THE PSALM OF A PRIESTHOOD HOLDER

by Rian B. Anderson


Who am I, O God,
That Thou wouldst give me
Thy Power?

What have I done
To deserve
The Holy Priesthood?

It causes my mind
To reel
When I think of the
Authority, influence and power
That it carries.

It was with this power
That Adam helped create
The earth.

It is the power
Enoch used
To move mountains
And change the course of rivers
In defense of his people
As the armies of the wicked
Advanced
Against them.

And it was through the influence
Of this Holy Priesthood
That he converted 1000's
And built a city
Unto thee;

A city so righteous
And holy
That Thou caused it
To be translated,
That its righteousness
Might be preserved.

I stand in awe, O God,
When I think of Noah
And the stamina and courage
The Priesthood gave him 
To cry repentance
Unto the wicked
For 600 years.

What faith the Priesthood
Gave to Abraham;
Faith to live righteously
When all around him
Worshiped idols;
To leave family and friends
For a land unknown;
And finally, to be willing
To sacrifice
His long awaited son.

Then there was Thy servant,
Moses.
What an extra-ordinary man
He was because of the power
Thou gavest him
Through the Priesthood;

Power to stand before Pharaoh,
The mightiest man
On earth,
And defy him
And his army;
The power to bring down
Plagues from heaven,
And to part the Red Sea,
That the Israelites
Might cross on dry land.

Have any of Thy servants
Been filled with 
More power than he?

And Joshua,
A fitting man to take 
His place;
Filled with such
Faith
And power
That city walls crumbled
Before his command.

I marvel at Elijah;
Blessing the Widow
And her son
That during the famine
Their meal barrel
And cruse of oil
Would not run dry,
Then restoring this same son
To life
After the spirit had departed
His body.

And was he not the prophet
Who called down fire
>From heaven,
Consuming not only
His offering
Before the priests of Baal,
Whose god
Sent them nothing,
But also the alter on which it lay,
And the trench of water that surrounded
The alter?

To be honored with such men
As these;
To hold the same Priesthood,
To have the same power,
The same authority,
Is beyond my comprehension.

Why?
Why am I numbered
With such as Isaiah
Who, 
By the power of the Priesthood
Prophesied of so many
Marvelous things?

And with the Brother of Jared,
Whose faith was such
That Thou couldst not
Remain hidden
>From his vision?

It makes me tremble
To think that it was with
This same Priesthood
That Christ framed 
Worlds without end
Even before He made
His Sojourn in mortality.
And it was by its power
That He
Preformed His
Mighty miracles
While here.
He healed lepers,
Made the lame to walk,
Opened the eyes of the blind,
And restored the dead again to life.

But most important of all;
With the same Priesthood power,
He brought about his own resurrection
After suffering out
An agonizing death
On the Cross,
Thus making it possible 
For all mankind
To be resurrected.

And finally, 
I think of the life
Of Joseph Smith.
My head bows with respect
And I give him great honor.
Through the power of the Priesthood
He was transformed
>From a somewhat crippled
New York farm boy,
Coming from a home stricken with poverty,
And having very little 
Formal schooling,
Into the greatest prophet,
Save Christ Himself,
That this world has known.

In the midst of these great men
I feel
Very small,
Very insignificant,
And very undeserving
Of this same Power.

And so I ask again,

What have I done
To deserve
The Holy Priesthood?

Who am I, O God,
That Thou wouldst give me
Thy Power?

-------

There is silence,
Then the answer comes:

Thou art my Son.