followHIM - "Why do we sing so much in church?" : follow HIM Favorites

Episode Date: August 7, 2022

Hank Smith and John Bytheway answer a question from this week's Come, Follow Me study.Show Notes (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese): https://followhim.co/old-testament/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followhimpodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FollowHimOfficialChannelThanks to the follow HIM team:Steve & Shannon Sorensen: Executive Producers, SponsorsDavid & Verla Sorensen: SponsorsDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: Marketing, SponsorLisa Spice: Client Relations, Editor, Show NotesJamie Neilson: Social Media, Graphic DesignWill Stoughton: Video EditorKrystal Roberts: Translation Team, English & French Transcripts, WebsiteAriel Cuadra: Spanish TranscriptsIgor Willians: Portuguese Transcripts"Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com/products/let-zion-in-her-beauty-rise-piano

My friends, welcome to Follow Him Favorites. This year we are taking on a single question from each lesson. John, the lesson for this week is basically the first third of the Psalms, Psalms 1 through 50. And I don't know how many people realize it, but psalms are hymns. They're songs. And so the question may come up this week, why do we sing so much? Why is music so important to the church and religion? John, if someone asked you, dad or brother, by the way, or bishop, by the way, why do we sing so much? Why is music almost a part of everything we do? What would you say? One school of thought is that we sing so that the late people can come in and find a seat before the real meeting starts, right? Okay, that's the... And we still have a lot that aren't here. Now,

let's have a special musical number. Now, let's have a really special musical number. I used to wonder that myself. And then you start noticing in the scriptures how often they sang, that Jesus, they sang a hymn before the Passover. So the question became, well, it must be important because Jesus did it. Why did Jesus do it? And so many of these psalms that we've looked at are talking about the greatness of God and teaching us how to reverence Him and to honor Him. And I guess it's an inviting the Spirit type of a thing.

Not all music does that. That's a whole other discussion, isn't it, Hank? But the music that invites the Spirit of the Lord to come, because boy, once we have the Spirit of the Lord, then our meeting's going to be wonderful and successful. So, that's probably the short answer is we know the Lord wants us to, but it's an invitation to the Spirit. Yeah. The Lord commands us to pray always. That's pretty hard to do, to pray always until you hear that singing is a form of prayer. That's section 25 of the Doctrine and Covenants. The song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads.

Yeah. So if we can keep the songs of the restoration, the hymns in our head, that's part of praying always. And to me, that's a pretty cool way to pray always is to be singing these hymns. Hank, just recently I was reading in the Saints book some story about the expulsion from Jackson County. And it was a sister, a pioneer. Amanda Barnes Smith, I think you're thinking of. The words of a hymn came to her mind. How firm a foundation.

The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose. And this comes to her mind. You will not be forsaken. How firm a foundation. The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose. And this comes to her mind, you will not be forsaken. And that was power to her in that moment and built up her faith and her courage. So that's just another reason, because maybe when you really need it, some of the truth that is sung in these songs will come back to you and give you a little bit of power to endure, to go on. Yeah, like a memorized scripture, a memorized hymn can be a good friend to give you a boost of spiritual strength when you need it. President Monson said, if you love the Lord,

if you love his doctrine, you'll love the hymns. And when you love them, you sing them. Elder Oaks said, the singing of the hymns is one of the best ways to learn the doctrine of the gospel and is a glorious way to worship. This article from the 2012 Ensign says, as we sing the hymns and fill our hearts and minds with their heavenly influence. Now think of that, that the singing of the hymns is a heavenly influence. Don't we want that for our children and our grandchildren, John? We find ourselves drawing closer to the Lord and striving to keep His commandments. It's difficult to do something that you know is wrong, John, when you're singing one of

the hymns of the Restoration. It might even force a temptation away to sing a hymn. Yeah. In fact, I think that's a really good point. I remember one of my kids or someone on their mission, and I was like, listen to the music you're allowed to listen to. Put on some hymns. Put on some or a branch or even a stake or even the whole church at General Conference singing the same hymn. There's something about the song of the saints that reaches maybe a little bit further than we feel we can on our own into the heavens. So we hope that if you're listening to this little follow hymn favorites, that you will start belting those hymns a little bit louder. Put your phone down and get your hymn book out.

Maybe your hymn book is on your phone, but sing the hymns with your ward and with your stake and with your family and see if it doesn't change your mind and soften your heart. Just something occurs to me the way you said that, Hank, is that most of the time when we go to a meeting, in most of the meeting, we are a spectator. But when we take the sacrament and when we sing the hymns, we are part of the meeting. We're participating. And when you said it was unifying, I thought, yeah, all of us do that. And then one funny story, when I was on my mission, I was sitting on the stand for some reason with my mission president and saying something to my companion about something that was going to happen in the meeting during a hymn. And President Smith leaned over and said, Elder, by the way, section 25 says that the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me. You wouldn't think of talking during a prayer, would you? I said, no, sorry, president.

And I'll never forget that. It's rude to talk during someone's prayer. Well, the hymns are a prayer. So participate. The song of the righteous is a prayer. I love it. Well, join us next week for another Follow Him Favorites and come find us on our full podcast. It's called Follow Him.

You can get it wherever you get your podcasts. This week, we're with Dr. Sean Hopkin discussing the Psalms. He's an expert and you're going to want to hear it. And we'll see you next week for another Follow Him Favorites. Thank you.