to all generations
Posted by Sherry on October 5, 2006
During a worship gathering as part of our pastor/staff retreat out at the coast earlier this week, Gregg encouraged us to share a verse or passage of Scripture that held special meaning to us. What came to mind first was Psalm 100, a psalm I memorized in the King James version when I was a kid, a little kid. I think my dad paid me to learn it. Whatever it takes, you know. Not at all brave enough to venture out with it, I tried thinking it. But when we lifted our heads at the end of that session, I whispered it to myself, hearing the words flow from my memory:
“Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness, come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord, he is God. It is he that hath made us and not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless his name. For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endureth to all generations.”
We learned lots of verses as kids. Grandpa used to take me to the old folks home, stand me up in front of the room, and ask me to recite verse after verse. Of course at some point my siblings and I started viewing our parents’ encouragement as some form of child abuse. What I wouldn’t give now to have all those verses come back to my surface memory! But I’ll be thankful I still have Psalm 100 and the truth that continues to endure to all generations.
Thanks for sharing this now, Sherry! It’s funny: I can relate to this, grateful for the verses I was forced to learn as a kid. But I still struggle to force my kids to memorize. Maybe I need to get over the hurdle.
That’s great! As we’ve been teaching Ryley to memorize scripture verses, it’s been a really good referesher course for us too! The first one we had her memorize was, of course, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right.” LOL