Episode 5069
The Beauty of the Earth
Sunday, November 8, 2026
- Conductors
- Mack Wilberg & Ryan Murphy
- Organist
- Richard Elliott
- Spoken Word
- Derrick Porter
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Program
Music: Ryan Murphy Text: George Herbert
2. Tell Me the Stories of Jesus
Music: Frederic A. Challinor
Text: W. H. Parker
Arrangement: Ryan Murphy
3. Simple Gifts (Organ Solo)
Music: Shaker song
Arrangement: Richard Elliott
4. Give Glory to His Honored Name from Athalia
Music: George Frideric Handel
Text: Samuel Humphreys
5. The Spoken Word
“The Beauty of the Earth”
6. For the Beauty of the Earth
Music: Conrad Kocher
Text: Folliott S. Pierpoint
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg
7. Alabaré (I Will Praise)
Music and Text: José Pagán and Manuel José Alonso
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg
8. He's Got the Whole World in His Hands
Music and Text: African American spiritual
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg
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Spoken Word message
The Beauty of the Earth
For the beauty of the earth,
For the beauty of the skies,
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies, …
For the beauty of each hour
Of the day and of the night,
Hill and vale, and tree and flow’r,
Sun and moon, and stars of light, …
For the joy of human love,
Brother, sister, parent, child,
Friends on earth, and friends above,
For all gentle thoughts and mild,
Lord of all, to thee we raise
This our hymn of grateful praise.1
THIS WORLD we get to live in is filled with beauty and reflects the artistic and loving nature of God. His beauty fills the world: from the heights of soaring mountains to the lowest valley floors, from shimmering lakes to the dry sagebrush of a prairie, from trees to flowers, and from the dark night sky to morning’s first light. All these things and more testify that there is a God.2
They give evidence of His divine majesty and power and yet at the same time affirm His love, concern, and care for the one. The beauties of the earth were given for our benefit, “both to please the eye and to gladden the heart.”3
The poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning once penned: “Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God: but only he who sees, takes off his shoes. … Art’s the witness of what Is behind this show.”4
The beauty of God’s creations reminds us that He is not distant. His power surrounds us, and His love is personal. He is behind—and with—each of us. As we explore this earth— spending time outdoors hiking and climbing, walking and running, sitting and observing, standing and pondering—we find truths that teach our hearts that we are all part of something bigger than ourselves. We are living within the grandeur of God’s creations.
As we take time to see and discover the gift of nature’s beauty, we discover humility deep in our hearts, waiting to be uncovered. We may then figuratively take off our shoes,5 expressing reverence and gratitude to God and recognizing that we, too, are among His cherished creations. Our hearts then sing, “Lord of all, to thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise.”
1. “For the Beauty of the Earth,” Hymns, no. 92.
2. See Alma 30:44.
3. Doctrine and Covenants 59:18.
4. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh (1857; Project Gutenberg, 2021), bk. 7, 304, gutenberg.org.
5. See Exodus 3:5.