David Musical Levites for the Temple
Not for congregational worship: After peace and prosperity hit Israel, David added musical worship and therefore changed the Law of Moses to make the coming temple like the nations as Israel had demanded and God had prophesied. At the same time He warned that the kings would lead them into destruction and He would not hear their cry for help. One of the prophecies was that the king would take the young boys to make "instruments of Chariots" and run before the king's and war chariots like any oriental potentate: these were musical instruments. This was a MARK of the nation living and worshiping LIKE the nations because that is what God abandoned them to. So, there is no point in trying to see these instruments as PATTERNISM for the Christian ekklesia or school of the Bible.
Ecclesiasticus 48:
1. Then the prophet Elijah arose like a fire, and his word burned like a torch.
2. He brought a famine upon them, and by his zeal he made them few in number.
3. By the word of the Lord he shut up the heavens, and also three times brought down fire.
4. How glorious you were, O Elijah, in your wondrous deeds! And who has the right to boast which you have?
5. You who raised a corpse from death and from Hades, by the word of the Most High;
6. who brought kings down to destruction, and famous men from their beds;
7. who heard rebuke at Sinai and judgments of vengeance at Horeb;8. who anointed kings to inflict retribution,
........and prophets to succeed you.
Hosea confirms this of Israel and Judah was not much different:
O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help. Hosea 13:9
I will be thy king: where is any other that may save thee in all thy cities? and thy judges of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes? Hosea 13:10
I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath. Hosea 13:11
You should read our article on First Samuel eight for the background. Here, God would carry out the captivity and death sentence imposed because of their musical idolatry at Mount Sinai and the result of this "because of transgression." See Psalm 81 to see that there was no God-given command to WORSHIP with music.
Of Psalm 78 Anderson wrote--
"Here the Psalmist affirms that the old sacred history which centered in the Exodus and the Conquest has come to an end. Yahweh has made a new beginning by raising up David and selecting Mount Zion as his sanctuary." Anderson, Bernhard W., Understanding the Old Testament, p. 520, 3rd, Prentice-Hall, p
"In the kingdom of Judah... there developed a conception of the covenant that was fundamentally at odds with the northern Mosaic tradition. David, the architect of the United Kingdom, had tried to unify the twelve tribes under his rule by taking over the religious traditions and symbols of the old Tribal Confederacy.
But in the circle of the Davidic court a new theology developed, one that in the long run all but eclipsed the covenant faith that had been inherited from the Mosaic period.
According to this view, Yahweh bound himself by a covenant oath to David, promising to preserve the Davidic line and to spare the Davidic kingdom 'for the sake of my servant David,' as Isaiah is reported to have said (Isa. 37:35; see II Sam. 7).
In short, Yahweh's sovereignty was limited by the covenant, for he was no longer free to choose or reject Israel, as Amos maintained, but was obligated to preserve her." (Anderson, p. 333).
"The covenant festival celebrated in the south was unique in some respects, owing to the profound changes brought about by the Davidic monarchy. It will be remembered that David, in order to support his regime with the religious sanctions of the Tribal Confederacy, had brought the Ark to his capital and planned to install it in a temple. David's plan, which was realized by Solomon, called for a reinterpretation of Yahweh's covenant with Israel. The royal court of Jerusalem advanced a new theology of king and temple, the substance of which was that Yahweh had elected the Davidic king as his 'son' and had elected Zion as his sanctuary, the place of his sacramental presence.
"The effect of this new theology, especially under Solomon's influence, was to modify Israel's worship. The covenant renewal festivals of the former Confederacy were transformed into fall New Year celebrations of the foundation of the Temple and the election of the Davidic house.
It was not until the great reformation of Josiah that the Mosaic covenant tradition was discovered." (Anderson, Bernhard W., Understanding the Old Testament, p. 519, 3rd, Prentice-Hall, p)
David's change
"The book of Psalms contain new doctrine after the Law of Moses. And after the writing of Moses, it is the second book of doctrine...
<>(David) first gave to the Hebrews a new style of psalmody, why which he abrogates the ordinances established by Moses with respect to sacrifices, and introduces the new hymn and a new style of jubilant praise in the worship of God; and throughout his whole ministry he teaches very many othe things that went beyond the law of Moses."On: The book of Psalms contains new doctrine after the law of Moses.
And after the writing of Moses, it is the second book of doctrine.
Now, after the death of Moses and Joshua, and after the judges, arose David,
who was deemed worthy of bearing the name of father of the Saviour himself;<>and he first gave to the Hebrews a new style of psalmody, by which he abrogates the ordinances established by Moses with respect to sacrifices, and introduces the new hymn and a new style of jubilant praise in the worship of God; and throughout his whole ministry he teaches very many other things that went beyond the law of Moses. (Fragment of Commentary by Hippolytus, bishop of Rome, Ante-Nicene, V, p. 170)"So one of his shrewdest acts was to rescue the Ark of the Covenant from the place of oblivion in which it had rested since the fall of the confederate sanctuary of Shiloh and to bring it to Jerusalem with great pomp and ceremony--on which occasion he performed a religious dance, virtually in the nude, much to the disgust of his wife (II Sam. 6) (Anderson, p. 182).
"David sought to encircle his crown with the religious halo of the past. Thus the religious center of Israel was shifted from the confederate sanctuary of Shiloh to the royal shrine in Jerusalem. Hence was the beginning of a 'royal theology' which challenged the anti-monarchic conservatism represented by men like Samuel and insisted that Yahweh had made a special covenant owith David... He wanted to replace the old Tent with a splendid royal temple patterned after the temples of other nations. .. Nathan argued that Yahweh had not dwelt in a 'house'... So David wisely conceded to the prophet that this was going too far--at least for the time being. He contented himself with reorganizing Israel's religion in other spheres, especially music." (Anderson, p. 182)
"David succeeded in transferring the traditions of the Confederacy to Jerusalem: the Ark, the Tabernacle, the priesthood. But in this change something happened to the character of 'Israel,' to the structure of the community.
No longer was Israel, the people of God, bound together on the basis of covenant allegiance to Yahweh at the central sanctuary;
Israel was now bound together politically, on the basis of a contract between king and people (II Sam. 5:3). As citizens of the state, the people of Israel owed allegiance to a king who could take a census, exact forced labor, and require submission to his power...
As Israel became a state modeled after other oriental monarchies, more and more she lost her distinctive character and faced the danger of being swallowed up in the power struggle and cultural stream of the Near East." (Anderson, p. 188).
Musical Worship Teams Added by David for the Future Temple Sacrifices
Israel demanded a king to replace the direct rule of God. He gave them kings but prophesied that they would destroy the nation and He would not hear their prayers. Ezekiel and others make it clear that Israel, for much of their life, worshiped like the nations. It was logical therefore that David begin and Solomon construct a temple and begin to worship like the nations. God would not tolerate it and within five years of Solomon's death, Shishak from Egypt came to get his gold from the temple as Israel was cut off from the faithful tribes to begin their march to Assyria.
The kings Israel demanded to permit them to worship like the nations used musical worship as the most effective way of dulling the rational (spiritual) part of the brain. However, not even David involved the nation in "congregational singing with instrumental accompaniment." His additions were for the developing Temple-State which was civil rather than religious:
"Indeed not before David's time do professional musicians appear in the Bible. From where did they come?
<>Considering the apparent connection of professional musicians with the institution of Monarchy,
we must bear in mind that in the neighboring countries, Egypt and Assyria, the professional musician was an old and familiar figure. It seems that the midrash alludes to an ancient tradition when it relates that King Solomon's Egyptian wife, daughter of the Pharaoh, carried in her dowry a thousand foreign instruments.Yet an instrument is of no use without a musician able to play it.
Hence, we may assume that the systematic import and subsequent training of professional musicians took place in the era of David and Solomon." (Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible, p. 457).
Not only is it clear that the musical worship teams were the overseers or presiding elders during growth efforts and in the service of God's "house," they assumed the role of priests during animal sacrifices. When the Phonecians were having trouble cheating the Egyptian, Wen Amon, out of his ship-load of cedar, the prince sent a female musician to lull him to sleep so that eventually he might be murdered to cheat him:
"Most likely, Israel first became acquainted with ecstatic prophecy in Canaan, where it was connected with Baal religion. The Egyptian story of Wen Amon tells of a religious festival in the Phoenician port of Byblos where 'the god seized one of the youths and made him possessed'--that is, he fell into an ecstatic state.
<>Centuries later, prophets of Baal, imported from Phoenicia, worked themselves into an ecstatic frenzy on the top of Mount Carmel as they danced around the altar, cut themselves with knives, and raised their cultic shouts (I Kings 18:20-29).This type of orgiastic prophecy was also known in Asia Minor, from which it spread into the Mediterranean world and later took the form of the orgies of the cult of Dionysus" (Anderson, Theology of the O.T., p. 229). (This always included musical instruments)
"The ecstatic condition appears to have been normal to the prophetic guilds of the period of the judges and the early kingdom, and for the first time in 1 Sam. 10:5-10, 19:20-24 the contagiousness of the condition comes to light, in the case of Saul.
Someone has suggested that much modern church music is really "low-level glossolalia" or speaking in tongues. It is intended to manipulate the paying audience with a deliberate attempt to dismiss the Biblical text and substitute what Albert Barnes called "soulless versifying." This was the beginning of the feminization of Israel's practices:
"The trained musicians which eventually appear around the time of David and Solomon mark a distinctive change in the history of Jewish music. Before this time much of the music was made by women." (Zondervan Pict., Music p. 313).
David introduced a new form of military-like prophesying which was singing with instrumental accompaniment. However, this was a temple ritual where the temple was more private shrine of the king than synagogue of the congregation.
Levitical Musical Teams Not Intended for Worship
David intended the musical guilds to praise the Lord at the temple during animal sacrifices for certain purification and dedicatory services. Even this was condemned. Amos (5, 6, 8) condemned Israel for imitating David's musical instruments because they were used for daily worship while the leaders lay upon ivory couches and the "congregation" starved for the Word of God. Theirs was a wineskin gospel.
The later intrusion of the Levites into the temple rituals with music is marked as the cause of Israel's failure to hear and obey the Word of God. They had been the "panic" leaders in military battles and would be added to subject the nation to the king (against God's wishes) and the civil state. Neither they or Saul or David had the right to perform priestly functions.
David [secular king], together with the commanders of the army, set apart some of the sons of Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun for the ministry of prophesying, accompanied by harps, lyres and cymbals. Here is the list of the men who performed this service" 1 Chr 25:1NIV
From the sons of Asaph: Zaccur, Joseph, Nathan and Asarelah. The sons of Asaph were under the supervision of Asaph,who prophesied under the king's supervision." 1 Chr 25:2<>
All these men were under the supervision of their fathers for the music of the temple of the LORD,The singers or musicians who made NOISE and not music never went beyond the courtyard where the priests slaughtered innocent animals. Because of the blood, innocent cries, dung and burning flesh the LOUD NOISE was to SERVE [meaning hard bondage] the priests. This would be like "making music" in the parking lot while the preacher slaughters an innocent lamb. No singer or instrument player could ever enter into the Holy Place which was a type of the body or church of Christ. It was a "national" type of the synagogue where the people worshipped only in the sense of hearing the Word of God and praying.
The TYPE proves that a singer or musician who attempted to enter the Holy Place, synagogue or ekklesia as the "school of the Bible" would be worthy of death. Worship in the presence of God was in the Most Holy Place and no singers or musicians could "lead you into God's presence" on the penalty of death.
This fits with the Samaritan woman's ability to grasp that "when Messiah comes He will tell us all things." Jesus confessed that He was the MESSIAH or TEACHER and not a worship leader. Jesus said that God is worshipped ONLY in the new place of the human spirit as it gives heed to the truth.
Because we have king or kingdom and a NATIONAL SHRINE we also are guilty of sin if we try to ACT the role of KING which belongs to Lord Jesus Christ.
with cymbals, lyres and harps, for the ministry at the house of God. Asaph, Jeduthun and Heman were
under the supervision of the king." 1 Chr 25:6
MOREOVER David (king) and the captains (Sar h8269) of the host separated to the service of the sons of Asaph, and of Heman, and of Jeduthun, who should prophesy with harps, with psalteries, and with cymbals: and the number of the workmen according to their service was: 1 Chon .25:1KJV
Prophesy, here, means to sing certain work songs along with loud instrumental sound. Work songs were common in all of the other kingdom of the world which Israel had now become. If you begin to grasp the implication of processing, transporting and burning tens of thousands of animals then you grasp that this is not "spiritual worship."
Remember that God gave his permission for Israel to "worship like the nations'' when the elders fired Him and demanded a king like the nations. The NATIONS or Goyim speaks directly of the Babylonian and Canaanite religions totally surrounding the land. When they wanted to worship like the nations it was to worship like the Canaanites. These are the survivors of CANAAN or Kenites who infiltrated the Jewish Religion just as the descendants of CAIN had been used by Satan to seduce God's people with music.
Therefore, of the musical guilds:
"There is incontrovertible archaeological evidence for the antiquity of the musical guilds themselves. The Phoenicians (Canaanites) outshone their contemporaries in music, and the Israelites were early influenced by them.
<>Musical guilds of the Hebrews may be traced back in some instances,
to old Canaanite families whose designations, such as Hemen the Ezrahite (I Chron. 2:6),
became a part of later Hebrew family names." (Unger, Merril, Archaeology and the Old Testament, Zondervan, P. 216-7)"The trained musicians which eventually appear around the time of David and Solomon mark a distinctive change in the history of Jewish music. Before this time much of the music was made by women." (Zondervan Pict., Music p. 313).
"Before the establishment of the kingdom under Saul, it was the women who, as in every young civilization, played a major part in the performance of music. Such figures as Miriam, Deborah, Jephtha's daughter, and the women hailing the young hero David have become almost archetypes of female musicians. Characteristic of all these cases is the familiar picture of a female chorus, dancing and singing, accompanied by frenzied drum-beating. This is the scene known to the entire Near East, and not even the severe rule of Islam could wholly suppress this age-old practice." (Int Dict of the Bible, Music, p. 457).
See our review of Rubel Shelly on Jael. More Rubel Shelly on Deborah promoting women in worship.
Service means:
Abodah (h5656) ab-o-daw'; from 5647; work of any kind: - act, bondage, / bondservant, effect, labour, ministering (-try), office, service (-ile, -itude), tillage, use, work, * wrought
Abad (h5647) aw-bad'; a prim. root; to work (in any sense); by impl. to serve, till, (caus.) enslave, etc.: - * be, keep in bondage, be bondmen, bond-service, compel, do, dress, ear, execute, / husbandman, keep, labour (-ing man), bring to pass, (cause to, make to) serve (-ing, self), (be, become) servant (-s), do (use) service, till (-er), transgress [from margin], (set a) work, be wrought, worshipper.
The results of a religious practice may determine whether God commanded it or not. Of Topheth, where the musical praise with tabrets began for the civil leaders it was--
"Once the music-grove, where Solomon's singers, with voice and instrument, regaled the king, the court and the city; then the temple of Baal, the high place of Mooch, resounding with the cries of burning infants; then (in symbol) the place where is the wailing and gnashing of teeth." (p. 3313-14, four-volume Smith).
"Such terms as 'Asaph,' 'Heman' and 'Ethan' or 'Jeduthun' are evidently used by the Chronicler to designate musical guilds, and in the case of 'Heman' and 'Ethan' are closely paralleled by scores of abbreviated names found at Ugarit and elsewhere, and are characteristically Canaanite and early, not appearing in later Hebrew lists of contemporary names." (Unger, Merrill, Archaeology and the Old Testament, Zondervan, P. 217)
"David introduced innovations in the age and service of the Levites (I Chron. 23-26). Certain Levites, particularly Asaph, became musicians and probably wrote some of the Psalms." (Living Bible Ency., p. 1143)
"Radical reconstructions, that seek to discover an opposition between David's Levites and the 'image worshiping' Aaronic priests, have been advocated by writers such as Theophile Meek:
'Thus were the Levites ensconced in a position of supreme priestly authority in the religion and there came a temporary eclipse of the bull cult and its Aaronite priesthood. This did not mean the suppression of the bull cult nor of any other; it simply meant that Yahwehism was now the state religion and Yahweh the national god.
<>In their local sanctuaries the people could and did worship what gods they would.'
"But though no evangelical would take Meek's theories seriously, it is true that the Levites were given the leadership in the new musical service which was created by David and which constituted a matter of his particular concern." (Anderson, B. Theology of the OT, p. 376)
Solomon would build an earthly house whereas God prophesied that He would build David a "family." The outward rituals were devoted to the physical house which did nothing to cleanse the conscience. The secular state was clearly modeled after Canaanite models:
"Music and psalmody likewise flourished, especially as Solomon
........lavished the resources of the state on the new Temple,
........enriching its cultus in various ways (1 Ki. 10:12).Although we know too little of prevailing musical techniques to make definite statements, Israelite music under Phoenician influence probably soon reached standards of excellence as high as any in the contemporary world." (Bright, John, A History of Israel, p. 198).
As one example, Asaph's name is from:
Acaph (h622) aw-saf'; a prim. root; to gather for any purpose; hence to receive, take away, i. e. remove (destroy, leave behind, put up, restore, etc.): - assemble, bring, consume, destroy, fetch, gather (in, together, up again), * generally, get (him), lose, put all together, receive, recover [another from leprosy], (be) rearward, * surely, take (away, into, up), * utterly, withdraw.
Much of the musical "praise" begun by David is described by the word ignorantly adopted by modern performing, excelling groups:
Halal (h1984) haw-lal'; a prim. root; to be clear (orig. of sound, but usually of color); to shine; davch hence to make a show, to boast; and thus to be clamorously foolish; to rave; causat. to celebrate; also to stultify: - (make) boast (self), celebrate, commend, (deal, make), fool (- ish, -ly), glory, give [light], be (make, feign self) mad (against), give in marriage, [sing, be worthy of] praise, rage, renowned, shine.
This word was used to define Lucifer himself who would use the king of Tyre and of Babylon as his musical change agents:
Heyel (h1966) hay-lale'; from 1984 (in the sense of brightness); the morning-star: - lucifer.
Later writers understood that it was David in connection with the temple and not the Law who commanded musical worship:
And both the singers and the porters kept the ward of their God, and the ward of the purification, according to the commandment of David, and of Solomon his son. Neh 12:45
For in the days of David and Asaph of old there were chief (ruler or captain) of the singers, and songs of praise and thanksgiving unto God. Neh 12:46
Israel demanded a king to replace the direct rule of God. He gave them kings but prophesied that they would destroy the nation and He would not hear their prayers. Ezekiel and others make it clear that Israel, for much of their life, worshiped like the nations. It was logical therefore that David begin and Solomon construct a temple and worship like the nations. God would not tolerate it and within five years of Solomon's death, Shishak from Egypt came to get his Exodus gold.
Kenneth Sublett
Counter added 12.24.04 9:30a 2923 Rev 2.09.08 892
