As a Christian who wants to learn the Bible, you have probably joined the ranks of those who feel they ought to memorize Scripture, but simply don’t. You have tried to do it in the past, but something came up and you gave up. Yes, it is hard work, but method also plays a part.
Music is considered by some to be the universal language. All good music contains melody, harmony, and rhythm. When the rhythm of a Bible verse is locked together with the rhythm of a song, this results in kids Bible songs that really increase remembering the verse, and keeping the words straight and in order.
Consider this example. Acts 4:28 speaks of the sovereignty of God in the death of Christ by stating, “For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.”. Now read this verse in 3/4 time, i.e. emphasizing every third syllable- do, ev, hand, coun, etc. The downbeats perfectly fit the accent of the words.
To aid you to remember this verse, simply say the words over and over as you match it to the rhythm of a Strauss waltz, or the verse of the song, “Oh How I Love Jesus” . Match the word ‘do’ with the first downbeat and it will fit perfectly.
Or, how about writing your own tune to the verse, once you have determined a rhythm. When a melody is unique for a verse, it helps me remember the verse much better.
Of course, most verses don’t read in perfect rhythm. When this is true, it is necessary to fit two words or syllables into one beat, to repeat words or phrases, or to hold some words longer. Consider the song, “I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me though he were dead, yet shall he live”. Notice that the downbeat accents in the first two measures are on ‘I’ and ‘life’. This means that ‘life’ is given a whole note while ‘am the resurrection and the’ fit into the other three beats of the first measure. The two measures have 10 syllables in the words. However, the next two measures contain 11 syllables and must also be compressed. The phrase ‘yet shall he live’ is repeated and the words given longer notes.
Avoid changing the word accent just to fit the song. Remember, the first beat of every measure is always accented. By holding words and using shorter notes, try to place the beat of the music on the key words of the verse for emphasis. That way, the Scripture is central, not the music.
A rule I try to follow for my Scripture songs is to use the words of Scripture as they are in the Bible. This does not rule out repeating words or even phrases. But when we paraphrase part of a verse in order to fit it into a song, then the music is the master and the Scripture is submitting. For example, consider the song, “Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us”. Though this fits the accents of the words better, it also changes the Scripture word. By holding ‘Father’ for two beats, putting the accent on ‘hath’ and then ‘stowed’, the word would have remained and the accents honored.
Visit KJV Bible Songs today to hear some samples of the many songs I’ve written from Scripture.