“ Music is the granted good that mortals know and all the heaven we have below ”   - a Celebration of Life quote. 

 Music enlightens us and sustains us.

Music, Blues and Bible Discussion:

Music is an artform with spiritual and social significance.  Roots of music go way back including

flutes from bone discovered from 40,000 years ago. A lot of effort for cave people just to make funny noises?

The Bible includes quite a few references to music.  However, it seems that music is treated differently

than art in general and gets special notice in the verses.  Art is generally talked about

with people being industrious and getting good, masterful skills from God.

Excellent craftsmen are given skills from God and through the Spirit

to do fine woodwork, stonework, and metalwork. The finest art is often found in temples and places of worship. 

Music gets a different emphasis than other bible verses about art in general:

Music including instruments, singing, chanting, and special sounds are part of religious and everyday events.

Reviewing many of the relevant verses, we see a range of good uses for music:

Praise, joyful praise, celebration, celebration before God ( and with God)

More worldly celebration at social and family events. holiday events, and for merrymaking.

Also, there are references to driving away negative thoughts (even evil spirits).

Centuries later, ‘the blues’ or ‘the blue devils’ still need to be chased away.

There are only a couple references about music as noise, distracting or bad.

>>> Review of Bible Verses indicates about 60 verses with references to musical instruments. 

 Many others include singing and ‘lifting of voices’. 

Of sixty biblical references to musical instruments about 20 involve Praise; 15 involve Celebration and some merrymaking; 10 are Ceremonial; 4 or 5 involve signaling; only 4 or 5 are in a negative connotation; and also a few others

The Lyre is mentioned 25 times; the Harp is mentioned 24 times; the Tambourine is mentioned 11 times; the Trumpet is mentioned 10 times, Cymbals are mentioned 10 times; Horn is mentioned 7 times, the Flute is mentioned 5 times, the Timbrel is mentioned 4 times, Strings are mentioned 3 times, then 1 time each for the Trigon, the Lute, Castanets, and Bagpipes. 

 The Bible will often describe more than one instrument, or several instruments played all at once. 

There were ‘formal' ensembles and ‘jamming’. just like today.  

Note: Others may review and tabulate this a bit differently; this is original analysis.