April 12, 2026
REMEMBERING: AN ANTIDOTE
MACK WILBERG AND RYAN MURPHY
Conductors
RICHARD ELLIOTT
Organist
DERRICK PORTER
The Spoken Word
LET ALL THE WORLD IN EVERY CORNER SING
Music: Ryan Murphy
Text: George Herbert
HEAR HIM
Music: Ryan Murphy
Text: Wendy Randall
HORNPIPE, FROM WATER MUSIC (ORGAN SOLO)
Music: George Frideric Handel
Arrangement: Carl McKinley
OH, WHAT A BEAUTIFUL MORNIN’
from Oklahoma!
Music: Richard Rodgers
Text: Oscar Hammerstein II
Arrangement: Arthur Harris
THE SPOKEN WORD
“Remembering: An Antidote”
ALABARÉ (I WILL PRAISE)
Music and Text: José Pagán and Manuel José Alonso
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg
IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL
Music: Philip Paul Bliss
Text: Horatio G. Spafford
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg
REMEMBERING: AN ANTIDOTE
The Spoken Word, April 12, 2026
By: Derrick Porter
MURMURING IS A WORD we’re all familiar with. It’s easy to murmur when inconvenience, disruption, or difficulty present themselves. The scriptures tell of individuals and multitudes who—at least temporarily, in moments of murmuring—forgot their connection to God and His power to deliver them.
Take, for example, the children of Israel who, during their wilderness journey, frequently murmured against Moses—and ultimately against God.1 Their murmuring culminated in disobedience, which delayed their entrance into the Promised Land and prolonged their years in the wilderness.2
Interestingly, in Hebrew, the root of the word often translated as “murmur” can also mean “to lodge,” “to remain,” or “to pass the night.”3 In a way, the people of Moses camping in the wilderness did more than murmur or complain—they lodged and remained in their murmuring. In other words, they seemed to camp in their complaint.
Thousands of years later, it’s just as easy to get caught up in our own modern-day murmuring and sometimes to lodge or remain in it. Perhaps one antidote to murmuring, in ancient times and in our own, is to remember God, to remember His promises, and to remember where He is leading us.
His promise is not that we will never struggle or that we will always understand. Rather, He says, “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee.”4
The Israelites murmured, in part, because they failed to look forward to where God was leading them. Instead, they looked back, longing for the past, focusing on their present discomforts. So it can be with us. If we look only at our present situation without lifting our eyes to the future God has promised, we too may be prone to murmur. God offers a grand destination for each of us, and that is to be home with Him.
Choosing to remember God mutes our murmuring. Focusing on Him and acting on His promises points us forward. And so, in those moments that are hard, when the days feel long, or when hope seems distant, let us remember that the same God who delivered Israel still delivers His children today.
- See Exodus 16:7–8.
- See Numbers 14:22–23; 29–34; Deuteronomy 8:2–3.
- “Lûn,” Blue Letter Bible, blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h3885.
- Isaiah 41:10.