Psalm 48

Last week, I felt prompted to spend more time in the temple. I was struggling with some personal feelings, as I often do, but I had no idea what would come that week. The temple prepared me for those things. The Lord knew I would need his strength to get through the week and He sent me to a place I could find that strength.

Have you ever struggled with troubling thoughts and feelings only to find, after going to the temple, they sort themselves out, and you walk out of temple doors better able to face the world?

Tuesday morning last week, as I was walking out of the foyer of the Provo Temple, the Spirit prompted me to stop and pick up a Bible. I did so. The book opened to Psalms 48. Verse 9 reads:

We have thought of thy lovingkindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple.

God's lovingkindness certainly prepared me to face the devastating news I heard later that morning, the news of the shocking death of a close friend's son.

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain [temple] of his holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion...God is known in her palaces for a refuge.... For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death.

—Psalms 48:1-3, 14

The temple is a solace to me, a refuge from conflict and storm. There is a peace to be found there that I can find in no other place on earth. If you are able to go, go often; if you are desirous to go, prepare yourself to go. You will surely find His lovingkindness there.