The Glorious Music of the Restoration

President Nelson invited us to consider in preparation for the bicentennial next year this question: “How have the events that followed the First Vision made a difference for me and my loved ones?”  One great blessing for me that has come from the events of the Restoration is the music of the gospel that that has been an anchor and guide to me throughout my life.  I believe that one way the Restoration has opened the heavens is in the inspired music that has been written which helps us to feel and understand more deeply the principles of the restored gospel.  As a child I grew up on the primary songs and the words and melody of songs such as I’m Trying to Be Like Jesus, We’ll Bring the World His Truth, and A Child’s Prayer had a powerful impact on me.  I can’t number the times those songs and others have helped to give me encouragement in a moment of need.  For example, I distinctly remember lying in bed in the MTC my first night there with a bit of anxiety and wondering about the unimaginable length of two years ahead of me, and it was singing in my mind that latter song that brought me comfort and the strength to continue.

               Two other songs of the restoration were particularly powerful to me in the MTC when my district tried putting a unique combination of them together.  We were all Elders, and we wanted to sing a song for our branch and instructors before we left after two months.  So we took the famous medley of We’ll Bring the World His Truth and As Sisters in Zion and, since we weren’t Sisters, replaced the words of the latter song with those of a basically unknown hymn Awake and Arise.  The meters and number of verses are exactly the same and so the replacement works perfectly.  The feeling was powerful for us as we sang about having the ancient faith of the army of Helaman in this “the last and the greatest of all dispensations.”  Here are the words of this song that speaks so beautifully of the grandeur of the latter-day restoration (and imagine them to the tune of As Sisters in Zion):

Awake and arise, O ye slumbering nations!

The heavens have opened their portals again.

The last and the greatest of all dispensations

Has burst like a dawn o’er the children of men!

The dream of the poet, the crown of the ages,

The time which the prophets of Israel foretold,

That glorious day only dreamed by the sages

Is yours, O ye slumbering nations; behold!

Oh, lift up your voices in song and in story.

Let banners of peace in all lands be unfurled,

For truth, heaven-born, in its beauty and glory

Is marching triumphantly over the world.

               To me the song that perhaps encompasses the spirit of the Restoration more fully than any other is The Spirit of God, originally sung at the dedication of the Kirtland Temple and one that often accompanies our most sacred events.  I remember one day in 2007 at the top of Mount Tabor in Israel as my fellow students in the BYU Jerusalem program and I stood in the Franciscan Church of the Transfiguration.  I recorded this experience in my journal: “We sang several songs and then Brother Merrill said that it was time for The Spirit of God.  Brother Merrill stood in front and led us, and the first three verses were very powerful and we all were very moved.  Then as we moved into the fourth verse, I’ll never forget the way that Brother Merrill cried out to us, ‘Now sing it like you really mean it!’  The fourth verse was even more glorious than the others and by this time there were many people who had come into the church and were all staring intently at us.  As we finished many in our group were crying, and I was very moved.  I hope never to forget the taste of the glory of God that I felt there.”  I have since always been especially stirred by that fourth verse:

How blessed the day when the lamb and the lion

Shall lie down together without any ire,

And Ephraim be crowned with his blessing in Zion,

As Jesus descends with his chariot of fire!

How grateful I am for he glorious music of the restoration that speaks to our hearts so powerfully of those blessings in Zion and our devotion to “God and the Lamb!”  I hope to be among those in these last days who “shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, and shall see eye to eye, and shall lift up their voice, and with the voice together sing this new song, saying:

The Lord hath brought again Zion;

The Lord hath redeemed his people, Israel,

According to the election of grace,

Which was brought to pass by the faith

And covenant of their fathers

Glory, and honor, and power, and might,

Be ascribed to our God; for he is full of mercy,

Justice, grace and truth, and peace,

Forever and ever, Amen.”

 (Doctrine and Covenants 84:98-99, 102)