1 Samuel 16:16

16. A cunning player on a harp One skilled in the use of that instrument.

He shall play with his hand, and thou shalt be well Numerous instances in ancient and modern times illustrate the power of music to quell disorders of the mind. One old author says: “Music is the cure for many affections of the mind and body such as absence of mind, fearful apprehensions and long-continued derangement.” Censorinus, a writer of the third century, says that the physician Asclepiades was accustomed by the melody of sound to allay the ravings of the delirious. Xenocrates is said to have done the same. Kitto also, quoting from the Memoirs of the French Royal Academy of Sciences, cites “the case of a person who was seized with fever, which soon threw him into a very violent delirium, accompanied by bitter cries, by tears, by terrors, and by an almost constant wakefulness. On the third day, a hint that fell from himself suggested the idea of trying the effect of music. Gradually as the strain proceeded his troubled visage relaxed into a most serene expression, his restless eyes became tranquil, his convulsions ceased, and the fever absolutely left him.” Instances of a similar nature might be multiplied. Dr. A. Clarke quotes from the Physica Sacra of Dr. Scheuchzer the following attempt at a physiological explanation of this phenomenon. “Health consists in a moderate tension of the fibres, which permits all the fluids to have an entire freedom of circulation; and to the spirits, that of diffusing themselves through all the limbs. On the contrary, disease consists in tensions of the fibres morbidly weak or morbidly strong. This latter seems to have been the case of Saul: and as the undulations of the air, which convey sound, communicate themselves to and through the most solid bodies, it is easy to suppose that by the modulations of music all the fibres of his body, which were under the influence of their morbidly increased tension, might be so relaxed as to be brought back into their natural state, and thus permit the re-establishment of a free and gentle circulation of the fluids, and consequently of the animal spirits, and thus induce calmness and tranquillity of mind.” When, now, Saul’s physical and mental derangement was checked by the power of musical sounds, the demon was for the time dispossessed, (1 Samuel 16:23,) because the psychological conditions of his absolute control over his victim were removed.