1 Samuel 16:23 And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was on Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand… Long and varied was to be David's education for the throne. His shepherd experience had been one of his schoolmasters. And now acquaintance with the Court, and the glimpse it gave him into the duties of government and the nation's condition, was to be another. At Court, too, he was to learn the poverty of human power. Was not King Saul bound in the cords of misery, and one of the poorest, because wretchedest, men in that or any other kingdom? Thus the King-elect was being prepared for his future eminence. But how came he at Court? By no seeking of his own. The youth had become a man. And many marked him, and one who had seen him told the king of him and wound up his eulogium with "the Lord is with him." That servant's knowledge of David, and the king's ignorance of David, for little did he suspect that the commended shepherd youth was to be his successor, "worked together" for David's advancement to be the royal harper. Thus the way began to open to the throne. By what varied and strange instrumentalities God's purposes are wrought out! We see it in this ancient story. And do we not see it today in the life of nations? Think of United Italy and how Mazzini's pen, and Cavour's brain, and Garibaldi's arm worked and successfully to the one difficult end of giving this beautiful, long-oppressed land a rightful place among the nations. Think of the enslaved multitudes of America, and of the many who, militant only for the "Union," involuntarily helped them into liberty. The doors of opportunity have swung upon little hinges. He whose eyes are quick to note Providence in his life will never lack a Providence to note. I. SAUL'S NEED OF DAVID. He needed someone. God. indeed, was his need! But that he forgot, as did his servants. They counselled a harper as the best physician for his melancholy madness. David's name was mentioned. At length he stood before the king. What was this malady? Is the phrase "evil spirit," "evil spirit from God" (or that came by Divine permission), only a strong Orientalism for melancholy? That is bad to bear, and, rooted in physical causes, many a good man has had to bear it. Dr. Johnson was one, and once under its terrible depression exclaimed, "I would consent to have a limb amputated to recover my spirits." But such an interpretation as this will not cover the large, sad statements in reference to Saul. Josephus says, "The Divine Power departed from Saul, and strange and demoniacal disorders came upon him, and brought upon him such suffocations as were ready to choke him." David "charmed his passion, and was the only physician against the trouble he had from the demons, whensoever it was that it came upon him, and this by reciting of hymns, and playing upon the harp, and bringing Saul to his right mind again." (Antiquities, b. 6. c. 8.) Whatever view is taken of Saul's malady the record is full of warning to us all. Well may we in the recollection of Saul "Stand in awe and sin not." II. THE POWER AND POWERLESSNESS OF MUSIC. David proved its power upon the evil-possessed Saul. Great the mystery of music. It sighs in the breeze, whispers in the stream, thunders in the sea, rolls in the mountain echoes, "thinner, clearer, farther going." It is hidden, too, in the very substance of things. From wood of most musical quality, the rarest, finest-sounding viols are made. Music waits to be tinkled out of steel, clashed out of brass, blown from horn, struck from tense string. Man plays upon the instrument and the instrument plays upon the man. In the words of Bushnell, "A man may plod, plot, speculate, and sneer, who has no fibred harp of music hid in his feeling; he may be a qualified atheist, usurer, demagogue, dogmatist, or hangman: but he cannot be one that stirs men's blood Divinely, whether in song or in speech, and is very little like to be much of a Christian." History has much to tell us of this wondrous God's gift to man. The wisest ancient heathens told of the influence of music in their fable of Orpheus around whose lyre thronged trees and entranced rocks, and wild beasts charmed for awhile from their fury. One of our poets has imagined Cain, "an awful form," half brute, half human, listening to Jubal's harp, listening to the novel, anguish restraining harmony — "Till remorse grew calm; Till Cain forsook the solitary wild, Led by the minstrel like a weaned child." This, if no more than a poet's fancy, is at any rate his confession of the power of music. What nation has lacked its patriotic anthem? Songs like the Marsellaise have aided nations into freedom. Music is freedom's friend and languishes in bondage. God's gift is it to man. Cultivate home music, then. Let it be of the best. Alas! that this God's gift should be desecrated. The noblest music is religious. It comes to its crown of nobility as it is consecrated to the Highest. We see it in David. What larger legacy of blessing could he have left than he has in his psalms? They are never old. They are the possession, the voice of God, of each willing soul. And they are all of musical make: written to be sung: sung when first written by Hebrew choirs and choral multitudes in worship. Grateful for this Divine gift, let us holily use it. The devil fled from his flute, said Luther. Let us, with cheerful, holy music, keep at distance the evil ones of doubt, fear, care. Let, the love of Christ be the marching song of our life. May His name. be our life's sweetest music. And may the music of that name be the refreshment of our dying hour. (G. T. Coster.) Parallel Verses KJV: And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him. |
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