God Is in His Holy Temple
132
Text: Anonymous ( Hymns of the Spirit, 1864)
Music: Frank W. Asper (1892–1973; LDS)
Tune name: WILSON
This unusual hymn text, though not by a Latter- day Saint author, will have particular significance for all Latter- day Saints who sing it. The presence of our Heavenly Father is always drawn to holy places, places that have been especially prepared for him. Each verse of this hymn uses the word temple to refer to such a place.
This hymn is a meditation upon Habbakuk 2:20: “But the Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.”
To the mind of a Latter- day Saint, the word temple immediately suggests a building where faithful members of the Church meet to perform sacred ordinances, learn revealed truth, make eternal covenants, and dedicate themselves to the building up of the Lord’s kingdom. The first verse of this hymn accords with this meaning of temple. A temple is a place where “with reverence we assemble / And before his presence bow.” The holiness of the temple must be safeguarded, because the Lord has stated, “If it be defiled I will not come into it, and my glory shall not be there; for I will not come into unholy temples” (D&C 97:17).
This citation from the Doctrine and Covenants is the first scriptural notation at the bottom of the hymn page. The second refers to the second meaning of temple, as it appears in verse two of this hymn. It is 1 Corinthians 3:16–17:
“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
“If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.”
Just as the building known as the temple must be kept holy, so must the temple of our souls be free from defilement, so that the Lord’s presence may dwell there, “In the reverent heart and simple, / In the soul from sin refined.”
The tune name, WILSON, is the composer’s middle name. The hymn was first published in Latter- day Saint Hymns (1927), but Frank W. Asper was not credited as composer.