Worship Through Music

Worship Through Music

Emily Smith - Sacrament Meeting Talk – July 15, 2012

The topic I was asked to speak about is one that I have spent a lot of time, throughout my whole life, thinking about and is particularly dear to my heart. Worship through music.

I grew up in a musical family. And I have spent so much of my life practicing music, performing music, listening to music, studying music, and teaching music. And anyone who knows me knows that I love music. There are so many pieces of great music that I feel like I have an intimate connection with. And yet, the music that touches my soul more than any other, is our church music - our hymns and our Primary songs. It is through these songs that we testify of Christ and proclaim eternal truths. We affirm our own convictions to live the gospel. It is through these songs that comfort and peace from the Holy Ghost flows so easily and naturally. It is through these songs that we raise our voices together through powerful praise and prayer. In D&C 136:28 we are taught to “praise the Lord with singing, with music, and with a prayer of praise and thankgiving.” Music is powerful. And it is an important part of our worship.

Prophets throughout all generations have taught the importance of worshipping through worthy music. So I thought it would be interesting to see what the scriptures say about music. Starting in the Old Testament:

In Psalms 98:4 we are bid to “make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise”. Elder Nelson teaches us that in the Hebrew language, the meaning of this verse is to literally burst forth into song and to shout for joy.

When Nate and I lived in Chicago, we had a music director in our ward who really took this verse to heart and put it into practice. Kathy Stokes was a convert to the church and a native of South Chicago. She had been raised in a culture of gospel choirs and believe me, she wasn’t about to settle for our very solemn and sometimes lifeless tradition of hymn singing. She would direct the congregation with gusto (with both arms!) and would call out “Now really sing it!” when the hymn required more enthusiasm. The hymns became a whole new experience for me in that ward and I looked forward to singing them with her every week.

A New Testament verse says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you … ; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord” (Colossians 3:16). I love the idea of spiritual songs dwelling within us – and teaching us.

My son Clayton demonstrated this last Sunday when Lydia was really sick and my time all afternoon and into the evening was spent soothing her and taking care of her rather than my normal routine keeping the house straightened. So when I finally came downstairs with weary arms exhausted thinking of the work ahead I was surprised to see dinner cleaned up and Clayton at the kitchen sink loading the last of the dishes into the dishwasher. Wow! I told him how grateful I was for his help and that he could have 10 extra points on his chart for doing that work. But he said, “No, mom. I did it because I had the song “I’m Trying to be Like Jesus” stuck in my head and I knew that Jesus would have done that.

Also from the New Testament (Matthew 26:30) we learn that the Lord and His Apostles sang a hymn at the Last Supper. I can imagine the atmosphere in that upper room. The feelings of camaraderie and brotherhood, reverence and love. But I can also imagine there were feelings of uncertainty and worry about what was to come. I imagine the hymns sung that night served partly to comfort and assure.

This week I also felt the comforting words of a hymn, like an old friend, come into my mind. My little girls were awake and scared in the middle of the night during a thunderstorm. I went upstairs to calm them and as I held them both on my lap, without even thinking, I began to softly sing the sweet words of a familiar hymn, “I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder. Thy power throughout the universe displayed” And though the storm went on outside the room was filled with peace and calm.

In the Book of Mormon Alma teaches us about complete conversion to the gospel of Jesus Christ and asks the question: “I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?” (Alma 5:26). I love his description of what it feels like to completely turn our hearts to Christ. That we have such a desire to follow him that we feel to sing the song of redeeming love.

I came across a letter in my grandparents history from a schoolboy in Ghana that illustrates this kind of singing. In 1978, my grandfather served in the presidency of the International Mission of the Church which is the mission that covers all the remote areas of the world outside of already established missions. All the correspondence within the church and outside of the church from these areas were addressed to him – including an overwhelming amount of letters from West Africa requesting book of Mormons, church materials and pleas for missionary assistance. My grandmother writes about his experience:

“Ted became increasingly aware of the considerable amount of correspondence that came from Ghana and Nigeria in West Africa – more than from any other part of the International Mission. It was often frustrating to receive letters that evidenced a strong conviction of the truthfulness of the gospel and an earnest desire to receive missionaries, but not be authorized to fulfill such requests. (Although baptism and membership were open to all, tradition had withheld the priesthood from blacks and blocked missionary activity among them.)”

“One morning following a presidency meeting of the International Mission, Elder Faust told his counselors that he was going to meet with the First Presidency. He had in his hand a big bundle of correspondence from West Africa. Ted had just received a touching letter from a schoolboy in Ghana, so he handed it to Elder Faust to include with his bundle. Elder Faust later returned from his meeting with the First Presidency and reported that after their discussion, as he was about to leave, President Kimball had asked him about the bundle of letters and requested that a sample of the letters be read to him. Elder Faust had picked up the letter he had given him from the top of the pile and read it aloud:”

Dear Elders in Christ,

I am filled with happiness as it comes into my mind to write you today. I am a member of the Latter-day Saints Church in Ghana, residing in the town of Foso, and attending a secondary school.

Please I have been told much about how this great restored Church was founded by our great prophet, Joseph Smith, and still I am anxious to know more about it through the reading of books about it. I have heard of the Book of Mormon, which was some good news revealed and given to Joseph on the Mount Cumorah. I will be very happy if a Book of Mormon is sent to me in order to read more about the words which the Lord gave to mankind through the Prophet Joseph Smith. I will also be very happy to have pictures of Brigham Young and some others and also of the beautiful temple and the great organ I have heard of.

Actually I wish to become a pure Mormon and so I want to know more about Mormonism. For from the little our elders and pastors have told us here in Ghana, have made me get the insight of the seeing of a light somewhere.

I always become happy when songs and hymns like Come! Come! Ye Saints and Come O Thou King of Kings and some songs of Zion are sung in the church services. Actually I wish I am with you there to share these happy things that you enjoy in Christ.

I hope you’ll pray for me to go through my course successfully.

I end. I am Emmanuel Bondah, Lower sixth form

As a side note, this letter was written in the spring of 1978. On June 9th, 1978 President Kimball announced to the world the revelation on the priesthood. In August of that year my grandparents were called on a fact-finding mission in West Africa to prepare the area for missionary work. After returning home for a week they were called to open up the mission in West Africa where my grandfather baptized people by the hundreds and organized branches. And on January 29th 1979 my grandfather baptized Emmanuel Bondah, the schoolboy who had written that letter, along with 79 other people in his village.

Stories like this make me want to exclaim as Ammon did after establishing the church among the Lamanites, “Blessed be the name of our God; let us sing to his praise, yea, let us give thanks to his holy name, for he doth work righteousness forever” (Alma 26:8).

And finally in Doctrine and Covenants 25:12, we read this beautiful expression from the Lord: “For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads”.

I do not think that these scriptures are metaphorical. I don’t think that when Ammon said, “let us sing his praise.” he meant let us take a minute to think about how grateful we are. I think the faithful people throughout all the scriptures indeed sang hymns of praise.

So what can we do to make our songs of praise more meaningful? The Primary Children could tell you. I have the best calling in the universe. I am the Primary Music Leader and did you know that the primary children know all their songs by heart? And they know dozens and dozens of them. Before I teach a new primary song I always think about three things.

1) What is the doctrine being taught in this song?

2) What is happening musically?

3) What kind of personal connection can I help the children have with this song?

I’ve found that by teaching those three things – by teaching the children doctrinally, musically, and personally that the songs have life. They mean more. And anyone who grew up learning primary songs will tell you that they are never forgotten. That even decades later you can still recall your favorite primary songs. And not just the words and the melodies but the feelings and testimonies that accompany them.



So I thought of some ways that we can do the same with our hymns.

- Buy a hymnbook for your home. A Hymnbook just like this is $5.

- Read the preface written by the first presidency. If we had time I’d read it. It is beautifully written and testifies of the power of these hymns and the incredible blessings associated with singing them at church, in our homes, and in our personal lives.

- Get to know the hymns – doctrinally, musically, and personally. The First Presidency counsels in this preface that we should study them like scripture. One way we can do that is by following the scripture reference listed at the bottom of each hymn. We can also pay attention whenever we sing to who wrote the music and the text – which is also listed at the end of each hymn. Is anyone curious to know where our hymns come from? If you look in the back of the hymnbook under Authors and Composers you will find that our hymns were written by composers like Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Sibelius, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. That the text comes from great poets and writers like Longfellow, Martin Luther, Thomas Moore, Tennyson, Isaac Watts, and Charles Wesley. As well as well-known church leaders like President Gordon B. Hinkley, Parley P. Pratt, W.W. Phelps, Joseph Fielding Smith, Eliza R. Snow, and John Taylor.

I love music. And I testify that there is power in worthy music. That it is a profound and essential part of our worship. I would like to close by reading the words to a hymn written by the English Poet Isaac Watts. It expresses so well the way I feel about my Savior and the Atonement. This hymn is my testimony.

When I survey the wondrous cross,
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.
Forbid it, Lord! that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ, my God:
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood. …
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
For love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

I am so grateful for the gospel in my life and the rich blessings it brings. I testify that these things are true and I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.