Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life.

In the time it takes to get to work.

I'm Jeff Parrott.

Sometimes music is more than just something that you listen to.

That's the claim that Daniel Levvitin makes in his 2024 book,

I heard there was a secret chord, music as medicine. Levitin is a neuroscientist and a musician

who researches the restorative power of music and the presence of human suffering.

He explores how the power of music can impact specific

parts of our bodies and minds by influencing neurotransmitters and neural pathways. But he also

describes the effect of music on a larger, more personal scale. He tells the story of a man with

Alzheimer's, who is vastly limited with his

movement and his communication. But upon listening to music, he could sing as if he was a young

man again. Something about music has this therapeutic effect on us as human beings. It revives us. It rehumanizes us. I've even experienced

this firsthand while spending time with music therapists in nursing homes and hospice care facilities.

When someone who seems closed off to the world hears a familiar tune or a pleasing chord, it's like the door of

life is finally opened again. A dark room is illuminated. The presence of that music draws out the

presence of the person who hears it. So far from just being a collection of sounds that we hear,

music can be something that moves us. The end of 1 Samuel 16 presents us with a kind of therapeutic

effect of music in the life of King Saul. But as we'll consider the interactions between David and Saul here

and the beauty of David's music here, will come to see that the healing power of music

points to something far bigger than the music itself, to another presence that draws out our

presence and moves us toward life.

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