In Second Kings, chapter three, verse fifteen, the music of the harp helped seal off all outside distractions and the unbelief around him, bringing Elisha into a frame of mind and spirit to receive the Lord’s revelation. The effect of music in soothing the intelligence regarded in the East appears that the ancient prophets, before entering their work, commonly resorted to it as a preparative, by praise and prayer, to their receiving the prophetic inspiration.
Elisha is asking for someone who can sing and play well upon an instrument of music. This he requires, that his mind, which had been disturbed at the sight of idolatrous Jehoram, might be composed, and that he might be excited to more fervent prayer, and thereby be prepared to receive the prophetic inspiration. Those who desire communion with God must keep their spirits quiet and serene. All hurry of morale and all turbulent passions make us unfit for divine visitations. Composure and serenity of the soul were essential if the prophet was to hear the voice of God within.
The power of music over the mind is an example in the history of Saul in First Samuel sixteen, verse twenty-three, and the use of music by the companies of prophets in First Samuel ten, verse five. But neither of these instances illustrates the case of Elisha. It was not employed to calm his angry spirit, and he was alone, whereas the prophetic band in that verse was marching in a body and chanting some religious hymns or service. The cultivation of music was in the schools of the prophets as in First Chronicles twenty-five, verses one through three, and was employed to soothe and quiet the soul, to help it to forget things earthly and external and bring it into that ecstatic condition in which it was most open to the reception of Divine influences.