Paul McKenzie

Memory Verse, Monday, August 31, Psalm 112:4, continued

"Light DAWNS in the darkness for the upright; he is GRACIOUS, merciful and righteous."

John 1:5 says "In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."

Since I've been born again, there has never been a time where I did not sense the Presence of God in my life. I've surely tried to suppress that Presence a number of times, and the result was a disaster, but all the while He was with me. And in the darkest of times that light always overcame the darkness, when I looked.

The book of Hebrews quotes a passage taken from Deuteronomy 31 that says: "I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5). We, like Christian in the Cage of Despair from Pilgrim's Progress, can keep ourselves locked in a cage of our devising, forgetting that the "key" is with us at all times. Often, we do not see because we refuse to see. We don't want to see. Or we're too ashamed to see after we have done what we have done.

But the "righteous man" finally "does" differently. One of my "life verses" is taken from Proverbs 24:16: "for the righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity." The difference is in the "getting up".

One facet of the word "upright" as compared to "righteous" is that they seek and walk the straight line. Getting "up" and walking "right". They are setting their affections on things above, and forsaking the world.

Here in a quick word gives us the attributes of the upright: "He is gracious, merciful, and righteous." Now, one of the steps to maturity for the born-again is that they see that only by His grace this can occur. We read in 2 Corinthians 5:21 that, once reconciled to God through Christ, we learn that "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

And when we walk with this "knowing", the qualities of graciousness, mercifulness, and righteousness begin to develop. Not manufactured, just develop as fruit growing on a healthy tree. We will not even notice, and really won't pay a lot of attention to it when it does develop, because our nourishment comes from the source, and to Him we look and depend.

We see out of our darkness that a Light has dawned. The Son has been given, and we, as moths to a flame draw toward that Light, and are changed.

One thing I noticed as I close is the verses that surrounded the "righteous man" in Proverbs 24, particularly the following in verses 17, 19-20: "Do not rejoice when your enemy falls", and "Fret not yourself because of evildoers, and be not envious of the wicked, for the evil man has no future; the lamp of the wicked will be put out" (19-20).

For but by the grace of God, there go I.

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

Memory Helps

"Light DAWNS in the darkness for the upright;
he is GRACIOUS, merciful and righteous."

So, yesterday I gave you all the word pictures I used to remember this very visual verse. Once you make the links, you can work it out word by word. Then you can look at the big picture, and see the light dawning in the darkness, and the words "Gracious, merciful and righteous" are etched in that light. That should make you sit "upright"! I explain the rather weird way I linked them on my web site.

Linking verse numbers:

Once you get the link, preface it with your "Titan" (T-T-N=112) singing it to you along with your friend "Ray", because R=4 and I use my friend Ray as my memory character for verses 4. And as you know "Titan" is a giant guy from the "Tennessee Titans" pro football team. He is holding a "David's harp" (a ten-string harp, you can look it up if you want a visual) singing to represent "Psalms".

Adding all of this to your picture will help you remember the contents of Psalm 112:4 in a humorous and memorable way.

Here is a way to do it. Ray and his Titan friend are holding their harps singing. Ray grabs light bulb, which has a smudge, so the bulb grabs the "dawn" brand of dish soap, and wipes off the spot of darkness on it, which makes him suddenly turn into an upright piano! On that piano we see a jar of "good grease" for grace. In it is a very "myrrh-ciful" incense stick of "myrrh". It is taken by a "nest" that is using it to "write". That silly link will take you right through the verse: Psalm 112:4, light, dawns, darkness, upright, gracious, merciful, righteous. A link of seven key words. From there you simply add those small filler words.