Music Heals

Recently I’ve bought a lot of new music - something I tend to do before going on holiday, to go with a pile of books, comics and a pair of cheap flip-flops. As I was listening to all this new music I felt all the usual joys and fascinations that fresh new music brings, but I was also experiencing something else; a peace; a calming effect; a refreshment.

I was experiencing healing.

My heart and my soul were being restored. It was certainly spiritual. Yet the music was not ‘worship’ music nor was it ambient or chill or remotely meditative. It was beautiful and creative and inspiring however. And that was healing me in ways I didn’t even know I needed healing.

When David takes his lyre to Saul in 1 Samuel 16 his playing refreshes Saul and causes his spiritual torment to cease. No words, no voices or songs. Just notes, just music. The spiritual power held in music is beyond our understanding.

I cannot comprehend how an electronic beat created in another part of the world that some how finds itself as an mp3 on my phone can hold the power to heal me. But it does.

I do not know why the resonant frequencies of a guitar or drum or piano would have the ability to reach into my soul and breath life. But they do.

Of course not in all music do I find healing. But some music resonates with the depths of your soul - causing it to be still, restoring things to their intended nature. It is a wonderful mystery - and an incredible blessing to find music that can do such powerful work.