In the Shadow of His Hand
Three weeks from today, Music & the Spoken Word will celebrate its 5,000th week of continuous network broadcasting. Over the last 96 years, Music & the Spoken Word has delivered inspirational music and messages to people throughout the world.
From radio and newspaper to television and digital streaming platforms, the music and messages of the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square have touched millions of lives. The first broadcast aired in July of 1929, just one month before the start of the Great Depression, and broadcasts have continued each week, uninterrupted, through World War II, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the 9/11 attacks, and even the COVID-19 pandemic.
In many ways, Music & the Spoken Word is a living witness to those challenging times. But it’s also a witness to the incalculable goodness and love that God continually shares with us, His children. Paul the Apostle said, “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, … nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, … shall be able to separate us from the love of God.”[1]
There is nothing that can separate us from the love and concern of God. We are, as the scriptures say, “covered … in the shadow of [His] hand”[2] and guided near “the springs of water.”[3] Part of our purpose on earth is to learn to find joy.[4] And as we look to God and plead for His power to bless us, we can find joy in every circumstance[5]—even the difficult ones.
The poet Douglas Malloch wrote:
Good timber does not grow with ease,
The stronger wind, the stronger trees,
The further sky, the greater length,
The more the storm, the more the strength.
By sun and cold, by rain and snow,
In trees and [people] good timbers grow.[6]
As we strive to qualify for God’s power in the journey of life, God strengthens our character and increases our courage. We draw closer to Him not in spite of our trials but because of them. May heaven be thanked for God’s steady and constant hand in each of our lives.
[1] Romans 8:38–39.
[2] Isaiah 51:16.
[3] Isaiah 49:10.
[4] See 2 Nephi 2:25.
[5] See Russell M. Nelson, “Joy and Spiritual Survival,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2016, 81–84.
[6] Douglas Malloch, “Good Timber” (1922), discoverpoetry.com.
June 22, 2025
Broadcast Number 4,997
The Tabernacle Choir
Orchestra at Temple Square
Conductor
Mack Wilberg
Organist
Joseph Peeples
Host
Derrick Porter
Praise the Lord, Ye Heav’ns Adore Him
William Moore; Arr. Mack Wilberg
If the Savior Stood Beside Me
Sally DeFord; Arr. Sam Cardon
Come We That Love the Lord
Silesian Melody; Arr. James C. Kasen
How Excellent Thy Name, from Saul
George Frideric Handel
Come to My Garden, from The Secret Garden
Lucy Simon; Arr. Kurt Bestor
Be Still, My Soul
Jean Sibelius; Arr. Mack Wilberg
O Come Ye Nations of the Earth
German Hymn Tune; Arr. Mack Wilberg