Blessed be Jehovah the God of Israel, from eternity and to eternity! And all the people said, Amen! and praised Jehovah.
David's great song, sung when the ark was carried into Jerusalem, does not end with the king's voice but with the whole nation's. Its last line blesses God for all time, and the people seal it with one word — so where did these words come from, and what does that "Amen" do?
David handed the singers a psalm built out of psalms already written, and he chose the closing lines with care. One writer traces where each part came from and shows that the ending looked past that day.
The king chose three Psalms — 105, 96 and 106 — all from the fourth book of the Psalms, and none of them credited to David. They gave fitting words for everyone on that occasion... So they closed that day with the first and two last verses of Psalm 106. These verses predict a situation and a need that Israel knew nothing of at that time. We understand them, and the godly remnant of Israel in days to come will enter into them fully... At that time no nation oppressed them.
The blessing has no end because the One it blesses never changes. One writer ties the people's Amen to God's unchanging nature.
"Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting" — He does not change, and all the people are called on to say Amen to this solemn truth. What wonderful grace first, and what patience of mercy afterwards! Such is the hope of Israel!
These words are not a one-off. Four sections of the book of Psalms end with a doxology — a short burst of praise — and each one draws the same short response.
The book of Psalms is divided into five books. Each of the first four ends with a doxology, and with it we meet the significant word "Amen." "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! Amen and Amen" (Ps. 41:13)... "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! And let all the people say, 'Amen!' Praise the LORD!" (Ps. 106:48).
The word the people spoke was already familiar in Israel. Its earlier uses were solemn ones, where a person went on record before God.
A strong statement of agreement and consent. We first read of its use when a woman was suspected of being unfaithful to her husband and had to drink the bitter water. The priest spoke a curse on her if she had been guilty, and the woman had to answer Amen, Amen (Num. 5:22). So when the priest on Mount Ebal read out the various curses, he added it to each one: "And all the people shall answer and say, 'Amen'" (Deut. 27:14-26).
Here the same word turns from agreeing with a curse to agreeing with praise.
Writers read the last two verses as reaching far beyond David's reign.
Verses 35 and 36 look ahead to the final accomplishment of all the blessings listed in our chapter. They will be fully realised only when God delivers Israel from among the nations. That time is still future, and then this praise will ring out: "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting!" David's people rejoice in this praise ahead of time.
One writer hears an echo of this verse in the New Testament, where Christ Himself leads the praise.
Are we not reminded by this verse of what is written in Psalm 22:22 and Hebrews 2:12: "In the midst of the congregation I will sing Your praise"? Christ is not only the centre of His gathered people, but the leader of their praise to God the Father.
The same thing happens when Christians gather now. One voice speaks, and the rest answer.
One believer expresses it for all the rest, and the gathered church says Amen. There is a worship meeting coming in which the whole church will take part, and will hear an Amen that echoes through creation... I believe that if the heart is right, an Amen will come out — a "so be it." You are putting your seal on what the Spirit of God draws out, and God looks for that.
- Given — David chose the closing lines from Psalm 106, words that spoke of a rescue Israel did not yet need on that day.
- Grounded — "From everlasting to everlasting" holds because God never changes. That is what the people say Amen to.
- Sealed — "Amen" is firm agreement. Israel had used it to accept curses; here they use it to seal praise.
- Shared — One voice gave out the psalm, and the whole nation answered. Christ leads His people's praise in the same way.
- Still ahead — They sang the song ahead of time. Its full sound waits for the day when God gathers Israel from among the nations.
And he left there, before the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, Asaph and his brethren, to do the service before the ark continually, as every day's duty required;
The ark of the covenant has reached Zion at last, and David leaves Asaph and his brothers there for daily service. But what was this ministry "before the ark" — and why was it here, when Israel's altar stood miles away at Gibeon?
Verses 37 to 43 describe an arrangement that was never meant to be final.
After this song, we find in verses 37-43 the provisional order of worship before the final establishment of the ark in Solomon's temple. From now on the ark of the covenant stood in Zion. David placed it "under curtains," in a tent he had spread for it. The tabernacle in the wilderness with the bronze altar and the other vessels of the sanctuary was at Gibeon. There burnt offerings were sacrificed morning and evening. Here David appoints the men for these two tasks: at Gibeon, the sacrifices; at Jerusalem, praise before the ark.
Worship now happened in two places at once. David did not pretend this was ideal, and he added something Israel had never had before.
The king then set up a service of song in connection with the worship of God. Until the throne was set up, nothing of that kind was known. Ever after, this service had its place in the worship of God. We who are in the kingdom can worship God in this way, for there is no altar now at which we are to serve according to the mind of God. In David's day it was different. The ark was in Jerusalem while the tabernacle with the bronze altar stood at Gibeon, and this made it plain that things were not in perfect order. What then was to be done? The king arranged it all.
What Asaph did there matters as much as where he stood. Sacrifices belonged at Gibeon. Before the ark there was praise and nothing else — a lesson, not a detail.
To approach God at all, each and all must come as it were by the altar, that is, by the sacrifice of Christ. But once in God's presence, on that ground, praise and thanksgiving are the suited form of worship. This David understood and carried out. No sacrifices went on before the ark, only the service of song. Should Christians be ignorant of what David understood? ... We can never forget the sacrifice. We can never get beyond the blood sprinkled, as it were, on the throne. But we worship inside the holiest place, and Christian worship has the character of praise and thanksgiving.
Two phrases shape this service: "regularly" and "as each day required." The arrival of the ark was a starting line, not a finish.
That memorable day, when the ark came up to Jerusalem, was only the beginning of David's care for the Lord and His ark. He "left Asaph and his brothers there before the ark of the covenant of the LORD to minister regularly before the ark as each day required." There was to be continual praise to God, with one of the chief musicians leading the praises. It was to be "as each day required," for there would be special reasons for thanksgiving and praise to God as one day followed another.
The next verse names Obed-edom among those left there. Writers tie his appointment to what had already happened in his own house.
The king had not forgotten that the Lord had blessed the house of Obed-edom while the ark remained in his care, for with Asaph and his brothers there were "Obed-edom with their brothers ... to be gatekeepers." The three months the ark spent in his house had shown that here was a man who knew how to care for the ark of God, and who had the Lord's approval in this. So it was fitting that he should have a special place in caring for the ark in the city of David.
One writer carries this picture forward to where Christians gather now.
Before the temple was built, the priests of Aaron's line carried on tabernacle worship at Gibeon, while the ark was at Zion — God's chosen centre, His "rest for ever" — with Asaph and his brothers, the singers, ministering before it. All this has a deep bearing on God's highly favoured people today. Do we know His centre — spiritually, His "rest for ever" — where He dwells? ... It is a place marked by praise that God orders and accepts, where the once-rejected King is present — the One the ark pictured. "Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them."
- Place. The ark rested in David's tent on Zion; the altar stayed at Gibeon. The king arranged it, and it held until the temple.
- Pattern. Sacrifice belonged at the altar; before the ark there was song only. Approach is by sacrifice, but presence calls for praise.
- Pace. The service was "regularly" and "as each day required" — steady ministry, with fresh reasons for thanks each day.
- People. Asaph led the praise. Obed-edom, already proved in caring for the ark, took his place as a gatekeeper.
- Point. The centre God chose, with the once-rejected King at its heart, is still where ordered praise belongs.
and Obed-Edom, and their brethren, sixty-eight; Obed-Edom also, the son of Jeduthun, and Hosah as doorkeepers.
At the end of 1 Chronicles 16, David posts men to serve before the ark in Jerusalem. This verse names the gatekeepers — and first on the list is Obed-edom, whose house once held the ark; why does his name keep coming back?
The ark was now in Jerusalem, while the tabernacle and its altar stood far off at Gibeon. David kept the two joined.
When David brought the ark to Jerusalem, he took care to link worship before the ark with the sacrifices on the altar at Gibeon (1 Chr. 16:37-43). In this way he kept worship united. Every day there was service before the ark and service before the altar at Gibeon. So at the same moment, and "continually", these two parts of worship went on together, though they were far apart.
Each place taught what the other could not.
The Tabernacle showed how to approach God: it is, and must always be, by sacrifice — then by the daily and yearly sacrifices, and now on the ground of the one perfect sacrifice. Before the Ark, day by day, people saw the service that suits those who are where the presence of God is known. That service was, and must be, a service of song.
This order was temporary, not the goal.
After this song, verses 37-43 give us the temporary order of worship, before the ark found its final place in Solomon's temple… Among those who serve before the ark, Obed-edom has the first place among so many Levites chosen by David. He was both the witness and the object of the blessings the ark brought with it — the special witness of God's purposes of grace.
Obed-edom's post was not random. Years earlier the ark had stayed three months in his house, and God blessed it there.
The king had not forgotten that Jehovah had blessed the house of Obed-edom while the ark was in his care. You can see this, because along with Asaph and his brothers there were "Obed-edom and his sixty-eight brothers … to be gatekeepers" (1 Chr. 16:38). Those three months with the ark in his house had shown that here was a man who knew how to care for the ark of God, and who had the Lord's approval in doing it. So it was fitting that he should have a special place in caring for the ark when David brought it to his city.
His name and his home town both carry a lesson.
Obed-edom was a Levite of the family of Korah, as we see from the mention of the blessing on him elsewhere (1 Chr. 26:4-5). So his house was not an unsuitable place to receive the ark. Yet his name means "servant of Edom" — Edom standing here for the flesh. And the place where he lived before, or more likely was born, is Gath, the "winepress" — a picture, as we know, of divine wrath. It is no strange thing to say of any of God's Levites that we were indeed "by nature children of wrath"; and the apostle adds (Eph. 2:3) that we were "carrying out the desires of the body and the mind" [older translations: "the desires of the flesh"] — we were Obed-edoms.
The other man named here, Hosah, heads a family of the line of Merari. Set beside the other gatekeeper families, Obed-edom's numbers stand out.
Obed-Edom is here, as always, the object of special blessing. Meshelemiah, the son of Korah, counts eighteen sons and brothers set apart for this work in his family. Hosah, of the family of Merari, counts thirteen. Obed-Edom counts sixty-two among his own descendants. He had eight sons, for we are told that God had blessed him… Of his sons it is said that they ruled in their father's house, and were mighty men of valour, strong for the service. It is not enough to say that this unattractive task needs humility, dependence, zeal and self-forgetfulness; strength and valour are needed too.
The work had two edges, and both mattered.
The doorkeepers had charge of all the gates of the temple. They had to be able to drive back any attack on the house of God. They had to watch with constant energy, so that no defiled person entered the courts of the Lord. They also had to keep the doors open, so that no priest with the right to enter the temple was shut out.
- Grace received. Obed-edom was the "witness and object" of blessing — the ark stayed in his house, and God blessed all he had.
- Grace remembered. David had not forgotten those three months, so he gave the man who had cared well for the ark a place caring for it still.
- Grace named. His name means "servant of Edom," and his city means "winepress" — a reminder that God's servants were once children of wrath.
- Grace stationed. Gatekeeping needed more than humility, dependence, zeal and self-forgetfulness. It needed strength and valour too — to shut the door on defilement, and to hold it open for those with a right to enter.
- Grace sustained. Sacrifice at Gibeon and praise before the ark ran side by side, continually. One taught the way in; the other was the song of those already inside.
And Zadok the priest, and his brethren the priests, before the tabernacle of Jehovah in the high place that was at Gibeon,
David has just set the ark in a tent on Zion and appointed people to praise before it. Verse 39 sends a second group the other way. Zadok and the priests go to Gibeon, where the tabernacle Moses made still stood. So why was God's worship running in two places at once?
The phrase "the high place" describes the ground the tent stood on. Gibeon also had an older history.
After Saul destroyed Nob, the tabernacle moved to Gibeon. It stayed there until Solomon built the house of the LORD... The high place at Gibeon means the raised ground on which the tabernacle and the altar stood. Long before, the same spot had been a Canaanite place for the worship of idols. God had chosen one central place for worship. As long as that temple was not standing, worship of the LORD at the Gibeon high place was not sinful. Once the temple stood, the high places became centres of idol worship.
The ark was at Jerusalem, the bronze altar at Gibeon. David did not choose one and drop the other.
From the day he brought it back to Zion, his history never shows him seeking another place of worship for himself. Yet he did not forget Gibeon. While the ark was on its way to Jerusalem, he took care to link worship before the ark with the sacrifices on the altar at Gibeon. In this way he kept worship one. Each day the service went on before the ark and before the altar at Gibeon. So at the same moment, and "continually," these two parts of worship went on together, though they stood in different places.
Each site had its own work and its own staff.
The tabernacle from the wilderness stood at Gibeon, with the bronze altar and the other vessels of the sanctuary. Burnt offerings went up there morning and evening. Here David sets up the people who would carry out these two tasks: sacrifice at Gibeon, and praise before the ark at Jerusalem.
A worshipper could reach the throne of God or reach the altar, but not both in one place. That gap exposed the priesthood.
The priesthood of Aaron's line could not hold the people's relationship with their God together, and so the outward order had completely failed. The altar where the priests were to sacrifice stood elsewhere — at Gibeon — not in front of the tent that held the ark. And the ark was the sign of the covenant and of the throne of the LORD. It stood far from the altar where the priests served.
Each site was missing what the other had.
You could come to the ark at Zion, but without the sacrifice that was the only way into the sanctuary. You could come to the altar at Gibeon, but that only gave access to the holy place, which stood completely empty... The altar — expiation — was the means needed to reach God's throne. Without it the LORD could not dwell in grace among His people. That truth had to be set up completely afresh.
David could have carried the ark to Gibeon and restored the old set-up. He did not.
The ark was not taken to the tabernacle at Gibeon, and that carried deep meaning. It was a complete judgment on the whole system tied to that tabernacle. The tabernacle was still standing, and so was the altar, and the priests offered sacrifices there. But the ark of the covenant of the LORD had been taken away from it. The king used his own authority over it and placed it elsewhere... now God steps in through David and acts in power, and that power puts the visible sign of His covenant with His people elsewhere. The royal power is set up at Jerusalem, and the sign of God's covenant leaves the tent of meeting for Mount Zion, the seat of that royal power.
This arrangement had a shelf life. It ran until Solomon's temple brought altar and ark back under one roof.
The priests have indeed finished with the miserable state of things at Gibeon. All the vessels of the holy place, the altar, and even the tent now come together where the ark is. This is the end of the tabernacle — there is no further mention of it... At last God has found a final resting place in the midst of His people.
- Setting — After Saul destroyed Nob, Moses' tabernacle and the bronze altar stood at Gibeon. The "high place" was just the raised ground under the tent.
- Split — The ark sat on Zion, the altar at Gibeon. So the sacrifice that opens the way to God's throne stood apart from the throne itself.
- Diagnosis — Commentators read that split as the failure of the priesthood to hold Israel's relationship with God together. They also read it as God's judgment on the whole tabernacle system.
- Care — David still staffed Gibeon daily. He kept sacrifice and praise going at the same hours, so worship stayed one though the sites were two.
- Resolution — The two halves came together only in Solomon's temple. After that the tabernacle is never mentioned again, and worship at high places turned into idolatry.
to offer up burnt-offerings to Jehovah on the altar of burnt-offering continually, morning and evening, and according to all that is written in the law of Jehovah, which he commanded Israel;
David has just brought the ark into the tent he pitched for it on Zion, and now he settles who serves where. Zadok and the priests stay at Gibeon with the old tabernacle and its bronze altar — so why did the law's daily routine still matter to a king who had just filled Jerusalem with song?
The split was not tidy planning. It was the visible mark of a broken order.
During this in-between period the bronze altar, the tent, and the vessels of service were at Gibeon, no longer connected with the ark. You could approach the ark at Zion, but without the sacrifice which was the only way into the sanctuary. You could approach the altar at Gibeon, but this would only give you access to a holy place that was completely empty. The link between the altar and the ark seemed lost forever through the unfaithfulness of the priesthood. This truth had to be established all over again: the altar — that is, expiation — was the means needed to reach God's throne, and without it the Lord could not dwell in grace among His people.
David's answer was to keep both services running at once.
From the moment he brought the ark back to Zion we never see him personally looking for another place of worship, though he did not forget Gibeon. While the ark was on its way to Jerusalem, he took care to tie worship before the ark to the sacrifices on the altar at Gibeon. In this way he kept worship united. Each day the service went on before the ark and before the altar at Gibeon. So at the same moment, and "continually" (ESV: "regularly"), these two parts of worship went on together, though the two places were far apart.
The split of ark and altar was not the only change in Israel.
The ark of God was now pitched in a tent, as a temporary measure, in Jerusalem. It was no longer with the tabernacle. This was a striking change, and it belonged to the special character of David's position. The authority of the king was now the centre of Israel — the picture of the Lord Jesus. This is because God has kept the place of highest honour for His Son, and David stands for this. So we see the priests move into second place; the king comes to the front.
Something new had begun on Zion, yet the old commands still stood.
The presence of the ark in Jerusalem, while the tabernacle with the bronze altar was at Gibeon, made it clear that things were not in perfect order. So what could be done? The king arranged it all. At Gibeon the ritual given through Moses was to carry on, now with a service of song added, since the kingdom was in existence. But before the ark, Asaph and his brothers were to minister in their service of song.
The timing carried its own message.
The burnt offering was made up of two lambs of the first year, one offered in the morning and the other in the evening. It was never to stop... Because this offering went on without a break, God laid a foundation by it. On that foundation Israel could stand, accepted in all its fragrance. So it becomes a fitting picture of the believer's position, showing the ground of his acceptance in the Beloved. Just as the sweet aroma of the continual burnt offering always went up to God on Israel's behalf, so Christ in all His acceptability is always before His eyes on behalf of His own.
David's arrangement carries a lesson past its own time.
To approach God at all, each and every one must come by way of the altar, that is, by the sacrifice of Christ. But once in God's presence, on that ground, praise and thanksgiving are the fitting form of worship. David understood this and acted on it. No sacrifices went on before the ark, only the service of song... We can never forget the sacrifice. We can never get beyond the blood, sprinkled as it were on the throne. But the place where we worship is the holiest place, and the character of Christian worship is praise and thanksgiving.
- Broken. The ark stood at Zion and the altar at Gibeon. Each place lacked what the other held, and the old order had plainly failed.
- Bound. David tied the singing before the ark to the sacrifices at Gibeon. Both went on at the same moment, continually.
- By the book. Gibeon's offerings followed the law to the letter. They taught one fixed lesson: the way to God is by sacrifice.
- Unbroken. The lamb offered morning and evening never stopped. It pictures Christ, always before God on behalf of His people.
- Beyond. Sacrifice belonged to Gibeon. Before the ark there was only song, for praise suits those who already stand in God's presence.