Holy Places
“Stand ye in holy places, and be not moved, until the day of the Lord come.”
D&C 87:8
About the Song
Words by Sally DeFord
Music by Katherine Wright
The words to this hymn have been around for quite awhile. Katherine and I worked on music for this off and on for several years, and nothing worked. For songwriters, that’s just frustrating. And annoying. And beastly. So we gave up.
Fast forward several years, and Katherine (who is pretty much genius) showed up with this out of the blue. And it’s beautiful. Some things just have to simmer for awhile.
The choir that performed it in the video below is the Salt Lake Institute Combined Choirs, Marshall McDonald directing. They did an amazing job on it. (The video is an excerpt from the 2019 February Church Music Festival.)
There’s no audio file for this hymn (so no download), but the video is really worth listening to. If you want to watch or download the video of the entire evening, you’ll find it here: https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/musical-broadcasts?lang=eng#
The PDF and the .pc files for this song don’t look quite the same. They were produced on two different programs. Hopefully they’re otherwise identical. Fingers crossed.
Sheet Music Downloads
YouTube
(Video provided to YouTube by outside parties may contain ads that may be skipped after a few seconds.)
Lyrics
Holy places, safe and sure,
Where all who enter rest secure,
Where we shelter from the storm,
Unshaken by the thunder’s roar,
There the saints of God will stand
Unmoved, upheld by heaven’s hand.
Holy places where we learn
To feel the Spirit’s witness burn,
Homes where faithful saints unite
Are fortresses of love and light,
There the saints of God will stand
Unmoved, upheld by heaven’s hand.
Holy places where we meet
To worship at the Savior’s feet,
Sacred temples to His name
Where hearts are filled with heaven’s flame,
There the saints of God will stand
Unmoved, upheld by heaven’s hand.
Holy places where we pray
For heaven’s guidance day by day,
Where our voices ring with praise,
Rejoicing in the Savior’s grace,
There the saints of God will stand
Unmoved, upheld by heaven’s hand.
(A note about the lyrics: members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints use “saint” as it was used in New Testament times, meaning a simple disciple of Christ or member of the church, rather than a canonized holy person.)
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Our ward small choir sang “Holy Places” today in Sacrament meeting. It is by Sally DeFord and Katherine Wright and was a winner in the 2022 church music festival. We only had soprano and alto parts. The two men in the choir sang melody. Choir was accompanied by piano with flute added on the last phrase beginning “there the saints” on each of the verses. We sang the 3rd verse with flute accompaniment only, and added at the end of the 4th verse another ‘Holy Places’ to finish.
The choir enjoyed this new song and did a fine job !
How beautiful this is! I had to listen to it twice tonight. I’m a retired (disability 1997) General Music teacher and appreciate your willingness to share your music so freely. I have sung in many choirs using your music–and have always enjoyed each number. Now I am responsible to find some music for Stake Conference–and it has been a while since I have had to search for something to use. Not sure the committee chairman will let me go with this one, but I have enjoyed it, if only for myself. Just wonderful. Thank you BOTH for your talents that we can all enjoy!
Our choir will definitely be doing this one. We are Pioneer Congregational United Church of Christ in Sacramento and we LOVE doing Sally’s music!
What a beautiful and moving piece. My choir will definitely be doing this soon!
Thank you so much for sharing your talent so that all may feel the Spirit and beautiful messages through music.
Thank you thank you for all you are and all you do.
Thank you for sharing this beautiful music. I feel the spirit so strongly each time I listen to a song of yours. 🙏💝🙏