As 2 Nephi begins, Lehi is on his deathbed, and he shares some final words of wisdom with various members of his family as recorded in chapters 1-4. In chapter 1, he speaks primarily to Laman and Lemuel, his oldest sons, who'd given the family the hardest time as they traveled in the wilderness and had never really accepted the Lord into their lives. Here’s a summary of the points Lehi makes as he pleads with his sons:

• Shake off the chains that bind you (verses 13, 23)
• Soften your hardened hearts (verse 17)
• Keep the commandments of God (verses 16, 20)
• Do the above to avoid eternal destruction (verse 22)
• Ultimately, the will of God will be done (verse 19)

MARVELOUS (adjective)

• Extraordinary
• Awesome
• Causing great wonder
• Extremely good or pleasing

In 1 Nephi 22:8-9, Nephi tells his brothers,

"And after our seed is scattered the Lord God will proceed to do a marvelous work among the Gentiles, which shall be of great worth unto our seed; wherefore, it is likened unto their being nourished by the Gentiles and being carried in their arms and upon their shoulders.

And it shall also be of worth unto the Gentiles; and not only unto the Gentiles but unto all the house of Israel, unto the making known of the covenants of the Father of heaven unto Abraham, saying: In thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed."

1 Nephi 21 includes the Book of Mormon's first descriptions of a place and time period known as "Zion." Although there is much that can be written about Zion — and perhaps will be in future blog articles — this particular article focuses on Zion as Israel's gathering place, as described in chapter 21.

Scattering of Israel

The story of Zion begins with the descendants of Jacob (a.k.a. Israel), also known as the "House of Israel." The House of Israel were God's "chosen people," but due to their unbelief (especially in Christ), they found themselves scattered throughout the world. Even today, we only know of two of the twelve "tribes" of Israel (Judah and Joseph); the whereabouts of the other 10 are still unknown.

Psalm 19:14, "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer."

How powerful is this verse? There is absolutely nothing wrong with asking the Lord to make you pleasing to Him. In fact, He loves to teach you His ways. He tenderly molds your character so that you speak, think, and act in ways that honor Him.

David's greatest concern as a servant of the Lord is his own acceptability to his Master. As he surveyed the wonderful heavens and looked into the wonderful word of God, he sees himself in light of these two creations and then views his own sinful condition. He can only conclude with a prayer for God to sanctify him constantly. How much more should this apply to our lives today?

Psalm 19:12-13, "Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression."

David starts verse 12 with a rhetorical question: Who can understand his errors? Answer: Very few people.

Nobody wants to admit when they’re wrong. It’s not in our DNA. It’s so much easier to blame others for our mistakes. Even from the beginning, Adam blamed Eve, and Eve blamed the serpent for their sins instead of taking ownership of them. From that day until now, we continue to play the blame game. We choose to break God’s laws and then act as if we haven’t done anything wrong at all.

Psalm 19:11, "Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward."

First, go back and read the whole enchilada, all of Psalm 19:7-14. Go on…

Today we are looking at verse 11 in our quest to memorize this passage.

So, now go back and re-read the 11th.

By them and in keeping of them… "Them" is referring to the judgments of the Lord in verse 9. If the word "them" is replaced with what it is referring to, this verse could be translated to say, "Moreover by the judgments of the Lord is thy servant warned: and in keeping of the judgments of the Lord there is great reward.

Psalm 19:10, “More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.”

In the previous three blogs, we learned that the word “they” in this verse refers to God’s law, testimony, statutes, commandments, judgments, and even the fear of the Lord.

Recently, I was grieving the loss of my dear mother. My wife and I had been blessed to spend most of the past two years in her home as caregivers. The previous night added to the sting of her loss, as several of us began to go through her earthly belongings.

She had accumulated little of this world’s wealth, but seemingly insignificant items were now repositories of rich memories and all we had left. To be honest, even if she had left behind a wealthy estate, it would have done nothing to fill the void I was feeling that day.

But something my wife found changed my perspective.

Part 1 of Psalm 19:9 says, "The FEAR of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever."

The FEAR of the Lord is clean. It also leads us to life (Ps. 14). In fact, it's a foundation of life (Prov. 23). Wisdom starts with the FEAR of the Lord (Ps. 110). It gives us confidence (Prov. 14) and satisfaction (Prov. 19).

Fear of (anything else) = False Evidences Appearing Real

Psalm 19:8, "The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes."

Mankind was never meant to be separated from God.

It is God's will that we dwell with Him eternally. In fact, the entire history of God's interactions with man can be summed up as a continual effort to draw mankind back to the Father. By the actions of our first ancestors, we became tarnished, imperfect, unholy, and unworthy to dwell in the presence of the Lord. Thankfully our God is a loving Father who has not turned His back on His disobedient children, but instead has provided a way for us to become clean, perfect, and holy once again. That process was given to us through His statutes and the fulfilling of His law.

The law of God is perfect; it is true; it is pure; it is the path of our salvation.

Psalm 19:7, "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple."

I don't know about you, but most of my co-workers believe that the existence of God is downright ridiculous.

Considering themselves to be tolerant and open-minded, they readily acknowledge that some people have "traditions" or "guiding moral principles." But for someone to actually believe in a supernatural deity wielding absolute power and moral authority is uneducated, intolerant, or even delusional.

There are some scripture passages that ring clear as a bell. Others are more shrouded in mystery. Some are simple and straightforward; others sag delightfully beneath the weight of packed promises and prophecy. Some are repetitive. Others are confusing. And some are …

… unequivocally, undeniably, unrestrainedly …

gorgeous.

I think Psalm 19:7-14 is one of those.

At the end of 1 Nephi 19, Nephi mentions that he is reading the words of Isaiah to his brothers. 1 Nephi 20 and 21 represent two of the chapters that Nephi read to them. Although not a word-for-word match, these two chapters line up closely with Isaiah 48 and 49.

In chapter 20 (Isaiah 48), the prophet scolds the House of Israel for not heeding what God was telling them, especially about the coming of Christ. Although God shared this knowledge on multiple occasions, it somehow didn't penetrate for Israel. The prophet words it, "Yea, and thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time thine ear was not opened" (verse 8). He describes them as having closed ears, and the admonishment in the rest of the chapter is "Open Your Ears!"

After arriving at the promised land of the Americas, Nephi spent considerable time with the various records in his possession. It was then that he prepared the plates on which he would record his own family's record. He also read from the records of the prophets that were recorded on the plates of brass.

Nephi also spent time teaching his brothers from the writings of the prophets and even read to them from these writings. His favorite prophet to read from was the prophet Isaiah. He said that he chose Isaiah to read from because his writings were especially applicable to his family who were part of the House of Israel. The way he put it was that they could "liken the scriptures" to themselves.

Over the last few chapters, we've seen the Lord direct Lehi's family to the border of the Arabian Sea and work through Nephi to build a ship that would take the family across the many waters to the land of the Americas. In 1 Nephi 18, the family boards the ship and begins the voyage.

One day during the trip, Laman and Lemuel and the sons of Ishmael and their wives began to have sort of a party with singing and dancing. Perhaps if the party had been limited to this, it wouldn't have been a problem, but the account states that they did "speak with much rudeness, yea, even that they did forget by what power they had been brought thither; yea, they were lifted up unto exceeding rudeness" (verse 9).

We're pausing our weekly study of 1 Nephi to bring you this article by Brother Joshua Gehly.

For Hindus, it’s the Sruti. For Buddhists, it’s the Tripitaka and the Dhammapada. For Taoists, it’s the Dao De Jing, Chuang Tzu, and the I Ching. For Islam, it’s the Quran. For Judaism, it’s the Torah. Different Christians include the Bible and, for some groups, many other texts. Each text claims to hold critical keys to spiritual understanding of divine truth.

Odds are good you have not read even a fraction of the religious texts available around the world. How do you know what the Word of God is?