From time immemorial music has played its part in human experience. It supplies a deep human need, for it echoes the primeval harmony, "when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy" (Job 38:7).
All through the Bible we hear of the part music plays in human life. Jubal is credited with being the "father of all such as handle the harp and organ" (Gen. 4:21). In the Old Testament we read of song and of the use of musical instruments to praise God, culminating in the genius of David, whose playing on the harp healed Saul at times of mental disturbance and whose sense of music rose in the Psalms to great heights.
It is fair to assume that the singing of hymns was a natural custom for Jesus, when he and his disciples met, for at the end of Matthew's account of the Last Supper we are told, "And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives" (26:30). Paul, in his Epistles, exhorted the Christians to sing. When he and Silas were imprisoned, they prayed and sang praises. As a result, they and all the prisoners were freed from their bands.
