This post is stepping back in time about a month to when we were in Utah. I never was able to post the rest of the temple photos we took while we were there. In the first post, I put up some pictures of the Salt Lake Temple, the Conference Center and other points of interest at Temple Square. The current post will display a series of pictures taken at the Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple and also the Draper Utah Temple. For those unfamiliar with these edifices, they are the two newest temples built by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the state of Utah (USA). Part of the excitement of seeing these two temples was the fact that they are so new. I tend to go for old historical buildings, but it is great to know that there are still very beautiful sacred buildings built in our modern day.
We were able to drive up to this temple after visiting a friend that lives close by. It was nice that they live so close, but we could see the temple from miles away as we approached anyways. Once you get to the West Jordan area, you can see both the Jordan River Temple and the Oquirrh Mountain Temple way back behind it closer to mountains on the west (unfortunately, I couldn’t get a good shot of that view). Due to our time restrictions, we weren’t able to actually go in and do any work in this temple, so we didn’t see the interior — which I really regret as the interior of these temples is even more awe-inspiring than the outside.
The following are a few of the better photos (we are not professional photographers, sorry) we took of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple.
As I promised in my last post, I will be sharing here some of my thoughts after reading Psalm 2. While my comments will draw from some of the studies I have done recently and commentaries read, the purpose of this post is not to give an in-depth or full commentary on the psalm, but to explore it just a bit and share what thoughts come to mind. Thus, I don’t mean for this to be my full and final explanation or official opinion on the subject — just some “musings.”
Now with that little disclaimer aside, I really enjoy Psalm 2. It’s rather short, but packs in a ton of important content. We Christians usually read this as a Messianic psalm — and indeed it should be considered as such. We must also remember, however, that the Messianic ideal was an important part of the religion of the Israel during the Davidic monarchy. The original “life-setting” of this psalm, I believe, was during the monarchy, or the First Temple period. The Lord’s anointed (v. 2) is the Davidic king. There is a special relationship between God and the earthly king. The king is God’s mortal counterpart on the Earth. The king represents God to the people, and God has covenanted to protect the king.
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In the Company of Angels
This post was inspired by a speaker at yesterday’s (Sunday’s) sacrament meeting in Dundee, Scotland (and also by this discussion on Bryce Haymond’s blog). The speaker (I didn’t get his name) began talking about what a spiritual experience it was to be called as a temple worker in the Preston, England Temple. When their training as temple workers began, the temple president informed them that this was no ordinary work, that they were “angels in training.” When he said that, it really struck a chord with me because of some things I’ve been studying recently.
This inspired speaker went on to quote from Doctrine and Covenants 132:19 in relation to what it is that we are doing and learning in the temple. I quote, in part, from this passage here:
It is promised that the rituals that we perform and the covenants made in the temple will one day, if we prove faithful, be fully realized. The promise that we “shall inherit thrones, kingdoms, principalities, and powers, dominions, all heights and depths” will be fulfilled when we are exalted to our Father’s kingdom and truly and literally declared to be kings and queens in that kingdom.
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