Mneunomic Devices in the Bible

     I was taught to memorize something important by using acronyms or a mnemonic  device.  When I was being introduced to music as a youngster, I had such devices taught to me such as spelling the word FACE name the notes on the spaces and Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge for learning the lines on the staff.  I guess they worked because I never forgot them.  We often use such devices in many different fields in our lives in order to memorize a long list of events or things worth remembering.  God has His way of making something stick in our minds.  Lamentations 3:22-23 says, " It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness."   
      The Hebrew alphabet of the Old Testament had 22 characters, all consonants.  We see it laid out in Psalm 119, which has 176 verses with each section of 8 verses beginning with the same letter of the alphabet.  All 8 verses would begin with the same letter.  It was a way for the children to memorize the alphabet and it would focus on God's Word.  Then, a peculiar thing takes place in the Book of Lamentations.  A natural mnemonic device occurs.  The five chapters contain the following number of verses:  22, 22 66, 22 and 22.  In the first 4 chapters, they are alphabetical, with each verse beginning with a letter from the Hebrew alphabet and then proceeding to the next one.  Chapter 3 is arranged in groups of 3 verses for each successive Hebrew letter.  If you think that is easy to do, just try it sometime and endeavor to come up with words that make sense for the entire alphabet.  In Psalm 119, God had a two fold purpose in teaching the alphabet, but more important, teaching the love for the Word of God.  In Lamentations, God also had a purpose.  He didn't want the people to forget the picture of a destroyed and captured Jerusalem.  Lamentations is titled the way it is because of what it portrays.  Jeremiah was left in Jerusalem to record what was going on inside the city.  The two verses from chapter 3, almost in the middle of the book, give us a promise about God that is used much today.  "Great is thy Faithfulness."  We have that famous hymn that tells us of the faithfulness of God everyday.  When you check out this device, remember that you have to look at it in the Hebrew language and not in English.  You won't see it in English.  While the first four chapters are alphabetical, the fifth chapter has no rhyme or reason.  There is no alphabetical arrangement in the 5th chapter of Lamentations, but it is certainly there in the first four chapters.  May we all praise God today for His faithfulness to all of us each and every day.