The Psalm of Nephi in an Age of Anxiety and Division

This brief essay supplements the prior scholarship on the Psalm of Nephi by asking two questions: How have readers understood this passage over time? And how might the Psalm of Nephi be a particularly useful text today? To answer these questions, I provide a reception history of the text, documenting how these twenty verses have been received and interpreted by various readers since the Book of Mormon’s publication. I then interpret what the historical evidence suggests—that the Psalm of Nephi has become increasingly popular in recent decades after being virtually neglected for about a century. Finally, I will offer a distinctive reading that highlights the text’s current resonance and relevance in our contemporary age of anxiety and division.