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Thank God it's Monday Devo 61 Nov 4

by David Joynt on November 04, 2022


1 SAMUEL 16:14-16, 23 | 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 skillful in playing the lyre, and when the evil spirit from God is upon you, he will play it, and you will feel
better.”

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.

Nothing shows the power and purpose of creativity better than music. Long before there were mood altering psychotropic drugs, we recognized that music sung or played, could touch the deepest of our feelings. David’s music reoriented Saul’s psychotic episodes, in history’s first account of music therapy. Long after sermons are forgotten, songs remain in our hearts, immune from the process of time and memory loss.

Music can wake us up to beauty and truth, open our eyes to new possibilities, and it can also comfort our distress.

What kind of music inspires you?

 

Tags: power, purpose

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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