Harps are wonderful
instruments! They have an old tradition.
The origin of the harp
goes back to Mesopotamia. The earliest harps and lyres were found in Sumer c,
3500 BCE. Several harps were found in burial pits and royal tombs in Ur. The
oldest depictions of harps without a forepillar are from 500 BCE, which was the
Persian harp of Perspolis/Persia in Iran and from 400 BCE in Egypt.
Harps & lyres
feature prominently throughout the Old Testament. There’s not much difference
between a lyre and a harp. A lyre is plucked with a plectrum whereas a harp is
plucked with a hand. Harps have been mentioned as early as Genesis 31:27.
Lyres & harps were very much part of Israel’s worship
life:
So all Israel brought up the
ark of the covenant of the Lord with shouts, with the sounding of rams’ horns
and trumpets, and of cymbals, and the playing of lyres and harps (1 Chronicles 15:28).
The psalms are peppered with commands to make music to God on the harp
& lyre:
Praise the Lord with the
harp; make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre.(Psalm 33:2)
King David was renowned as an
accomplished harpist:
One
of the servants answered, “I have seen a son of Jesse of Bethlehem who knows how to play the lyre. He is a brave man and a warrior. He speaks well and is a
fine-looking man. And the Lord is with him.” (1 Samuel 16:18)
He worships his God
with the harp:
I will praise you with the harp for your
faithfulness, my God; I will sing praise to you with the lyre, Holy One of
Israel. (Psalm 71:22)
David’s playing was so
exceptional that it had a therapeutic effect, or more correctly a spiritual
effect on others:
Whenever
the spirit from God came on Saul, David would take up his lyre and play. Then relief would come
to Saul; he would feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him. (1 Samuel 16:23)
But at the end of the
age, all who belong to God will shine victoriously in heaven, playing their harps given them by God:
And I saw what looked like a
sea of glass glowing with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been
victorious over the beast and its image and over the number of its name. They
held harps given them by God
(Revelation 15:2)
