Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: 1 Chronicles 16 | Date: March 27, 2022 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Open your Bibles, if you will, to 1 Chronicles chapter 16. And a bit of a program note before we begin this morning: I am still continuing our series on the doctrine of salvation, but I’m interrupting that series this morning. Beginning next Sunday evening, when I return to the evening services now next month, I’ll begin the series on the Psalms. And in the evening series that I’m going to do on the Psalms for the first number of weeks, what I’ll be doing is basically introducing the Psalms, trying to help learn how to read the Psalms, how to understand the various aspects of it. We’ll look at the background of it, the authorship, why it matters, these kinds of things. I think you’ll find it interesting, fascinating, I think.

And then at some point when I finish the series on the doctrine of salvation in the mornings, we will then, I plan to start a series of expositions through the Psalms on the morning services. But for the first number of weeks in the evenings now, we’ll be introducing the Psalms, we’ll be looking at many different Psalms, and I think it’ll be helpful. I think I mentioned before that something about the popularity of the Psalms, and if I were to ask what is your favorite book of the Bible, I’d be surprised if the majority didn’t say Psalms. For your daily Bible reading, I imagine Psalms is one of the most common among us. We all just love the Psalms. And what I want to do is introduce them, learn how to read and understand them, and then do a series of expositions from that.

This morning what I would like to do is, beginning with 1 Chronicles chapter 16, introduce the series, and we might title this something exciting like, “The Psalms in Israel’s Worship.” Not very exciting, but that’s the subject this morning that we have, 1 Chronicles chapter 16. I’m going to take the time to read through this entire chapter, even though it is so lengthy.

And they brought in the ark of God and set it inside the tent that David had pitched for it. And they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before God. And when David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord and distributed to all Israel, both men and women, to each a loaf of bread, a portion of meat, and a cake of raisins. Then he 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. Asaph was the chief, and second to him were Zechariah, Jael, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Mattithiah, Eliab, Benaiah, Obed-Edom, and Jael, who were to play harps and lyres. Asaph was to sound the cymbals, and Benaiah and Jehaziel, the priests, were to blow trumpets regularly before the Ark of the Covenant of God.

Then on that day David first appointed that thanksgiving be sung to the Lord by Asaph and his brothers. O give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people. Sing praises to him, tell of all his wondrous works. Glory in his holy name, let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Seek the Lord and his strength. Seek his presence continually. Remember the wondrous works that he has done, his miracles and the judgments he uttered. O offspring of Israel, his servants, sons of Jacob, his chosen ones. He is the Lord our God. His judgments are in all the earth. Remember his covenant forever, the word that he commanded for a thousand generations, the covenant that he made with Abraham, his sworn promise to Isaac, which he confirmed as a statute to Jacob and as an everlasting covenant to Israel, saying, to you I will give the land of Canaan as your portion for an inheritance.

When you were few in number and of little account, and sojourners in it, wandering from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people, he allowed no one to oppress them. He rebuked kings on their account, saying, “Touch not my anointed ones. Do my prophets no harm.” Sing to the Lord all the earth. Tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples. For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and he is to be held in awe above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him. Strength and joy are in his place.

Ascribe to the Lord, O clans of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord glory, do His name. Bring an offering and come before Him. Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. Tremble before Him, all the earth. Yes, the world is established, it shall never be moved. Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice and let them say among the nations, “The Lord reigns.” Let the sea roar and all that fills it. Let the field exult and everything in it. Then shall the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth.

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. Say also, “Save us, O God of our salvation, and gather and deliver us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise.” Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Then all the people said, “Amen,” and praised the Lord.

So David 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. And also Obed-Edom, his 68 brothers, while Obed-Edom, the son of Jeduthun, and Hosah were to be gatekeepers. And he left Zadok, the priest, and his brothers, and the priests before the tabernacle of the Lord in the high place that was at Gibeon to offer burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar of burnt offering regularly morning and evening to do all that is written in the law of the Lord that he had commanded Israel. With them were Heman and Jeduthun, the rest of those chosen and expressly named to give thanks to the Lord for his steadfast love endures forever. Heman and Jeduthun had trumpets and cymbals for the music, and the instruments were for sacred song. The sons of Jeduthun were appointed to the gate. Then all the people departed each to his house, and David went home to bless his household.

Let’s bow for prayer. Our Father, we are grateful for this passage and what it has for us. It is not one of the more familiar passages in your word. It is important for us, however. We ask that you will give us an understanding of it and an appreciation through it of the praises that we are to sing to your name for your grace to us. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

The Background of the Ark

To give the background to this passage, I have to back up at least as far as Mount Sinai. Israel has come out of Egypt. God has rescued them from their bondage. They are now at Mount Sinai where God is speaking to Moses and giving him the law, which is the covenant that God makes with Israel to regulate all of life. In that law that God gave to Moses, we have directions for their worship. And at the center of that worship was the tabernacle, a portable temple.

And in that tabernacle, you have the outer court, you have then a structure on the inside of the court made of two parts. You have the holy place, and then inside of that, you have the most holy place. And that is the center, the very heart of Israel’s worship. That most holy place was the place of the presence of God, where God uniquely revealed himself and made himself present for Israel. There was the, in that most holy place, was the Ark of the Covenant, this golden box with a lid over top, which was the mercy seat, and over the side you have the cherubim guarding it. This is the presence of God. The ark is said to be his footstool, the footstool of his throne. This is God dwelling in his palace, if you will, a palace temple, God dwelling among his people, and in that most holy place, it was the most sacred spot, and no one was allowed in there except the high priest, and he only once a year after certain preparations were made.

So you have this tabernacle, this huge tent structure, and then you have within that the Holy Place and then the Most Holy Place, which was the place of the presence of God. Also in that Ark of the Covenant, that box inside the Most Holy Place, was the tablets of stone. This was the law that God gave to Israel, the Ten Commandments, summarizing their responsibilities to him. That was important symbolically as well, because it is not only now the place of God’s presence, but with that Ark of the Covenant housing God’s law, it shows God’s rule as king to be a rule of law reflecting his will among his people. There actually was nothing like that in the ancient Near East. They had their holy places and they had their objects of worship and they had things like that, but there was nothing like this of the law placed in the most holy place reflecting the moral character of the kingdom.

Well, that was the center of Israel’s worship that was given to them at Sinai through Moses. The tabernacle then, this portable temple, followed Israel through the wilderness in their various places until they finally settled in the land. The ark, you remember, was carried along with Joshua on his military campaigns to show God’s powerful presence among his people in conquering their enemies. The tabernacle finally found a permanent residence in Shiloh. During the time of Eli, the Ark was captured by the Philistines. You remember that didn’t go well for them. A rather amusing episode, at least from our standpoint; it wasn’t from theirs. But it didn’t go well for them, and so they sent it back, and finally the Ark is taken to Kiriath-jearim, where it finally was made to stay. The tabernacle itself, though, was taken to Nob, and then to Gibeon, which was mentioned in our passage that we’ve read.

The Ark of the Covenant remained then in Kiriath-jearim till after Saul’s reign, throughout his reign, until after when David had reigned for a while and now has captured Jerusalem and makes it his capital city. And he wants to bring the Ark of the Covenant there, and that was important for David to do that because it showed that God’s presence and it showed that God was king, that there’s the king and there’s the king above the king. And we have now the Ark of the Covenant brought to Jerusalem to symbolize that.

David has captured Jerusalem and now both the northern and the southern tribes have gathered around him and acclaimed him as king. And this is his capital city right there on the border between north and south. Jerusalem was his new capital and the Ark of the Covenant is brought there for important reasons to show God’s presence and his rulership and the rule of his law in the kingdom of Israel. David prepared a tent there in Jerusalem on the mountain of Zion, and there the ark was to be housed.

And that actually, this whole episode then of bringing the ark to Jerusalem, and then the consequent covenant that God makes with David concerning his kingdom in the next chapter—this is the center of 1 Chronicles, and we could show you actually how the whole book of 1 Chronicles is structured in such a way to draw attention to these central chapters with regard to the Ark of the Covenant. It was important for David then to bring this ark to Jerusalem. It shows God’s presence, it shows that God is the king of Israel, it shows that this kingdom has a moral dimension to it and God rules by his law. And so this was just a grand event that we read of here in chapters 15 and 16 of bringing the ark back to Jerusalem.

We read of this also in 2 Samuel chapter 6. If you’d like to look there sometime, we have the event described, and in both passages, in Samuel and Chronicles, it’s marked by just exuberant celebration. This is quite the affair: music, trumpets blasting, cymbals being banged, music, songs being sung, psalms being sung. This is just a time of great celebration.

We have some of the details given us. First, if you look back at chapter 15 verse 16, David commanded the chiefs of the Levites to appoint their brothers as the singers who would play loudly on musical instruments, on harps and lyres and cymbals, to raise sounds of joy. So it’s a celebratory atmosphere. I was thinking how to describe this. The word raucous, I think, is the best word I can come up with, as long as you just get rid of the negative connotations of that word. This is an exuberant event. They’re shouting, they’re singing, they’re just exalting in praise. This is a happy national event. All of the nation is involved with it, the northern and the southern tribes.

We look in chapter 15 verses 19 and following: the singers Haman, Asaph, and Ethan were to sound bronze cymbals. Zechariah, Aziel, and there’s that word I always have trouble with, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Maaseiah and Benaiah were to play harps, according to Alamoth. That’s a tune name. You might remember seeing that in some of the superscripts of the Psalms. It’s a tune name that’s lost to us now. But Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, and Mikneiah, Obed-Edom, Jeiel, and Azaziah were to lead with lyres, according to the Sheminith. Another tune name. Chenaniah, leader of the Levites in music, should direct the music for he understood it.

Down to verse 24, Shebaniah and all these other priests, they blow the trumpets before the ark of God, Obed-Edom and Jehiah were to be gatekeepers for the ark. Verse 25, so David and the elders of Israel and the commanders of thousands went to bring up the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord from the house of Obed-Edom with rejoicing. Verse 28, so all Israel brought up the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord with shouting to the sound of horn, trumpets, cymbals, making loud music on harps and lyres.

So this is a huge, huge event marked by celebration and singing and shouting of all kinds. David himself was involved in it. He is now, we find, dressed in white linen as more priestly garments. He’s taken off his royal robes. He’s basically one of the people. He’s rejoicing with them in this enormous celebration of bringing the Ark into Jerusalem. The Levites carried the Ark on their shoulders with carrying poles as it was appointed by Moses. They were very careful in this process. You remember at an earlier journey of the Ark there was a stumble and Uzzah learned that you’re not supposed to touch it, and so there’s great care now in bringing it up. I think at every seventh step, they stop and make a sacrifice. This is a very careful event. You treat this ark with respect.

Everyone is involved. There are musical guilds that are appointed. There are singers. There’s instrumentalists, including cymbals and all of that. We have gatekeepers for security. There’s a fanfare. There’s celebration. It’s loud. It’s joyful. It’s, without the negative connotations, it’s a raucous event where there’s just celebration of the most joyous kind. We find both in 2 Samuel 6 and here in a hint of it as well, in 1 Chronicles 16, that David was so overwhelmed with joy and celebrating in such kind of exuberance that his wife, Michal, was embarrassed by it. She’s the impious daughter of the impious King Saul, neither of whom had any interest in the things of God. And she’s embarrassed by David’s rejoicing at such exuberance at the occasion, and says, “You’ve demeaned yourself. You’ve become like one of the maidservants.” And of course David says something to the effect of, “If I’m despised for worshiping God, that’s okay with me.” Just a marvelously joyful event.

The Psalms in Israel’s Worship

Now chapter 16, which we have read, fills in more of the details, and I want to highlight a couple of them. Verse 1, they brought the ark of God and set it inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before God. And then verses four and following, they appointed singers and musicians. He 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. Asaph was the chief, so think there Ian Brown. Asaph is the chief. And second to him were all these others. They’re playing harps and lyres and there’s cymbals, there’s trumpets. And then verse seven, on that day, David first appointed that thanksgiving be sung to the Lord by Asaph and his brothers.

Well, that takes us through verse seven. Now at verse eight, 1 Chronicles 16, we have the script of the choir concert that was sung. And actually what we have here in verses 8 through 36, we have a composite psalm that they sang on that day. I say composite psalm because actually what we have here is three different psalms that are preserved for us in the Psalter that were sung that day. So verses 8 to 22, if you’d like to mark it—you might have it in your marginal notes in your Bible—verses 8 to 22 is actually Psalm 105, verses 1 to 15. And then verses 23 to 33 is Psalm 96, verses 1 to 13. And then verses 34 to 36, at the very end, they give us a few words from Psalm 106. Psalm 106 verse 1, and then Psalm 106 verses 47 and 48. So we have the very first and then the very last words of Psalm 106 in these last verses here, 34 to 36.

So that’s the script; that’s the psalm that they sang that day on this occasion. So you have these choirs that have been appointed, Asaph is the chief leader of the music, and they’re singing these psalms, this composite psalm now, something of a great celebration—we might even call it a cantata of sorts—where they sing to the Lord. So this is a landmark event. I hope you’re getting a sense of that. God’s presence is now in Jerusalem, and they are celebrating that event. Jerusalem is now a holy city. The Ark of the Covenant rests on Zion, and so Zion becomes a holy hill, and you hear about that in the Psalter. And we’ll find more of that in our studies in the Psalter with the liturgical background and the use of the Psalms and so on.

But we find then in 2 Samuel 7, and then again here in 1 Chronicles 17, David had planned, actually, to make a permanent temple for God. And you’ll remember that through Nathan, finally, that was not the plan that God had. Instead, Solomon would build that temple. In the meantime now, the ark will reside in Jerusalem in this tent that David had prepared. A landmark event enormously important in the history of Israel.

Now, it was a landmark event in another way, and that narrows our focus now to what we’re going to be looking at in the Psalms. It’s a landmark event in a very significant way in that this is the occasion of the transformation of Israel’s system of worship. I’ll say it again: this marks the occasion in which David transformed Israel’s system of worship. Since Sinai, Israel’s worship was marked by a carefully prescribed liturgy. There was the temple or the tabernacle that was appointed. There was the priesthood. There was a sacrificial system. There were offerings of various kinds. There were multiple holy days. And all of these kinds of things marked Israel’s worship. And all of it was highly symbolic.

Everything about it was symbolic. You have the temple itself, which was sacred space because God dwelled there. Inside is holy. Outside the tabernacle structure is profane. It’s holy in there because this is the place of God’s presence. The structure itself in the tabernacle, in the most holy place, directed your attention to the presence of God in the most holy place. You had the sloping roofline, you had the narrowing doorways pointing you toward this most holy place in the presence of God. This is the center of Israel’s worship, the center of holiness, if you will.

You also have ascending smoke, which was also symbolic. You have the ascending of prayers of the people of Israel and of the priests, ascending of prayers to God in the smoke. You also have the lifting of hands, which was both symbolic of offering gifts to God and receiving grace from God. And of course, the central concern in all of this was the question: how can a holy God dwell in the presence of a sinful people? And the answer to that is sacrifice. And here we have the structures established for us back at Sinai, the structures in which finally we are able to understand the great sacrifice that was offered in the person of Christ.

Now what’s striking about all of that—all of this carefully prescribed worship that Moses gave from God—what’s striking about all of it is that it’s all symbolic. Put another way, it’s nonverbal. Unlike our collective worship, which is all verbal, Israel’s worship was almost entirely nonverbal. We find that the priest was to confess sins over the sacrificial animal at times. We find that the offerer was to confess sins over the animal. No prescribed liturgy there, just confess sins. The only verbal thing we have going on except for one prescribed verbal part of Israel’s liturgy, and that’s in Deuteronomy chapter 26 and verse 5, where the worshipper who’s bringing his firstfruits to the tabernacle is to say, “A wandering Aramean was my father.” It’s the only prescribed words in all of Israel’s liturgy. “A wandering Aramean was my father.” Evidently a reference to Jacob, who spent time in Aram, present-day Syria.

All of it was symbolic, virtually nothing spoken. You have these rituals, you have the smoke, you have the objects, and you have the activities, you have the sacrifice, you have the temple itself, and all of it spoke, but non-verbally.

With David, all that now would change, and this is the event, 1 Chronicles 15 and 16—this is the event that brought all of that to change. Here he introduces psalm singing to accompany the Mosaic ceremonies on a permanent basis. So Moses is preserved. Moses’ ceremonies that are prescribed from God at Mount Sinai, all of that’s kept. But now we have the musical accompaniment that’s written to accompany those liturgies and those sacrifices and those offerings.

So again, verse 4, 1 Chronicles 16: “Then he appointed some of the Levites as ministers before the Ark of the Lord to invoke, to thank, and to praise the Lord.” That’s actually three discrete classes of Psalms that we’ll see. So he appoints these ministers, these Levites, before the Ark of the Lord to invoke, to thank, to praise the Lord, the God of Israel. Asaph was the chief, and second to him were all these others who were to play harps and lyres. Asaph was to sound the cymbals. Benaiah and Jehaziel, the priests, were to blow trumpets regularly before the Ark of the Covenant of God. Then on that day, David first appointed that thanksgiving be sung to the Lord by Asaph and his brothers.

So notice again, verse 4, we have these categories of psalms that were appointed to be sung. We’ll have lots more to say about that in the coming weeks. Verse 7: “On that day, David first appointed that thanksgiving be sung to the Lord by Asaph and his brothers.” Now if you’ll jump down toward the end, verse 37, we find that this new model is set in place. This is after the event now. The chronicler tells us, “So David 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.”

So this was a grand event, a celebratory event, but it was not once and done. This marked the beginning of a psalm singing that now has a permanent place in the tent and the temple worship. Offerings and sacrifices are still being offered according to what Moses had prescribed, but now they’re accompanied by psalm singing. You have scripted musical accompaniment to it. You have an accompaniment of choirs. You have these musical guilds that are appointed—Asaph, the Sons of Korah, and so on, and these others that are appointed. You have musicians, and you even have congregational singing.

You have the music leader. You have communal celebratory meals that accompany the Thanksgiving Psalms. We’ll see more about that. Asaph was the one placed in charge of it all under the king. The king had charge of worship. The king had charge of worship in all of the Near Eastern cultures. He oversaw the religion and the worship of the people. And David certainly did that. We have statements of Hezekiah doing the same. David here in a unique kind of way reshaping Israel’s worship to make these Psalms an accompaniment to the rituals and the liturgies that Moses had appointed.

Asaph now is under the king, is appointed in charge over all of it. Asaph is more than just the music leader; he is a priest, a Levitical priest. He’s also a prophet. He wrote 12 of the Psalms. Interesting man. We’ll see more about him in time to come. You’ll note, I’m sure you’ve noticed in your Psalms when you read through them in the superscripts, you see, “To the choirmaster.” And David wrote many psalms to the choirmasters, to Asaph. So he writes the script for these psalms to accompany Israel’s worship, and then he hands it off to the choirmaster. Here, this is where it’s to be sung. Sometimes he will appoint particular tunes to be sung with it, sometimes appointing musical instruments that are to be used with it, but to the choirmaster for use in Israel’s worship.

Well, that then is the original setting and the function of the Psalms. Moses is kept in place, he’s preserved entirely, but now the rituals that Moses gave are now accompanied with this grand drama, singing and instrumental music. David has provided staging; he’s provided singing, stringed instruments, blowing trumpets. The Psalms now are sung regularly at the daily sacrifices, at the holy days, at the various offerings, the special occasions, accompanied with these choirs, the musicians, the musical guilds, and all overseen by Asaph.

So David now has transformed the worship of Israel from a silent drama to a kind of opera, where the play is still there, but it’s accompanied by music. It’s no longer a silent drama, but it’s opera. The music that is sung at an opera is called a libretto. That’s what David has provided now for the singing to accompany the worship of Israel that Moses had prescribed.

I think it’s a fascinating thing. I think it’s also fascinating that David is such a remarkable, multi-gifted man. We’re told that he’s good looking. That never hurts. Brilliant creative mind; we’ll see more of that as we go along as well. A deep heart; we see that in the Psalms. He’s athletic. He’s a shepherd. He’s a rugged outdoorsman. Very good with the sling. You know, when you see him in 1 Samuel 17 going up against Goliath with his sling, you’ve gotta think: this is not the first time he’s fired that thing. You get this picture of, okay, here’s a kid—a kid at that point, what, 16, something like that—who’s been watching his father’s sheep. He’s probably picked more than one hawk out of the air who has come against one of his lambs. Pretty good with the sling. When a lion comes to challenge, take one of the sheep, the lion loses. Bear comes against it, the bear loses. With his bare hands, David takes him. He’s every bit a man, a man’s man.

He’s a fierce warrior. He’s a feared warrior. You remember during Absalom’s rebellion, Hushai was able to use that reputation of David as a warrior against David’s enemies, against Absalom and the council of Ahithophel. And you start talking about David’s prowess as a warrior and they all get scared. It turned the tide; it was a critical moment. Feared warrior, brilliant military tactician, successful king, successful administrator. And now here we have him as something of a Mozart of the day, transforming the whole atmosphere of Israel’s worship. He composes the songs, he writes the scripts, he adds musical notes, he can both compose the music and he can perform the music; he’s a first-class poet, a skilled speaker, an accomplished musician. He’s all of these things and now he puts it all together to transform Israel’s worship.

And that’s the backdrop of the Psalter that we’ll be looking at. The Psalms did not originate just for private use in private worship. They were composed for use at the tabernacle, the tent, and the temple. What is happening then is that they’re setting Israel’s theology now to music to accompany the sacrifices and the offerings.

Well, that tradition then that David sets in place here carried on for centuries. Eventually, we have then the synagogues, and we have no Mosaic rituals being performed in the synagogues. That’s for the temple. But the psalm singing continued. The church was born, in a sense, modeled after the synagogues, and this tradition of psalm singing continued on in the church as well. We find it in Ephesians chapter 5: “Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart.” Colossians 3, verse 16: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another with all wisdom, with singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

For centuries, the church sang only psalms in the church. Sometimes, for many centuries, it was just the choirs and it was just the psalms that were sung by the congregation. This has had a heavy influence on the whole history of the church. Still today in our hymnal, we have many psalms that we sing. I think it was last week or the week before we sang Psalm 23. We have sung Psalm 100 recently, and some others. In this earlier part of our hymnal, we have many of the psalms that we sing often.

We also have Psalms that we sing in our hymnal that you might not recognize immediately as Psalms, but they are. Martin Luther’s “greatest hit,” as it’s called, Psalm 46: “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” That’s simply Psalm 46. Isaac Watts revolutionized contemporary music in his own day, and hymn singing in their churches there. They sang only psalms, and he thought they needed to be updated to reflect the new revelation that we have in Christ and the gospel. It ought to be reflected in the psalms. And so he not only set the psalms to music—I mean to meter, to be sung better—but he also updated them in terms of their content, reflecting how they point forward to Christ.

Probably the most familiar one of that is Psalm 72. A psalm of the king, praying for the king’s success and that he’ll reign from shore to shore, becomes with Isaac Watts, “Jesus Shall Reign Where’er the Sun.” Another probably most familiar: Psalm 98. A psalm of the coming of God, one of those “the Lord is King” psalms in the Psalm 90s. Psalm 98, and with Isaac Watts that becomes “Joy to the World,” the Lord has come in the incarnation of Christ. We sing Psalm 96, I think we’re going to sing that after the service today.

And even in the hymns that we sing in our hymnal that are not explicitly rendered from the Psalms, the language of the Psalms is pervasive. We practice here what many, many churches practice still today: a call to worship. Pastor Greg will call to worship with a reading of Scripture and prayer. That has its roots in the Psalms as well. “Come, let us worship. Come, let us bow down. Come, sing to the Lord.” We have this call to worship in the praise psalms. The Old Testament, the New Testament, God for a long time has intended his people to sing praises to him. And here’s where we find where it begins in a formal way.

Why Should God’s People Sing?

Now quickly, why? Why should God’s people sing, or more specifically, what should we sing about? Look again at verse seven: “On that day, David first appointed that thanksgiving be sung to the Lord.” Again, this is a particular class of Psalms. We’ll be looking at those. “Psalms of Grateful Praise” is actually a better translation here than “Thanksgiving,” but “Thanksgiving” does fine. Singing grateful praise to God for what he has done.

Verse 34: “Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.” Now that’s from Psalm 106 and verse 1. “Give thanks to the Lord.” There’s the idea of thanksgiving again. Give grateful praise to the Lord. Why? “For his steadfast love endures forever.”

Now these are common themes that we’ll find in the Psalms—this steadfast love. This is a Hebrew word that’s a single Hebrew word. We have to translate it with two words because there’s really no English equivalent for it. It’s a word that has to do with God’s covenant love to his people. We’ll find this a hundred times in the Psalms. It’s a familiar topic, commonly comes up in the Psalms. But it’s commonly used in connection with God’s covenant love for his people. And to capture all of the connotations, we have to use two words because the word in the Hebrew, the way it’s used in the Old Testament, connotes both the idea of love and kindness and mercy, compassion—all of those kinds of things are connotations of it—but also a committedness. Steadfast love. So we have to use two words to translate: God’s steadfast love.

Now in a way that’s redundant here. He says his steadfast love, notice, “endures forever.” But kind of redundant. If it’s steadfast love, committed love, of course it lasts. But he wants to say it again: “steadfast love endures forever.” Some of you might have seen it this week on Facebook; I posted a love song. I’ve known of it for years. We’ve got one CD that we have; it’s just a beautiful piano rendition of it. It’s called “Endless Love.” I think Lionel Richie wrote it. Beautiful, beautiful love song. It’s one of those “I’m hopeless without you” kind of love songs. This recording of it was a couple of other people more recently who have recorded it, and it’s just the best rendition of what I’ve seen, so I posted it.

But I was thinking about it as we’re listening to it; it ends up twice at the end of the verse. It says, “You’ll always be my endless love.” It’s beautiful poetry, but it’s redundant. If you’ll be my endless love, of course it’ll always be. If it’ll always be a love, then of course it’s endless love; it’s redundant. But I’m not criticizing; that’s what we do in poetry to drive the point. And that’s what’s happening here: his steadfast love—committed love that’ll never give up—it lasts forever, just to say it again. And you find that a lot in the Psalms. “His steadfast love endures forever. His steadfast love endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord because his steadfast love endures forever.”

Here’s reason for grateful praise. Verse 35, the leader tells the congregation what to say: “Say also, ‘Save us, O God of our salvation. Gather and deliver us from among the nations.'” That’s Psalm 106 verse 47. The whole congregation now together joins the Levites to praise with this petition: “Save us, O God of our salvation. Save us.” I’ll give you the Hebrew there because you’ve heard it before whether you know it or not: Hoshienu. That washes out in English as “Hosanna.” Save us. You remember the people of Israel picked that up as the king himself rode into Jerusalem. “Save us, O God of Israel.”

Verse 35 again: “Save us, O God of our salvation.” Why? “So that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise.” That’s the reason for everything God does. And here we find that salvation—our salvation—is not an end in itself. Our salvation is for the purpose of singing praise, grateful praise, to God.

Verse 37 and following, the chronicler wraps up the account, informing us of this new practice that has been set in place. “David left Asaph and his brothers there before the ark to minister regularly as each day required.” Verse 41, he explains this new custom in the same words of the psalm: “With them were Heman and Jeduthun and the rest of those chosen expressly named.” Why? “To give thanks to the Lord.” Why? “For his steadfast love endures forever.”

The dominant note in the psalms that we will see—in fact, even in the lament psalms, where the psalmist is complaining about the situation in dire straits, crying out to God for help—even in the lament psalms, we find “God’s steadfast love endures forever.” This is the reason they sang, and of course, that’s the reason we sing.

Responsive Reading of Psalm 136

Now, it’s 12 o’clock. If you don’t mind, I would like to take five more minutes, and I’d like you to look at Psalm 136. This is a familiar psalm. It’s given to this theme of God’s steadfast love. The purpose—the theme of the psalm—is made clear in the opening verses: “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good,” and then comes the refrain, “for his steadfast love endures forever.”

The psalm is unique in the Psalter in that it has this constant repetition of the second line throughout the entire psalm. So verse one: “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.” Verse two: “Give thanks to the God of gods,” and then the refrain, “for his steadfast love endures forever.” Verse three: “Give thanks to the Lord of lords,” and then the refrain, “for his steadfast love endures forever.” And on through the whole psalm it goes. Verses 1 to 3 we have this call to praise because his steadfast love endures forever, and then beginning with verse 4 he begins to itemize all of the reasons to praise God: “to him who…” because “for his steadfast love endures forever”; “to him who…” “his steadfast love endures forever.” And on the psalm goes through the entire thing, and then you have finally verse 26, a renewed call to praise: “Give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures forever.”

We can’t say for certain, but almost certainly this psalm was sung, in its original setting, antiphonally. That is, you’d have one choir singing the first half of the verse, and then another choir echoing, “for his steadfast love endures forever.” So they would start out with one group singing, “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good.” The other echoes back, “for his steadfast love endures forever,” and on through it goes. It’s a psalm that’s particularly well suited for that.

We do it customarily in churches today. We call it responsive reading in our churches where the first part is read and then the congregation responds with the second line of each verse. And I’d like to do that here as we conclude. I will read the first part of the verse, and then I would like for you to echo back with the, “for his steadfast love endures forever.” We’ll go through the entire psalm that way, with you echoing with the return of each refrain, the second half of the verse. And then when we get to the end of the psalm, I want you to keep doing it. I’ll add some gospel revelation to it that we get from the New Testament, and then after each line that I cite, you echo back still, “for his steadfast love endures forever.” And we’ll do that through the end, all right?

So Psalm 136, beginning with verse 1.

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
Give thanks to the God of gods.
Give thanks to the Lord of lords.
To him alone who does great wonders.
To him who by his understanding made the heavens.
To him who spread out the earth above the waters.
To him who made the great lights.
The sun to rule over the day.
The moon and stars to rule over the night.
To him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt.
And brought Israel out from among them.
With a strong hand and an outstretched arm.
To him who divided the Red Sea in two.
And made Israel pass through the midst of it.
But overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea.
To him who led his people through the wilderness.
To him who struck down great kings.
And killed mighty kings.
Sihon, king of the Amorites,
And Og, king of Bashan,
And gave their land as a heritage,
A heritage to Israel his servant.
It is he who remembered us in our low estate
And rescued us from our foes.
He who gives food to all flesh.
Give thanks to the God of heaven.

Who chose us in his Son before the world began.
Who delivered him over for our transgressions.
And raised him up for our justification.
Who redeemed us from our sins in his blood.
And reconciled us to himself in love.
Who having given us his Son does not withhold any saving blessing from us.
Who gave us his Spirit to seal us as his own.
And to assure our hearts in his love.
Who keeps us safe in his grace.
Who will raise us from the dead at the return of his Son in glory,
And receive us into his presence forever, where together we will sing his praise.

O Church of Jesus Christ, give thanks to the Lord. Amen.

Let’s pray. Our Father, what a great God you are. We praise you for your steadfast love. We praise you that you have given us such wonderful themes to sing of. We pray that you would encourage the hearts of your people this morning in this. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.