Scripture Daily

Context No. 1356 of 4322 · 1 Chronicles

Context · Reflection

1 Chronicles 16:1-6: in context

1They brought in God’s ark, and set it in the middle of the tent that David had pitched for it; and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before God. 2When David had finished offering the burnt offering and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the LORD’s name. 3He gave to everyone of Israel, both man and woman, to everyone a loaf of bread, a portion of meat, and a cake of raisins. 4He appointed some of the Levites to minister before the LORD’s ark, and to commemorate, to thank, and to praise the LORD, the God of Israel: 5Asaph the chief, and second to him Zechariah, then Jeiel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Mattithiah, Eliab, Benaiah, Obed-Edom, and Jeiel, with stringed instruments and with harps; and Asaph with cymbals, sounding aloud; 6with Benaiah and Jahaziel the priests with trumpets continually, before the ark of the covenant of God.

The ark of God has at last been brought into the tent David prepared for it, and the day is marked with burnt offerings and peace offerings. When the sacrifices are finished, David blesses the people in the name of the LORD and gives every man and woman a share of bread, meat, and raisins. Then he does something that will shape Israel's worship: he appoints certain Levites to minister before the ark, to invoke, to thank, and to praise the LORD, the God of Israel, with Asaph as their chief, accompanied by harps, lyres, cymbals, and trumpets sounding continually before the ark of the covenant.

The detail worth noticing is that David appointed people specifically to give thanks and praise, and to do it continually. He did not leave the worship of God to happen whenever someone felt moved; he established it, assigned particular people to the ministry of thanksgiving, and set it to sound continually before the ark. Praise became not an occasional impulse but an ordered, appointed, ongoing offering, staffed and scheduled like any other essential work of the kingdom. There is instruction in that for our own life of worship and gratitude. We tend to treat thanksgiving as something that happens spontaneously, when we feel grateful, and to assume that if the feeling is not there the praise should wait. But David's arrangement suggests that praise and thanks are meant to be appointed, made a settled practice rather than left to the mood of the moment, offered continually whether or not the impulse is strong on a given day. The heart does not always lead the way into gratitude; often the practice of giving thanks, kept up as a discipline, is what teaches the heart to feel it. David built continual praise into the life of his people deliberately. We do well to build it into ours the same way, appointing times and keeping them, so that thanksgiving becomes a continual offering and not a rare impulse.

Do I leave thanksgiving and praise to the moods of the moment, or will I, like David, appoint it as a settled practice, giving thanks continually whether or not the feeling is strong, and letting the practice teach my heart?

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