And he appointed certain of the Levites to do the service before the ark of Jehovah, and to celebrate, and to thank and praise Jehovah the God of Israel
David has just brought the ark of the LORD into the tent he pitched for it in Jerusalem. His first act after the offerings is to appoint men to a lasting ministry of song. Why does organised praise appear only now? And why does a king, not Moses, set it up?
The Levites had carried the ark for generations. Yet we do not read of organised praise during those years of travelling. One writer traces the silence, and the moment it broke:
In the wilderness we do not read of songs of joy. They had sung the song of redemption on the banks of the Red Sea. Even that song soon died away on their lips. Then came the complaints, born of the hardships and dangers of their journey. But at last the ark found a resting place in the land, if only for a time, in Zion. Then David "appointed some of the Levites as ministers before the ark of the LORD, to invoke, to thank, and to praise the LORD, the God of Israel."
This appointment comes after a disaster. An earlier try at moving the ark had ended in judgment. This time everything follows God's word. The difference between the two days is the difference between noise and worship:
All is done according to the law. But the king directs; he takes the first place, not the priest. Now David appoints the singers in due order. It is a true and acceptable service to God, a service of song to Him — and why should they not sing? On the earlier occasion their hearts were glad, and that gladness may have spilled out in loud shouting that showed no understanding. It was not the ordered, reverent joy of those who worship God... Then it was the joy of the flesh pushing into holy things. God had to defend His own order and majesty, so He judged them all in the person of Uzzah.
The verse names only some of the Levites, not all. One writer sees a principle in that limit, and traces the service back to David himself:
A certain order, a certain initiative in the direction of the praise rested on the musicians. It is the same in the assembly. Only a small number are qualified for this work, and it matters just as much as everything else that relates to worship. David alone was the author of all that had to do with the future temple, even the musical part of the worship. No one had set up anything like it under the system of the tabernacle in the wilderness... Today praise is connected with Christ's heavenly glory, and so it has an entirely spiritual character.
Priests and Levites both find their answer in believers now:
At the present time believers are both priests and Levites. They act as priests when they are in the holiest, offering the sacrifice of praise to God through Christ. They act as priests too when they "do good" and "share what they have" (Heb. 13:15-16). When they are busy for the Lord in other kinds of service, they show more of the Levitical character.
Israel's worship then had two centres. David staffed each one:
The ark now sat "under curtains", in a tent David had spread for it. The tabernacle in 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 men who would carry out these two services: at Gibeon, the offering of the sacrifices; at Jerusalem, praise before the ark.
The singers received a set form of words, and it has lasted:
Next comes this form of words: "His mercy endures for ever." It declares that despite all the faults, all the sins, and all the unfaithfulness of Israel, Jehovah's mercy has stood firm. This will be shown in full when the Lamb is on Mount Zion. He is the true ark of the covenant and the real David, and He is there even before He takes the character of Solomon. And so, ever since David, this has been sung.
The singers stayed in place after that day:
What happened on that memorable day, when the ark came up to Jerusalem, was only the beginning of David's care for Jehovah and His ark. He "left before the ark of the covenant of the Lord Asaph and his brothers, to minister before the ark continually, as every day's work required" (1 Chr. 16:37). There was to be continual praise to God, with one of the chief musicians leading the praises.
- Rest first. We read of no song while the ark was still moving. Praise begins when it has a resting place among God's people.
- Order next. The appointed singers stand in contrast to the earlier uproar that ended in judgment at Uzzah. Their joy is reverent, not the joy of the flesh.
- Appointment, not volunteering. David set some of the Levites in place. Writers see the same pattern now: only a few are qualified to lead praise.
- Given words. The refrain was fixed for them: His mercy endures forever. People have sung it ever since David, and it points on to Christ on Mount Zion.
- Continual. The work was daily and never stopped. It belongs to believers now — priests who offer praise, and Levites in every other service.
Asaph the chief, and second to him Zechariah, Jeiel, and Shemiramoth, and Jehiel, and Mattithiah, and Eliab, and Benaiah and Obed-Edom, and Jeiel, with instruments of lutes and with harps; and Asaph sounding with cymbals;
David has just brought the ark into the tent he set up for it in Jerusalem. Before the chapter reaches its great psalm, it stops to name nine men and hand them their instruments. Why does Scripture record a list of musicians, and why does a service of song begin at this moment in Israel's history?
Israel had gone a long time with no appointed choir. Commentators point to one thing that changed.
While the ark moved from place to place, with no sure resting place for the Lord among His people, there was no service of praise. The song begins only when David brings the ark up to its resting place.
The men chosen for this new work had carried loads all through the wilderness.
David appointed the Levites to this happy service. In earlier days they had carried the tabernacle, its vessels and its furniture, through the wilderness. Now the ark had rest and their carrying was over. How good it was for them to take up the service of praise to the Lord... We are still passing through the wilderness. But the true Ark, our Lord Jesus Christ, is in the scene of rest, and it is our privilege to join in the service of song that delights His heart and the heart of His God and Father.
The king placed each of these men himself. One name carries a history: Obed-edom, whose house the ark had stayed in.
David not only orders the Levites to carry the ark "as Moses had commanded according to the word of the LORD." He also appoints singers, musicians, and "doorkeepers for the ark," and their very names are listed. Among them all, the name of Obed-edom, repeated four times, shines above the others. He is doorkeeper for the tabernacle, singer, doorkeeper for the ark, and musician... God's grace had blessed his house and all that belonged to him, because the throne of God was present in his home. Obed-edom both saw that grace and received it, so he receives very special mention in this book of God's purposes in grace.
An earlier try at moving the ark had ended in Uzzah's death. Writers set that first day beside this one.
Now the singers are properly appointed. This is a true and acceptable service to God, a service of song to Him... The first time, there was gladness of heart which may have poured itself out in thoughtless, noisy shouting. It was not the calm and reverent joy of those who worship God... Then it was fleshly joy pushing into holy things, and God, to defend His own order and majesty, had to judge them all in the person of Uzzah.
The verse makes Asaph chief, with the cymbals in his hands. But the old tabernacle and its altar still stood at Gibeon, and David staffed both places.
At Gibeon the ritual given through Moses was to continue, but now with a service of song added... Before the Ark, Asaph and his brothers were to serve in their service of song. Everyone could then see two things. The Tabernacle set out how to approach God, which is, and must always be, by sacrifice — then by the daily and yearly sacrifices, and now by the one perfect sacrifice... Before the Ark, people saw and said every day what service suits those who are where the presence of God is known. That was, and must be, a service of song... At Jerusalem people saw what we now know to be the true character of Christian worship, for we are allowed to be in the presence of God.
The instruments were real wood, metal and string, made for one purpose.
They quarried minerals from the hills, took wood from the forests, and took strings from animals killed. They made these into cymbals, horns, trumpets, lutes and harps, as King David ordered... People called them the "musical instruments of God"... and this cannot be said too strongly — the music of praise was TO GOD, and not for the mere entertainment OF MEN!
Do these instruments belong in Christian worship now? Commentators see a change between the two Testaments:
The Psalms were written under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, so we may conclude that this way of celebrating the praises of God suited the way God was dealing with His people at that time. A call like "Praise Him with lute and harp" fits the Psalms perfectly. But in the New Testament it is "singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart."
- Rest first. No resting place for the ark meant no song; praise began once the ark had a home in Jerusalem.
- Rest frees hands. The Levites who once carried the furniture through the desert were now free for a better task — praise.
- Rest has order. After Uzzah, joy is no longer uproar; singers are named, appointed, and placed by the king.
- Rest names people. Obed-edom, once host of the ark, stands in the list as a man marked by the grace that blessed his house.
- Rest sings. At Gibeon the way to God was sacrifice. At the ark, where His presence was known, the fitting service was song — and for us, melody in the heart.
and Benaiah and Jahaziel the priests with trumpets continually, before the ark of the covenant of God.
David has brought the ark into a tent on Zion, and he now fixes a daily order of service around it. Why trumpets, why priests only, and why every day?
Not everyone could take up a trumpet. One writer looks at who the record names, and draws a firm line:
Only the priests could blow the trumpets. It takes a priest to give the signal that gathers the assembly together (see Num. 10:1-10). It was their office and theirs only — not that of the Levites. The Levite cannot do it.
What was a trumpet blast for? One writer traces it back to the law that first put these silver trumpets in priestly hands:
Numbers 10 speaks of the silver trumpets. They served for calling the assembly of the people together, and for setting the camps on the move, but they serve other purposes too. It was the testimony of God, given in public, with two chief ends in view: to gather the people, and to make them journey. And that is how it works in practice. The testimony of God gathers His people around Him, and makes them go forward. The testimony of God was the sign that He was stepping in, and at the same time it brought that about. The priests were in communion with their head, and so were close to God's thoughts. They sounded the trumpets when needed.
The great day of sacrifice and blessing was over. Benaiah and Jahaziel stayed on Zion, while David sent other priests elsewhere:
This was the last time sacrifices were offered before the Ark while it stood in the tent on Zion. So David arranged the service before it for the future. He kept Asaph and his brothers to minister there, with two priests to blow trumpets. He sent Zadok the priest and his brothers to the Tabernacle at Gibeon, to sacrifice there as the law required, and with them Heman and Jeduthun and the rest, to praise the Lord.
Where the ESV says the priests blew trumpets "regularly," older translations read "continually." Either word turns one day's celebration into a lasting habit:
The day the ark was brought up to Jerusalem was only the start of David's care for the Lord and His ark. He left Asaph and his brothers before the ark, to minister there regularly, as each day required (1 Chr. 16:37). So there was to be continual praise to God, with one of the chief musicians leading the praises. Each day would bring its own special reasons for thanksgiving and praise to God.
Israel's desert years had no such music. The change came when the ark came to rest:
In the wilderness we do not read of songs of joy. They had sung the song of redemption on the banks of the Red Sea, but even that soon died away on their lips. Complaints took its place, born of the hardships and dangers of their journey. But in the land the ark found a resting place on Zion, if only for a time. David then appointed some of the Levites to serve before the ark of the Lord, to call on Him, to thank Him and to praise the Lord, the God of Israel. Asaph and others were to play stringed instruments, Asaph himself was to sound the cymbals, while certain priests were to blow the trumpets.
David, not the high priest, assigns this trumpet duty. One writer explains what that change shows:
The authority of the king was now the centre of Israel. The king pictures the Lord Jesus, for God has kept the place of chief honour for His Son, and David stands for this. So the priests moved into a secondary place, and the king came to the front... The ark was the throne of the Lord in Israel, and it was now tied closely to the king rather than to the priests. In time everything was arranged around this centre, but it was only a temporary state of things.
- Place. Everything in this verse turns on one spot: the throne of God in Israel, now in a tent on Zion, close to the king.
- Priests. Blowing the trumpet was a priest's task and no one else's. The signal that gathers God's people comes from those nearest to Him.
- Testimony. The trumpets were God's public voice. They gathered His people around Him and set them moving forward.
- Praise. Trumpets sounded day after day, and each day brought its own fresh reasons to thank God.
- Provisional. Sacrifice went on at Gibeon, and the order on Zion was only a stage on the way to something settled.
Then on that day David delivered first [this psalm] to give thanks to Jehovah through Asaph and his brethren.
The ark has come to rest in a tent on Zion, and David's first act is to hand Asaph and his brothers a song of thanks. Why does Israel's song begin only now, and why is this psalm called the first?
For years Israel had no settled service of praise. The reason was the ark itself: it had no fixed home.
David was the "sweet psalmist of Israel." He knew how to praise Jehovah, and he had good reason. But he also established "the service of song in the house of the LORD after the ark rested there." … While the ark was moving from place to place, with no sure resting place for the Lord among His people, there was no service of praise. It is not until David brings up the ark to its resting place that the song begins.
The wilderness years bear this out. Songs were sung there, but they did not last.
In the wilderness we do not read of songs of joy; they had sung the song of redemption on the banks of the Red Sea, but even that soon died away on their lips, and was followed by the complaints that came from the hardships and dangers of their pilgrim journey.
The word means more than earliest in time. It marks a new subject for singing.
It is the hymn of the beginning of the kingship. The setting up of the ark in Zion proclaims it: the ark is God's throne among His people, at last entering into its rest. This song is tied to the ark's return. … This psalm is called "the first" to celebrate the Lord. Here the subject is not, as in Samuel, victory over the wicked, the responsibility of the saints, and God's government toward them. The subject is God's faithfulness to His promises, accomplished at last by the ark's return to Zion, after Israel had forfeited every right to keep it among them.
David picked three psalms for the day. Each choice carried a meaning.
Three Psalms, 105, 96, 106 … were selected by the king to give fitting expression for all on that occasion. They began with part of Psalm 105, verses 1-15. David tied that day's ceremony to the fulfilment of God's promise to the patriarchs, to give their descendants the land. Next they sang Psalm 96, for the ark's entrance into Jerusalem was a pledge of the coming day of glory, when God will show His supremacy over the nations and all will acknowledge it. … They closed that day with the first and last two verses of Psalm 106, which predict a situation, and a need, that they knew nothing of at the time; but we understand it, and the godly remnant of the future will enter into it fully.
The Levites played and sang. The words themselves came from David.
The king appoints certain Levites to minister before the ark, Asaph to sound with cymbals. They are to thank and praise the Lord God of Israel. But David himself gives the song. God inspires him to give thanks to Him in a psalm that boasts in a covenant already made with their fathers. Its forward look also takes in the future wonderful actings of the mercy that endures for ever. This psalm suits the time, for the ark is not yet in its final resting place.
The song reaches far past the day that produced it. One writer explains how psalms like it came about.
The conditions, circumstances, or acts of David, or of others of God's people, became the occasion for the Holy Spirit. He breathed through them words and revelations that suited the time or the circumstance, but that reached in their full meaning beyond it. God delivers David from Saul. The ark of God comes into the tent prepared for it. The Spirit uses those events as His occasion. In the range and compass of the inspiration, knowing as He does the end from the beginning, He takes in larger and still distant scenes.
Handing the psalm to Asaph started something ongoing, not a one-day ceremony.
What took place on that memorable day, when David brought the ark up to Jerusalem, was only the beginning of his 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, and this "as each day required." Day after day there would be special causes for thanksgiving and praise to God.
- Rest first. No resting place for the ark meant no settled service of song. Praise began when God's throne came to rest among His people.
- Then a first. The psalm is called "the first" because a new theme begins here. It sings God's faithfulness to His promises, not rescue from enemies.
- Given, not invented. David supplied words God inspired, fitted to a moment when the ark still stood in a tent.
- Reaching further. The Spirit used a local event to speak of distant scenes, so a day in Zion became a pledge of glory over all nations.
- Then daily. The praise David handed to Asaph was to continue every day, as each day gave its own fresh reason for thanks.