Fifth Annual Thanksgiving Psalm Memory Challenge

Each November we choose a Psalm to memorize before Thanksgiving. We've been working our way through Philippians, and have finished (mostly) the first chapter, so we've spent the last few days reviewing Psalms we've memorized in the past - Psalm 1, 23,63 (we don't know this one as well - I had morning sickness that year, blah!) 67, 100, 113, and 150. We initially memorized Psalm 23 when Anna was not quite two, so that she could learn it for Sunday School (she did!), so Rose didn't know it. We've been singing it to this video:




There used to be a website for this song with a different video, but I can't find it anymore. I was glad to find the song on youtube.

I set Psalm 67 to music the year we memorized it and Ethan is the best at long-term retention, so he remembers it. I was pleasantly surprised at how well they all remembered Psalm 113 and Psalm 1 from last year.

This year's Psalm pic was easy since Rose has newly adopted this song:


I prefer the Praise Baby version which is the version she first got stuck in her head, but I couldn't find a video for it - you can listen to a clip here ( "Better Is One Day"). Hillsong's "Blessed" covers a few more verses. The new Sons of Korah have their complete version of the Psalm:




Psalm 84

To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah.

1 How lovely is your dwelling place,
O Lord of hosts!
2 My soul longs, yes, faints
for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and flesh sing for joy
to the living God.

3 Even the sparrow finds a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may lay her young,
at your altars, O Lord of hosts,
my King and my God.
4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house,
ever singing your praise! Selah

5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
6 As they go through the Valley of Baca
they make it a place of springs;
the early rain also covers it with pools.
7 They go from strength to strength;
each one appears before God in Zion.

8 O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer;
give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah
9 Behold our shield, O God;
look on the face of your anointed!

10 For a day in your courts is better
than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
the Lord bestows favor and honor.
No good thing does he withhold
from those who walk uprightly.
12 O Lord of hosts,
blessed is the one who trusts in you!


As we read through it today, Ethan said, "oh, the Sons of Korah, I like their Psalms! - remember I read through all the Psalms?" I love that boy!

So will you join us in the memory challenge? Choose a Psalm, there's a length appropriate for any one's learning curve, and join us! Let me know in the comments which Psalm you'll be memorizing for Thanksgiving this year.

Let everything that has breath Praise the Lord!