Nephi’s Psalm

Remember the Lord ContinuallyBy James D. Simmons

Nephi’s PsalmAncient prophet Nephi instructs us how to be surrounded by the robe of the Lord’s righteousness. The setting of the psalm occurs as Nephi’s father Lehi is giving blessings to his sons just prior to his passing. Lehi dies and his son Nephi is commanded of the Lord to admonish Laman, Lemuel, and the sons of Ishmael in righteousness. The response to his admonitions is not that of the repentant but that of unclean swine who refuse the invitation to become clean before the Lord. They play out the role of the unclean further and seek to rend all that is good as they make plans to kill Nephi. Under this setting the psalm is born and begins with Nephi teaching us how to understand the Lord’s ways with man — by pondering the scriptures and by pondering much upon the interactions we have with the Lord in our lives. Nephi learned much from the Lord in the wilderness, again upon the deep ocean, and in the promised land. Nephi unlocks the mystery of what our promise or covenant with God means to remember the Lord always or continually and teaches how scripture is born. As the unrepentant plot Nephi’s death as he sorrows over the loss of his father he gives way to anger toward his wicked brothers. He sorrows greatly as the peace of his soul (the Holy Ghost) departs from within him upon his allowance of the enemy of righteousness to take up residence in his heart. He awakens to his weaknesses and the sins and temptations which so easily beset him. He desires to rejoice over the things of the Lord, yet the psalm begins as he cries out because of his weaknesses of the flesh and the diminished influence of the Holy Ghost experienced after he became angry: “O wretched man that I am! Yea, my heart sorroweth because of my flesh; my soul grieveth because of mine iniquities.” Have you ever been treated unfairly? How did it make you feel? Did you get angry and feel justified in anger? Did you give place in your soul for the enemy of righteousness? Did allowing darkness to enter you increase or diminish your strength toward doing good? By comparison, what benefits come to us as we obey the Lord’s command to love and pray for our enemies rather than respond negatively toward them? As Nephi sorrows for the loss of the Holy Ghost, he remembers the Lord’s tender mercies toward Him in the wilderness, upon the deep sea, and in the promised land:

What did Nephi remember or learn from his interactions wih the Lord? What might he have learned from his vision of the Tree of Life, the obtaining of the plates of brass, all that occurred when he returned with his brothers to Jerusalem to convince Ishmael and his family to join them? What might he have learned about God’s ways with man as he recalled His prayer asking for the power to burst the bands from off of him, or as he pondered upon the experience of the loss of his bow and ability to obtain food and subsequent deliverance? What might he have learned as he remembered that after being commanded to build a ship he was given instruction and all things he needed in order to build the ship, including ore to make tools and of being filled with so much power that it caused his doubtful and mocking brothers to quake in his presence and to lend their support to the building of the ship? What

1 Nephiʼs Psalm

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might he have learned as he remembered the Lord filling him with so much love that it nigh consumed his flesh? Is it possible that as he remembered these things that he began to understand cause and effect? Did he come to understand that as he remained worthy of the Lord’s Spirit, his ability to communicate with God increased and that as He obeyed God, he received God’s power and influence through the veil to help mold and shape the outcome of events in his journeys? Did he learn that God always provides for our temporal needs as we obey Him? Did he learn that as we do the Lord’s will God hears and answers our cries by day and gives us knowledge by visions in the nighttime? As we are diligent to obey God might we too begin to wax bold in mighty prayer? As our prayers are guided by the Holy Ghost might we also send our voices up on high and receive angels who come down to minister unto us as they did to him? As we remember continually and ponder upon the scriptures and our own interactions with the Lord, what knowledge might we lay hold upon concerning God’s ways with man?

As Nephi pondered and remembered his interactions with the Lord continually, he passed from faith to personal knowledge concerning the Lord’s ways with man, which are unchanging from generation to generation. What are we to gain from pondering upon Nephi’s experiences and likening them unto our own interactions with God?Nephi is so certain of God’s ways that he later relates Isaiah’s prophecies concerning great destruction that will befall the world in our day. Nephi gives us his witness that if we are found among repentant Israel when this time occurs, then the Lord’s covenant promises of prosperity (temporal blessings), a righteous posterity, and of protection and deliverance from our enemies — will be upon us as they were upon Nephi, even if God must destroy the wicked by fire in order to deliver the righteous. Testimony is born of knowledge gained as we remember the Lord continually by pondering upon that which we have received and will yet receive through obedience to the Lord’s voice.Consider Nephi’s change of attitude after pondering much upon his dealings with the Lord. Nephi sorrowed deeply for having given way to anger but then awakens and arises: “Awake my soul! No longer droop in sin.” Nephi forsakes the anger that caused him to droop in sin and to slacken his strength toward doing that which the Lord would have him do. Now consider carefully what follows his repentance:“Rejoice, O my heart, and give place no more for the enemy of my soul.” He casts out and shuns the principalities of darkness or evil that entered into his heart when he became angered toward his brothers and makes way for the full reception of the Holy Ghost.“Do not anger because of mine enemies.” His determination to forsake his anger, or sins of the flesh, has become fixed. It is very apparent that he is being strengthened by the Lord’s Spirit as it fills his soul.“Do not slacken my strength because of my afflictions.” He recognized the loss of strength (Holy Ghost) toward doing good as a result of his anger and he is determined to reclaim the power that is associated with the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost.

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“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.” He receives the Lord’s grace and rejoices as God’s light (Holy Ghost) fills His soul. He proclaims His trust as he says, “My soul will rejoice in thee, my god, and the rock of my salvation.” He proclaims his knowledge that there is no other power or influence that compares to God’s power and ways and that he has forsaken the enemy of his soul.“O Lord wilt thou redeem my soul?” Nephi knows God and God’s ways with man because he has successfully walked the path of redemption for many years. With that knowledge of God, He is asking God if he will accept the sacrifice of his life, belief in God, trust in God, his sincere repentance, and his knowledge concerning God’s unchanging wasy. He is asking to be redeemed and allowed into the Lord’s presence, which is the definition of being redeemed from the fall of Adam. (See Ether 3.) “Wilt thou deliver me out of the hands of mine enemies?” He is asking for the protection of the covenant toward repentant Israel or to be delivered from his wicked brothers and the sons of Ishmael who want to kill him. He is asking for forgiveness, knowing full well that if he receives it he will be once again protected under the covenant promise of everlasting protection. He knows that God keeps his promises to repentant Israel.“Wilt thou make me that I may shake at the appearance of sin?” He abhors his weaknesses and although he has forsaken them, he recognizes that without God’s grace he could fail to retain a remission of his sins. He is asking for grace or God’s transforming power to have his weaknesses made strong in the Lord. Nephi abhors having been estranged from the Lord’s Spirit. He wants nothing more to do with having his strength (Holy Ghost) slacken and wants only to be about doing that which is most joyous and delicious to his soul, the work of redemption for self and others.“May the gates of hell be shut continually before me, because that my heart is broken and my spirit is contrite!” As we forsake sin, come unto the Lord, call upon His name, obey His voice, keep His commandments, and are willingly (contrite) and responsively (broken heart) led by the Lord’s voice, we are filled with the Holy Ghost and the gates of hell are shut before us continually and principalities of darkness have no power or influence over our spirits, and we receive the Lord’s peace and His rest unto our souls.“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 strict in the plain road!” He desires to be filled with the Holy Ghost so that he can be led in the redemptive path here on earth (the low valley) and be strict (obey with exactness) in the plain road (path of redemption). He understands that redemption occurs only as fast as he is willing and able to receive redemptive knowledge and be led continually by the Holy Ghost.“O Lord, wilt thou encircle me around in the robe of thy righteousness!” The robe of the Lord’s righteousness is the Holy Ghost or God’s Spirit which sustains us from one breath to the next; he is record of heaven; the Comforter; the peaceable things of immortal glory; the truth of all things; that which quickeneth all things, that which maketh alive all things; that which knoweth all things; and hath all power according to wisdom, mercy, truth, justice, and judgement. Nephi knows this power is given according to righteousness alone.

3 Nephiʼs Psalm

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“O Lord, wilt thou make a way for mine escape before mine enemies!” Nephi’s brothers are plotting to kill him. Nephi knows that with God’s power he can move rivers out of their courses to make a way for escape of his people from their enemies if needed. He can cause lions to roar in the wilderness to sew fear into the hearts of his brothers, and if needs be he can even remove mountains to make a way for his people to pass out of harms way. Nephi knows he must lead the righteous among him out of harms way. He is asking for the power he will need to deliver (covenant promise) his people from their enemies.“Wilt thou make my path straight before me!” Our redemptive path is made straight through righteousness that prevents us from wandering in darkness. He is asking for the Lord’s grace or for power over his weaknesses of the flesh. He does not want to wander in the wilderness as his father’s family previously wandered for many years, but in his escape wants to be led to find a new home quickly. He is calling upon the Lord for deliverance from his weaknesses, which is required of us if our paths are to be straight. He does not want to give way further to the enemy of his soul who causes us to wander or stumble in our straight path upon the plain road of redemption.“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 mine enemy.” We all possess darkness that we cannot see until the Lord awakens us to it, we forsake it, and it is replaced with his light. Darkness includes that which we disbelieve that is true and that which we believe that is untrue. Nephi is asking God to remove all darkness (stumbling blocks) that might prevent him from walking the straight path the Lord would have him follow. As the Lord makes weak things strong unto us He removes our stumbling blocks and clears our way that we are no longer hedged up. We are then able to “see and hear” the Lord’s voice clearly, obey it with exactness, and by so doing call down the Lord’s power and influence into the events of our lives. Nephi desires that the Lord will accept his repentance and will make weaknesses that cause him to stumble strong unto him. And his enemies alone will be hedged up and will stumble because they refuse to repent, which is to become clean from their darkness and their stumbling blocks.“Oh Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever. I will not put my trust in the arm of flesh; for I know that cursed is he that putteth his trust in the arm of flesh. Yea, cursed is he that putteth his trust in man or maketh flesh his arm.” Nephi trusts in the Lord, which trust was gained through obedience, wherein he discovered the Lord never asks anything of us that does not further our growth within the redemptive pathway. He also knows the Lord is a God of truth and canst not lie, and that as we act in obedience to the Lord’s voice, redeeming knowledge is given to us as fast as we are willing and able to receive it. Trusting God facilitates redemption. Trusting anything other than God or His Spirit of truth is idolatry and brings a curse upon us and thwarts our redemptive progress.“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.” After his many interactions with the Lord, Nephi knows that as he does God’s will for him, God will give liberally all that he needs in order to do his will. He also knows that the knowledge and light he needs and that we need in order to be

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redeemed from the Fall and to enter back into the presence of the Lord is given to us only as we act in obedience to the Lord’s voice. Nephi covenants to lift up his voice to the rock of his righteousness forever that he might receive liberally all that is needed for him to complete his redemptive walk back into the Lord’s presence. Nephi was redeemed from the fall during his lifetime and entered into Christ’s presence and spoke with Him as one man speaks with another, as did his brother Jacob. They both bore witness of Christ’s reality and divinity and established this truth further with a third witness, even Isaiah.

PostscriptThis study guide was written for a son who loves Nephi’s Psalm above all scripture and who as Nephi has discovered the Lord’s strength and yet also suffers from weaknesses of the flesh. To he and I Nephi’s Psalm is one of the most instructive literary works in holy writ. In one small chapter Nephi instructs us in all that is glorious, plain, and simple. He helps us understand the ways of the clean and the unclean, the ways of righteousness. The Lord instructed the holy fathers in His ways; they followed him but their posterity eventually apostasized and were carried away into captivity and scattered throughout the earth. The Lord is doing his marvelous work and a wonder and has raised up the gentiles to restore his covenant people. Gentiles must awake, arise, and to be made clean that we, the metaphoric unclean wolves, leopards, lions, bears, and asps, spoken of by Isaiah, may also be made clean in Christ and become a part of the House of Israel. The Lord’s arm is outstretched to men everywhere all the day long (while our lives last). He invites all to do good continually, to shun darkness and to embrace light. He offers us his everlasting covenants that we may receive all the same blessings of saints in previous dispensations. He would have us publish tidings of peace throughout the world which is his gospel that teaches us to love neighbor as self, to lift others as we too would be lifted, to deal justly with all men and never do to another that which we would not have done unto self, and to seek to restore God’s lost and scattered covenant people. God offers us his sealing power, which is the power to do all things he did while on earth and even greater, if we will come unto him to become just men who are made perfect, holy, and without spot in him. He offers to show us our weaknesses, to give us sufficient power to forsake them, to instruct us in his ways that we may walk into his light, to give us a new heart, one that has no more disposition toward sin or darkness, and to help us retain a remission of our sins by giving us further instruction as it is needed within the redemptive pathway. He has also given us his commandments, which enable us to walk in his light shielded and protected from principalities of darkness. He has invited even us (the gentiles) to be encircled in the Robe of His Righteousness.Yet we are warned by holy prophets that we believe similar to the young king Lamoni, that whatsoever we do (our traditions) are right and that all is well in Zion when in fact we have not yet entirely forsaken false traditions of the fathers or the ways of Babylon to be made holy people who can establish Zion in our day. (See The Robe of His Righteousness.)

5 Nephiʼs Psalm

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Psalm of a Gentile

O Lord who stretches out thy arm all the day long to every people who come unto thee to be made clean; I am a wretched man who cannot see my own darkness without thy guiding light. Show me my darkness Lord that I too may give away all my sins to know thee. Lord, make my weaknesses strong that I too may give place no more in my heart for the enemy of my soul; rather, fill me with thy Spirit and love continually. Strengthen me insomuch that I may receive and retain a remission of my sins and that my strength toward righteousness will never slacken but in all things which thou would have me do, I may be made sufficient to do those things, that all things are made possible to me in you. Lord, deliver me and mine from our enemies and qualify us to walk in the straight path and not wander in our return into thy presence. Root out our darkness from within us

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that we might know and be filled with thy redeeming light. Help us become as the unclean animals that Isaiah saw upon thy holy mountain. Although not direct descentdants of Israel, the unclean animals were made clean in thee and were made worthy to share habitation with thy chosen people Israel. Yea Lord, thy hand is stretched forth to all who will receive thee to make them thine. Make us one with thee and thy holy people. Make us thine forever that we too might praise thee forever Lord, our rock and our salvation. Redeem my poor soul and the souls of all in my family, that as thou hast redeemed the holy fathers that we might also enter into thy rest with thee and them, to go no more out. Have mercy upon our weaknesses and make us strong Lord, that we too will shake at the appearance of sin and shun the gates of hell continually. Lead us continually Lord and enable our hearts to be broken and our spirits to be contrite that we might more easily become thy true servants and follow thee into thy presence. As the fathers were also unjust until thou taught them the peaceable things of immortal glory, make us likewise just. As they lacked truth and redeeming knowledge until thou taught them thy ways, which are unchaning forever and ever, teach us thy truths and redeeming knowledge. Wilt thou also be merciful to us that we too might become just and made perfect, holy, and without spot.Protect us from our enemies, help us raise up a righteous posterity unto thee, and as thou has done for repentant Israel, please accept our repentance Lord; make us thine, and deliver us from our enemies as you did for the sons of Helaman. Lord have mercy upon us and forgive my weaknesses Lord, but thou has commanded us to ask for that which we desire most that is right before thee. Because we too know that thou art a God of truth and canst not lie, will you also have mercy upon us Lord as thou had for the Brother of Jared? Wilt thou also say unto us Lord, “Because thou knowest these things thou are redeemed from the fall.” And Lord, wilt thou also cause the veil to fall from our eyes that we might enter into thy presence, see thy face and know, nothing doubting? As the author of our faith Lord wilt thou not also finish our faith and show us all things thou has shown to all who have been made clean in thee? Lord, may we also come to merit thy trust and receive thy sealing power and become thy servants forever and ever, surrounded continually by the robe of thy righteousness? Wilt thou reveal Zion unto me and mine Lord that we might fulfill our missions to help establish it again upon the earth and publish thy glad tidings of peace unto all the world.Wilt thou also take away our stumbling blocks that our way back to thee might not be hedged up. And Lord we pray for our enemies that they might also receive thy mercy and become clean before thee that we might enjoy their association upon thy holy mountain. We cannot bear to see one soul lost before thee Lord, oh rock of our salvation; we trust in thee and thy grace alone Lord and with thy grace we will put off forever trusting in man or the arm of flesh. Lord make me, mine, and my enemies strong that we may each be filled with thy Spirit, remember thee continually, come to know thy ways, and receive of thee whatsoever we need inso much that we might do thy will forever and ever. O Lord, we are nothing without you; even our best is insufficient; encircle us in the robe of thy righteosness forever and make us each clean and acceptable before thee our Redeemer, our Master, and the Rock of our salvation, even our Lord Jesus. Amen!

7 Nephiʼs Psalm

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