Glorifying God with Heavenly Music – January 16, 2000
Whether we sing, play instruments, or listen to what others create and perform, beautiful music offers each of us the opportunity to glorify God and draw closer to Him.
Heavenly music inspires our hearts and turns our thoughts to God, drawing heaven nearer and making our earthly journeys less overwhelming. Sacred music is not only performed to glorify God, but also so that He can speak to us through the feelings and thoughts such music inspires.
Music carries its messages into our hearts and minds more quickly and deeply than words alone could. Inspired music is unmistakable in its origin and its intent. The world around us is filled with music that can inspire us, strengthen us, and teach us if we are willing to invite it into our lives.
An inspiring young woman named Heather understood how music brings us closer to our Heavenly Father. Left paralyzed, mute, and confined to a wheelchair by a rare, early childhood disease, Heather’s bright and active mind found ways to communicate with those around her—a blink for “no,” a smile and a direct gaze for “yes.”
Upon learning Heather had a favorite song, a gifted therapist who worked with her was determined to identify it. After three days and 226 blinks that meant “no,” the therapist read the words in the second verse of Heather’s favorite song, “There Is Sunshine in My Soul”: “There is music in my soul today, / A carol to my King, / And Jesus listening can hear / The songs I cannot sing.”1
Even the songs that we cannot sing are heard in the heavens. Like Heather, sometimes our holiest thoughts and deepest feelings find their fullest expression in the harmonies and lyrics of heavenly music. Through such beautiful music, God blesses and communicates with His children. The joy we feel in singing His praises is only a foretaste of what we will enjoy when He fulfills all that He has promised.
Program #3674
1. Jean Ernstrom, “Jesus Listening Can Hear,” Ensign, June 1998, 46-47, as adapted by Merrill J. Bateman in an address given January 7, 1997, at Brigham Young University.