Tag Archives: For Abigal

For Abigail

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About 7 weeks ago Cheryl and I were babysitting our youngest, and only granddaughter, Abigail (we have been blessed with four precious grandsons). I had been working on another soft classical tune in my mind on my German Hofner classical guitar. Abigail was fussy and did not want to take her nap. So I pulled this tune out, slightly unfinished, and played it for her while Cheryl held her. Lights Out! She literally closed her eyes and immediately fell asleep. May I say a word to you about the role of quiet, soft, melodic music.

1 Samuel 16:14-23

Now the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the LORD tormented him. 
And Saul’s servants said to him, “Behold now, a harmful spirit from God is tormenting you. 
Let our lord now command your servants who are before you to seek out a man who is skillful in playing the lyre, and when the harmful spirit from God is upon you, he will play it, and you will be well.” 
So Saul said to his servants, “Provide for me a man who can play well and bring him to me.” 
One of the young men answered, “Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, who is skillful in playing, a man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence, and the LORD is with him.” 
Therefore Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, “Send me David your son, who is with the sheep.” 
And Jesse took a donkey laden with bread and a skin of wine and a young goat and sent them by David his son to Saul. 
And David came to Saul and entered his service. And Saul loved him greatly, and he became his armor-bearer. 
And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, “Let David remain in my service, for he has found favor in my sight.” 
And whenever the harmful spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the lyre and played it with his hand. So Saul was refreshed and was well, and the harmful spirit departed from him.

 

When David played upon the lyre (a close example of one below) king Saul was “refreshed and was well, and the harmful spirit departed from him” (vs. 23b). Saul was a wicked and ungodly king who detested the Lord. However, the Lord’s Spirit led him to govern, out of mercy for Israel. But the Lord also sent a judgmental depressive and sorrowful spirit (emotional grievance), upon the wicked king. But yet, God was merciful. He sent David, a lowly shepherd who was skilled at playing instruments. And when David played for the wicked king in his depression, the Lord was gracious to remove the darkness of anxiety, sorrow, and gloom of hope.

Since the age of 9 I have played countless hours for my parents and sisters and family, wife, children, grandchildren, college and seminary audiences, my church family, and many others – on front porches, back yards, nursing homes, assisted living, para-church organizations, schools, chapels of sorts, and hospital rooms. It has been and still is a great blessing from the Lord to be used to bring live music into peoples lives. But where is this really coming from? Certainly not from me.

It comes from The Musical God that loves us with Music. Music is a gift given to us from a musical God. He knows music better than Beethoven, Bach, and Mozart. Every note on the treble cleff and the G cleff (bass cleff) is ordained of God to produce an infinite array of sounds that to this day speak to an arena of emotions. Our God is incredibly merciful to us to sooth our sorrows through music.

May the Lord be your source of quietness in these days as we wait upon him who offers himself to us so that we may wean our hearts from anxiety and fear as a child is weaned with its mother (Psalm 131).