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The fact that the Psalms are poetry is more noticeable than other books of the Bible, where the poetry has been obscured by things like translation and changes in culture. In fact, scholars estimate that one-third to one-half of the Old Testament was originally written as poetry. As a result the Come Follow Me manual includes a special section \u201cReading Poetry in the Old Testament\u201d explaining something about its importance. I urge you to read it, and to read poetry.<\/p>\n
Of course, my entire purpose in this series of posts is to urge the use of poetry in our lessons. Poetry has the advantage of being memorable \u2014 the techniques of poetry, from rhyme to parallelism, assonance and alliteration and a host of other features, all make the words easier to remember, and point out ideas that are easy to miss. Poetry often does something that many people dislike today\u2014it makes you slow down and think about what is being said. Just think about today\u2019s readings, which include Psalm 23, a poem that is likely familiar to you\u201a\u2014and many people can recite it from memory.\u00a0And that is a huge benefit\u2014the consoling words of Psalm 23 can be with you whenever you need them. You can sing them (Hymn #108), or simply recall them when needed.<\/p>\n
As might be expected for poetry produced by a Christian religion, much of our poetry focuses on the Savior and our relationship with him. Poetically, we express our faith and trust in Him, our knowledge of His role, His blessing us through the earth and His help through his word to give us comfort and teach us to be righteous. All this and more is in our poetry. I hope at least some poems will occasionally resonate with you, and become memorable.<\/p>\n
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Trust is usually similar to faith. When we trust in the Lord, we have faith that He can \u00a0guide us, direct us and protect us from danger. Its often hard to have that trust, since His work isn\u2019t always obvious, and His help isn\u2019t always clear. Its almost always possible to think that His actions are coincidental or done by others.<\/p>\n
This poem uses several techniques to expound the poet\u2019s trust in God. The final repeated \u201cI\u2019ll trust in Him\u201d at the end of each stanza emphasizes this message, as does the same words at the beginning of each stanza. The poet, R. Michelsen, also develops his argument in the 3 stanzas, moving from a Redeemer who guides us, to His power and love that directs us, and finally to protection from \u201cwhat-e\u2019er befalls.\u201d<\/p>\n
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by R. Michelsen<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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1913<\/p>\n
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Our understanding of the role of the Messiah stretches over our entire understanding of our existence. We see His role in the pre-existence, where he worked to preserve agency and agreed to become the promised Messiah. We see prophets talking about His promised role, and we see new promises of his eventual role hereafter, when he will return in a glorious \u2018second coming.\u2019 This latter role was a prominent idea in early Mormon thought, and it frequently appears in the millennial expressions of many of our earliest poems.<\/p>\n
This poem is likely familiar to most Church members as one of our most-sung sacrament hymns. But the hymnal only includes the first four stanzas, the last four stanzas shift from the sacrament and Christ\u2019s sacrifice to His millennial role as the \u2018true Messiah\u201d, the promised Savior and the One who will come again.<\/p>\n
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by W. W. Phelps<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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1835<\/p>\n
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Since we see Christ\u2019s role in the eternities before this life, we understand His participation in creating this earth, filling it with \u2018goodness\u2019 and in giving man stewardship over the world\u2014a fact that seems to have been forgotten by many today who seem to welcome irresponsible use of the earth and its bounties. Is there any doubt that the stewardship we have been given means keeping the earth in a state where human beings can continue to enjoy its fullness throughout the eternities?<\/p>\n
In the following poem, E. H. Lund explores the bounties of the earth, even mentioning the too-often unethical appropriation of its bounties. In the end the poet urges us to \u201cBeshrew the thought of craving gold! \/\u00a0Give praise to Providence above \/\u00a0For scented field and leafy grove.\u201d<\/p>\n
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by E. H. Lund<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
1915<\/p>\n
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Poetry\u2019s use of words to create powerful effects, helping to change minds and disrupt thinking. As a result, there is both power and danger in poetry. This is the reason that so much of the Old Testament is composed of poetry. This power is in our scriptures, and that power is something that we can rejoice in, when we are seeking righteousness. Unfortunately, our cultural assumptions about both religion and poetry, which usually use a kind of \u201csoft power\u201d instead of the power of violence, don\u2019t let us see the power that is in the word of the Lord.<\/p>\n
The unknown poet who composed the following work saw the power of God\u2019s word, especially when it comes to us in the Temple. The poet foresees the power of gathering people to Zion, building Temples, and learning in them, leading to preparation for the second coming and the resurrection of the dead\u2014all things foretold by the promises made in the word of the Lord.<\/p>\n
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author unknown<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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1856<\/p>\n
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The most important role of the Savior is, of course, His atonement, which allows us to overcome sin and become pure, so that we can endure the presence of God. It is only through the atonement that we can become pure\u2014we are not capable of becoming pure without that help. We are not capable of changing who we have become without the help of the atonement.<\/p>\n
Meant as a prayer for blessings from the Temple, the following poem asks God to \u201cpurify our hearts\u201d through our Temple service and dedication to living the gospel\u2014the plan that implements the atonement in our lives.<\/p>\n
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by Lucy May Green<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
1916<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The fact that the Psalms are poetry is more noticeable than other books of the Bible, where the poetry has been obscured by things like translation and changes in culture. In fact, scholars estimate that one-third to one-half of the Old Testament was originally written as poetry. As a result the Come Follow Me manual includes a special section \u201cReading Poetry in the Old Testament\u201d explaining something about its importance. I urge you to read it, and to read poetry. Of course, my entire purpose in this series of posts is to urge the use of poetry in our lessons. Poetry has the advantage of being memorable \u2014 the techniques of poetry, from rhyme to parallelism, assonance and alliteration and a host of other features, all make the words easier to remember, and point out ideas that are easy to miss. Poetry often does something that many people dislike today\u2014it makes you slow down and think about what is being said. Just think about today\u2019s readings, which include Psalm 23, a poem that is likely familiar to you\u201a\u2014and many people can recite it from memory.\u00a0And that is a huge benefit\u2014the consoling words of Psalm 23 can be with you whenever […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":54266,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latter-day-saint-thought"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_3824.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54261"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54273,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54261\/revisions\/54273"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}