Harping On

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)

The great composer Johannes Brahms captures the beauty of the harp’s sound in his song for women’s choir “Es tönt ein voller Harfenklang” (The full sound of harps rings out).