Context No. 4037 of 4322 · Nehemiah

Nehemiah 12:22-26: in context

22As for the Levites, in the days of Eliashib, Joiada, Johanan, and Jaddua, there were recorded the heads of fathers’ households; also the priests, in the reign of Darius the Persian. 23The sons of Levi, heads of fathers’ households, were written in the book of the chronicles, even until the days of Johanan the son of Eliashib. 24The chiefs of the Levites: Hashabiah, Sherebiah, and Jeshua the son of Kadmiel, with their brothers close to them, to praise and give thanks according to the commandment of David the man of God, section next to section. 25Mattaniah, Bakbukiah, Obadiah, Meshullam, Talmon, and Akkub were gatekeepers keeping the watch at the storehouses of the gates. 26These were in the days of Joiakim the son of Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and in the days of Nehemiah the governor, and of Ezra the priest and scribe.

This passage records the ordered arrangement of the Levites, priests, singers, and gatekeepers who served in the rebuilt temple, and it notes their appointed task: to praise and give thanks according to the command of David, section by section. The praise of God was not left to happen by chance or mood; it was organized, appointed, structured, a deliberate and ongoing ministry, with people set apart specifically to lead the giving of thanks.

There is something worth learning in this. We can think of praise and thanksgiving as things that happen spontaneously when we feel like it, and sometimes they do. But these Levites remind us that praising God is also a ministry to be taken up deliberately and faithfully, arranged and sustained whether or not the mood strikes. God's people gave thanks not only when they felt grateful but as an appointed, ongoing practice, a discipline of praise. There is a call here to make praise and thanksgiving a regular, deliberate part of our lives, not merely an occasional overflow of good feeling.

Have I made praise and thanksgiving a deliberate, ongoing practice, as the Levites were appointed to give thanks, rather than leaving it to occasional moods, building the intentional worship of God into the rhythm of my days?

Sources

Nehemiah 12:24: "The chiefs of the Levites... to praise and give thanks according to the commandment of David the man of God, section next to section."
Nehemiah 12:25: "Mattaniah, Bakbukiah, Obadiah, Meshullam, Talmon, and Akkub were gatekeepers keeping the watch at the storehouses of the gates."
1 Chronicles 23:30: "They were to stand every morning to thank and praise the LORD, and likewise in the evening."