New Hymn ‘This Day Is a Good Day, Lord’ Inspired by Psalm and Everyday Blessings

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By Mary Richards, Church News

When J. Frederic Voros Jr. and his wife, Vicki, were married in 1976, they received as a wedding present a hand-stitched sampler with the words, “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24). 

Decades later, these words inspired Voros to write the words and music to the hymn “This Day Is a Good Day, Lord,” which is now in the new global hymnbook of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

“I think the hymn invites us to see what the poet Robinson Jeffers called ‘the extravagant kindness’ of God, to marvel at the miracle of creation, to occasionally rest from doing and just be,” Voros told the Church News. 

The text is of joy and thanksgiving, explained the chapter about this hymn in Gospel Library. Voros said another influence was the 1931 hymn “Morning Has Broken” by Eleanor Farjeon and popularized by Cat Stevens in the 1970s. 

The idea is “that each day is a fresh creation of God,” Voros said. 

"This Day Is a Good Day, Lord" 
 
1. This day is a good day, Lord, 
The heavens and the earth restored. 
The sun is risen o’er the land, 
As if by Thine express command— 
All nature guided by Thy hand. 
This day is a good day, Lord. 
 
2. This day is a good day, Lord, 
To feast upon Thy holy word, 
To turn our busy minds to Thee, 
Behold Thy face in all we see, 
And contemplate eternity. 
This day is a good day, Lord. 
 
3. This day is a good day, Lord, 
To fashion plowshares from our swords, 
To study all the ways of peace, 
That holiness may never cease, 
And knowledge of Thy ways increase. 
This day is a good day, Lord. 

Listen to this hymn here. 

Around 15 years ago, Voros said, a friend contacted him and asked if he had ever written a hymn text. She was musically trained and could compose music but felt “the words are the hard part,” Voros said. She had seen a children’s book that Voros wrote and thought he might be able to write hymn texts. 

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He agreed to try, and they wrote several hymns together. Among those texts was “This Day Is a Good Day, Lord.” 

“But unlike others, in writing this one I seemed to ‘hear’ the music in my head. I sat down at the piano and played the tune more or less as it appears now,” Voros said. 

Voros learned to love hymns from his mother, who grew up in the Southern United States. He would often hear her at the piano playing the hymns she had loved as a child in the 1920s. 

He spent his career as an attorney and a judge in Utah, including on the Utah Court of Appeals from 2009 to 2017. He is also a poet, hymnist and author, who founded the Western Hymn Writers Workshop in 2013. 

Voros said he did not start writing hymns with the expectation that any of them would be in the Church’s new hymnbook, “so it was quite a thrill to have one selected.” The hymn was included in the latest release in September of new hymns for “Hymns — For Home and Church.” 

Music can be used in worshiping God individually or as a congregation, but Voros said worship doesn’t have to be a separate experience. “I think we encounter God not only in music but in art, poetry, storytelling, dance, in acts of human kindness, mercy, justice — everywhere truth, goodness or beauty exist.” 

The hymn’s words prompt the listener and singer to think of God’s blessings and the wonders of the world but also to turn minds to Him and the things of eternity — and to practice peace. 

One summer morning, Voros was hiking with friends in the mountains above Salt Lake City. “It was indeed a good day, as we were surrounded by blue sky, a flowing brook and colorful wildflowers,” he recalled. A member of the group started singing this hymn, and everyone joined in. 

“It seemed to express what we were all feeling at that moment,” Voros said. 

His friend Cathy Tibbitts composed a choir arrangement of this hymn, which can be found on the Church’s website. A few years ago, a choir of university students performed her arrangement in the Salt Lake Tabernacle. 

Afterward, a note came to him from one of those singers, saying that this hymn had helped her at a difficult time. 

“She wrote, ‘This song is a beautiful anthem of praise, hope and gratitude. Thank you for helping me become filled with the light of God,’” Voros said. “No selection, award or praise will ever mean more to me than this heartfelt note.” 

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