Take funerals, for example. Expressions of anguish and sorrow are kept out of sight, if possible. In other cultures, mourners rock their bodies, wring their hands, weep, and wail. Early Christians may have been uncomfortable with the power of freely expressed music. In the OT, there is a gradual movement away from the ecstatic dimension to a more formal, contemplative, symbolic, and ritualized form of liturgical music.
Musical symbols are valuable tools in the search for truth.
Thus, there is a tension between music's ability to possess and symbolize. Unhappily, those convinced of the efficacy of one have tended vigorously to deny the value of the other, and the divisions thereby created have been deep and damaging. The biblical psalms occupied a central place in temple liturgy. The book of all 150 psalms was compiled over a long period, with its current form being established well after the exile and rebuilding of the temple. The Levites sang accompanied, often by plucked stringed instruments.