How to Memorize Hymns

One day, as I was sitting and reflecting (one of my favorite hobbies), I began to write down goals I wanted to achieve and things I wanted to do. Specifically, I wondered, "What things should I start doing (or doing more) that will grow me spiritually?"

A question came to mind that changed my perspective and flipped my priorities upside down. 

I asked myself, "If I were stuck in a prison cell for the rest of my life, with no personal possessions, what spiritual sustenance would I want to have stored up in my mind and heart?"

In other words, what would I want to have memorized?




I don't know about you, but when it comes to spiritual food, I'm not settling for fluff. If all the Christian growth material I had was the information stored up in my brain, feel-good, spiritual-cotton candy, it just isn't going to do it. Only the deep, thought-provoking meat of the Word would be able to sustain me for the years to come.

The early disciples didn't hide underground, endure torture and imprisonment, and risk their lives for blazing lights. They loved Jesus - not just the things that He gave - but Jesus Himself. He was their obsession. 

I want to have a heart that truly believes that when all else is stripped away, Jesus is enough. The truth of the Gospel is all that I need - no matter what comes.

With that, I decided, it was time to memorize Scripture and rich, truth-filled hymns. Growth material that will be worth the brain space.

Now, I'm not saying that hymns are the only songs that are good. There are some great contemporary songs, too. However, a majority of the truly meaningful, jam-packed-with-truth songs happen to be hymns. 

In January, my family and I went to a conference led by Dr. Voddie Baucham, a great theologian and pastor. I already knew that I wanted to memorize hymns, but Dr. Baucham said something enlightening. The conference was about family worship, and he suggested that families memorize hymns together - starting with one per month. If you memorize one hymn per month, you will have 12 hymns memorized each year. 

Now, people (including me) have the tendency to be all-or-nothing. When it comes to goals, if we fall off the wagon once, we say, "Well, I guess now that I messed up, I won't do it at all." Well, suppose life happened,  and you missed a month of hymn-memorization. The world hasn't ended. As long as you keep going, by the end of the year, you will have 11 hymns memorized that you didn't used to know. Even one more hymn that you didn't used to know is worth it. 

I decided to memorize one hymn per month. This is convenient because hymns tend to have 4 verses, and there are an average of 4 weeks per month. One verse per week. Not a problem.


Well, that didn't happen. But, I memorized most of "How Great Thou Art." Currently, I am memorizing "Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery." That hymn, is well, wondrous. In fact, I'm thinking that my next article will be a study of the lyrics.

If you want to start memorizing hymns, I would suggest this method:

1) Make a list of all the hymns that you want to memorize.

2) Pick one for the first month/2-3 months.

3) Focus on one verse at a time. It may take 1-2 weeks to memorize one verse.

4) Each day, repeat the verse (and the chorus) a couple of times. You may find it helpful to set a specific time to do this, such as during your personal Bible time.

You may be thinking, "Well, that's good idea, but I don't have time."

One of the things that I did to combat this excuse was to realize a certain margin of time that we all have: those mindless minutes in the shower.

Well, I at least hope we all have that margin of time.

Anyway, I have the tendency to sing in the shower (judge not, for you do it, too). This gave me an idea: if I'm singing in the shower anyway, why don't I use that time to worship through a hymn that I'm memorizing? After all, it doesn't take any more time away from my day. 

I tried it. I read the lyrics to the first verse, then rehearsed it in the shower.

I don't always do this - sometimes I sing the hymn (at least mentally) before I read the Bible or pray, while I'm doing tasks that don't require much brainpower, or in a free moment that I find myself bored.

We all have spare moments of time, whether it's in between tasks or in line at the grocery store. No matter how short, they add up if you use them wisely.

Another question that I thought of that day when I was writing down my goals was this: if I was in that same prison cell, and there was an unsaved inmate with me, what would I want to know?

Considering the amount of time that we would spend together, I would certainly want some scriptures that I could share about the basics of salvation and the Gospel. 

Now, I haven't exactly started memorizing scripture, but I hope to start doing that in the near future. 

What about you? Have you memorized hymns or Bible verses that you recommend? I'd love to hear from you!