What is the meaning of Keep a Song in My Heart?

One of the Pathfinder laws is to “keep a song in my heart.”

In the midst of a pandemic and its resulting lockdown, this motto speaks louder than ever. We have not really had the chance to sing along with our church family for a while, and many songs have been kept in our hearts.

At River Plate Adventist University, some of us had made plans to attend the General Conference (GC) Session in Indianapolis with the university choir, Coro Musicap. When the session was postponed, we understood the circumstances and adapted to them.

Since I had attended several General Conference Sessions before, I told my friends in the choir how exciting it is to participate in worship with church members from different parts of the world. It’s an amazing and unforgettable experience to meet so many people who believe the same things and have the same hope.

We have been singing “We Have This Hope,” by Wayne Hooper, using a beautiful arrangement written by our choir director, Denny Luz, with our choir for many years. Whenever we sing it, we see the faces of people in the audiences lighten up.

This beloved hymn, part of many Adventist hymnals around the world, was written as the theme song for the 1962 GC Session, held in San Francisco. It was used again in following sessions. Hooper himself felt certain that the Lord had given him the ideas for this song.¹

During the lockdown we may have seen videos broadcast by different institutions, with virtual orchestras or choirs, in an effort to keep the music alive.

River Plate Adventist University also made a number of recordings, one a special version of “We Have This Hope,” sung by alumni scattered around the world.

Our inability to physically attend worship services during these past months has affected all of us. We can, however, keep this song in our hearts as a symbol of our hope, and remember that we are part of a big family.

“In the full light of day, and in hearing the music of other voices, the caged bird will not sing the song that his master seeks to teach him,” writes Ellen White. “He learns a snatch of this, a trill of that, but never a separate and entire melody. But the master covers the cage, and places it where the bird will listen to the one song he is to sing. In the dark, he tries and tries again to sing that song until it is learned, and he breaks forth in perfect melody. Then the bird is brought forth, and ever after he can sing that song in the light. Thus God deals with His children. He has a song to teach us, and when we have learned it amid the shadows of affliction we can sing it ever afterward.”²

We are not to lose hope, no matter the circumstances. Even in darkness and a pandemic, God has a song to teach us, which will be sung in daylight and later in the light of His presence.

Every Sabbath afternoon, just before sunset, people in my small town stand in the entrance of their homes to sing a hymn everybody has agreed on. If you could visit you could hear the same melody coming out of hundreds of houses simultaneously.

Imagine what singing in heaven will be like!

So take courage.
We have this hope.
We have this song in our heart.

¹ news.adventist.org/en/all-news/news/go/2007-03-01/we-have-this-hope-composer-wayne-hooper-dies/.
² Ellen G. White, The Ministry of Healing (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1905), p. 472.

He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the LORD. (Psalm 40:3)

There is a song in your heart. Did you know that? The song in your heart celebrates what you consider worthy of celebration. You consider worthy of celebration that in which your soul delights. You delight in — with the song of your heart — that in which your soul finds satisfaction.

This does not mean your soul is as satisfied as it could be, or that your soul is satisfied with the things that it should be. In fact, many people celebrate things that aren’t necessarily worthy of celebration. Sadly, billions praise those things that starve their souls and drive them to the brink of eternal death. Some are still singing as they fall off the cliff into outer darkness. That would be us, too, if God had not given us another song to sing — a “new” song.

There is another song that celebrates true soul satisfaction. The “new” song put in the heart by God’s grace is one that celebrates him, not our worth or the quality of our praise. The psalmist sings, “He put a new song in my mouth.”

Put There by God

The song is there. The song has been “put” there by God. God! It has not been “earned” by the feeble works of man. The psalmist doesn’t say, “I learned a new song! I earned a new song! A song of praise by, and for, my efforts, my wisdom, my riches, my greatness!” This “new” song is a celebration in the mouth of the psalmist, but he is not arrogantly praising himself. The next phrase shows that the evidence of God’s grace has been joyfully received and rejoiced in, not earned. He says that this new song is “a song of praise to our God!”

Why? Because the psalmist had said,

I waited patiently for the Lᴏʀᴅ; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. (Psalm 40:1–2)

God Is the Goal

This new song celebrates God! It rejoices in God! It sings about God! The psalmist waited patiently for the Lord! The Lord inclined to his cry! The Lord drew him up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, set his feet upon a solid rock, and made his steps secure!

This song celebrates God for who he is and for what he has done. This is the “new song.”

The heart that has been changed by the gospel sings the praise of the Savior. For only in Jesus, we have been redeemed. We have been saved from our sins that have separated us from our God. We have been raised from our spiritual death to walk in the newness of eternal life. We have received and have been sealed by the Holy Spirit, the guarantee of future and final redemption. We have been called out of darkness and into his marvelous light to proclaim his praises. He is our new song.

Our circumstances are not our song. Jesus is.

When we gather for corporate worship, it is to share in this gift of “new heart-song” praise to our God together, both as individuals and as those who can truly call this God “ours.” The heart of the psalmist should also be “our” heart as he proclaims, “Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lᴏʀᴅ.”

As we celebrate the salvation of God through Jesus Christ and in the power of his Holy Spirit, our song will show others the soul satisfaction we have experienced. This should be our desire as we come together — with our new heart-song — to praise God publicly and joyfully.

Even through sorrowful waiting and painful trusting, our song of praise — though at times with a lamenting melody — will yet praise him, for our circumstances are not our song. He is our song! And he is worthy of celebration!

What is the meaning of sing my heart out?

What does keeping you close to my heart mean?

What does follow your heart really mean?

What does the phrase music to my ears mean?