Covenantal Praise and Worship
April 2, 2024 at 2:33 pm | Posted in I Chronicles | 1 CommentTags: 1 Chronicles 16, 1 Chronicles 17, Biblical singing, Biblical worship, commentary on 1 Chronicles, Davidic Covenant, Sunday School lessons on 1 Chronicles
After bringing the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem, David began to appoint Levites to be in charge of leading worship.
And he appointed certain of the Levites to minister before the ark of the Lord, and to record, and to thank and praise the Lord God of Israel:
I Chronicles 16:4
This was to be a more long-term arrangement than just the immediate celebration of the Ark coming into Jerusalem.
Benaiah also and Jahaziel the priests with trumpets continually before the ark of the covenant of God.
I Chronicles 16:6 (emphasis added)
“Continually” here has a connotation of “regularly” rather than nonstop 24/7. There are some names in the lists which are familiar from the Psalms, such as Asaph (Psalm 73) and Heman (Psalm 88). If you were looking for support for having an official ministry position called “worship leader” you could find that here.
Some of the Levites were to minister at Gibeon where the altar was still located. The altar and the Ark had not yet been brought together the way they would be in the Temple.
Between the naming of the worship-leading Levites near the beginning and end of Chapter 16, sandwiched in the middle is a variation of Psalms 96, 105, and 106. It makes sense for these particular Psalms to be incorporated because they share a theme of God coming to His people as not only a deliverer, a rescuer, a provider, a sustainer, a promise-keeper, a defender, and a warrior, but also as a judge and a king.
Then shall the trees of the wood sing out at the presence of the Lord, because he cometh to judge the earth.
I Chronicles 16:33
Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice: and let men say among the nations, The Lord reigneth.
I Chronicles 16:31
This looks ahead to the Messiah, Who would come to His people as the presence of God and as King and Judge incarnate.
It may sound obvious, but here is the point driven home: It’s important to praise God.
For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised: he also is to be feared above all gods.
I Chronicles 16:25
And say ye, Save us, O God of our salvation, and gather us together, and deliver us from the heathen, that we may give thanks to thy holy name, and glory in thy praise.
I Chronicles 16:35
It is not only important to praise and worship God for Who He is, but the Bible is also full of praises to God for what He has done. We should praise Him for what He has done for us in the past, and we should give Him thanks.
Give thanks unto the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people.
I Chronicles 16:8
O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.
I Chronicles 16:34
Singing is a form of vocal praise. It should be thoughtful and artistic praise. Singing can also involve thanksgiving, and it can be a form of witnessing.
Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him, talk ye of all his wondrous works.
I Chronicles 16:9
Sing unto the Lord, all the earth; shew forth from day to day his salvation.
I Chronicles 16:23
I Chronicles Chapter 17 sets forth the Davidic Covenant – one of a handful of covenants in the Bible that God introduces and sets forth and enters into with human beings. Other Old Testament covenants include the Noahic Covenant, the Abrahamic Covenant, and the Mosaic Covenant. God’s covenants are comparable to covenants between powerful kings and subjects, or between suzerains and vassals, with the exception that the covenants of God are 100% pure grace. They place obligations and conditions on the lesser parties, but they are supported by God’s infallible promises, and we must remember that He receives nothing truly beneficial to Himself from the recipients of His grace.
This is the prelude to the Davidic Covenant:
1 Now it came to pass, as David sat in his house, that David said to Nathan the prophet, Lo, I dwell in an house of cedars, but the ark of the covenant of the Lord remaineth under curtains. 2 Then Nathan said unto David, Do all that is in thine heart; for God is with thee. 3 And it came to pass the same night, that the word of God came to Nathan, saying,
I Chronicles 17:1-3
Worship as a Means of Grace (Part 2)
December 20, 2023 at 11:24 am | Posted in Means of Grace | 3 CommentsTags: Biblical worship, Christian worship, commentary on Exodus, Exodus 20, Exodus 32, Exodus 34, First Commandment, Second Commandment, Sunday School lessons on Exodus
2 I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Exodus 20:2-3
Worshiping God involves worshiping Him in spirit, recognizing that He is not physically limited by time or space. We must not act as though He is available to be worshiped only at appointed times or locations. Our worship must not be hypocritical, merely outward. We must worship Him with our spirits, and we must worship Him in truth, not faking it. Worshiping in truth also means worshiping the true God.
In Exodus 20:2 He identifies Himself as the true God. Exodus 20:3 is the First Commandment. “Before Me” means “in My presence,” which, for the omnipresent God, is everywhere all the time. This is the Second Commandment:
4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
Exodus 20:4-5
The First Commandment is about worship. The Second Commandment is about worship and service. He is the true God; we must not act like there’s another one. And don’t try to make anything that looks like a god. In the incident with the golden calf the people broke both of these commandments.
17 And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp. 18 And he said, It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome: but the noise of them that sing do I hear.
Exodus 32:17-18
This was “true worship” from a worldly point of view. There was: excitement; sacrifice; unity; enthusiasm; purpose; planning; commitment. It was “true worship,” but it was not worship in truth. It was syncretism and rationalization. It was not acceptable to God in any way, shape, or form.
Not all graven images are graven with tools like chisels. Graven image worship also involves engraving a false god in our minds, and giving it attributes that God doesn’t really have OR deleting one that He does have.
5 And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation. 8 And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped.
Exodus 34:5-8
Recognizing the revelations of God’s true attributes, Moses worshiped. One of those attributes is His jealousy, which we will look at next time.
Worship as a Means of Grace (Part 3)
December 14, 2023 at 11:05 am | Posted in Means of Grace | 2 CommentsTags: Biblical worship, Christian worship, commentary on Exodus, Exodus 20, Exodus 34, Job 1, Psalm 29, Psalm 95, Sunday School lessons on Exodus
For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:
Exodus 34:14
18 And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off. 19 And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.
Exodus 20:18-19
Worshiping God in truth means presenting ourselves before the truth of God: all that He is and all that He commands us to do.
And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.
Exodus 20:20
Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.
Psalm 29:2
Worshiping God in truth means giving Him the highest honor and glory. Worshiping Him in spirit means adorning our outward acts of worship with holiness.
O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker.
Psalm 95:6
Worship in spirit involves submitting to Him. Worship in truth means acknowledging Him as our Creator.
20 Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, 21 And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.
Job 1:20-21
Worship in spirit involves acknowledging God in the worst circumstances. Worship in truth involves recognizing that God is ultimately orchestrating these circumstances.
Worship as a Means of Grace (Part 1)
December 7, 2023 at 3:22 pm | Posted in Means of Grace | 6 CommentsTags: Biblical worship, false worship, hypocrisy, hypocritical worship, Isaiah 29, John 4, Matthew 15, Means of Grace, spirit and truth
Previously I have looked two other means of grace:
Bible study: The Bible is not merely a sacred book nor a compilation of ancient wisdom nor guidelines for a successful life. Studying the Bible properly is the receiving and believing of the VERY WORDS OF GOD.
Prayer: Prayer is not merely a recitation of affirmations nor a spiritual wish list nor a time of soul-searching. It is SPEAKING DIRECTLY TO THE ALMIGHTY GOD.
Worship is not merely singing in church nor giving credit to God when you feel blessed nor performing a list of spiritual duties. It is acknowledging the glory of the only true and specific God in our affections, attitude, will, obedience, expressions, and daily lives and actions.
Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
John 4:20
Jesus was speaking to the so-called “woman at the well,” who was a Samaritan woman. The Samaritans had attempted to combine the worship of Yahweh with Assyrian pagan worship, and they worshiped on Mount Gerizim rather than at Jerusalem. In one sense, this was a distraction tactic – an attempt to the change the subject – by the woman, who was feeling the conviction of Jesus’s evangelistic comments. But Jesus did not ignore her remark (of course, He did not let the conversation get sidetracked either).
Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
John 4:21
Jesus drew a distinction between Old Testament formal worship, which was prescribed to be done at certain locations and with certain ceremonies, and true spiritual worship, indicating that the old was about to be replaced with the commencement of the New Testament. The Kingdom of Christ and its truer and freer worship was now being put into effect.
Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
John 4:22
He did correct her on which religion was the true religion, though: Jewish, rather than Samaritan syncretism.
But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
John 4:23 (emphasis added)
Those are the two facets of worship on which I want to focus as means of grace. They are stated by Jesus with an allusion to God’s immateriality (incorporeality). He is immaterial in a technical, not a figurative, sense. In other words, He is not immaterial in the sense that He doesn’t matter, but in the sense that He does not have a physical body (except in the person of Jesus and His hypostatic union).
God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
John 4:24
This is how God desires to be worshiped and how He commands us to worship Him: in spirit and in truth.
7 Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, 8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
Matthew 15:7-8
Jesus was speaking to the Pharisees. One of their main problems was their legalism, but, more than that, their hypocrisy. He used a quote from Isaiah 29. Worshiping “not in truth” is hypocritical worship. This involves making an outward show of worshiping God, but not doing it from the heart, or ostensibly worshiping publicly or in front of others, but not being consistent so that the resulting outgrowth of worship occurs in private.
Hypocritical worship had been a besetting problem for God’s people throughout their history. One of the symptoms and sources of sin is pride, and pride often manifests itself in hypocrisy. Human pride denies that truth that God alone deserves the highest honor and glory, a principle that I will develop more in part 2.
Syncretism and Sexual Sin
October 7, 2015 at 12:43 pm | Posted in Exodus | 10 CommentsTags: Aaron, Biblical worship, commentary on Exodus, Exodus 32, golden calf, pagan worship, parties, Sunday School lessons on Exodus, syncretism, worship
And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the Lord.
Exodus 32:5
Aaron, pressured by the people and doubtful concerning the return of Moses, tried to straddle the fence. He built an altar before the golden bull, but he proclaimed that the next day’s worship activity would be a feast “to the Lord.” This is called “syncretism:” attempting to combine the worship of Yahweh with false gods. It is nothing less than idolatry. In God’s eyes it is exactly the same in terms of its sinfulness. It is the spiritual equivalent of adultery. Aaron’s attempt to lessen its offensiveness to God is analagous to a husband defending his adultery by saying, “At least I didn’t dump my wife; I just two-timed her.”
The next verse explains the reason for the altar.
And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.
Exodus 32:6
Sacrifices were necessary to make the false worship seem legitimate. False worship will often have an element of truth in it. But the second half of the verse – “to eat and to drink, and rose up to play” – reveals the real selfishness at work in this show of “sacrifice.” When people make idols or construct false ideas of God, they are not trying to be accurate, and just falling accidentally into error. No, they are fashioning a god to please themselves. What would a young bull care if they wanted to get drunk, gorge themselves at a party, and have an orgy?
“To drink” denotes alcohol and “rose up to play” is probably (although not definitely) a euphemism for sex. Most commentators think the phrase has a sexual connotation not because the Hebrew word always means that. Hebrew language in the Bible tends to be modest, preferring euphemisms when possible (like saying that Adam “knew” Eve), but usually the context clarifies it. Here it doesn’t make it crystal clear. The word translated as “play” could be dancing, fighting, roughhousing, lesser forms of debauchery, or general partying. One of the reasons for the traditional belief that it here connotes sexual partying is that, in other instances when people engaged in this type of pagan worship it did involve drunken sex parties. In fact, that was one of the most prominent features of pagan worship, and, tragically, the people who worshiped the golden bull were almost surely imitating that.
The worship of Yahweh (conveniently just described for us in the details of the Tabernacle in the chapters preceding Chapter 32) was more somber, serious, holy, modest, and chaste. It was focused not on the flesh – although it did involve having an enjoyable meal – but rather on serving the Lord. Christian worship should likewise be spiritual, not carnal. This is one of the early instances in Scripture where this is highlighted for us. Worship of the real God is distinct from the worship of pagan idols, and the distinction should be obvious to a lost world, because our God is real, not an invented excuse to party like it’s 1999 (or in this case 1499 BC).
The Deep End 
Preparation for Worship
May 3, 2024 at 10:43 am | Posted in Biblical Preparation, I Chronicles | 1 CommentTags: 1 Chronicles 15, Ark of the Covenant, Biblical worship, bringing the Ark to Jerusalem, commentary on 1 Chronicles, corporate worship, King David, Sunday School lessons on 1 Chronicles, worship
I Chronicles 15:25-26
There are really two key themes in I Chronicles Chapters 15 and16: preparing to bring the Ark to Jerusalem, and actually bringing it. Chapter 15 itself is divided into two parts. The first part of the chapter deals with preparing the people and the place for the Ark.
I Chronicles 15:3 (emphasis added)
The second part of Chapter 15 covers the joyful celebration and worship that was to accompany the Ark.
I Chronicles 15:11-13 (emphasis added)
The idea of God making a “breach upon” them was part of the motif involving God “breaking out,” just as He had done against Israel’s enemies. This reminds us of the importance of enquiring of the Lord (in prayer and Bible study), and of preparing ourselves for worship. While it is true that our whole lives ought to be an act of worship to God, we must be avoid the false presumption that we don’t need to make special preparations for corporate worship. We are much more likely to attend, to participate in, and to get more out of something for which we have been preparing.
I Chronicles 15:16
With the confidence that they were doing it the right way there was no need to timidly parse each step and tread quietly to Jerusalem. When we have enquired of the Lord, and when we have prepared to worship, we may worship with boldness and joy.
I Chronicles 15:25-26
David here is a type of Moses, and the Ark is a type of Christ. The Ark coming to Jerusalem is a picture of Christ coming to His people. These sacrifices were occasions for repentance, just as John the Baptist preached repentance in preparation for the coming of Christ.