Hank Smith: 00:05 My friends, welcome to followHIM Favorites. This year we are taking on a single question from each lesson. John, the lesson for this week is basically the first third of the Psalms, Psalms 1-50. I don’t know how many people realize it, but Psalms are hymns, they’re songs. And so the question may come up this week, why do we sing so much? Why is music so important to the church and religion? John, if someone asked you, “Dad or Brother Bytheway, or Bishop Bytheway, why do we sing so much? Why is music almost a part of everything we do?” What would you say?

John Bytheway: 00:45 One school of thought is that we sing so that the late people can come in and find a seat before the real meeting starts. Okay, that’s the… And we still have a lot that aren’t here now. Let’s have a special musical number. Now, let’s have a really special musical number.

John Bytheway: 01:04 I used to wonder that myself and then you start noticing in the Scriptures how often they sang, that Jesus or they sang a hymn before the Passover. So the question became, “Well, it must be important because Jesus did it. Why did Jesus do it?” And so many of these Psalms that we’ve looked at are talking about the greatness of God and teaching us how to reverence Him and to honor Him. I guess it’s an inviting the Spirit type of a thing. Not all music does that. That’s a whole nother discussion. Isn’t it, Hank? But the music that invites the Spirit of the Lord to come, because boy, once we have the Spirit of the Lord then our meeting’s going to be wonderful and successful. That’s probably the short answer is, we know the Lord wants us to but it’s an invitation to the Spirit.

Hank Smith: 01:52 Yeah. The Lord commands us to pray always. That’s pretty hard to do, to pray always until you hear that singing is a form of prayer. That’s section 25 of the Doctrine and Covenants. “The song of the righteous is a prayer unto me and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads.”

John Bytheway: 02:10 Yeah.

Hank Smith: 02:11 If we can keep the songs of the restoration, the hymns in our head, that’s part of praying always. And to me that’s a pretty cool way to pray always, is to be singing these hymns.

John Bytheway: 02:24 Hank, just recently I was reading in the Saints book some story about the expulsion from Jackson County and it was a sister, a pioneer.

Hank Smith: 02:34 Amanda Barnes Smith, I think you’re thinking of.

John Bytheway: 02:37 The words of a hymn came to her mind.

Hank Smith: 02:40 How Firm a Foundation, yeah.

John Bytheway: 02:42 The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose. And this comes to her mind on, You will not be forsaken. And that was power to her in that moment and built up her faith and her courage. That’s just another reason. Because maybe when you really need it, some of the truth that are sung in these songs will come back to you and give you a little bit of power to endure, to go on.

Hank Smith: 03:06 Yeah. Like a memorized scripture, a memorized hymn can be a good friend to give you a boost of spiritual strength when you need it. President Monson said, “If you love the Lord, if you love His doctrine, you’ll love the hymns. And when you love them, you sing them.” Elder Oaks said, “The singing of the hymns is one of the best ways to learn the doctrine of the Gospel and is a glorious way to worship.” This article from the 2012 Ensign says, “As we sing the hymns and fill our hearts and minds with the heavenly influence.”

Hank Smith: 03:38 Now think of that, that the singing of the hymns is a heavenly influence. Don’t we want that for our children and our grandchildren? John, we find ourselves drawing closer to the Lord and striving to keep His commandments. It’s difficult to do something that you know is wrong, John, when you’re singing one of the hymns of the restoration. It might even force a temptation away to sing a hymn.

John Bytheway: 04:00 Yeah. In fact, I think that’s a really good point. I remember one of my kids or someone on their mission and I was like, “Listen to the music you’re allowed to listen to. Put on some hymns that’ll lift your spirit, that will change the spirit in the room, absolutely. You’ll feel differently and then sing along.”

Hank Smith: 04:20 And I think also one last reason is, it’s very unifying when you’ve got a congregation, a ward, or a branch, or even a stake, or even the whole church at general conference singing the same hymn. There’s something about the song of the saints that reaches maybe a little bit further than we feel we can on our own into the heavens. We hope that if you’re listening to this little followHIM Favorites that you will start belting those hymns a little bit louder. Put your phone down and get your hymn book out. Maybe your hymn book is on your phone, but sing the hymns with your ward, and with your stake, and with your family and see if it doesn’t change your mind and soften your heart.

John Bytheway: 05:03 Just something occurs to me the way you said that, Hank, is that most of the time when we go to a meeting, in most of the meeting, we are a spectator. But when we take the sacrament and when we sing the hymns, we are part of the meeting, we’re participating. When you said it was unifying, I thought, “Yeah, all of us do that.”

John Bytheway: 05:22 And then one funny story when I was on my mission, I was sitting on the stand for some reason with my mission president and saying something to my companion about something that was going to happen in the meeting during a hymn. And President Smith leaned over and said, “Elder, Bytheway, section 25 says that the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me. You wouldn’t think of talking during a prayer, would you?”

Hank Smith: 05:44 Prayer.

John Bytheway: 05:44 I said, “No, sorry, president.” And I’ll never forget that it’s rude to talk during someone’s prayer. Well, the hymns are a prayer, so participate.

Hank Smith: 05:55 The song of the righteous is a prayer. I love it. Well, join us next week for another followHIM Favorites and come find us on our full podcast. It’s called followHIM. You can get it wherever you get your podcast. This week we’re with Dr. Shon Hopkin discussing the Psalms. He’s an expert and you’re going to want to hear it. And we’ll see you next week for another followHIM Favorites.