How a Bible Song Can Be Helpful

As a new believer, I was introduced to some "Children's songs" like "Behold, Behold," "The Lord is My Shepherd," and "I am the Resurrection and the Life." Many times I was unaware that I was really singing the words of the Bible. Later I would find the verse in my Bible reading and would be surprised I had already learned it.

Bible verse songs are a wonderful means of memorizing Scripture. When the words of the Bible are locked into the rhythm of a song, this makes it much easier to learn them. Commercial products have capitalized on this truth. I can still recall advertising songs I learned as a child over 50 years ago!

Of course, Scripture was not written as metric rhyming poetry and this makes it more difficult to match the words to a melody. How to do that is the subject of another article. But when it is done well, the words flow with the tune and each note demands the correct word.

Bible Songs not only help us memorize verses, they also help us remember the verses. Many times when I am speaking, I think of a verse and then recite it accurately. However, mentally I am actually singing it in my mind quickly. The rhythm of the song helps me retain the Bible words.

I started writing Bible verses to music when I first taught third grade in a Christian school. Some of the students were very slow at learning their memory verse and I wanted to help them. Music was the answer. When I sang the memory verse to them, they could pick it up and remember it much more quickly.

Bible verse songs also provide a means of meditating on the Scripture. The song plays over and over in my mind and so do the words. Verses have come to mind in this way that were just what I needed for a given situation.

Since words of songs are often repeated, it is a means of even clarifying a verse. One example is 2 Corinthians 5:21 that contains a misplaced modifier in modern English. "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin." The verse is obviously not teaching that we are sinless but that Christ is. Through repetition of the phrases, the song makes this clear.

Bible Songs are also effective means of presenting the Gospel. One year I taught my class all the verses for the Roman's Road plan of salvation and they sang them for a parents' assembly. Any unsaved people who were present heard God's way of salvation without a sermon.

Finally, Bible verse songs are a means of retaining Scripture as I get older. It is much more difficult for me to memorize Bible verses and remember them now, than it was when I was younger. But I can still remember a song and thus, music, for me, helps me learn and retain what I am learning.