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Songs of the Heart

Songs of the Heart

Last updated on: January 18, 2025 at 10:46 pm by Dan Peterson

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Songs of the Heart 2025-01-18T22:46:57-07:00 Dan Peterson

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The Celestial Room of the Idaho Falls Temple.
Please note the heavenly reunions depicted in the mural on the wall.

One of the great things about my father-in-law’s funeral on Friday was the gathering of the clan, not only from Utah but from both coasts, that it occasioned. Some were unable to attend, but it was good to have so many together. (A personal joy was seeing two little granddaughters meet for the very first time and instantly begin to play together as if they had known each other all of their short lives.) I expect that our mortal gathering was matched by an even greater and more perfect assembly on the other side. I was pleased, too, that friends also came to either the funeral or the prior night’s viewing, or both. It meant a lot to us. Neighbors and former neighbors and Interpreter’s executive vice president and his wife came, as did others. A friend from pre-mission days whose name I will not mention (lest he be targeted by — and incur collateral damage from — some of my most malicious, unhinged, and obsessive critics) drove from a considerable distance to be with us. Latter-day Saints don’t really have a formal “best man” role in our temple weddings, but he was there with us on that fateful day in the temple.

By the way, I well remember him giving a hug to my newly-minted bride there in the sealing room and watching her cling to him as she dissolved into tears. She says that it was because she had suddenly realized the life-changing magnitude of the step that she had just taken. I’ve joked with her ever since then that it was because she had suddenly understood that she’d chosen the wrong guy.

I was able to have some input on the selection of the hymns for the funeral. These immediately below were two that I favored. I would like to have them sung at my own funeral service, if any such service is actually held and if anybody chooses to attend.

We opened with “Be still, my soul,” with lyrics by Katharina von Schlegel (b. 1697); translated by Jane Borthwick (1813–1897), and set to music by the great Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865–1957):

1. Be still, my soul: The Lord is on thy side;

With patience bear thy cross of grief or pain.

Leave to thy God to order and provide;

In ev’ry change he faithful will remain.

Be still, my soul: Thy best, thy heav’nly Friend

Thru thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

2. Be still, my soul: Thy God doth undertake

To guide the future as he has the past.

Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;

All now mysterious shall be bright at last.

Be still, my soul: The waves and winds still know

His voice who ruled them while he dwelt below.

3. Be still, my soul: The hour is hast’ning on

When we shall be forever with the Lord,

When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,

Sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored.

Be still, my soul: When change and tears are past,

All safe and blessed we shall meet at last.

And we closed with “Each life that touches ours for good,” the lyrics of which were written by the late Karen Lynn Davidson. She taught for a number of years in the Department of English at BYU:

1.Each life that touches ours for good

Reflects thine own great mercy, Lord;

Thou sendest blessings from above

Thru words and deeds of those who love.

2.What greater gift dost thou bestow,

What greater goodness can we know

Than Christlike friends, whose gentle ways

Strengthen our faith, enrich our days.

3.When such a friend from us departs,

We hold forever in our hearts

A sweet and hallowed memory,

Bringing us nearer, Lord, to thee.

4.For worthy friends whose lives proclaim

Devotion to the Savior’s name,

Who bless our days with peace and love,

We praise thy goodness, Lord, above.

Another piece that I would love to have performed at my own funeral is “Goin’ Home,” with lyrics by William Arms Fisher (1861-1948) — a white American composer, by the way, and a music historian and writer — that were set to music that been written earlier by the Czech composer Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904):

Going home, going home
I am going home
Quiet like, some still day
I am going home
It’s not far, just close by
Through an open door
Work all done, care laid by
Never fear no more
Mother’s there expecting me
Father’s waiting too
Lots of faces gathered there
All the friends I knew
I’m just going home
No more fear, no more pain
No more stumbling by the way
No more longing for the day
Going to run no more
Morning star light the way
Restless dreams all gone
Shadows gone, break of day
Real life has begun
There’s no break, there’s no end
Just living on
Wide awake, with a smile
Going on and on, going on and on
Going home, going home
I am going home
Shadows gone, break of day
Real life has begun
I’m just going home

I’m somewhat ambivalent about another possible funeral song. I never liked it much in the past but, now that more and more of the people that I’ve known and loved and that have influenced me are on the other side, the lyrics have grown powerfully meaningful to me:

Oh, what songs of the heart We shall sing all the day, When again we assemble at home, When we meet ne’er to part With the blest o’er the way, There no more from our loved ones to roam! When we meet ne’er to part, Oh, what songs of the heart We shall sing in our beautiful home.

Tho our rapture and bliss There’s no song can express, We will shout, we will sing o’er and o’er, As we greet with a kiss, And with joy we caress All our loved ones that passed on before; As we greet with a kiss, In our rapture and bliss, All our loved ones that passed on before.

Oh, the visions we’ll see In that home of the blest, There’s no word, there’s no thought can impart, But our rapture will be All the soul can attest, In the heavenly songs of the heart; But our rapture will be In the vision we’ll see Best expressed in the songs of the heart.

Oh, what songs we’ll employ! Oh, what welcome we’ll hear! While our transports of love are complete, As the heart swells with joy In embraces most dear When our heavenly parents we meet! As the heart swells with joy, Oh, what songs we’ll employ, When our heavenly parents we meet!

I’m perfectly aware, of course, of how the news of my demise will actually be received — at least in certain circles. Happily, I rather like the tune.

Finally, here is a poem — “All is Well,” by Henry Scott Holland — that my wife thought of including in her remarks at her father’s funeral, but which she ultimately didn’t. We both like it, though. So I share it with you:

Death is nothing at all,
I have only slipped into the next room
I am I and you are you
Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.
Call me by my old familiar name,
Speak to me in the easy way which you always used
Put no difference in your tone,
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was,
Let it be spoken without effect, without the trace of shadow on it.
Life means all that it ever meant.
It it the same as it ever was, there is unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near,
Just around the corner.
All is well.

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