The Power of Music

" Saul's attendants said to him, 'Find someone who plays well and bring him to me.'  David came to Saul and entered his service. Saul [said], ' I am pleased with him.' Whenever the spirit from God came upon Saul, David would take his harp and play. The relief would come to Saul; he would feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him.' " --[ 1 Samuel 16:17-23].


The power of music to heal is an ancient and sacred practice. This healing power goes all the way back to the Old Testament.

When David, a young sheep herder, is anointed as Samuel's successor, one of his many appealing qualities is the power to soothe others with his harp. Again, and again, David is called upon to bring down the evil spirits that haunt Saul, with the healing power of music.

 I believe that we ALL possess an innate need for music. . . .

Time and again, in my cruel and harsh childhood, I turned to music as a healing salve to my very real wounds.

I went to bed hungry many nights a week. At age five, I was already determinedly finding food during the day, to make up for those lost meals at night. I was putting myself down for naps. I was hiding in the big forsythia bush in the yard, to keep myself safe. As a teen, I was stowing overnight supplies at a friend's house, -- "just in case."

Then, there were the traumas. The black eyes. The years of verbal abuse (I was told that I was too sensitive). The fire in my grandparents' home. The near drowning in a neighbor's pool. The assault that I suffered as a young adult, when I came within a minute of dying. And yet, incomprehensibly,  when I called, asking to go home, I was told that I was a failure.

I had stopped speaking at age ten. This was not a matter of the speech mechanism in the brain being too close to the seat of trauma. There was nothing wrong with my vocal chords. This was a conscious decision, to withdraw from the world.

O, but the music was always there! I listened to music for hours in my room. I was not speaking, but I SANG! I sang walking to school in the rain. I sang in the bath, I sang in the car.

Today, I find that music still has that power to give me hope, to remind me that in this ugly world, there is incomparable beauty.

Today, I use music to open myself up to feeling again. In immersing myself in music, I can cry again, I can feel exhilarated, I can find Joy.

These days, I am listening to a beautiful new CD called Eventide, from the group known as VOCES 8. Their music is ethereal, hauntingly beautiful. It is difficult to believe that mere human voices could generate sounds so heavenly. If I am fortunate enough to go to Heaven one day, I am convinced that this is what Heaven will sound like.

What I admire even more about this group, VOCES 8, is that they are fully aware of the healing power of  music, and they use it to help others. VOCES 8 travels about 1 million miles per year. They bring their music to parts of the globe that are ravaged by war or natural disasters, such as to Japan, immediately after the 20121 tsunami.

By the power of music, the footprints of evil depart from me. A healing force washes over me in every crescendo. The pain is gone. I am whole again.


(c) Spiritual Devotional 2014. All Rights Reserved.