I don’t sing in the ward choir. I don’t even sing particularly loud during sacrament meeting. I was blessed with a good ear for music—I can tell when something is off-key and not right. When it’s my children playing the piano while I make dinner, I can easily call out from the kitchen and direct them to the right note. But I was not blessed with a good voice to match that ear. So when I sing, I can tell that I sound horrible, but I don’t know how to make it right.
Even though I have foregone loud public singing and could not be paid to sing a solo in public, I can’t say the same for my actions in my home. Every night when I tuck my children in bed, I sing them a hymn.
When my husband tucks the children in and they ask for a song, he groans. “They’re too old for this,” he tells me. “It’s not necessary for them to have it as a part of their bedtime routine anymore.”
He’s right: of course, they don’t need it to get to sleep. But he’s also wrong: I need it. My opportunity to praise my God aloud is limited, and my efforts to express my love for my God through comments and talks with my children often seem to fall on deaf ears. But at night, when the soft glow from the nightlight blankets their rooms, and they are snuggled into their blankets with nothing else to read or watch or hear, I can “stand all amazed” and “join the great throng, psaltery, organ, and song, sounding in glad adoration.” I can sing about Him in third person, or express “how great thou art” directly in first person. Or, I can plead to him, “Let me not forget, O Savior, Thou didst bleed and die for me,” and “Here’s my heart, Lord, take and seal it.” And I can always testify to my children that “I believe in Christ” and “I know that my Redeemer lives.”
The New Testament writers would understand, I think, my drive to sing my praises, even if they are delivered off-key. Out of 283 direct citations from the Old Testament in the New, 116 come from the book of Psalms, which is called in Hebrew Tehillim or “Praises” that were set to music (Bible Dictionary, “Psalms”). I also find it interesting that it only took 3 months after the Church was organized for the Lord to delegate to Emma, through Joseph Smith, the task of selecting hymns.
I have done my own selecting, as I’ve sung hymns in Church through the years, and now I present my selected favorites (which are many) to my children, hoping that my songs “shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads” (D&C 25:12).
What are ways in which you praise God? Do you have favorite hymns? If so, which one(s) and why? How have your songs and praises been answered with blessings?
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