MUSIC THERAPY AND THE
BIBLE
Anonymous
(Investigator 120, 2008 March)
For better health enjoy music.
Music
Therapy
is
accepted worldwide; it’s mentioned in the Bible; and a pioneer in its
modern
development is a Christian.
Ruth Bright (1972) discusses music
to assist
psychotherapy,
motivation and socializing, as well as for brain damage, neurological
disorders,
orthopaedic disabilities, speech defects, respiratory diseases, stroke,
and other disorders.
Reader’s Digest in “Music’s
Surprising Power
to Heal” (9/1992) mentions music therapy for pain, anxiety, depression,
emotional and physical handicaps, and neurological disorders.
Case and Else (2003) describe music
therapy
for
depression, autism and stroke and add: "Of,
course, music therapy…has been with us for a couple of thousand years,
but many people still class it as a Cinderella discipline. It has,
however,
achieved government recognition through the Health Professions Council
of the UK and other parallel bodies worldwide."
Jane Lyons (2008) says: “Music
therapy is
showing
promise in helping dementia patients tune into reality.”
THE BIBLE
14 Now the spirit of the LORD
departed from
Saul,
and an evil spirit from the LORD tormented him.
15 And Saul’s servants said to him, “See
now an
evil spirit from God is tormenting you.
16 Let our lord now command the servants
who attend
you to look for someone who is skilful in playing the lyre; and when
the
evil spirit from God is upon you, he will play it, and you will feel
better.”
17 So Saul said to his servants, “Provide
for me
someone who can play well, and bring him to me.”
…23 And whenever the evil spirit from God
came
upon Saul, David took the lyre and played it with his hand, and Saul
would
be relieved and feel better, and the evil spirit would depart from him.
(I Samuel 16:14-23)
Lyre-playing, however, did not
succeed every
time:
The next day an evil spirit from God
rushed
upon
Saul, and he raved within his house, while David was playing the lyre,
as he did day by day. Saul had his spear in his hand; and Saul threw the
spear, for he thought, “I will pin David to the wall.” (I Samuel
18:10-11;
19:9-10)
In the Bible “spirit” sometimes
refers to
supernatural
beings, but only sometimes. The Hebrew ruach is also translated “wind”,
“breath” and “mind”.
Ruach often refers to prevailing
emotions,
dispositions
and attitudes.
For example we read: “spirit of
jealousy”; “sorrowful
spirit”;
“every spirit shall faint”; “a new spirit”; “then shall his spirit
change”;
“follow their own spirit”; “erred in spirit”; “no rule over his own
spirit”;
“an excellent spirit”; “spirit of deep sleep”; “his spirit was
troubled”;
“patient in spirit”; “proud in spirit”; “spirit of Cyrus king of
Persia”;
“spirit of grace”; etc.
Saul’s problem, then, appears
emotional.
What about the phrase “evil spirit
from
God”? Is
the Bible teaching that God forces people to choose evil actions by
implanting
destructive emotional problems into their minds? No.
Job chapters 1 & 2 portrays
“Satan” – a
supernatural
agency or “spirit” – as causing death, natural disasters, sickness and
other mayhem. And God, in Job 1 & 2, is portrayed as permitting
Satan
to do such things.
Job interprets Satan’s detrimental
impact
as, “receiving…bad
at the hand of God.” (2:10) The Bible, therefore, attributes to God
everything,
good or bad, that God permits. Put another way, the Bible teaches that
God accepts part-responsibility for every evil he allows to happen. In
that sense then, Saul’s “bad spirit” was “from the LORD” – because it
was
permitted or not prevented.
The Psalms in the Bible were
originally set
to music
and sung. Many are prefixed with the words “a song”, “a psalm” or “with
stringed instruments”.
Enjoyment of music and song together
with
being
“righteous” make for a flourishing old age:
<>1 It is good to give thanks to the
LORD, to
sing
praises to your name, O Most High…
3 to the music of the lute and the harp, to
the
melody of the lyre.
4 For you, O LORD, have made me glad by
your work;
at the works of your hands I sing
for joy…
12 The righteous flourish like the palm
tree, and
grow like a cedar in Lebanon…
14 In old age they still produce fruit;
they are
always green and full of sap…
(Psalm 92)
The New Testament advises:
Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs
among
yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts…
(Ephesians
5:19)
RUTH BRIGHT
Ruth Bright:
• Pioneered music therapy in
Australia and
founded
training courses for music therapists;
• Was inaugural president of
the Australian
Music
Therapy Association;
• Helped establish the World
Federation of
Music
Therapy in 1985 and was its
president 1990 to 1993.
Bright was born in England in 1929,
came to
Australia
in 1948, studied music in Melbourne, and in 1960 introduced music
therapy
to Australia:
In Adelaide there was a big
psychiatric
hospital
with a thousand people all in locked up wards with only one social
worker.
It was awful…and I wondered whether there was something I could do with
music there. The psychiatrist who interviewed me said he wanted music
in
the hospital but…linked to the treatment of the people… By working
there
I began to see myself as a therapist... (Wise Women’s World Website)
Later Bright wanted to find out if
music is
useful
in stroke rehabilitation and did volunteer work. This led to her book Music
in Geriatric Care (1972).
Yearly National Conferences of the
Australian Association
for Music Therapy started in 1975. A newspaper report about the Third
National
Conference (in Adelaide) said: “The Therapist…needs to have a wide
understanding
of all types of physical, mental and emotional disorders, be a capable
musician and have tremendous compassion for the disadvantaged.”
Melbourne University established a
degree in
Music
Therapy in 1978; The Australian Journal of Music Therapy began
in
1990; and Australia had 160 registered music therapists in 2001.
In the Wise Women’s World
interview Bright
says,
“Living a Christian life has always been an important part of being me.”
REFERENCES:
Bright, R. 1972 Music In Geriatric Care,
Angus & Robertson
Case, E. & Else, L. New Scientist,
29
November, 2003, p. 43
Lyons, J. Music lifts dementia’s constant
fog, The
Weekend Australian, February 23-24, 2008, Health p. 16
Wigram, T. et al 2002 A Comprehensive
Guide to
Music Therapy.
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