"Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off." (Psalm 138:6)
"Lowly" means "humble in feeling or demeanor; not proud or ambitious" (Oxford English Dictionary). Lowly has the sense of being humble in condition or quality, usually with the notion of modest or unpretending. In its adverb sense, it means humbly, reverently or modestly. Lowly can also mean not having or demonstrating any feelings of superiority, self-assertiveness or showiness. A lowly person also has the sense of being low in rank or social importance or belonging to a class of people of low social or economic rank. In other words, not high nor elevated.With very few exceptions, the word lowly is used in connection with the word meek, as in "take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart" (Matthew 11:29). Readers of the scriptures are used to the idea of parallelism, a literary device used oftentimes to emphasize the same or very similar concepts. While that is at least partly true here, it turns out that the concept of meekness is somewhat different from the concept of lowliness. Meekness tends to be a vertical virtue. That is, are we submissive to God or do we have a stiff neck that cannot allow the head to be bowed to God's will?Lowliness, on the other hand, is more of a horizontal virtue. In this sense, a close synonym to lowly is humility. Lowliness and humility refer more to our interactions with and attitudes toward our fellow beings. While Jesus was meek, in that his will was completely swallowed up in the will of his Father (Mosiah 15:7), he was also lowly in heart in that he "made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Philippians 2:7-8).Lowliness of heart and mind are indispensable in our approach to our Heavenly Father and our hope of receiving revelation and sanctification. "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves" (Philippians 2:3). Nephi received specific blessings because of his faith and his diligent search "with lowliness of heart" (1 Nephi 2:19).The concepts of meekness and lowliness of heart are intimately intertwined in the process of baptism and the reception of the Holy Ghost. "The remission of sins bringeth meekness, and lowliness of heart; and because of meekness and lowliness of heart cometh the visitation of the Holy Ghost, which Comforter filleth with hope and perfect love" (Moroni 8:26).