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. Sure, you’ve started enough times, but something caused you to give up. It takes both hard work and successful methods to stick to it.

Music transcends language barriers. Good music contains melody, harmony, and a rhythm. When the rhythm of a verse is locked into the rhythm of a song, the resulting Bible song will help you learn it, help you remember it, and help you remember it correctly.

Here’s an 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. You will notice the word and sentence accents are in perfect 3/4 time.

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, instead of borrowing a melody, perhaps you could write you own that would match the verse. When a melody is unique for a verse, it helps me remember the verse much better.

We know, however, that most verses don’t accent in perfect rhythm as the example above. 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. Let’s examine the first section of the song, “I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me though he were dead, yet shall he live” . Notice the accent for the first measure is on ‘I’ and all the words up to life must fit into the next three beats. 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. There are 10 syllables in these two measures. The next two measures have 11 syllables and again several syllables are given with each beat. The next two measures in the song have a mere 4 syllables and are, therefore, held longer and repeated.

Avoid changing the word accent just to fit the song. Remember, the first beat of every measure is always accented. Work at making the song emphasize the words you feel are key in the verse. As much as possible, make the music submit to the words.

One rule I had in writing Scripture songs is to stick with the text exactly. Of course, words or phrases can still be repeated. But I avoided paraphrasing in order to get the words to submit to the rules of the music. An example is 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.