1 Chronicles 15–19: Music & Sounds of Joy

Read the Bible in 2011 ◊ Week 35: Tuesday

“Then David spoke to the chiefs of the Levites to appoint their relatives the singers, with instruments of music, harps, lyres, loud-sounding cymbals, to raise sounds of joy…”
1 Chronicles 15:16

Tuesday’s Bible reading is 1 Chronicles 15–19. These chapters cover events of joy, blessing and victory during the reign of David.

The Ark of the Covenant is moved to Jerusalem with great rejoicing and praise in chapters 15 and 16. I was intrigued by the large number of Levites who are assigned to give thanks with their songs and instruments. Many are named, including Chenaniah, the chief of the Levites, who was in charge of the singing and taught it because of his skill.

God’s providence is evident in this great king of Israel. David, “the sweet psalmist of Israel,” as a poet and musician himself would understand the importance of music in worship and ensure its prominence. He had both the authority and the skill to firmly establish music in the worship of God, and I think as a consequence left a great legacy to Judaism and Christianity. We have a singing faith.

We once attended a church with Celebration as the first word of its name. We loved seeing a group of believers meet under that title. Joy in the singing of a congregation—I don’t mean pumped up emotionalism through repetition or sound volume, but genuine joy from the heart—is an excellent window into the life of a church. It indicates gratitude and love for God. In David we have a heritage and an example of genuine joy and celebration in worshiping our God.

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Blason imaginaire David, Ssire: GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license. I have cropped the image.