The Spiritual Power of Worship

David playing before Saul

King Saul had lost the kingdom due to his disobedience coupled with a lack of confession and repentance. As we read his story in 1Samuel, especially in comparison to David, we will easily conclude that Saul was a man after the people's heart. Like David he disobeyed the Lord. Unlike David he did not pursue forgiveness, but merely justified his actions as reasonable.

So the Lord took His Spirit from him and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him (1Samuel 16:14). This is  rather startling: an evil spirit from the Lord? I'll just treat that briefly here, since it's not the point I'm trying to develop, though it is related. We need to understand a couple of things here for this to make sense with the rest of Scripture.

Side Point: an evil spirit from the Lord?

First, "evil" does not necessarily mean "moral evil." This Hebrew term can mean anything bad, anything that is harmful or that injures. In Saul's case, the symptoms were severe mood swings, depression and rage. Whatever was going on, his attendants could tell it was an evil spirit and not just Saul (see 1Sam 16:15-16, for example).

Second, "from the Lord" does not necessarily mean that it was sent by the Lord. If you know the story of Job, then you know that Satan strutted into God's presence, challenged Job's devotion to God and went out from the presence of the Lord (Job 1:12) to do some harm. In the same way here, we should understand that an evil spirit went out from the Lord (as Satan does in Job), but this is not necessarily God's agenda for Saul.

What we are to understand here is that this evil spirit is still under God's control and will only serve God's purposes. The fact that this spirit left when David played the lyre suggests it was a demon and not an angel - but I'll explain that below. I could say more here, but this blog post is not intended to discuss all the fine points of demonology.

Back to David Playing before Saul

As a musician and worship leader, I find it extremely interesting that Saul's attendants believed that playing a musical instrument would be beneficial to Saul when the evil spirit tormented him (1Samuel 16:16). What's even more interesting is that when David played the evil spirit left Saul! The attendants thought that music might make Saul feel better, but when David played much more happened: the evil spirit left!

As far as I know this is the only exorcism in the Old Testament; the only time when a someone is set free of demonic oppression. What's so amazing about this is that it happens through music, or more likely: through worship.

When the Spirit of the Lord left Saul, He came to rest in power on David (1Sam 16:13). Some time had elapsed between the anointing of David as king in 1Samuel 16:1-13, and David being asked to play before Saul. After his anointing he apparently went back to tending sheep (see 1Sam 16:19). The Spirit came upon David in power so he could watch the sheep eat grass? There's a lesson there for all of us that anointing for ministry is not the same as release for ministry, but I'll let you ponder that on your own for now.

It's likely that during this time David learned to lead people in the power of the Spirit, by leading sheep in the power of the Spirit. He learned to stand in the power of the Spirit against the enemies of the people of God, by standing against the lion and bear (1Sam 17:34) in the power of the Spirit. It's also likely that during this period of preparation, when things were quiet, he picked up his lyre and began to play music and worship in the power of the Spirit. One cannot help but wonder whether Psalm 23 was composed during this time.

Whatever was going on, by the time the attendants suggested music therapy for Saul, David had already gained a reputation as a musician. His reputation extended from Bethlehem to Gibeah (where Saul lived), nearly 10 miles away. Of all the shepherds and other musicians in the region, David's abilities stood out. Though I couldn't prove it to you, I believe that it was the Spirit of God upon him that anointed his abilities and his music.

There's something unique about music, isn't there? Most religions include music in their religious practices. The Bible is full of songs. We are encouraged to sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs (Eph. 5:19). Across the ages Christians have sung songs as a part of our worship practices. Of all the things God created, music is one of the most beautiful. Music seems to touch us deeply in ways that simple speech does not.

I have a theory that I can't prove Biblically, or in any other way, but I'd like to share it as my theory. I think music speaks the language of the human spirit. If we think of people as body, soul and spirit, where our bodies are our physical selves, our souls are our emotional/psycholgical selves and our spirits are our deepest, truest selves (our essence, if you will), music has the power to give voice to our spiritual self. It's true that music can be merely emotional, merely play psychological games with us (as does most pop-music, and some of those "sugary sweet" worship songs). But there's another power in music that seems to help us express what we didn't even know we wanted to say. To me, that's the dimension of music that speaks the language of the human spirit. I believe that's why music is so important to the spiritual lives of believers. But I can't prove any of this theologically, Biblically, or any other way. Take it for what it is: personal pondering.

In 2Kings 2:15 Elisha, when asked to prophesy, also asked for a musician, and while the musician played God gave Elisha what he wanted him to say. The way the story is told, we wonder whether it was common practice for Elisha to wait for a word from the Lord while listening to music. Perhaps, this is some support for my theory above that music touches our spirits and perhaps the spiritual world itself.

When David plays, and probably also sings (though that's not stated), the evil spirit leaves Saul. Why?

Notice that David is playing when Saul is raving. It's when Saul is manifesting an evil spirit that David plays his lyre. That takes skill, focus and a belief that what he's doing will make a difference. But I digress.

When David plays, the Spirit of God is upon him. We know that because 1Samuel 16:13 says that the Spirit came upon David in power from that day on. The Spirit remained upon Him for the rest of His life. (This is not the typical pattern of how the Spirit worked in the Old Testament, but I won't go into that here.) When David played music in the power of the Spirit of God, that music it becomes something more than sounds organized into melodies and harmonies. It had power in it. The result of the evil spirit leaving Saul tells us that Spirit-empowered music has spiritual power.

If the evil spirit was in God's service, would it leave when the Spirit-empowered David played music? Are not all beings in service to God attracted to what the Spirit is doing? Yet this one was repelled by it. This must mean that the evil spirit was not in God's direct employ, but only acting within the boundaries God had established for it (as he did with Satan and Job--see above).

In Psalm 8:2, perhaps reflecting on this experience David writes that the praise God ordains to come from children and infants (David was quite young at this time) is there because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. If we assume that David's Spirit-empowered music was actually praise and worship (which is difficult not to assume), this connection becomes clearer.

We have the Holy Spirit within us all the time. As we worship authentically (not just going through the motions, beyond just singing the songs), we should understand that worship has the same spiritual power now as it did in David's time. Authentic worship invites and hosts God's presence. In Psalm 22:3 in some versions we read that God is enthroned on the praises of Israel. Maybe a better and more theologically careful way to understand it is this way: when we worship we become more aware that the ever-present God is with us as we worship.

Some forms of spiritual warfare focus on overcoming the power of hell. What David singing before Saul shows us is that worship can overcome the power of hell too. In spiritual warfare we can either war against hell or bring in heaven, we can either pray out hell, or pray in heaven. Let me suggest that snuffing out darkness is a lot easier when we bring in the light, as David did with Saul. Yes the evil spirit returned, but an Saul's unrepentant heart left a door open for that.

Authentic, Spirit-empowered worship still has power in the spiritual world! But that's not why we worship. We worship because God is worthy of our worship. The defeat of the enemy is a side-effect of declaring and standing in that truth.