I came across this interesting passage in Psalm 7 while studying a different topic.
Recently, I posted about "fear and darkness." The fundamental idea is that those who are unprepared for the day of judgment attempt in vain to hide within the creation. This is a deeply symbolic reference to the creation-covenant connection. The earth was created for the specific purpose of serving as a barrier between mortal man and God and to give us space to be tested (see Abraham 3:24-25 and Alma 42:3-4).
While speaking to a group of wicked Nephites, Alma-2 phrases it like this:
14 For our words will condemn us, yea, all our works will condemn us; we shall not be found spotless; and our thoughts will also condemn us; and in this awful state we shall not dare to look up to our God; and we would fain be glad if we could command the rocks and the mountains to fall upon us to hide us from his presence. (Alma 12)
It seems that the Nephites understood the consequences of violating their covenants on a deep level. See also Deuteronomy 28:15-50.
With that backdrop, notice the similar understanding on the part of the psalmist at offending God:
3 Lord my God, if I have done this
and there is guilt on my hands—
4 if I have repaid my ally with evil
or without cause have robbed my foe—
5 then let my enemy pursue and overtake me;
let him trample my life to the ground
and make me sleep in the dust. (Psalm 7, NIV)
Instead of trying in vain to hide in the dust, the psalmist understands that the consequence of violating the covenant is to be trampled into the ground and made to sleep in the dust. We're right back to that temple theme.
This also underscores the description of the Book of Mormon "as the voice of one crying from the dust" (see 2 Nephi 33:13). Moroni, as the final survivor of the Nephites, acknowledges this quite plainly in one of his farewells to us as readers. We are to strip ourselves of worldly vices (verse 28), and make and keep covenants with God (verse 29). By so doing, we can be "more wise than [the Nephites] have been":
28 Be wise in the days of your probation; strip yourselves of all uncleanness; ask not, that ye may consume it on your lusts, but ask with a firmness unshaken, that ye will yield to no temptation, but that ye will serve the true and living God.
29 See that ye are not baptized unworthily; see that ye partake not of the sacrament of Christ unworthily; but see that ye do all things in worthiness, and do it in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God; and if ye do this, and endure to the end, ye will in nowise be cast out.
30 Behold, I speak unto you as though I spake from the dead; for I know that ye shall have my words.
31 Condemn me not because of mine imperfection, neither my father, because of his imperfection, neither them who have written before him; but rather give thanks unto God that he hath made manifest unto you our imperfections, that ye may learn to be more wise than we have been. (Mormon 9)
