Bev Psalm 70: Joseph O Joseph

Joseph of old sold into Egypt, the youngest son

   yet he saved his brethren from famine.

Lehi descended from Joseph and named his

   youngest son born in the wilderness, Joseph.

This Joseph was promised that his seed

   should never perish.

We know that his descendants are Native

   Americans, one was even named Chief Joseph.

They were here to welcome the pilgrims.

They fought on both sides of the Revolutionary War.

Joseph Smith, Jr. who was named after his father,

   Joseph Smith, bridges these generations of Joseph.

He was chosen by God and Jesus Christ as the

   prophet to head this last dispensation;

   to restore Christ’s church founded in former days.

Now over 18 million people worldwide belong to the

   Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

By their works, ye shall know them.

The missionaries found me.

My father’s name was Joseph.

My mother descended from an early Cherokee

   lineage, unproven and torn, a part of the

   Trail of Tears.

If I had had a son, would I have named him Joseph?

Joseph and Ruthe, my parents

Bev Psalm 69: Agency is Key

The Savior Jesus Christ’s atonement is both

   intimate and infinite.

He died for me; He died for you.

We are God’s children.

The world was created for us to learn and to be

   tested to see if we will obey.

Agency to choose is key to God’s plan for us.

As it was in the pre-existence, we were taught

   Through eons with God as our Master teacher.

But there we learned only theory.

Then we had a choice.

If we have a body in our second estate, we chose

   the right: to follow Jesus.

Now we, with two thirds of God’s spirit children,

   live in our mortal laboratory.

Here there is an opposition in all things;

   bitter or sweet; liberty or captivity.

Here we may act or be acted upon.

These are the days of our probation.

God is omniscient, He knows all things,

   therefore, He must see all things at once.

As a loving parent, He knows us intimately.

Yet He lets us choose.

Even if we choose wrongly, He still loves us

   and continually places before us numerous

   opportunities to get back on the covenant path.

Ponder, if you will, what future duties we will be

   given in the worlds to come by an omniscient

   God in order to show us proof of our ability to

   “get it right,” let us know we’ve earned esteem.

He and His Son saw our day and the trials and

   tribulations we are passing through.

Their promise to us is that it will be but for a small moment.

The eternal perspective reminds us that

   this is God’s purpose:

To bring to pass the eternal life of man.

Men are that they might have joy.

Key Chains of Truth

Bev Psalm 68: Opposition in All Things

Lehi now in the promised land blesses his people

   saying: be men, and be determined in one mind

   and in one heart, united in all things.

Awake and put on the armor of righteousness.

Then he gives each of his sons a patriarchal blessing.

He testifies that the Holy Messiah offers Himself as

   a sacrifice for sin. Why?

Because no flesh can dwell in the presence of God the

   Father except upon the Savior’s merit and mercy.

As God’s only begotten son, He came to earth to make

   intercession for us, the Holy One through His

   resurrection paid the punishment. For each of us.

Only He, half mortal as Mary’s child and a god from

   His Heavenly Father can be our Advocate when

   He stands with us before the Judgement seat.

Lehi concludes: There must be opposition in all things

We must choose between light and dark, good and

   evil, holiness or wickedness.

Let us put on that whole armor of God and

   be found standing in holy places at the last day.

Bev Psalm 67: What the Devil

Isaiah foretells of the Lord’s second coming

How is this relevant for us today?

It is clearly portrayed as a day when

   Christ’s arm will be made bare to all

   the nations of the earth.

Having brought His covenants out of

   darkness and obscurity

The gospel burst forth and His scattered

   sheep are brought into one fold.

They are numbered to Him.

His sheep hear His voice and know Him.

The righteous need not fear when the

   fulness of the wrath of God falls upon

   His enemies with fire.

The very fire that burns the wicked is the

   Glory of the Lord.

His fire protects the righteous at that day.

Liken it to Shadrack, Meshac and Abednigo

   in their furnace of fire where another visage

   was seen to be accompanying them.

The Lord was with them because of their righteousness.

Those who are found living by the commandments,

   covenants and will of the Lord, shall not be

   consumed at His coming.

There is a funny picture portraying me as

   our high school mascot, the Red Devil.

As I focus now on Christ, the picture blends

   symbolically my choices.

I choose to be a disciple of our Savior, the

   Redeemer of the World, the Messiah.

Bev Psalm 66: Highly Favored

My eyes are opened and my

   understanding increased.

This is because of my diligent, consistent

   seeking;

The Lord has seen my righteousness.

His voice I’ve heard.

He commanded, write psalms and ten

   months later I’m doing it daily.

The Spirit invites, entices and leads me

   To pray more and testify more.

There is comfort knowing that the power

   of covenants does not take a day off.

The promises of Isaiah are being fulfilled

   today; I see it!

I am highly favored of the Lord.

All righteous covenant keeping men and

   women are highly favored.

The Lord knows the beginning and the end.

He proclaims hope in my end and in yours, too.

May we bring the light of the gospel to a

   scattered Israel and others, highly favored.

Likening scriptures to myself will help

   others to see and hear His voice.

Modern words for ancient patterns and promises.

The Lord is doing a marvelous work.

He has lifted up His hand upon the Saints and

   set them up for the world to see:

A beacon upon the hill, in a mighty nation

   where freedom of religion reigns, and is maintained

   by the votes of many righteous men and women.

We have been nourished by the good word of God

   preserved for over 4,000 years.

Our daughters have been carried upon those

   shoulders of a priesthood restored.

 

Bev Psalm 65: Remember Former Things

 

Do I write the more sacred things here

   or as on Nephi’s other plates, only my journeyings

   in the wilderness?

My weakness in writing and what I choose

   to make into a psalm daily are probably just

   for my personal growth and benefit.

I do not prophesy.

I only make record of daily studies and reading

   In the Book of Mormon.

Lehi and Sariah have grown old, as I have.

Nephi ponders ancient record that prophesy of the

   God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who will

   come 600 years after his family left Jerusalem

   to come to this promised land, an isle of the sea.

The Americas are Isles of the sea, formed after

   the continents divided.

At Christ’s crucifixion, earthquakes rend and

   fracture the rocks of the whole earth.

God will remember the isles and all the people

   of Israel scattered there.

All the earth shall see the salvation of the Lord.

I liken all scriptures unto my own life and

   write here so you might do the same.

Isaiah quotes the Lord as saying he declared

   former things from the beginning for us today, “Mine

   idol hath done them, and my graven image and my

   molten image hath commanded them.”

AI, computers, cell phones with their soldered

   connections, molded casings, and predictive imagery

   certainly match these descriptions, and

Isaiah saw it!

Bev Psalm 64: Gathering

 

In the storms of our life have we gathered

   sufficient meat to sustain us?

The meat of the gospel, not milk.

Do we feast on the deeper meaning of words

   spoken by prophets ancient and living?

Jeremiah foretold the gathering in our day.

The seeds planted in far-flung parts of the world

   have sprung forth and missionaries are sent.

They are fishers of men.

Anciently Jesus called fishermen to be His apostles.

Today apostles lead, guide, and invite us to go up

   unto the mountain of the Lord, His house, the temple.

Do we remember who we came from

Honoring our forefathers, then providing them with

   opportunities to learn of Jesus Christ, their Savior

   performing work for them that they cannot do

   for themselves?

After the fishers have found us, let us hunt ancestors

   from every mountain, hill and hole in the rock.

These holes in the rocks once were tombs

   cut in stone, now are stones over gravesites.

FindaGrave and Billion Graves help us to be

   hunters of our deceased families.

Their calling was to multiply and replenish the earth

   giving God’s spirit children bodies, to be tried,

   and tested to see if they would do whatever

   God commanded.

The desire of my heart is to find every baby

   that died young during years where the storms

   of life included rudimentary medical care,

   plagues, illnesses, accidents, even murder.

Widespread wars, the deceit of conspiring men

   felled many family trees, leaving no boughs

   or branches, only roots.

The computer now helps us hunt, threshing

   mountains of data, to find the one.

We gather scattered Israel, one family at a time.

Onto the ship of the gospel to be safely

   gathered in to weather life’s hurricanes.