See The Prayer of an Old Saint for John Pipers sermon on Psalm 71.
Psalm 33:1-3 Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise him. Praise the Lord with the harp; make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre. Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy.
My piano teacher talked to me about this verse. Read the last part over again..... it says to play skillfully. Other verses in the Bible support the fact that we are to be good stewards of all the things God has given us, including our gifts and talents. Sometimes those endless hours of practicing can seem tedious, but when we look at it in light of this verse we can see it from a whole new angle - we are bringing glory to God and worshiping Him.
I'm not sure if any of you read the Revive our Hearts series on scripture memory that I linked to the other day, but if you did you may have noticed that the reading passage for today includes the very first Psalm Janet Pope recommends memorizing - Psalm 1.
Within days of debating if I should start to work on scripture memory right away or wait till 2011, this exact Psalm comes up on our reading list. Coincidence?! I think not.
So, I am going to start with memorizing Psalm 1 this week. I do not know for sure where I will go from there, but that is where I am going to start. Anybody with me?
Tomorrow's passage: Psalm 92-97
4 comments:
I've been wanting to start memorizing Scriptures for the last two years already, but have just never made the actual effort. I was re-inspired by the ROH Janet Pope interview (I like to download the broadcasts onto my mp3 player and listen while I houseclean or wash dishes), but I guess I've made the mistake once again of "waiting for inspiration to hit." When I do that, it seems, it never happens! I guess I just need to DECIDE to start, and reading Psalm 1 reminded me of that, too!
It isn't enough to learn to play...we have to practice and struggle over it and learn to master what we've been given. Good reminders, Tammy.
Brad
Tammi - so does that mean you're in?
I haven't decided if I'm going to publicly commit to it again or just quietly work on it on my own!
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