Temple Themes

The beginning of Psalm 82 states, “God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods.” This is a divine council. It is the Hebrew term cowd (pronounced sode). It’s the same word that gets translated as secret in Amos 3:7: “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his […]

Psalm 29 speaks of the glory and holiness of the Lord. Verse 2 directs our worship “in the beauty of holiness.” “In his temple doth everyone speak of his glory” (Psalm 29:9). Inscribed in each temple are the words, “Holiness to the Lord, The House of the Lord.” The focus of this post will be

Psalm 24 reflects the Temple Endowment Ceremony beginning at the Creation of the Earth. The first two verses state, “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas and established it upon the floods.” The Hebrew suggests that the earth

I’m a week behind again due to Education Week, which I attended last week. It was so awesome! I hope to be able to share some ideas I learned there. But today’s post will largely be a collaboration of ideas from a book I read several years ago entitled, Ancient Temple Worship, Temple on Mount

I used to think the Psalms were merely fancy poetry, so I practiced my speed reading on those and other sections, like Isaiah and the Book of Mormon war chapters, but now I slow down and savor all of these. The Psalms were the temple hymns, and as a result, they are loaded with temple

In Job chapter 38, the Lord speaks in divine council language and asks a series of questions. Job cannot answer any of them. The Lord answers Job “out of the whirlwind,” demonstrating His power and majesty. But for me, the whirlwind is like a veil, separating God’s glory from our mortal fallen state. It represents

The entire Book of Job is a divine council, which could have taken place in a premortal setting, or it could have been an intervention during Job’s mortality. Either way, the events are real and Job is a real person. Many in the world today consider the Book of Job to be a fictitious parable,

Mordecai is honored years after revealing an assassination plot against the king. He is given the king’s ring (Esther 8:2). “Then the king held out the golden sceptre toward Esther (the queen). So Esther arose, and stood before the king” (8:4). The typology here has three purposes. Standing before the king is akin to coming

A pattern of worship emerges in Nehemiah chapter 8 with the first public reading of the Book of the Law setting a pattern for King Benjamin’s gathering in Mosiah chapters 2 through 5. This reading began on “the first day of the seventh month,” (Nehemiah 8:2) which would be Rosh Hashanah, or Feast of Trumpets.

Solomon’s Temple had a molten sea which rested upon twelve oxen, as described in 2 Chronicles 4:4-5: “It stood upon twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, and three looking toward the west, and three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east: and the sea was set above upon them, and all