Transcript of the audio recording (approx. 44–45 minutes)

Let me just second what she said about Judy, and I know your mother is so proud of all those lessons and all the practicing you did to be able to play so beautifully for us today. So welcome to this beautiful fall morning.

I have to tell you, I’m a little bit surprised at how much I enjoyed preparing this lesson this week. I wasn’t counting on that, and I’m hopeful that you can feel some of that excitement that I felt also.

Today we’re talking about Second Nephi chapters, halfway through chapter 4 through chapters 8. And during these chapters, it’s been thirty years since they left Jerusalem. Okay. We know that because Nephi talks about it; he says it’s been thirty years, and he is going back and he’s writing about all the stuff that we’ve already learned about in First Nephi, okay? He’s telling these stories. And later on in this chapter, he also talks about it being forty years, so thirty to forty years after they’ve left, he’s writing this, writing these books, and I thought, well, I’m looking out at this group, I bet most of you can remember stuff that happened thirty or forty years ago to you, you know? And because I can, and when I think back thirty or forty years, I’m thinking, oh, I was in the midst of raising teenagers, and aren’t I so glad I’m still standing here to talk to you, so this is great. So I have a much different perspective of my life thirty years ago than I did when I was in the trenches, you know, doing it. And I feel this is the same way with Nephi. He’s got a better perspective of what has happened these last years. And now he’s writing these plates.

And upon these, I write the things of my soul, and many of the scriptures which are engraven upon the plates of brass. For my soul delighteth in the scriptures, and my heart pondereth them, and writeth them for the learning and the profit of my children. So here’s his purpose, and Laurie talked about this last week, about how his purpose for writing. We should have a purpose for reading. He had a purpose for writing this.

Now, we start off with a very different kind of writing in this chapter than we’ve seen so far, and I’m almost not being the scholar and not being to the end of the Book of Mormon, I think this is a unique chapter in the Book of Mormon, and it is what we call the Psalm of Nephi. Okay? This isn’t him talking about his history or the brothers or all the miracles that have happened, you know, that have got them to this point in the promised land. It’s very, it’s just a different interlude. This is personal. This is, he’s looking back at his life and both lamenting his weaknesses and praising God. And I’m going to read the whole thing. It’s quite a long psalm, but I would ask you to follow along because I’ll have it up here, but you can read it wherever, but I just think it’s an important part, and we’re going to spend quite a little bit of time on this.

This is the setup that he’s taught before he starts his song. Behold, my soul delighteth in the things of the Lord, and my heart pondereth continually upon the things which I have seen and heard. Nevertheless, notwithstanding the great goodness of the Lord, in showing me his great and marvelous works, my heart exclaimeth, O wretched man that I am, yea, my heart sorroweth because of my flesh, my soul grieveth because of mine iniquities, I am encompassed about because of the temptations and the sins which do so easily beset me, and when I desire to rejoice, my heart groaneth because of my sins. Nevertheless, I know in whom I have trusted. This is kind of the setup for it. And it reminds us that Nephi was a prophet, but he was also a man who suffered and temptations and didn’t live the way he always wanted to live, maybe a little bit like us.

And then we start with the Psalm of Nephi. My God hath been my support. He hath led me through mine afflictions in the wilderness, and he hath preserved me upon the waters of the great deep. He hath filled me with his love, even unto the consuming of my flesh. He hath confounded mine enemies, unto the causing of them to quake before me. Behold, he hath heard me, heard my cry by day, and he hath given me knowledge by visions in the nighttime. We know some of these stories that he’s talking about. And by day have I waxed bold in mighty prayer before him. Yea, my voice have I sent upon high, and angels came down and ministered unto me. And upon the wings of his spirit hath my body been carried away upon exceedingly high mountains, and mine eyes have beheld great things, yea, even too great for man. Therefore I was bidden that I should not write them. O then, if I have seen so great things, if the Lord in his condescension unto the children of men hath visited men in so much mercy, why should my heart weep and my soul linger in the valley of sorrow, and my flesh waste away and my strength slacken because of mine afflictions? And why should I yield to sin because of my flesh? Yea, why should I give way to temptations that the evil one may have place in my heart to destroy my peace and afflict my soul? Why art thou angry because of mine enemy? Awake my soul, no longer droop in sin. Rejoice, O my heart, and give place no more for the enemy of my soul. Do not anger again because of mine enemies. Do not slacken my strength because of mine afflictions. Rejoice, O my heart, and cry unto the Lord, and say, O Lord, I will praise thee forever. Yea, my soul will rejoice in thee, my God, and the rock of my salvation. O Lord, wilt thou redeem my soul? Wilt thou deliver me out of the hands of mine enemies? Wilt thou make me that I may shake at the appearance of sin? May the gates of hell be shut continually before me, because that my heart is broken, and my spirit is contrite. O Lord, wilt thou not shut the gates of thy righteousness before me, that I may walk in the path of the low valley, that I may be stripped in the plain road? O Lord, wilt thou encircle me around in the robe of thy righteousness? O Lord, wilt thou make a way for mine escape before mine enemies? Wilt thou make my path straight before me? Wilt thou not place a stumbling block in my way, but that thou wouldst clear my way before me, and hedge not up my way but the ways of my enemy? He’s just pleading with the Lord here. O Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever. I will not put my trust in the arm of the flesh, for I know that cursed is he that putteth his trust in the arm of the flesh. Yea, cursed is he that putteth his trust in man, or maketh flesh his arm. Yea, I know that God will give liberally to him that asketh. Yea, my God will give me, if I ask not amiss, therefore I will lift up my voice unto thee. Yea, I will cry unto thee, my God, the rock of my righteousness. Behold, my voice shall forever ascend up unto thee, my rock and mine everlasting God. Amen.

Now, this is called the Psalm of Nephi, and I know you all know this, but a psalm is a song, right? So I thought, certainly someone has made a song out of the Psalm of Nephi, and I was not wrong. The BYU men’s chorus put Nephi’s psalm to music. Finlandia, so some familiar music to you. But they took literary license with the words, making them rhyme while keeping the spirit of the psalm. I’m going to show you the video, and the video has the words up there. You’ll see that the words don’t exactly match this whole long psalm of Nephi, but they certainly match the spirit and the meaning that he gives, and I think they got it right. So let’s go.

[Song plays; approximate lyrics from the performance:]

Upon his word I ponder day and night.
He stirred my drive, brought visions to my sleep,
and kept me safe for desert’s and the deep.
He filled my heart with his consuming love.
And bore me hard on means of his grace.

Yes, as I grow, O wretched man am I,
my flesh is weak, and I become the spot
of sin, O world of sin, which holds me in its thrall.

If I give in and choose temptation’s call,
then straight through slack I waste in sorrow’s day.
My peace is strong, my enemy is free.

Awake my soul, no longer droop in sin.
Rejoice my heart, and let me praise again,
let me praise the Lord my God, who is my rock and stay,
to keep me straight upon His praise, plain way.

O let me shake at the first sight of Thee,
and thus escape my foes with.

I love the Lord. In him my soul is.

Okay, let’s try to do this right. I think they did a great job on that. So now, how can we liken that to ourselves?

I have a big shout out to the Eighth Ward Blue Society book group. We read a bunch of books, and a couple of years ago, we read this book, Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools. And it is—I, the opinions you hear are not necessarily those of anybody above me, but I think this is the best book on prayer I’ve ever read. And he talks about this, not LDS, he talks in this book about how we can make our prayers more meaningful. And I’m just gonna read from one particular chapter called “How to Pray Differently.” And he says, when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, he gave the Lord’s Prayer. And, okay, this is the participation part of the program. All of you can repeat the first sentence of the Lord’s Prayer with me, if you would do that. Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Okay, that’s the first—let’s do it again. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. That’s the first line, and he says, What do we learn from this first line? He says he learns three things. We are to remember who God is. He is our Father. He is in heaven, and He is hallowed or sacred. The second thing we learn is remember who we are. I’m a child of God. And the third thing, and this might be the most hard, everybody else is also a child of God, okay? To learn those three things from that, okay? Because everybody else is our siblings.

Now, he talks about this, I want you to—this is to remember exactly what he said, and how one way to pray differently, but then he says we need to remember who we’re talking to when we’re speaking to the Lord. And I found a couple of quotes, Robert Millet said, Jesus Christ is not a cosmic errand boy. Do my prayers sometimes become that, where I give a list of things that I would like done in my life? And then Neil Maxwell said, we need to talk about the difference between showing up and worship. And sometimes I think I’m showing up more than I’m worshiping. He said, but to worship is to intentionally praise and adore our God in a way that transforms us.

So, Tyler Staton here gives us three ways to pray differently. And I’m not saying you should do this all the time, but once in a while, it wouldn’t hurt. He says there are three things to do, and let’s see. The hymnal of ancient Israel is found right in the middle of the Bible. Here we find the 150 psalms, prayers that have given language to generations of our spiritual ancestors. Read a psalm slowly. I prefer to read aloud, even when I’m alone. When you reach a line that resonates, allow it to be a springboard for your own prayers. Let a single verse or phrase from an ancient prayer become a foundation for praising God as creator, redeemer, savior, or friend. So, pray a psalm. So what psalm should you pray? I thought you’d never ask. How about you could do Nephi’s psalm, which is a little long. You could pray something from Isaiah. You could do a psalm from Psalms, like the Lord is my shepherd. But how about we liken the scriptures to ourselves? And hear me out here, write your own psalm. Okay, I can feel the eyes rolling from here, okay? But I want, we’re going to give this a try.

A couple of years ago, Sister Susan Gong, and yes, she’s the wife of Elder Gerrit Gong, was quoted, gave a talk, and there was an article in the Meridian magazine called “Writing a Psalm of Your Own to Strengthen Your Relationship with the Lord.” And Susan Gong gave an example of how you write your own psalm. And I’m gonna give you one example of a sister who heard this talk, and she is not named because they didn’t name her in the thing, and this is the psalm she wrote.

Praise ye the Lord, my Redeemer and friend, for he hath sustained me through heavy trials, and given me hope for eternal glory. The Lord, he is my light, my constant companion, and my joy, and I will lean on him and bring his pure love and truth to others.

She followed these five things. Begin your psalm with “praise ye the Lord.” Next sentence or phrase, “for he hath,” add an “and,” next sentence begin with “the Lord he is my,” and close your psalm with “and I will.” These are sentence starters that we use. Now, if you were ever to take notes in this presentation, this is what I would recommend. You take, we’ll, we’re gonna go through this slowly, but you put a number one, begin your psalm with praise the Lord, and then skip down, and then put the second and third, and we’re gonna do a psalm here, and we’re gonna look at Nephi’s psalm, and see how he works with this.

So she says, begin your psalm with “praise the Lord.” Praise ye the Lord. And I’m gonna give you some samples. Praise ye the Lord, my Redeemer and friend. That’s from one of the sisters’ psalms. If you take just a second and think to yourself, I’ll give you twenty seconds here to think, what could you start your psalm with? Praise ye the Lord.

Okay, let’s go to number two. The next sentence or phrase begin with, “for he hath,” and I’ve got an example right from Nephi’s psalm. He hath filled me with his love, even unto the consuming of my flesh. That’s an example from Nephi’s psalm, and here’s one from a sister. Praise ye the Lord, for he hath come to me when I was alone, and no one was there for me, not even myself.

The third. Add “and.” Second Nephi 4:25. And upon the wings of his spirit hath my body been carried away upon exceedingly high mountains. And a sister. And he hath sent angels to rescue me, and his spirit to comfort me.

Number four. Next sentence begins with, “the Lord, he is my.” Second Nephi 4:20, my God hath been my support. He hath led me through my afflictions in the wilderness. And a sister, he is my light, my constant companion, and my joy.

Close your psalm with, “and I will.” And I think this might be the most important part. What will I do? Nephi says, I will cry unto thee, my God, the rock of my righteousness. Behold, my voice shall forever ascend up unto thee, my rock and my everlasting God. Amen. And the sister, and I will lean on him and bring his pure love and truth to others.

I was really touched by these, and I so, and I’m really glad that Sister Melissa puts all these up on the scripture class so you can look at all of these. But I’m calling this Psalms of the Sisters, and I don’t have names because they didn’t give names. They were people who gave permission but did not give their names. Here’s a psalm.

Praise ye the Lord, for he hath come to me when I was alone, and no one was there for me, not even myself. And he hath sent angels to rescue me, and his spirit to comfort me. The Lord, he is my light, he is the love for me that I have not had for myself. And I will not let go of this hand, no matter how dark and terrible the path, and he will save me now and until the end.

Number two, praise ye the Lord, for he hath protected my children and guided me out of sorrow. The Lord, he is my salvation and solace. In his name I will comfort those in need of comfort and mourn with those who mourn.

Psalms of the Sisters, number three, praise ye the Lord, for he hath given me beautiful people to love, for he hath blessed me with a full life, surrounded by so much love. He is my redeemer, my greatest friend, my perfect example, and I will gladly recognize his hand in all things.

And number four, praise ye the Lord, for he hath rescued me from a secular life without an ultimate purpose, and led me with the Spirit to his gospel and his church. The Lord, he is my very patient leader and example, and I will try harder to follow his example.

I thought these were beautiful psalms, and I will tell you, I did write my own psalm. I’m not sharing it here because it’s not as good as these, but it is personal to me. I think it’s a worthy thing to try to give a prayer or a psalm of worship to God. That a single verse or phrase from an ancient prayer or your own soul become a foundation for praising God as creator, redeemer, savior, and friend. Nephi has done it. Psalms in the Old Testament. I think it’s a lovely little interlude in our history of the Nephites and Lamanites. And after this lovely interlude, we are back to what is happening in the promised land.

The promised land has not healed the rift between the brothers. It has finally escalated to the point of no return, and now Nephi has to once again go into the wilderness. So we’re in Second Nephi chapter five. And it came to pass that the Lord did warn me that I, Nephi, should depart from them and flee into the wilderness, and all those who would go with me. Wherefore it came to pass that I, Nephi, did take my family, and also Zoram and his family, and Sam, my elder brother, and his family, and Jacob and Joseph, my younger brethren, and also my sisters, and all those who would go with me. And all those who would go with me were those who believed in the warnings and the revelations of God. Wherefore they did hearken unto my words. And we did take our tents, and whatsoever things were possible for us, and to journey in the wilderness for the space of many days. And after we had journeyed for the space of many days, we did pitch our tents.

I’m so sad about this. They spent thirty years previously, they go into the wilderness to go to the promised land, and they no sooner get to the promised land, than Nephi’s leaving and going back into the wilderness again. And then this, the scripture, I found some sad scriptures in here. And I, Nephi, did take the sword of Laban. Remember this, come back. And after the manner of it did make many swords, lest by any means the people who were now called Lamanites should come upon us and destroy us. For I knew their hatred towards me and my children and those who were called my people. Think about this. This is, I’m sure many of us have had rifts in our family. And here we are in the promised land and we can’t keep it together.

So I’ve been thinking about this, and here’s how I imagined. I tried to think of a way to portray this, and I thought, okay, we’ve got Lehi’s family, and we’ve got the promised land, and for all these times, you know, they’re wandering around in the wilderness, coming, and they build the ship, and they come, and to get to the promised land. And so we’ve got these two, like, circles from a non-existent Venn diagram that’s not matching, and what I had hoped for was that it would look like this. Here’s all Lehi’s family, and here’s the promised land, and they’re all together and living in peace, and we’ve gone through all of these hardships together, and here we are. And instead, it doesn’t look like this. It looks more like this. We’ve got Lehi’s people, and we’ve got the chosen land, the promised land, and chosen people, and some are living out, and there’s a whole bunch. It’s a mess.

And I started thinking, what makes a chosen people or a promised land? And in Second Nephi chapter five verse ten, here’s one of the things that Nephi is saying that his people are doing. And we did observe to keep the judgments and the statutes and the commandments of the Lord in all things according to the law of Moses. And verse eleven, and the Lord was with us, and we did prosper exceedingly, for we did sow seed, and we did reap again in abundance, and we began to raise flocks and herds and animals of every kind. And they’re not technically in the promised land, because I think the Lamanites are still there, right? They went out into the wilderness. It is a little ironic that the promised land, the Nephites, the Lamanites stayed there. And the Nephites leave. And the Nephites even build a temple, which means maybe we make our own promised land. And it came to pass that we began to prosper exceedingly and to multiply in the land, and it came to pass that we lived after the manner of happiness.

So we’ve got the Nephites living in, after the manner of happiness, and how do we get there? Wherefore, oh, and what’s happened to the Lamanites? Wherefore the word of the Lord was fulfilled, which he spake unto me, saying that, Inasmuch as they will not hearken unto thy words, they shall be cut off from the presence of the Lord. And behold, they were cut off from his presence. So the Lamanites are living their own kind of life in the promised land, but they’re not living with the covenants. So I think, can we choose to be chosen? Elder Bednar said this, many are called, but few are chosen. That’s from Doctrine and Covenants 121:34–35. God does not have a list of favorites to which we must hope our names will someday be added. He does not limit the chosen to a restricted few. Rather, you and I ultimately can choose to be chosen through the righteous exercise of our moral agency. So it seems to me that the Nephites chose to be chosen even if they’re back in the wilderness. And maybe we can choose to be chosen, whether we live in Zion or in Manitoba or in Senegal or anywhere in the world, we can choose to be chosen and find our own promised land wherever we are. Okay, that’s my little, gotta try on that.

Then we come to Isaiah, and it’s sort of why Isaiah. Jacob has been set apart. One, the Nephites go into their own land here. They start to organize, and Nephi starts setting up things. And I think it’s also he’s setting up for a changing of the guard, because Nephi’s I don’t know, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, I don’t know how old he is, but he can look back thirty and forty years, so he, so he’s that old. And can I say, I think it’s been hard living in the wilderness. It hasn’t been cushy, cushy times. And he’s setting up, Jacob has been set apart, and he’s decided, Nephi has asked him to read Isaiah to the people. And this is sort of interesting. I have from this book called Second Nephi by Terryl Givens. It says, Nephi concludes this brief account of community building by definitively replacing the focus on a promised place with an aspiration to become a promised people. So he says, okay, well, we’re not in the promised land. Let’s become a promised people. And then he sets Jacob up to read, and why Isaiah? Well, it’s because Isaiah is prophesying about their brethren in Israel, okay? He says, and Jacob says this, behold, my beloved brethren, I, Jacob, having been called of God, and ordained after the manner of this holy order, and having been consecrated by my brother Nephi, unto whom ye look as a king or a protector, and on whom ye depend for safety, behold, ye know that I have spoken unto you exceedingly many things. Nevertheless, I speak unto you again, for I am desirous for the welfare of your souls. Yea, mine anxiety is great for you, and ye yourselves know that it has ever been. For I have exhorted you with diligence, and I have taught you the words of my Father, and I have spoken unto you concerning all things which are written from the creation of the world. And now, behold, I would speak unto you concerning things which are, and which are to come. Wherefore, I read you the words of Isaiah, and where do they get the words of Isaiah? The brass plates. When Nephi left, he took the sword of Laban, he took the brass plates, and he took the Liahona. Those are directly mentioned. But he’s got the brass plates, and they are the words which my brother has desired that I should speak unto you, and I speak unto you for your sakes, that ye may learn and glorify the name of God. And now the words which I shall read are they which Isaiah spoke concerning all the house of Israel, wherefore they may be likened unto you, for ye are the house of Israel. And there are many things which have been spoken by Isaiah which may be likened unto you, because ye are the house of Israel.

Anybody here from the house of Israel? I should ask for a show of hands, but I’ll raise my hand right around for the house of Israel. So why are they interested in the house of Israel? Well, these are their brethren. I have a grandfather who would sometimes speak a few Swedish phrases because he still remembered what he didn’t personally remember. He was a little blacked out sometimes. But his father came from Sweden, and we talked about interested in what’s going on in Sweden, okay? So they’re still interested in what’s happening in Israel. I’m hoping that they’re happy that they avoided the destruction of Jerusalem, but they’re doing that.

And so in Nephi 6, oh, let’s see, did I want to read? Okay. Yeah, yes, I did want to read this. What do they learn from Isaiah? First, they learn that God can make any land a land of promise, a holy land. They have lived this principle, and their descendants will continue to experience its reality. Second, they learned that very real prophetic promises tied to their place in God’s designs for the human family are still intact despite their separation from their lands and kindred of their original roots in Israel. It is to these promises and assurances from Isaiah that Nephi devotes so much of his attention in the rest of the second book, because they are still entitled to the promises of the house of Israel.

So in Second Nephi six, and now, verse eight, and now I, Jacob, would speak somewhat concerning these words, for behold, the Lord has shown me that those who were at Jerusalem from whence we came had been slain and carried away captive. Nevertheless, the Lord has shown unto me that they should return again, and he also has shown unto me that the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, should manifest himself unto them in the flesh. And after he should manifest himself, they should scourge him and crucify him according to the words of the angel who spake it unto me. So Jacob is receiving his own revelation, and now he’s receiving revelation of Christ’s coming. And I was always really excited when I found all of these references in Second Nephi to Christ, when I was, when my purpose for reading was looking for Christ. Here’s some of the places that I found it.

And in Second Nephi chapter eight, now he’s talking about the second coming and the benefits of keeping the commandments. And because this is in the future, this is really speaking to us today because it’s in our future. For the Lord shall comfort Zion, he will comfort all her waste places, and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody. My righteousness is near, my salvation is gone forth, and mine arm shall judge the people. The isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath. For the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner, but my salvation shall be forever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished. Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart I have written my law. Fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be afraid of their revilings. For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool. But my righteousness shall be forever, and my salvation from generation to generation.

I believe I thought this stuff was so important that he had, that he spends a lot of time in his books writing about what Isaiah had to say. So, what have we learned? And once again, an assignment, a challenge, or an invitation. What are you getting out of reading the Book of Mormon? Are you finding those things for that purpose that you set? Or are you finding different things? It doesn’t matter as long as you’re finding some purpose. Choose to become chosen people in your own promised land. You can be chosen, you can be living in the promised land on Shirley Lane, okay? Or Morningside Drive, or Camille, or wherever. Choose to be, because you, by living the commandments, you can make any place a promised land, and you can write your own psalm and pray it. And I hope you do. I’ve found this a meaningful part of my prayer life, and I hope you do too.

Thank you for your attention, and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

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