Music in the Book of Mormon

I generally don’t think of music playing a very important role in the Book of Mormon, and yet as I looked closer I was surprised to see just how often songs and singing are mentioned.  In fact, we see it in the very first chapter.  In Lehi’s vision, he “saw God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels in the attitude of singing and praising their God” (1 Nephi 1:8).  So from the very outset of the Book of Mormon we learn that music plays an important role where God dwells.  Many years later Alma was a second witness to this vision: “Methought I saw, even as our father Lehi saw, God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels, in the attitude of singing and praising their God” (Alma 36:22).  King Benjamin confirmed that music is a part of the heavenly realm when he expressed his desire that he might “go down in peace, and my immortal spirit may join the choirs above in singing the praises of a just God” (Mosiah 2:28).  Mormon in his final words gave another witness of the power and importance of music in heaven: “He that is found guiltless before him at the judgment day hath it given unto him to dwell in the presence of God in his kingdom, to sing ceaseless praises with the choirs above, unto the Father, and unto the Son, and unto the Holy Ghost” (Mormon 7:7).  These all testify that music is not simply an earthly phenomenon; it is a part of heaven itself.

            The Book of Mormon also witnesses that music should play an important part of our worship here on earth.  When Alma’s people were baptized at the waters of Mormon, we read that they were blessed and “they shall sing to his praise forever” (Mosiah 18:30).  Ammon suggested to his brothers that music should be a part of their rejoicings before the Lord: “Blessed be the name of our God; let us sing to his praise, yea, let us give thanks to his holy name” (Alma 26:8).  As the brother of Jared and his company voyaged to the promised land, they turned to music to worship: “And they did sing praises unto the Lord; yea, the brother of Jared did sing praises unto the Lord, and he did thank and praise the Lord all the day long” (Ether 6:9).  Moroni in his summary of the Nephite church also wrote that singing was a part of it: “As the power of the Holy Ghost led them whether to preach, or to exhort, or to pray, or to supplicate, or to sing, even to their fathers so it was done” (Moroni 6:9).  Alma suggested to the people of Zarahemla that music was important in their worship and a sign of their conversion: “if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?” (Alma 5:26)  Their fathers, according to Alma, “were loosed, and their souls did expand, and they did sing redeeming love” (Alma 5:9).  When the Nephites were miraculously preserved against the Gadianton robbers, we read that “they did break forth, all as one, in singing, and praising their God for the great thing which he had done for them, in preserving them from falling into the hands of their enemies” (3 Nephi 4:31).  All of these passages suggest that music was indeed a key part of the worship of the saints in the Book of Mormon, just as it should be for us today.