The Power of Music

By this time of the year, most ward choirs are preparing Christmas music to sing in December. I have been singing with my ward's choir over the past few weeks, and I have always left the rehearsal feeling uplifted. Music has great power and can help lift us closer to God.

In old times, music was very important to people in their worship of God. In the Old Testament we read:
"O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation"
(Psalm 95:1).

In these last days, the Lord commanded Emma Smith to make a "selection of sacred hymns." Following this commandment, the Lord declared,
"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"(D&C 25:12).
We have had a tradition of keeping a hymnal ever since then. In fact, the Church is currently in the process of producing an updated version of the hymnbook.

While I was serving on my mission, my dad wrote a Christmas poem that he sent to me. It is about the story of the angels who announced the birth of Christ to the shepherds, and why they were singing. His friend who writes music composed an organ accompaniment for the poem. My ward choir is preparing to sing this arrangement for Christmas this year. To my knowledge, it has not been sung before with the organ accompaniment. I have included a synthesized recording of the organ music as part of this post so that those in the choir with me can practice before we sing it in December.

Link (mp3)
Copyright 2014 Jerry James and Chad Staten
No redistribution

I hope you enjoy this fantastic music, and have a great holiday season.

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