D&C 84:61-65

Here the Lord takes up what might be read as an implication of verse 57 (see commentary there) and renders it a commandment: "not only to say, but to do" here becomes "remain steadfast in your minds in solemnity and the spirit of prayer, in bearing testimony to all the world of those things which are communicated unto you." It is key that with the fulfillment of this one commandment, the sins (the darkened minds, the slighting of the scriptures, etc.) of the saints are to be forgiven. The one commandment is, however, not quite so simple as just "preaching the word." What the Lord seems to be commanding the saints to do specifically is to proclaim the gospel in a certain way, as guided, that is, by remaining "steadfast in your minds in solemnity and the spirit of prayer." What this means must be worked out, and the working out must be guided by the preliminary commentary worked out at verse 57.

The most important point seems to be that the Lord here draws together the word (communication) and the Word (worship or praise): the saints are to declare the word to the world, but they are to do so while constantly presenting themselves before the Word. The work of proclaiming the gospel, in other words, is not only a question of making sure that a message gets across. At the same time, neither is it a question only of praying that God accomplishes the work. Perhaps the two tasks--here drawn together--might be better understood by tying them to a distinction drawn in D&C 20:57: vocal prayer vs. secret prayer. In that verse, the priests are commanded to visit the house of the members of the Church and to exhort them to "pray vocally and in secret." The distinction is fruitful: vocal prayer seems primarily to be a question of communal praise, and secret prayer seems primarily to be a question of personal counsel and even--perhaps often--complaint. These two tasks to which one is summoned by the visiting priest might be taken as a guide to thinking the question this verse raises: to "remain steadfast in your minds in solemnity and the spirit of prayer" might just be to "pray...in secret," and "bearing testimony to all the world of those things which are communicated unto you" might just be to "pray vocally." In other words, bearing testimony before all the world might well be a question of praise, of going before the world quite simply to praise God in His glory. Remaining in the meanwhile steadfast in solemn prayer might well be, then, the continual work of counseling with and complaining to the Lord. Before men, one praises God; in one's closet, one chides Him.

These two attitudes--which are here drawn together in the same task--might offer an interpretive framework for reading, say, the collective Psalms: there are psalms of complaint (all of which are written in a very personal I-Thou idiom), and there are psalms of praise (all of which involve others in the prayer, as with the constant refrain "Hallelujah," "praise ye the Lord"). What is so peculiar about all of this is that the two tasks are, for all intents and purposes, here drawn together into one task: one is to praise God before the world while counseling with the Lord in secret. The combination calls to mind, perhaps, the double task Paul gives to the Corinthian saints: "Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret" (1 Cor 14:13). Paul, later in the same chapter, states this task negatively, and perhaps for that reason, more explicitly, more powerfully: "But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church; and let him speak to himself, and to God" (1 Cor 14:28). Two tasks are, according to Paul, to be performed together: prayer directed precisely to God, and words of exhortation directed precisely to the church. In short, faith (private prayer) without works (the communicating word) is dead, and works (the communicating word) without faith (private prayer) is dead.

But perhaps this tie to Paul's discourse on the gift of tongues opens up another way of understanding the double task and the distinction drawn in D&C 20:57: secret prayer might be a question of "the tongue of angels" (2 Ne 31:13) and vocal prayer of "the tongues of men" (1 Cor 13:1). The question might be tied, that is, to themes that pervade Isa 6 and 28: a missionary--one sent specifically by God as Isaiah had been--is one who inhabits two realms, one who has been in the Holy of Holies and yet dwells on earth, one who thus speaks two entirely different tongues (the angelic tongue registering as sheer noise in the earth, and the tongues of men registering as inarticulate cries in the heavens). To do missionary work--and, according to D&C 20:57, patriarchal work--in God's way is, in the end, to be the link between two realms, to be after the order of the Son of God, to be like the Christ who in His very incarnation is the veil that faces both the heavenly and the earthly realms (see Heb 10:20). Perhaps it is for this very reason that missionary work--and fatherhood, for that matter--are questions of priesthood.

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D&C 84:61-65

From Feast upon the Word (http://feastupontheword.org). Copyright, Feast upon the Word.

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Verse 63

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