Songs That Help Us Remember

For five years, I watched dementia slowly erase my friend Violet’s memories. The woman who once lit up a room with her laughter and disciplined care as a nurse no longer remembered her own home, her faithful dog, or even the Scriptures that once sustained her through life’s storms. But she still remembered one thing she remembered to sing.

Every Tuesday, I would visit Violet with my Bible in hand, but she no longer recognized me. The verses I read once familiar, beloved drew blank stares. Yet when I softly began to sing “Amazing Grace,” she would join in. Her voice, though frail, remembered each word. Her soul, it seemed, still knew the melody of mercy.

In her fading world, the truth of God’s grace endured not through intellect or recollection, but through song.

Singing is Remembering

The Bible overflows with commands and examples of singing. From Moses after the Red Sea (Exodus 15) to Mary’s Magnificat (Luke 1:46–55), from David’s psalms of deliverance to Paul’s exhortations to the church, God’s people have always sung to remember, rejoice, and recount the wonders of their Lord.

• “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly… singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Colossians 3:16

• “Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.” James 5:13

• “Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day.” Psalm 96:2

Scripture doesn’t treat singing as a suggestion, but as a vital form of worship and spiritual formation. Singing unites theology with emotion, doctrine with delight. It binds truth to the heart in a way mere words often can’t.

God Rejoices in Song

And we sing not only because we are commanded to, but because we follow the example of our God. Zephaniah 3:17 offers one of the most tender glimpses of divine affection: “He will exult over you with loud singing.” The God who created music rejoices over His people in song.

Jonathan Edwards once said, “The duty of singing praises to God seems to be appointed wholly to excite and express religious affections.” That is, singing is not just a vehicle for expression, but for transformation. It stirs the soul. It awakens memory. It anchors the heart.

Singing is Spiritual Memory

In Deuteronomy 31, God told Moses to teach Israel a song not just as a form of worship, but as a safeguard against forgetfulness. “This song shall confront them as a witness,” God said, “for it will live unforgotten in the mouths of their offspring” (Deuteronomy 31:21).

God knows our tendency to forget. Just as the Israelites forgot the miracles of Egypt, just as the disciples fell asleep during Christ’s agony, so too do we drift from what we once knew. But music has a way of anchoring truth deep within us.

Psalm 119:11 says, “I have stored up your word in my heart.” One of the most enduring ways we do this is through singing.

The Brain Remembers Music

Neurological studies confirm what Scripture and experience have long suggested: music taps into regions of the brain that other forms of communication cannot. While declarative memory the ability to recall facts or events can be diminished by aging or disease, procedural and emotional memory often remain intact.

Music engages these resilient memory systems. That’s why someone with advanced Alzheimer’s may forget a spouse’s name but still sing “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” word for word. It’s why hearing a childhood hymn can suddenly trigger tears and lifted hands, even in someone who hasn’t spoken coherently in months.

Clinical psychologist Benjamin Mast captures this beautifully in Second Forgetting, describing a visit to a memory care center “God uses music to reach the seemingly unreachable... to draw people back to Him.”

Grace for the Forgetful

The gospel is not dependent on our ability to recall it perfectly. Salvation doesn’t rest on memory, but on mercy. Yet in His grace, God gives us music to help keep His promises close even when everything else slips away.

A 2023 Alzheimer’s Association report found that over 6 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s. Yet in care facilities and living rooms, countless caregivers testify to the power of hymns and worship songs to stir recognition, peace, and even joy. Music becomes the bridge between fading memory and unchanging truth.

Even as Violet’s world darkened, “Amazing Grace” remained her light. And I believe the same grace that saved her soul was ministering to her still through melody reminding her, in the depths of dementia, that she once was lost, but now is found.

Sing While You Can

Don’t wait until your memory fails to sing the truths of God. Fill your home, your car, your church, your soul with songs of praise now. Teach your children the great hymns and spiritual songs. Let music be more than a background noise let it be your spiritual formation.

Sing because you are joyful. Sing because you are forgetful. Sing because He is worthy.

Even if you forget everything else, let this remain:

“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind but now I see.”

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