“Counsel with the Lord in All Thy Doings”

Brant Gardner

Literature: These verses are similar to Amulek’s instructions on prayer to the Zoramites (Alma 34:19–27). This harmony increases the probability that both Amulek and now Alma are quoting or paraphrasing a well-known but no longer extant source, giving their specific instructions this formal parallelism. This would be a different section of the hymn/poem because the structure is different. In this set there are parallels with three clauses (one of which is implicit after the first line) rather than the dual clauses in the hymn/poem Amulek cited.

Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, / and he will direct thee for good; yea,
[Counsel with the Lord] when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, / that he may watch over you in your sleep;
[Counsel with the Lord] and when thou risest in the morning / let thy heart be full of thanks unto God;
and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day.

Second Witness: Analytical & Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 4

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