1 Chronicles 16:1-43

EXPOSITION

1 Chronicles 16:1-3

These three verses rather belong to the close of the last chapter, and they carry on the parallel of 2 Samuel 6:1-23. in its 2 Samuel 6:17-19.

1 Chronicles 16:1

In the midst of the tent that David had pitched for it. So 1 Chronicles 15:1 distinctly states that David had "pitched a tent" for the ark, and evidently to be ready for its arrival. On the other hand, there is no mention of any such tent having been got in readiness in 1 Chronicles 13:1-14. or in 2 Samuel 6:1-11, which give the account of the attempt that disastrously failed. The expressions which are there used would rather lead to the conclusion that David's intention was to take the sacred structure into his own home (2 Samuel 6:9, 2 Samuel 6:10; 1 Chronicles 13:12, 1 Chronicles 13:13), for a while, at all events. The אֹהֶל (tent) of the original designates, when Intended strictly, a haircloth covering, resting on poles or planks (Exodus 26:7, Exodus 26:11; Exodus 36:14, Exodus 36:19). The first occasion of the use of the word is found in Genesis 4:20. The סֻכָּח (booth) was made of leaves and branches interwoven (Le 23:34, 40; 42; Deuteronomy 16:13). The מִשְׁכָּן (tabernacle) was the dwelling-place or pavilion, which owned to the ten inner curtains as well as the outer covering and the framework (Exodus 25:9; Exodus 26:1, Exodus 26:12-15, etc.; Exodus 39:32; Exodus 40:2, Exodus 40:29). The first occurrence of this word is in the first of these last-quoted references. Burnt sacrifices and peace offerings. The identical words of 2 Samuel 6:17, 2 Samuel 6:18, where the Authorized Version translates "burnt offerings and peace offerings." These were the two great sacrifices—the former speaking of atonement (Le 2 Samuel 1:3-9, etc.), the latter of reconciliation effected and the enjoyment of peace (Le 2 Samuel 3:1-5, etc.). Neither here nor in the parallel place is any mention made of the altar upon which these sacrifices were offered.

1 Chronicles 16:2

He blessed the people in the name of the Lord; i.e. reverently in the Name of the Lord, and as vividly conscious of being in his presence, he pronounces blessings upon the people, and by short ejaculatory prayer and holy wish further begs for them those blessings which God only can give. In the time of David and Solomon (1 Kings 8:14) the king realized far more closely the idea of the paternal relation to the people than had ever been since the time of the patriarchs of the elder days.

1 Chronicles 16:3

Each little clause of this verse is replete with interest. The royal giver, who now dealt to every one of Israel, was, after all, but a channel; yes, and only one channel, through which the fulness and the bounty of the royal Giver of every good and perfect gift, of all good whatsoever, of all things necessary to life and godliness, are supplied to every one of his creature-subjects. But it is highest honour, as servant and instrument alone, to figure forth him in any way. The second little clause tells us either that women took a recognized place on occasion of this joyous festival, or that the hospitality of such an occasion did not forget them and their homes. And the following three little clauses require closer examination. The word here translated "loaf" in the expression loaf of bread is כִּכַּר, for which in this sense we may turn to Exodus 29:23; 8:5; 1 Samuel 2:36; 1 Samuel 10:3; Proverbs 6:26; Jeremiah 37:21. The corresponding word, however, in the parallel place is חַלַח (for which see Exodus 29:2, Exodus 29:23; Le Exodus 2:4; Exodus 7:12, Exodus 7:13; Exodus 8:26; Exodus 24:5; Numbers 6:15, Numbers 6:19; Numbers 15:20). The essential meaning of the former word is a circle, hence applied to the cake because of its shape, and of the latter word perforation, hence applied to the cake because it was perforated. A good piece of flesh. This is the Authorized Version rendering of אֶשְׁפָּר, which occurs only in the parallel place and here. The Vulgate translates assatura bubulae carnis; the Septuagint, ἐσχαρίτη. The imagined derivation of the word from פָּר (ox) and אֵשׁ (fire), or from שָׁפַד (to burn), seems to be what has led to these translations, helped, perhaps, by the apparent convenience of adapting meat from the sacrifice to the bread. But Gesenius, Rodiger, Keil, and others prefer the derivation שָׁפַר (to measure), and they would render "a measure" of wine. And a flagon. This is the Authorized Version rendering of the original אֲשִׁישָׁה, found in the parallel place as well as here, and also in the only other places (two in number, and in the plural) where it occurs (Song of Solomon 2:5; Hosea 3:1). But there is no doubt, or but little, that the rendering should rather be "dried, pressed cakes of raisins or grapes." It is then to be derived from the root אָשַׁשׁ (to press). The substantive has both masculine and feminine form in plural. The Vulgate translates similam frixam oleo, which means a "baked cake of flour and oil;" and the Septuagint, λάγανον ἀπὸ τηγάνου in the parallel places. But here the Septuagint reads ἄρτον ἐ͂να ἀρτοκοπικὸν καὶ ἀμορίτην as the whole account of the loaf, the good piece of flesh, and the flagon.

1 Chronicles 16:4-7

These verses contain a statement of the arrangement David made of a more permanent nature, but to date from this commencement, for the service of thanksgiving by the Levites.

1 Chronicles 16:4

To minister; i.e. to officiate, as we should say, in the service before the ark. The verse seems to describe what should be the essence of that service. It was threefold—to record, to thank, and to praise the Lord God of Israel. The word here used for "record" is the Hiph. of זָכַר (to remember), and is remarked upon by Gesenius as a title strictly appropriate to the character of the two psalms 38. and 70; on the head of which it stands, as meaning, "to make others remember" (see also such passages as Exodus 20:24; 2 Samuel 8:16; 2 Samuel 18:18; 2 Samuel 20:24; Isaiah 43:26; Isaiah 63:7). The minds of the people were to be refreshed in this service and in their very psalm of praise (so note in this sense 1 Chronicles 16:8, 1 Chronicles 16:9, 1 Chronicles 16:12, 1 Chronicles 16:21, etc.), by being reminded or told, so far as the youngest of them might be concerned, of God's marvellous and merciful deeds for their forefathers of many, many a generation. Then they were to give intelligent and hearty thanks. And, lastly, they were to offer to approach that purest form of worship which consists in adoring praise. One might imagine with what zest they would have accepted, with what fervour they would have added lip and instrument of music to it—that one verse which needed the revolution yet of nearly another three thousand years, that it might flow from the devotion or' Addison.

"When all thy mercies, O my God,

My rising soul surveys,

Transported with the view I'm lost

In wonder, love, and praise."

1 Chronicles 16:5

Obed-edom. No colon should follow this name. And the first time of the occurrence of the name Jeiel in this verse should probably have shown the Jaaziel of 1 Chronicles 15:18. The contents of this verse put us, then, into possession of this much, that Asaph presided (1 Chronicles 6:39) at this musical service, and that his instrument was the cymbals (1 Chronicles 15:19), with which time was kept; that Zechariah was next to him, and, with eight others formed a band, who played on psalteries (or lutes) and harps. If we may guide ourselves by verse 20, 21 of the preceding chapter, three of these—viz. Mattithia, Jeiel, Obed-edom—performed on the harp, the other six on the psaltery, or lute.

1 Chronicles 16:6

Jahaziel. Probably the Eliezer, who in 1 Chronicles 15:24 is coupled as priest with Benaiah, should stand in the place of this name or else vice versa.

1 Chronicles 16:7

The rendering should run, On that day did David first commit to the hand of Asaph and his brethren to render praises to Jehovah; i.e. after the following manner and words. The word first marks the solemn establishment of set public worship in the metropolis.

1 Chronicles 16:8-36

These verses, then, provide the form of praise which David wished to be used on this, and probably in grateful repetition on some succeeding occasions. David makes selections from four psalms already known; for it cannot be supposed that the verses we have hero were the original, and that they were afterwards supplemented. The first fifteen verses (viz. 8-22) are from Psalms 105:1-15. The next eleven verses (23-33) are from Psalms 96:1-13; but a small portion of the first and last of these verses is omitted. Our thirty-fourth verso is identical with Psalm evil. 1; Psalms 118:1; Psalms 136:1; and forms the larger part of Psalms 106:1. It is, in fact, a doxology. And our thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth verses consist of a short responsive ("and say ye") invocation, followed by another doxology. These are taken from Psalms 106:47, Psalms 106:48. Hereupon "all the people" are directed to find the final outburst of praise to Jehovah, and "Amen." In the first of these selections (Psalms 106:8-23) there is no material variation from the language of the psalm itself. Yet the original psalm has Abraham, where our own thirteenth verse reads Israel. And the original psalm uses the third person, where our fifteenth and nineteenth verses have the second person. In the second selection it is worthy of note that our Psalms 106:29, "Come before him," probably preserves the ante-temple reading, while Psalms 96:8 was afterwards, to fit temple times, altered into, "Come into his courts." The arrangement of all the succeeding clauses does not exactly agree with the arrangement of them found in the psalm, as for instance in the latter half of our verse 30 and in verse 31, compared with the clauses of Psalms 96:10,Psalms 96:11 of the psalm. Again, one clause of the tenth verse of the psalm, "He shall judge the people righteously," is not found in either alternative position open to it through the inversion of clauses, in our verses 80, 81. The rhythm and metre of the psalm are, however, equally unexceptionable. The whole of the twenty-nine verses of this Psalm of praise (Psalms 96:8 -36 inclusive) are divided into portions of three verses each, except the portion verses 23-27 inclusive which consists of five verses. As regards the matter of it, it may be remarked on as breaking into two parts, in the first of which (Psalms 96:8 -22) the people are reminded of their past history anti of the marvellous providence which had governed their career from Abraham to the time they were settled in Canaan, but in the second (verses 23-36) their thought is enlarged, their sympathies immensely widened, so as to include all the world, and their view is borne on to the momentous reality of judgment.

1 Chronicles 16:8-10

These verses are an animated invocation to thanks and praise.

1 Chronicles 16:11-14

The call to thanksgiving and to the praise of adoration is nosy in these verses suceeded by an earnest admonition to practical seeking of the Lord, and mindful obedience to him.

1 Chronicles 16:14-22

These verses rehearse the ancient and blissful covenant which had made Israel so to differ. These are called mine anointed… my prophets, in harmony with what we read in the splendid passage, Exodus 19:3-6. The substitution in our Exodus 19:15, Exodus 19:19 of the second person pronoun plural, in place of the third person of the psalm, helps speak the reality of this occasion and its dramatic correctness. The literal original of our Authorized Version in Exodus 19:19, but few, even a few, is, men of number, i.e. men who could easily be numbered.

1 Chronicles 16:23-36

The grandeur and unusual comprehensiveness of the adoration and homage here proclaimed, as to be offered to the omnipotent Ruler of all nations, should be well pondered. Our eye and ear may have become too familiar with it, but when put a little into relief, and referred to its original time of day, it is fit to be ranked among the strongest moral evidences of inspiration in the word and the speaker.

1 Chronicles 16:23

This verse is composed of the latter half of each of the first two verses of the psalm (96.).

1 Chronicles 16:34-36

These verses, from the first, forty-seventh, and forty-eighth of Psalms 106:1-48, must have suggested the sad intermediate contents of that psalm, the significant key-note of which is sounded in our thirty-fifth verse. The suggestion in the midst of the unbounded gladness of this day is affecting, and must have been intended for salutary lesson and timely warning. In the midst of the fulness of praise and joy, the people are led to prayer—say ye—and the prayer is an humble petition for salvation, union, and protection from every enemy. God's treatment of his anointed people had been on his part one continued protection and one prolonged salvation. Yet they had often neither prayed for these nor acknowledged them. Now they are led again by the hand, as it were, to the footstool of the throne.

1 Chronicles 16:37-43

These verses give the now new-ordained distribution of priests and Levites, to minister and to attend to the service of praise before the ark. And the first of them may be considered to mark an important step in advance in the crystallizing of the world's ecclesiastical institutions. Asaph and his brethren of song are left there before the ark of the covenant… to minister before the ark continually, as every day's work required. A permanent local ministry and choir are thus established, with a fixity of place on Zion, and regularity of time that had been hitherto unattainable.

1 Chronicles 16:38

Obed-edom with their brethren. Explanation is needed of the plural pronoun "their." Either another name is wanted with Obed-edom, or tacit reference is made to "Asaph and his brethren," as though the name Asaph had not been followed in its own place by the clause "and his brethren." Keil draws attention to the "three score and two" of 1 Chronicles 26:8, in connection with the three score and eight of this place; and it has been proposed to make up this number by some of the sons of Hosah, of our following verse and of 1 Chronicles 26:11. In this case the name Hesah might be the name missing before, "and their brethren." Conjecture, however, has not sufficient clue here to warrant it, and the textual state of this verse must be debited with the obscurity. The ambiguity respecting the name Obed-edom has already (1 Chronicles 13:14) been alluded to. Neglecting this ambiguity, it may be repeated that Obed-edom,… son of Jedithun (as the Keri of this passage is) was a Merarite Levite, while Obed-edom son of Jeduthun (1 Chronicles 15:25) was of Gath-rimmon, a Gittite (2 Samuel 6:10-12; Joshua 21:24), a Kohathite (1 Chronicles 6:66, 1 Chronicles 6:69), and a Korhite (1 Chronicles 26:1-5).

1 Chronicles 16:39

While those above-mentioned were to officiate before the ark on Zion, those mentioned in this and following verses are the officiating staff at Gibson. It is now brought into prominence that the ark and the tabernacle are in two separate places. The great ordinary sacrifices and services, "all that is written in the Law of the Lord," are carefully observed on the original altar (Exodus 38:2) in the tabernacle. Other and special sacrifices evidently were offered in the presence of the ark. The tabernacle erected in the wilderness was first stationed at Shiloh (Joshua 18:1; 1 Samuel 4:3, 1 Samuel 4:4). The occasion of its removal to Nob (1 Samuel 21:1; 1 Samuel 22:19) is not narrated. The present passage first tells us where it had been since the slaughter of the priests at Saul's command by Doeg the Edomite. Some distinct statement, like that of 1 Chronicles 21:29 and 2 Chronicles 1:3, might have been expected here. Zadok the priest is given (1 Chronicles 6:4-9) as in the line of Eleazar.

1 Chronicles 16:40

To offer burnt offerings; i.e. the customary morning and evening sacrifices.

1 Chronicles 16:41, 1 Chronicles 16:42

Comparing these verses with 1 Chronicles 16:4-6 and 1 Chronicles 16:37-40, it may be supposed that we are intended to understand that of all who were set apart and who had been expressed by name (as e.g. 1 Chronicles 15:4-24), some were now formally appointed to serve before the ark, and some in the tabernacle at Gibeon. The confusion existing in these verses by the repetition of the preposition with, and the proper names Heman and Jeduthun, betrays some corruptness of text. The Septuagint does not show them in the latter verse. The sons of Jeduthun are found in 1 Chronicles 25:3.

1 Chronicles 16:43

(See 2 Samuel 6:19, 2 Samuel 6:20.)

HOMILETICS

1 Chronicles 16:1-43 -The inaugural services on Zion's height, typical.

The greater part of the contents of this chapter must be viewed as borrowed matter—the appropriating of portions of sacred songs or psalms which already existed, to this individual occasion. The stricter homiletic treatment, therefore, of our 1 Chronicles 16:7-36 may be better found in the portions of the psalms concerned, in their own proper place. But there are some larger aspects offered by the matter of this chapter, which may be appropriately considered in this place. And we may notice —

I. FIRST OF ALL, THE GATHERING FORCE OF RELIGION. It has indeed already gathered such force as to conquer for itself the place which it holds on this great day of David. To this it has grown since the day of Seth and Enos, when we read of it thus, "Then began men to call on the Name of the Lord" (Genesis 4:26). And though true it is that we may not critically make any great doctrine or argument depend on the uncertain exegesis of that one sentence, yet we know that the facts, so far as we require them now, were not distant from what the sentence says. The religion of mankind then, where existent at all, was the pure, individual, essential principle, Heaven-given and reigning in the hearts of a very few—this still and evermore of necessity its essence. Then, however, when men could be numbered only by the score, it was manifestly impossible for religion to exhibit the "effects n which it does in the time of David. Nay, of ages afterwards it were, of course, true to say the same thing, and to add this also, that when, so far as numbers were concerned, it became possible, still it did not become fact. Through all these ages, however, with all receding tides, and notwithstanding some extraordinary checks, religion never became utterly lost to sight. Once during those ages it showed a number not. exceeding eight, another time not fewer than seven thousand, and, for the most part, what the number was, greater or less, God only knew—he alone could say. Yet through good report and ill, through good times and bad, it was acquiring strength unmeasured and immeasurable. It was insisting on its own vitality; it was proving the courage of its convictions; its tone was of no uncertain kind; its mien was ever of the undaunted. In patriarchal succession of families, what pungent lessons religion many a time taught and made itself known thereby! In Egyptian times, amid temptation and snare, what various knowledge and determination it was maturing! In the wilderness, how carefully by form, by sacrifice, by sign, by judgment, it was shaping individual and national life. Amid the dangers and the glories of the people's settlement in the land of promise, amid the achievements of judges and leaders and captains, and the multitudinous strifes of little kings, its pronounced voice spoke the word and it was done, or, if the voice was silent, the people were undone. All this time, measurable only by thousands of years, it was betraying its existence, indicating its nature, betokening a large store of sleeping strength, and anything but seeming to exhaust or to strain its own energy. But now the principle of religion seems to have burst into full life. Its many and outspreading branches hang down with ripe and golden fruit. Now it is the light and life, the joy and strength, the reverence and pride of a whole nation, from the highest to the lowest. All business, all pleasure, all other thought or care, stand still to look, or throng to join in a scene festive of festivity itself. The day itself is ablaze, not with the ordinary light and heat of a splendid sun over Zion's heights, but with the service and joy of religion in a hundred thousand hearts—in "Jerusalem and all Judea," but culminating in Zion. And it is all because "In Judah God is known, his Name great in Israel In Salem also is his tabernacle, and his dwelling-place in Zion." Blessed glimpse of what it will be for this world, when "God shall all renew," and the joy become universal.

II. THE ATTAINMENT OF A CONSPICUOUS AND FIXED HOME FOR RELIGION. Though the world of mankind is some three thousand years old, religion had been as yet but a wayfarer. It had never deserted men. Its spirit had influenced, guided, ruled their spirit; it had consoled their sorrows, heightened their joys ten thousand separate times; but it has not yet had an honoured dwelling-place, a worthy throne, a fixed home. To this it has now come, and to this it has been brought up by the willing enthusiasm of king and prophet, priest and people. There can be no doubt that its local habitation exposes it to some danger, to some misunderstanding. The long process of ages has been undoing, is still undoing the danger, correcting the misunderstanding. The city then emphatically set on a hill has never been hidden. Ten thousand others, the spiritual copies of it, have taken its name upon them, and have helped thereby to prove practically that Zion's glory that day did not foreshadow the exclusiveness of an individual place, but only the sure foundation and settled firmness of God's own Church, and its exalted, commanding prominence. The typical lessons, therefore, of the day on which David fixed the symbols and the services and the servants of a true, revealed religion on Zion are not to the effect that religion itself is anything less than a pure, silent, but mighty principle in the heart, but rather that it is to be the avowed, conspicuous, and abiding principle of the life, and of the life of all. The distribution of religion is emphatically not to be partial. The influences of it am emphatically not to be intelligible only to an initiated few. The force of it is emphatically not to expend itself invisibly, and exhaust itself according to individual fickleness or frailty. It is to state its character, its quality, its very nature before all the world, and under the blaze of publicity itself—a testimony for or against every man to the eye or ear of whom it has become proclaimed. And in spite of one or two temporary and superficial appearances to the contrary, these were the truths which that day was proffering to teach. For a while, perhaps, it was "Zion's height alone;" some thought it was to be always "Zion's height alone;" but faithful history and imperious necessity have proved the contrary, and have proved that to have been never meant,

"Not now on Zion's height alone

Thy favoured worshipper may dwell.

* * * * * *

"To thee, at last, in every clime

Shall temples rise and praise be sung."

III. THE ELEMENTS OF THE RELIGIOUS JOY OF A NATION'S GRANDEST FESTIVAL. These are certainly not obscurely told here. They consist in thanks for all that is, and adoring praise for him, from whom all good is. The mind and memory have been stirred up, and from their depth and their breadth come the testimonials of his boundless compassion, mighty deliverance, tenderest mercy, good gift and grace. The heart knows the meaning, and, though often too insensible, now owns the joy. Happy is that teacher of religion who, with Divine help and the Divine Spirit, can make the mind and memory do this, some of their highest and most fruitful work. He will be a useful teacher, preacher, pastor, guide of souls. Angels very likely may spring at once to adoration's highest reach and strain direct. But we are permitted to rise thither through the appeal to our nature of gratitude. The religious service and language of this day is the reiteration of appeal to give thanks, while the ground for doing so is simply and impressively told. This mingles a vein of pathos, of confession, of dependent prayer; and then acclamation and the praise not of thanksgiving, but of adoration, fill every heart and tongue. Such is the worship for such as we have been, when we get above. Such are the songs of heaven and its temple. Such the joy of each and of all, who there recount with the fulness of gratitude dangers past, sin forgiven, guilt cleansed away, salvation freely given, till the enraptured soul is lost in adoration and "glories in the praise" of Jehovah.

1 Chronicles 16:2-Sacrifice and blessing.

The manner in which David celebrated the reception of the ark into its appointed tent on the height of his city was thoroughly characteristic. He acted as a king, and as a kind of royal mediator between the God of heaven and the chosen people Israel.

I. HE BLESSED THE LORD IN THE NAME OF THE PEOPLE. For this was certainly the significance of the sacrifices, burnt offerings, and peace offerings. In offering them, the king was publicly acknowledging the authority of the supreme Lord, was publicly adoring and praising him as the God of the nation, and was publicly seeking his favour and countenance. Not that David offered these sacrifices with his own hands. What he did by means of the priests, whom he directed, he is represented as doing himself. It was a high day, a solemn and joyful festivity; and it was becoming that the Lord should be recognized, sought, and praised.

II. HE BLESSED THE PEOPLE IN THE NAME OF THE LORD. Probably he pronounced a solemn benediction, invoking the gracious regard of the God of Israel upon the chosen nation. With the ark of the covenant in their possession, in the midst of their metropolis, the people might well be encouraged to rejoice in the presence and favour of him who is ever the Source of all good. It is a proof of David's policy that he took this opportunity of feasting the assembled multitudes. This would no doubt create a favourable impression upon all minds. Their spiritual privileges, and their happiness in having a king so considerate and liberal as David to reign over them, would be associated in their minds. They would connect their religion and their loyalty together, and would cherish happy recollections of the solemnities of the day.—T.

1 Chronicles 16:4-Ministerial service.

Although the Levites were set apart for the service of the Lord's house, even from the days of Moses, it is certain that the Levitical services were more fully organized by David, and that from his time there was more of system and more of efficiency in their ministrations. There is so marked a difference between the Jewish Church and the Christian Church, that we can only apply the general principles of the former to the latter. Yet the text may well suggest to us that —

I. PUBLIC WORSHIP HAS SCRIPTURAL AUTHORITY. Worship, to be acceptable, must be from the heart. But out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak. It is natural and appropriate that the sentiments and desires of the soul should find a vocal utterance; and it is also natural and appropriate that those who have the same tribute to offer should join together and offer it in common. The Book of the Acts in the New Testament sanctions such worship equally with these Books of Chronicles in the Old.

II. PUBLIC WORSHIP SHOULD CONSIST LARGELY OF THANKSGIVING AND PRAISE. According to the text, the Levites recorded and celebrated the glorious deeds of the Most High, adored his attributes, gave thanks for his forgiving mercy, his bounty, and loving-kindness. We do not want less prayer in our congregations, but we do want more praise. "His mercy endureth for ever;" and while his mercy endures his praises should not cease.

III. PUBLIC WORSHIP SHOULD BE LED BY APPOINTED MINISTERS. Common sense may teach us so much. If praise is to be sung, some musical leaders must conduct it. If the Scriptures are to be read, some human voice must read them. If prayer is to be offered, some one must pour forth the language of petition, in which others may join, whether silently or audibly. If the gospel is to be heard by men, "how shall they hear without a preacher?" Scripture precedents abound for ministerial service.

IV. While public worship must be properly conducted, IT MUST NOT BE DELEGATED ANY FUNCTIONARIES OR OFFICIALS, WHOSE SERVICES MAY BE SUBSTITUTED FOR THAT OF THE PEOPLE. Levites under the old dispensation, pastors and teachers under the new, may aid the devotions of the people, but their offering cannot be accepted in the place of what God requires—a song, a prayer, from every heart. "Praise the Lord, all ye people!" The Christian Church admits of no exclusive priesthood; all Christians are priests unto God the Father, inasmuch as all offer to him sacrifices of willing obedience and grateful praise.

CONCLUSION.

1. A rebuke to the ungrateful and undevout, who, whilst they daily receive God's mercies, acknowledge not the Giver.

2. A rebuke to the formal and ceremonial, who excuse themselves from offering sacrifices of praise on the ground that this "religious duty" is fulfilled by appointed officials.

3. A reminder and summons, to which all sincere Christians will do well to take heed. Some spiritual ministry and service may be fulfilled by every Christian; and it is a high honour to be permitted to lead the praises and the supplications of the people of the Lord.—T.

1 Chronicles 16:7-36 -A psalm.

When the king had organized a choir of musicians, had provided them with their instruments, had assigned them their duties and their maintenance, it remained for him to decide what they were to sing. He was himself "the sweet psalmist of Israel." It is difficult for us to imagine what psalmody must have been before the time of David. It is a grand vocation—that of putting words of praise into the lips of worshippers. And it was a glorious burst of sacred song which pealed from the heights of Jerusalem when the sublime odes of David were first rolled to heaven upon the wings of the wind. What a revelation of God, what an inspiration for man, what new life to the world, when the psalms were first wrought into shape by the glowing heart and the glorious eloquence of David! The later Levitical psalms are perhaps more reflective and elaborate, but those composed by the lyrical sovereign of Israel have at once the simplest piety, the profoundest feeling, and the most vigorous eloquence. The occasion of the composition, or, at all events, the first public rendering of David's odes, was one worthy of such efforts. When the ark found a resting-place in the city of David, when Jerusalem was consecrated by the public and regal recognition of the Divine Law, when the Levites solemnly addressed Jehovah in the name of Israel,—then this magnificent psalm was sung, now in melodious recitative, and again in resounding chorus, to the accompaniment of cymbal, of trumpet, and of harp. It was a fitting inauguration of a series of sublime solemnities. When we examine the structure of the psalm, we are surprised and filled with admiration at the appropriateness, the beauty, the comprehensiveness of the composition. The psalm, as it is recorded in this place, agrees with what we find in the hundred and fifth, ninety-sixth, hundred and seventh, and hundred and sixth psalms. Taken as we here find it, it contains —

I. AN ADMONITION AND SUMMONS TO PRAISE THE LORD. This is addressed to nature (1 Chronicles 16:30-33), to mankind in general (veres 28), especially to Israel (1 Chronicles 16:13).

II. A RECORD OF GOD'S GOODNESS. And this both to the patriarchs (1 Chronicles 16:15-18), and to Israel as a nation, to whom that goodness had been displayed in the most critical period of their history (1 Chronicles 16:19-22).

III. PRAISE OF GOD'S ATTRIBUTES AND CHARACTER. (1 Chronicles 16:24-29, 1 Chronicles 16:34.) Never had these been so devoutly and at the same time so poetically celebrated as now and here.

IV. PRAYER FOR SALVATION. This petition (1 Chronicles 16:35) flows most naturally out of what precedes. In the register of Divine acts, in the recounting of Divine attributes, a foundation had Been laid for this devout and urgent entreaty.

V. BLESSING AND AMEN. A glorious closing (1 Chronicles 16:36) to a glorious psalm. "All the people" here concurred with, adopted as their own, the worship of the Levites. The reval psalmist's heart must have beat high with sacred joy when his plans proved successful, when his ministers rendered his compositions in a manner worthy of their substance, and when the soul of a nation was raised into fellowship with God.—T.

1 Chronicles 16:1-3-Hours of elation.

The path of human life lies, for the most part, along the level of simple and ordinary experiences, amid scenes and circumstances that annoy or depress but do not greatly grieve, or that please or gladden but do not excite to tumultuous delights. Sometimes, however, that path leads down into deep valleys of profoundest sorrow; sometimes it leads up to the high hills of exhilarating joy. Whether in the depth or upon the summit, we are in peculiar peril. We breathe an unusual air and are in danger of losing control of our full spiritual faculties. Men are sometimes overwhelmed by great sorrow or by supreme delight, and either lose their mental balance altogether or commit actions which they never cease to regret. It is a great thing to have a vent for our intenser feelings, a right channel through which they may safely flow, or rather a sphere in which they may spend their strength, to our own positive advantage and to the profit of others. Our text suggests such a sphere for our energies in the hours of elation. We are reminded —

I. THAT WE MAY GO TO GOD IN SELF-PRESENTATION. In the midst of their rejoicing "they offered burnt sacrifices before God" (1 Chronicles 16:1). The burnt offering was the type of self-dedication unto God. As the offerer brought his victim to be wholly presented to Jehovah, so we are invited to offer our whole selves unto the living God. Our intensest joys attend our greatest mercies, and these may well lead us to renew our vows unto our Redeemer, freely and gladly presenting ourselves, once more, to him whose we are.

II. THAT WE MAY GO TO GOD IN THANKFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT. "They offered peace offerings" also: these are suggestive of the act of praise by which we render thanks to God for all his goodness to us. There can be no time so suitable for this as the hour of elation, when unusual Blessings have been conferred by him. We are bound to recognize him as the Source and Spring of all our joy.