The Power of Inspired Music

Yesterday I wrote about taking drastic measures to remove those evil influences in our lives which seek to entrap us and spiritually drag us down.  This reminded me of a story that my mission president’s wife told us about her family.  At some point they took in a young man as a foster child who was really struggling.  He was into the worst of teenage activities and they sought to help him clean up his life and fresh start.  They recounted how they had sought to remove the evil influences of drugs and alcohol and friends who would drag him down.  As I remember the story, he did indeed clean up his life for a while with their help and diligence as they provided a clean slate with positive influences for him.  But ultimately he fell back into all of his old ways, and she lamented to us their failure to remove one particular negative influence in his life: his music.  She felt strongly that because he held on to all of his old music, listening to it eventually drove him back into all of the terrible traps he had been in originally.  Her point was that we have to be so careful in the music that we listen to and participate in—it can have incredible power over us for good and evil.  The purpose of so much of the vile music in the world is there to drive people to immorality, as Mick Jagger famously admitted to Elder Gene R. Cook on an airplane.  But the power of inspired music can fill us with the Holy Ghost and lead us unto the Savior.   

               The Book of Mormon mentions music numerous times, and those references are instructive about the blessings of worthy music.  In the very first chapter Lehi beheld a vision of the heavens, and a prominent part of that was “numberless concourses of angels in the attitude of singing and praising their God” (1 Nephi 1:8).  Alma saw this same vision of angels “singing and praising their God” and it was so wonderful that he “did long to be there” (Alma 36:22). King Benjamin similarly looked forward to the day when he would cross the veil because of the music there: “I am about to go down to my grave, that I 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).  Music is not simply an earthly phenomenon; it is a fundamental part of heaven and the life that God lives.  Other passages invite us to “sing unto the Lord; for he hath done excellent things,” to “sing to his praise,” to “sing the song of redeeming love,” and to “come with singing unto Zion” (2 Nephi 22:5, Alma 26:8, Alma 5:26, 2 Nephi 8:11).  Some might consider these mere metaphors, but I believe they are also actual invitations to draw near unto the Lord through music.  Since one day we hope to be part of that group that will “sing ceaseless praises with the choirs above… in a state of happiness which hath no end,” we should learn now to come unto the Lord through the gift of music (Mormon 7:7).        

Music was also important to the Jaredites, and I believe it played a major role in helping them make it to the promised land.  They were in the barges for 344 days, an insanely long amount of time to be stuck in close quarters with the same group of people (and animals) with very little to do.  So how did they pass their time on the ocean?  In part through music: “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; and when the night came, they did not cease to praise the Lord” (Ether 6:9).  I believe it was music that allowed them to keep their sanity and draw them close to the Lord during their difficult journey.  Inspired music can be a key part in our own journey, filling our lives here with the Spirit of the Lord and leading us back to one day join the heavenly choirs.