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Context No. 1578 of 4322 · Nehemiah

Context · Reflection

Nehemiah 12:27-37: in context

27At the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, they sought the Levites out of all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem to keep the dedication with gladness, both with giving thanks and with singing, with cymbals, stringed instruments, and with harps. 28The sons of the singers gathered themselves together, both out of the plain around Jerusalem and from the villages of the Netophathites; 29also from Beth Gilgal and out of the fields of Geba and Azmaveth, for the singers had built themselves villages around Jerusalem. 30The priests and the Levites purified themselves; and they purified the people, the gates, and the wall. 31Then I brought the princes of Judah up on the wall, and appointed two great companies who gave thanks and went in procession. One went on the right hand on the wall toward the dung gate; 32and after them went Hoshaiah, with half of the princes of Judah, 33and Azariah, Ezra, and Meshullam, 34Judah, Benjamin, Shemaiah, Jeremiah, 35and some of the priests’ sons with trumpets: Zechariah the son of Jonathan, the son of Shemaiah, the son of Mattaniah, the son of Micaiah, the son of Zaccur, the son of Asaph; 36and his brothers, Shemaiah, Azarel, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethanel, Judah, and Hanani, with the musical instruments of David the man of God; and Ezra the scribe was before them. 37By the spring gate, and straight before them, they went up by the stairs of David’s city, at the ascent of the wall, above David’s house, even to the water gate eastward.

The wall of Jerusalem is finished, and Nehemiah gathers the people for its dedication, a great celebration of thanksgiving. The Levites and singers are sought out from all their villages; the priests and Levites purify themselves and the people and the wall. Then two great choirs are formed to give thanks, and they process in opposite directions along the top of the wall, with cymbals, harps, and lyres, the musical instruments of David, led by Ezra the scribe, until they meet at the temple, filling the city with music and gladness.

What the passage celebrates is the marking of a completed work with joyful thanksgiving. The wall had been a hard labor, built against opposition, weariness, and danger; and now that it was finished, the people did not simply move on to the next thing. They stopped to dedicate it with a great celebration of thanks to God, with music and singing and two processing choirs, filling the completed wall itself with praise. There is something worth learning in that. When God helps us accomplish something, finish a hard task, come through a long labor, reach a goal, the fitting response is not merely to note it and hurry on, but to stop and give thanks, to mark the completion with gladness and praise to the God who enabled it. We are often better at asking God's help for a task than at thanking him when it is done; we pray hard through the difficulty and then, when it is finished, move straight to the next thing without pausing to celebrate and give thanks. Nehemiah's people did otherwise. They made the finishing of the wall an occasion of corporate joy and thanksgiving, giving God the glory for what he had helped them do. There is a call in this to mark our completed works, our finished labors and reached goals, with deliberate thanksgiving and joy, crediting God for the help without which we could not have finished, rather than letting the accomplishment pass unremarked as we rush to what is next. The wall was built by God's help; and the people filled it with thanksgiving before they lived behind it.

When God helps me complete a hard task or reach a goal, do I pause to mark it with thanksgiving and joy, crediting him for the help that finished it, or do I note the accomplishment and hurry on to the next thing without stopping to give thanks?

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