EARLY ADVENT
SDAH 452
What heavenly music steals over the sea!
Entrancing the senses like sweet melody!
‘Tis the voice of the angels borne soft on the air;
For me they are singing; their welcome I hear.
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For Worship Leaders
Make each hymn more meaningful with these helpful tools: Short, ready-to-use hymn introductions for church bulletins, multiple ways to introduce a hymn based on your worship theme and in-depth history and insights to enrich your song service.
Hymn Spotlight: What Heavenly Music
First published in James White’s 1849 Hymns for God’s Peculiar People That Keep the Commandments of God, and the Faith of Jesus, this beloved text came from earlier Millerite hymnals and uses the biblical imagery of crossing the Jordan (Joshua 3:8) as a metaphor for the redeemed entering the heavenly Canaan. While some 19th-century hymns linked this crossing to death, Adventists understood it as a symbol of the Second Coming—when the long earthly pilgrimage ends and God’s people join the angel choirs in “heavenly music.” The tune, HEAVENLY MUSIC, appeared in the 1886 Hymns and Tunes almost exactly as it is printed today, though its roots trace to the 1853 tune KEDRON from Timbrel of Zion. Its early American harmony and shape-note notation give it a plaintive, timeless quality, perfectly matching the hymn’s yearning for the Land of Promise.
📖 Reference: Feel free to share but please cite hymnsforworship.org when reproducing.
Introductions for Sabbath School Song Service (based on specific lesson quarterlies):
Fourteen years before the Seventh-day Adventist Church was organized in 1863, James White, one of the young leaders of the young church, compiled and published a pocket-sized book of 53 hymns. It bore the long title Hymns for God’s Peculiar People That Keep the Commandments of God, and the Faith of Jesus. Only the words of the hymns, including this one, were printed, so we must assume that all of them were sung to tunes that were well known by the people. White borrowed the song from several Millerite Adventist books, one of which was Millennial Harp, by Joshua V. Himes, Boston, 1848. This text is one of many that use the crossing of the Jordan as a metaphor for crossing over into the heavenly land, based on the text “When ye are come to the brink of the water of Jordan” (Josh. 3:8). In some of these songs the inference is that death furnishes the instant of the crossover, but that is not according to the plain words of Scripture. On the other hand, the metaphor can apply to the Second Coming, when the redeemed cross the barrier between their long pilgrimage on earth and the heavenly Land of Promise. There they all can join in “heavenly music” with the angel choirs.
The tune HEAVENLY MUSIC first appeared in an SDA hymnbook, the 1886 Hymns and Tunes, almost exactly as it is printed in SDAH. An earlier version of this tune, titled KEDRON, is found in the early American tunebook Timbrel of Zion, published by T. K. Collins, Jr., Philadelphia, 1853. It displays this subtitle: “A Choice Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes, Anthems, and Chants, From the Most Distinguished European and American Authors.” It goes on to make this claim: “The whole constituting a body of church music as complete as ever issued from the press.” The tenor part is on top. The alto, melody, and bass follow on the 4 staves. Notice that the music for the third line is a duet between melody and alto. The notes have different shapes, which indicate the degree of the scale, apart from its position on the lines and spaces.
📖 Reference: Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal by Wayne Hooper and Edward E. White. Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1988.
Text
1
What heavenly music steals over the sea!
Entrancing the senses like sweet melody!
‘Tis the voice of the angels borne soft on the air;
For me they are singing; their welcome I hear.
2
On the banks of old Jordan, here gazing I stand,
And earnestly longing, I stretch forth my hand;
Send a convoy of angels, dear Jesus, I pray!
Let me join that sweet music; come, take me away.
3
Though dark are the waters and rough is the wave,
If Jesus permit, the wild surges I’ll brave;
For that heavenly music hath ravished me so,
I must join in that chorus! I’ll go! let me go!
Hymn Info
Author
Anonymous
Text Source
James White’s Hymns for God’s Peculiar People, 1849
Theme
EARLY ADVENT
Hymn Tune
HEAVENLY MUSIC
Metrical Number
11.11.12.11.
Tune Source
from Hymns and Tunes, 1886
Recommended Reading
Miller gained a huge following which came to be called, the ‘Millerites.’ Great Tent meetings were set up, and the progressing movement saw the need to provide new hymns. Sure, they had songs that they were singing from the churches they belonged to, but none that supported the distinct messages that was being preached such as the judgment, second advent, reward of the saints and the midnight cry. As a result, hymns were compiled and the first Millerite hymnal was born.
Imagine that we are about to enter our heavenly home. Not far away from us, we can hear the angels singing bidding us welcome to the City that God has built. What a great privilege will be ours to be there. (Lesson 6, 2nd Quarter 2021 -Thursday, Spiritual Israel, 5/06/2021)
