“The Gift and Power of Music,” Liahona, Mar. 2025, United States and Canada Section.
The Gift and Power of Music
Music can teach us and bring comfort and peace.
I first encountered the power of music as a young missionary serving in France. One day my companion, Elder Robertson, said, “Elder Nadauld, do you know how to sing?”
I said, “Maybe a little. Why do you ask?”
He suggested that we should sing a hymn or two at the beginning of teaching appointments. He and I had sung in our respective high school choirs. We weren’t the Osmond brothers, but we could carry a tune.
At our next teaching opportunity, we sang “Come unto Jesus” in French in two-part harmony. We felt an outpouring of the Spirit stronger than either of us had ever experienced before on our missions. Because of that inspiring experience, we continued to sing prior to all of our teaching, with the same powerful result.
Years later, Sister Nadauld and I were called to preside over the Switzerland Geneva Mission—also a French-speaking area. Many of our missionaries had musical talents, and we soon saw that music training and learning a foreign language, especially one as lyrical as French, were complementary skills. We shared with them my experience of singing before teaching and invited them to learn simple hymn duets that they could sing before beginning their gospel lessons. They reported back that it had the same wonderful impact on teaching with the Spirit that Elder Robertson and I had experienced some 40 years earlier.
I again experienced the power of music when, as a newly called General Authority Seventy, I was asked by then-Elder Boyd K. Packer (1924–2015) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles if I would help teach a gathering of Church leaders about the influence of music when teaching gospel principles. One evening as I sat pondering the assignment, I wrote these lyrics:
If I would teach with power
The doctrine and the plan,
I’d wish for gentle music
To prepare the soul of man.
And then to press forever
These truths upon his mind,
We’d sing the hymns of Zion
With their messages sublime.
The idea that music prepares our souls to receive gospel truths should not be surprising to any church-attending Latter-day Saint.
In Remembrance of Me, by Walter Rane
Believers Have Used Music for Millennia
The scriptures show that music has been a part of our worship and experience even from premortality. In the book of Job, we read that when the foundations of the earth were laid, “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy” (Job 38:7). King Benjamin declared to his people, “I have caused that ye should assemble yourselves together … that I might go down in peace, and my immortal spirit may join the choirs above in singing the praises of a just God” (Mosiah 2:28; emphasis added).
In the Old Testament, we read that Miriam, Deborah, and Barak sang to the Lord (see Exodus 15:21; Judges 5:1), “and David spake unto the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord had delivered him” (2 Samuel 22:1; emphasis added). We learn in 1 Kings that Solomon was a prolific songwriter: “And he spake three thousand proverbs: and his songs were a thousand and five” (1 Kings 4:32).
In the New Testament, Matthew records that in the sacred setting of the celebration of the Passover, when Jesus introduced the sacrament to His disciples, the meeting ended with the singing of a hymn: “And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives” (Matthew 26:30; emphasis added). The idea that perhaps Jesus Himself sang on this occasion is beautiful to contemplate. In Acts, we read that while in prison, “Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God” (Acts 16:25; emphasis added). Perhaps they sang something in two-part harmony they had learned together while on their missions.
My two favorite references to music in the Book of Mormon are found in Alma and in Moroni. Alma the Younger speaks to his people of the mighty change wrought in their hearts by the discourse given by Abinadi. “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; emphasis added). Perhaps Alma was speaking of a specific song that the people were familiar with, or more likely he was suggesting that redeeming love should well up like a song in their hearts. In either case, the notion that the emotion evoked by the Savior’s redeeming love could be communicated through singing is sweet indeed.
The second favorite reference is found in Moroni: “Their meetings were conducted by the church after the manner of the workings of the Spirit … ; for as the power of the Holy Ghost led them whether to preach, or to exhort, or to pray, or to supplicate, or to sing, even so it was done” (Moroni 6:9; emphasis added). This verse describes a Church meeting 1,600 years ago among the Nephites that parallels our own Church meetings today—with prayers, talks, and sacred music.
In this last dispensation the Lord made it clear how He felt about singing in His Church. In July of 1830, three months after the Church was organized, the Prophet Joseph Smith received a revelation about music in the Church containing instruction to Emma Smith, the Prophet’s wife:
“It shall be given thee, also, to make a selection of sacred hymns, as it shall be given thee, which is pleasing unto me, to be had in my church.
“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” (Doctrine and Covenants 25:11–12).
The Lord also revealed that “the righteous shall be gathered out from among all nations, and shall come to Zion, singing with songs of everlasting joy” (Doctrine and Covenants 45:71; emphasis added; see also Doctrine and Covenants 66:11; 101:18; 109:39; 133:33). It is remarkable to contemplate what occurs throughout the nations of the earth on any given Sabbath day.
Our new hymnbook takes this image even further since most hymns will be translated into many languages. Our voices are unified as we sing together and feel the Spirit the music brings.
Blessings of Inspiring Music
The impacts of gospel-related music are many, but three seem to stand out:
-
The words of hymns teach gospel truths. President Spencer W. Kimball (1895–1985) observed, “Some of the greatest sermons that have ever been preached were preached by the singing of a song.”
-
Singing and hearing gospel-related music prepares the soul. Hymns during our sacrament meetings prepare us to hear the messages and to commune with God as we partake of the sacrament. Missionary companionships who have used music to bring the Spirit into a teaching setting can testify that inspiring music softens the heart and prepares the soul to receive gospel truths.
-
Music can bring comfort and peace to the listener. Funerals in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are typically filled with soul-comforting music. Hymns focused on the Savior such as “I Believe in Christ,” “I Know That My Redeemer Lives,” and “Be Still, My Soul” provide solace, assurance, comfort, and hope to those grieving the loss of a loved one.
I remember many years ago, during a particularly trying period, I felt as though specific attacks were being made on my family, on my health, and on my integrity. I was fasting, praying, seeking counsel, and still feeling acute anxiety over how, when, and if the serious challenges would be resolved. The thing that brought the most relief during that difficult time was reviewing in my mind the words to the hymn “Be Still, My Soul.” I memorized all the verses and recited them at least once a day. The words that provided the most solace and comfort were:
Be still, my soul: The Lord is on thy side;
With patience bear thy cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In ev’ry change he faithful will remain. …
Be still, my soul: Thy God doth undertake
To guide the future as he has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
I’ll never forget the blessing these words and the music were to me when they were sorely needed.
What joy we experience when music is a part of our earthly sojourn. Heavenly music is something special we can look forward to.