Paul McKenzie

Memory Verse, Wednesday, February 25, Psalm 34:15

Ain: "The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, And his ears are open unto their cry."

"For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, And his ears are open unto their prayers." (1 Peter 3:12a)

The first passage that came to mind was the prelude to the prayer Jesus taught us to pray in the Sermon on the Mount:

"And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

"And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him." (Matthew 6:5-6 ESV)

I've learned that one of the great things in my relationship with my Heavenly Father is the discovery of answered prayer. Notice how this links so well with Psalm 34's answer to loving life and seeing good days. The hypocrites use many words, because they are just hearing themselves, and trying to convince God that what they say is right and He should listen.

We might want to use fewer words in our time of prayer and get to the point. We might want to spend more time glorifying God in prayer and less on self-centered requests. We might want to make a note of our requests and watch how God answers, so we can learn how to be more effective in our lives and ministries.

We might want to note that "no" and "wait patiently" are just as much answers to prayers as "yes". For example, there are people for whom I have prayed for years with little result, but I do not cease praying for them. There are personal requests for which I no longer pray, because I've learned that they are not what was best for me in my growth toward becoming a man of God.

And I have learned that many things prayed in secret and rewarded openly have shown me the Providence of God in my life. And I've learned that prayer leads me to the Word of God, where God speaks most often and most clearly.

And reading further in the Sermon on the Mount I have found that when we ask, He gives us what is best for us, not the rocks and serpents we may naively ask for, but what makes us more the children of God we need to be. We learn to emphasize our prayer less on "give us this day" and more on "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done."

And then we prayerfully walk in His steps each day and watch. And learn. And discover providentially what works He has for us to further complete us, His workmanship, with works He has prepared for us since the foundation of the world. (Ephesians 2:10).

That's exciting isn't it? Even the most seemingly insignificant act we do with our affections set on things above could reap great reward and glorify Him before others. Or reap just a tiny bit more growth, just a little more "spiritual muscle", or "spiritual coordination" to make us more fit for the Kingdom of God.

It is written in 2 Corinthians 5:21: "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." (ESV). And from Psalm 34:15 we find that "The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, And his ears are open unto their cry."

Cry to Him today. If you don't know Him, your first tears will be a cry for repentance and mercy. And when you become part of His new creation, most of the time the tears will be cries of relief, peace and joy.

Today if you hear His voice, harden not your heart.

*KJV used*

Memory Helps

Ain:

"The eyes of the LORD - ARE UPON - the righteous,
And his ears - ARE OPEN - unto their cry."

When I memorize, I look for similarities, such as "ARE UPON" and "ARE OPEN": "Upon the righteous/open unto their cry". They are directly in the middle of both phrases, which helps "anchor" the passages.

My memory process might be this:

1: ARE UPON/ARE OPEN

2: Are upon THE RIGHTEOUS/ Are open UNTO THEIR CRY

3: THE EYES OF THE LORD Are upon the righteous/ AND HIS EARS are open unto their cry.

And of course physical motions such as pointing to eyes, pointing to ears and the like help me define the structure of the verse, and makes it easier for me to grasp.

Now I will use word pictures as symbols to help me remember words that are not easily pictured. For example, I use "write-nest" for "righteousness", a symbol I learned from one of the memory books I have read. I just picture a nest writing. Here I link it with the large eyes of the Lord looking over this nest writing, and then putting his hand his ears as the "nest" begins crying. I know it sounds weird, but it really is an effective technique. I have a poor memory, so I need "tricks" like this to help me remember.

To link Psalm 34:15 to this verse, I have a friend "DaLe" whom I use as my "memory character". I watch him act out the parts for me while he is sitting on a "Singing MaRe", using the phonetic alphabet shown below. D=1, L=5, vowels fillers, so DaLe can only mean 15. M=3 and R=4, vowels fillers, so "MaRe" can only mean 34. And I use the "Singing" action to represent Psalm.

Now, Dale is singing this with the Mare, acting out the parts with a "Writing Nest" crying and "writing" next to him. That will help me link the verse to the numbers. You may want to imagine it differently.

Come To Jesus