Pslams in Prison

Shared in Part 2 of the Follow Him podcast, starting 36:58

Sister Chieko Okazaki, who was the General Relief Society President, I want to say in the late eighties, I think. And she told a story, and I love our veterans because my dad was one, and she told a story about a man named Captain James Ray, who was shot down in an F-105 Thunderchief, went to the Hanoi Hilton. It's from a15 January '96 Guideposts magazine my grandmama used to real. 

The Hanoi Hilton was nicknamed sarcastically. It was a terrible prison camp in Vietnam, where a lot of Americans were kept in that prison who had been shot down and so forth. Captain James Ray was there. They could only talk when the guards couldn't hear that they were talking or they would be punished. One time, after being tortured and thrown on the floor in a tiny room, with the guards were going back and forth, he heard a voice that said, "Hey buddy, what's your name?" And the other man there's name was Bob Purcell. He asked, "Do you know any scriptures?"

James answered "I know the Lord's Prayer." And the voice whispering underneath said, "Well, everybody knows that. Do you know the 23rd Psalm?" And "Only a little. I began whispering it," he said. "He repeated each line after me. A little later, he whispered back the entire psalm. Other prisoners joined in, sharing verses they knew. Through these contacts, a fellowship grew among us. One night, James heard tapping and he didn't know what it was. It took him a while to recognize that it was Morse code. I-W-I-L-L. He started scratching it on the floor. Psalm 121. 'I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from once cometh my help.' Can you imagine hearing this in prison? And these guys encouraging each other with the psalms. Isn't that something?

"He said that as they moved to different cells, one of my favorite parts of this, he said, "My first cellmate was Larry Chesley, a Mormon from Idaho." And he said, "Though we had a few differences in our belief, our common denominators were the Bible and Jesus Christ. And we were able to share and write down a great deal of scripture."

One of my favorite parts of this is that as more prisoners came and they got moved around, they organized a Christmas party. From memory, they recited as best they could, Luke 2. "There went out a creed from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed." Told the Christmas story. And he said, "A choir. These guys are in prison pajamas, beards. They can't shave. Emaciated, sickly. They sang Oh Little Town of Bethlehem."

Hank Smith: 40:22 John, remind me, wasn't that story in your Christmas book?

John Bytheway: I put it in there. I thought that was a Christmas story to me, when they got together and recited Luke 2 and sang O Little Town of Bethlehem and things. The thing that James Ray said about, "They gave us a Bible, but then they took it. But we had the scriptures written in our hearts and could still find joy from that." So yeah, I wrote a little book called Born This Happy Morning, which is one of my favorite lines from a song ever. "Yea, Lord, we greet thee, born this happy morning." What a happy morning. And he says, "We noticed our interrogator, one of these officers, peeking in and watching with a "What's going on?" Look." And he said, "That night, after months of asking, they brought us a Bible. The first one we had seen." That was their Christmas present, for them, that he brought them a Bible. They would share verses that they remembered on precious pieces of toilet paper and hide them behind bricks in the latrine so that when others could go, they could pull those out and get some encouragement. This is what I love, because they let them have this Bible for a while, and then they came and took it.

James Ray says, "From that, we learned the most important lesson. Bible verses on paper aren't one iota as useful as scriptures burned into your mind, where you can draw on them for guidance and comfort." Isn't that great? Of all the things that they could have been strengthened by, it was by the Psalms.

John Bytheway: 42:02 Listen to this. I'll read it as if you were in a prison camp. "The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou prepares the table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil. My cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." That story changed it for me, reading it as a prisoner in a hopeless situation, could read that Psalm and get some hope.