His Presence as the Voice
Little Adam wanted to wiggle. He was kicking the chair in front of him. A nice lady asked him to stop. He didn’t want to stop so the next time he tried to kick her chair, I stopped him. He thought it was a game but I wasn’t playing. He was choosing to be annoying because it was fun. Like a child, he soon tired of his game and moved to another place.
“Yea, and I know that good and evil have come before all men; he that knoweth not good from evil is blameless; but he that knoweth good and evil, to him it is given according to his desires, whether he desireth good or evil, life or death, joy or remorse of conscience.” (Alma 28:5)
I think Adam is blameless. He doesn’t see good and evil clearly but he does see natural consequences. If he gets put in timeout, he feels sad and cries. Teaching moments like these help him to connect good choices with happy things and bad choices with sad things.
One theme of the Book of Mormon which is repeated often goes like this, “If ye will keep my commandments ye shall prosper in the land— but if ye keep not his commandments ye shall be cut off from his presence.” (Alma 37:13)
The Voice of the Lord is a sacred thing. It is felt in quiet moments of reflection and prayer. It is the presence from which we will be separated if we don’t keep God’s commandments.
“Now, what do we hear in the gospel which we have received? A voice of gladness! A voice of mercy from heaven; and a voice of truth out of the earth; glad tidings for the dead; a voice of gladness for the living and the dead; glad tidings of great joy.” (D&C 128:19)
The Voice is a light in the dark, a beacon for the storm-tossed sailor. The storm may rage, but the sailor keeps the beacon in sight and he makes it to a safe harbor.
“If ye transgress the commandments of God, behold, these things which are sacred shall be taken away from you by the power of God, and ye shall be delivered up unto Satan, that he may sift you as chaff before the wind.” (Alma 37:15)
This doesn’t sound like a condemnation to me. It sounds like a natural consequence. I see the beacon and the Voice as incentives to keep within a certain proximity to God by following the commandments. The consequence for drifting out of range is that the sound of His Voice and the beacon of truth are no longer in focus. The sailor finds that the winds carry him where they may. He must work hard to stay afloat.
Little Audra wanted to pet the lizard I brought to the science fair. I told her not to put her finger right in front of it’s mouth. She put her finger right in front of the lizard and it bit her. She didn’t cry but it took a bit of prying to get the lizard to let go. No one blamed her for making a bad choice. We didn’t have to. The lizard’s bite was enough of a consequence.
The beautiful song “His Voice as the Sound” by Joseph Swain speaks to the wonderous nature of God. I like how Swain shows a deep reverence for God in the way that he describes his features. In the original lyrics, Swain asks the question of the daughters of Zion — where the Divine Shepherd has gone. Swain feels to cry out for his maker as he wanders through this mortal life.
I feel that the song has the potential to be a Voice in answering these great questions Swain poses. I wrote some new lyrics which I share below but because of the awkward shift from third person to first person, I left out Swains questions and only provide the answers. In order for the original questions to accompany the answers, there would have to be two voices. One to ask and one to answer.
My Voice as the Sound of the Dulcimer Sweet
By Joseph Swain, adapted by Andrea Mabey
Tune Name: The Southern Harmony 1835
My voice as the sound of the dulcimer sweet,
Is heard through the shadows of death;
The cedars of Lebanon bow at my feet,
The air is perfumed with my breath.
My lips as the fountain of righteousness flow,
That waters the garden of grace;
From which their salvation the Gentiles shall know,
And bask in the smiles of my face.
The tares choke the wheat and the church she did fly,
As sheep on the mountains alone;
My voice as the spirit of truth I will cry,
but the sheep cannot see where I’m gone.
The shepherds have used up the fat and the wool,
and let the sheep run on their own.
By grace I will comfort them all through the night;
their pain how it grieves my soul.
I’ll call forth the hunters and fishers of men,
to seek out the wandering sheep
From deserts and high places they will not shirk
To find those that I deign to keep.
The humble, the meek, and the peacemaker bold,
shall come when they hear my voice
For though to the outermost heaven they go,
I know all the sheep of my fold.
The rising of Zion shall be like the morn,
it gradually brightens the plains.
We daughters of Zion put on our fair garments
and Israel shakes off his chains.
The dews that descend from the mountain of God,
Like knowledge that cannot be hid.
With gladness the sound of the dulcimer sweet
will echo the trumpet of God.
