the digital forums—the volume of the visages, the immediate thing written, the chitter-chatter of the aviary, the sounding of the passage of time—it seemed good to me also to write a contrary account of that which I have seen and heard while seeking the way that leads to life and truth, so that you might meditate not on things that are on earth but on things above. ...