1 David's festival sacrifice. 4 He orders a choir to sing thanksgiving. 7 The psalm of thanksgiving. 37 He appoints ministers, porters, priests, and musicians, to attend continually on the ark. (TSK, Online Bible)
Vv. 1-4, David makes place for the ark of God, and shared his rejoicing with the people who attended the ceremony.
1) he prays for the people, v. 2.
2) he shares the goodness and generosity of the Lord to him with
the people around him.
Leaders should make joyful provisions for the Lord God to dwell among them and their people. The presence of the Lord should be a joyful occasion.
Vv. 4-6, David appointed Levites to 1) minister, 2) record, and 3) to thank and praise the Lord.
1) singing the praises of God.
2) bring to remembrance or commemorate in song the great and good
things God had done for Israel.
3) thank Him for the blessings and goodness.
V. 5, there are several of the Psalms addressed to Asaph, the chief.
V. 6, trumpets continually..., morning and evening. (Gill)
Vv. 7-37, the psalm delivered by David to Asaph and his brethren on the occasion of placing the ark in its permanent location. Just a few points:
V. 14, his judgments are in all the earth. The judgments are now in all the earth; David is not speaking of sometime off in the future.
We have here the thanksgiving psalm which David, by the Spirit, composed, and delivered to the chief musician, to be sung upon occasion of the public entry the ark made into the tent prepared for it. Some think he appointed this hymn to be daily used in the temple service, as duly as the day came; whatever other psalms they sung, they must not omit this. David had penned many psalms before this, some in the time of his trouble by Saul. This was composed before, but was now first delivered into the hand of Asaph, for the use of the church. It is gathered out of several psalms (from the beginning to #1Ch 16:23 is taken from #Ps 105:1, &c.; and then #1Ch 16:23-34 is the whole 96th psalm, with little variation; #1Ch 16:34 is taken from #Ps 136:1 and divers others; and then the last two verses are taken from the close of Psalm 106), which some think warrants us to do likewise, and make up hymns out of David's psalms, a part of one and a part of another put together so as may be most proper to express and excite the devotion of Christians. These psalms will be best expounded in their proper places (if the Lord will); here we take them as they are put together, with a design to thank the Lord (#1Ch 16:7), a great duty, to which we need to be excited and in which we need to be assisted. (MH)
V. 15ff., David speaks of the everlasting covenant which He commanded to His people, tracing it back to the covenant made with Abraham, v. 16. That is found in Genesis 12:1-5, and that covenant is Christ, and includes all the peoples of the world who are in Christ. (I have studies along this line elsewhere.)
The covenant was and is commanded to His people. It was not a request, but a command, carrying terms and conditions. National Israel violated the terms of the covenant, and was cast out of the land, and was finally totally destroyed by Rome. However, the everlasting covenant was not destroyed, but simply passed on to the new Israel of God, the church, the spiritual seed of Abraham, Galatians chapter 3, particularly v. 29.
That covenant is worth rejoicing over. Seeing as how God will never forget it, we should not.
V. 18, the land of Canaan has been expanded to include the whole world, Romans 4:13.
V. 21, David praised the Lord for His goodness to the "fathers".
V. 24, God's glory is to be declared among the heathens, and his marvelous works to all nations.
This verse sounds like Matthew 28:19, 20, and the command to take the gospel to the heathens and to all nations.
V. 28, give unto the Lord glory and strength. This reminds me of giving the Lord the strength of our youth. As an older man, 61, I am thankful I gave the Lord the strength of my youth. Though unsaved, I still tried to serve him as a layman, putting in long hours in evangelism before I was married.
V. 31, the Lord reigneth, is our hope in our days of trouble.
March 17, 2003, as Bush presses for war, we know he is only doing what he is being impressed to do by the reigning King of kings. I wonder if it might be to bring about righteous judgment against America?
V. 33, all of nature rejoices at the righteous judgment of God.
Vv. 37-43, David left those appointed to the duties before the ark there to do their job.
V. 37, as every day's work required.
Note that the 1) singing the praises of God, 2) bringing to remembrance or commemorate in song the great and good things God had done for Israel, and the 3) thank Him for the blessings and goodness was work.
In other words, it mattered not whether the men felt like doing these things, they were required to do them. The praises, no doubt, many times were not from the heart, but from the requirements to work. I can imagine this large group of men praising and singing before the invisible Lord. It may have, at times, seemed like empty, hollow words and songs, but they were required to do it anyway.
We normally do not consider praising God and singing before Him as work, but it is identified here as work that was required of those assigned to this duty.
A couple of closing points from this section:
First, all of His people offer continual sacrifices through the Lord Jesus Christ; He now continually presents His sacrifice before the Holy Father for His people.
Second, all of His people are commanded to always to pray, and not to faint, Luke 18:1.
Third, all of His people are required to rejoice all the time, Philippians 4:4.
Fourth, all of His people must work at doing these things,
for they do not come natural, and the natural man fights against
these things with all his strength.