A brief recap from last week, we finished up looking at 1 Chronicles 13 with the mishap concerning Uzzah and the ark, where the Lord was not approached properly. And since the Lord was not approached properly, he broke out against Uzzah leading unto his death. And the ark was situated for three months at the household of Obed-Edom. One point of clearing something up with that, I realized right after Sunday school last week that I had merged together Obed with another O named Canaanite in the Book of Chronicles, Ornon. The temple is situated at the site of Ornon, not Obed. So just to clarify that piece there. So the ark is situated for three months at the household of Obed-Edom, and then it is eventually brought into the city of Jerusalem shortly thereafter. Uh, and then, and so in first Chronicles 14, the narrative shifts back away from the narrative concerning the Ark, uh, to David's warfare with the Philistines. Uh, remember this is a shift in the order from Samuel, uh, where did the issues with the Ark are handled in one chapter. and the Philistines in the chapter immediately prior to that, and argued there that this narrative tool is meaning to weave together the warfare and the worship. I talked about that some last week. But chapter 14 begins with seeing David as a king with some international renown. All right, so in chapter 14, verses 1 to 6, we have an introduction to his warfare. where we're introduced to this man, the Hiram King of Tyre. So beginning in 1401, Hiram King of Tyre sent messages to David and cedar trees, also masons and carpenters to build a house for him. Now, who knows what's the importance of Hiram King of Tyre? He sends carpenters and masons to build David a house. What else does he do later on? Right, he's the king that also sends the materials to Solomon to construct for the Lord a house. And so Hiram is a fairly important figure. He's related in Samuel as one who loved David and loved Solomon, a close ally to the kingdom of Israel. Tyre, if you don't know where it's at, it is at the further northwest corner of the land, just outside the inheritance of, and let me see if I remember, Asher. right, just outside the inheritance of Asher. All right, if you remember the northern inheritance, it's Asher and Naphtali and then Joshua chapter 19. The inheritance of Asher goes up and then it goes back down south at the fortified city of Tyre. So we have Hiram kind of right at the border of the nation of Israel and yet nonetheless has a very close relationship with David and also his son Solomon. And so the narrative continues to talk about David in verse 2, that David knew that the Lord had established him as king over Israel and that his kingdom was highly exalted for the sake of his people Israel. I think here we see another juxtaposition with Saul, like we've been talking about throughout these various chapters. The Lord did not establish Saul's kingdom into pertinuity like he does here with David. Instead, Saul's kingship is taken away from him for his unfaithfulness. But I also want you to notice this, David's kingdom is exalted according to the chronicler for the sake of the Lord's people, Israel. David is this holy representative of the people meant to lead them in holiness and righteousness and justice and truth. And then there's another juxtaposition with Saul in verses three to six. Remember what happened to Saul at the very end of his life. He and who along with him died. He and his sons. But here, David is being seen to have many sons. He has a large progeny. David took more wives in Jerusalem, and David fathered sons and daughters. The names of his children bore to him. In Jerusalem, Shammuah, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon, Ibhar, Elishua, Ephrath, Nogag, Nepheg, Japhia, Elishema, Baleadia, and Eliphelet. You know, no one ever chooses those names, do they? Those aren't the biblical names. No one names their son or daughter Eliphelet. But nonetheless, there we are. Anyone notice something strange about this little list of the sons and daughters of Solomon here born to him in Jerusalem? And think about it in comparison to the narrative in Samuel. We have much more detail about this period of time in David's life in the books of 1 and 2 Samuel pertaining to one of David's sons in particular. Which one? Yeah. Not Absalom, that's not who I'm thinking about here. He does come up a little bit later. Absalom is absent in this list, but one that is present in this list. I heard a murmur. Solomon, yes, Solomon here. Solomon is mentioned in this list, but we have no mention of a particular major sin of David pertaining to one of his wives with Bathsheba. That entire narrative is omitted by the chronicler. And I think the reason why is, we'll get more to this as we're going through, David is seen as this kind of, this great temple building king. And so since the chronicler is so concerned about worship, he kind of glosses over some of the other aspects of David's kingship that don't focus in on that particular worshipful aspect. And so we see that the chronicler here is quite selective, isn't he, in the material that he wants to talk about. And so something that takes up multiple chapters of space in the earlier historical books here is not mentioned at all. And that'll be important when we get into chapter 15, because chapters 15 and 16 have almost no parallels at all with the books of Samuel. And so here we have some stuff that is omitted. Chapters 15 and 16 will have a lot of material that is added to this particular narrative. So here in the first couple of verses, 1 Chronicles 14, David is seen as a king with some international renown, especially among the king of Tyre. And he has extensive progeny. He begins having a lot of children. But the juxtapositions with Saul don't stop there. David is seen to go to war against the Philistines. Who was it that Saul was killed by? Well, it was the Philistines, wasn't it? And here they are again with David as one who will conquer the Philistines here. And in chapter 14, verses 8 to 17, we actually have two military campaigns conducted by David as a king against the Philistines. The first one, David goes out to war against them in the Valley of Rephaim. It's a valley that we were introduced to a couple of weeks ago. Anyone remember what happened in the Valley of Rephaim? All right. given the sound of merely the heater, I'm guessing we don't recall. The Valley of Rephaim is the same place where those three of David's mighty men went and broke through the line of the Philistines to go and get David water from the well of Bethlehem. Right? So this is likely the exact same, not battle, but war. Right? The exact same war with the Philistines here. Giving us now not just that one instance of those three mighty men, but now the entire thing. So not one battle, but the end of this particular war. And there's a couple of things in this narrative that are worth noting here. Let me read until verse 12 and we'll see what you might find as pretty important. When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over all Israel, all the Philistines went up to search for David. But David heard of it and went out against him. Now the Philistines had come and made a raid in the valley of Rephaim. But David inquired of God, shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you give them into my hand? And the Lord said to him, go up. and I will give them into your hand. And he went up to Baal-perazim, and David struck them down there. And David said, God has broken through my enemies by my hand like a bursting flood. Therefore, the name of that place is called Baal-perazim. And they left their gods there, and David commanded, and they were burned." All right, three important features of this particular narrative. What's the first part that kind of stuck out to you in the narrative? Think again of contrasting it with Saul. Here come the Philistines. David's wondering, what am I going to do? He actually inquires of God. Right? Who did Solomon inquire, or Saul inquire of after? You know, the witch of Endor, right? He is not one who seeks after the Lord, but instead one who sought even, well, he sought the Lord through the means of foreign nations, the very thing he was not allowed to do. In fact, in the next battle with the Philistines, we'll find David doing the same thing again. The second thing to point out is a close association with this particular battle, with the preceding narrative of Uzzah and the Ark. I mentioned it a little bit last week. He renames this place Baal-Perezim. Baal-Perezim, it's actually some of the same words that come from the name of the, or the renaming event in the preceding verses with Uzzah, where the place where the Lord broke out against Uzzah is called Perez-Uzzah. You'll notice a similarity with Perez and Perezim here. The Lord is breaking out against the Philistines in the same way that he broke out against Uzzah, because of his breach concerning the ark. And then the third thing to point out pertaining to this narrative especially is we could call it the warfare of worship here, whereas David goes out against this idolatrous people. What's the concluding narrative? their gods are destroyed, right? These false worshipers have their false gods destroyed as the final aspect of this particular battle. So David inquires of the Lord, as he is faithful to the Lord, the Lord breaks out against the Canaanites, and then we see the worshipful aspect of this brought together once again, where false idols are destroyed by the Lord's true king. And then David goes to war again against the Philistines as they make a raid once again in the valley, maybe even the same valley. And so David asked the Lord again, should he go up after them? The interesting thing about this particular response is the Lord says no. And I say it's pretty interesting because the inquiry, shall I go up, is actually just kind of a broad idiom. He's not literally going up anywhere. It's like if you called up someone, they said, hey, should I come for a visit? And you say, yeah, come on up. Even though up is not the proper designation for anywhere where you're located, right? I remember being in Philly and talking to my family in Texas, and they're like, yeah, come on up. It's kind of like Jerusalem. You're always going up to Texas. But I do have a mug that says God's country with Texas on there. I think it's accurate. The Philadelphians did not. So this designation of going up, it's really just kind of an idiomatic language for, shall I go to war against them? And so it's really interesting that the Lord tells him, no, you shall not go up. And he gives them a different instruction here. And he says, go around. and come against them opposite the balsam trees. Now, I think the reason why the Lord is doing this is because he's really reemphasizing the point that this war is God's war, and something we had talked about before. And so for David to not go up, but instead to go around, presents a context where who is the one that goes forth into the battle? Well, it's the Lord himself. David is not allowed to go to war against the Philistines until he hears what? the Lord himself on the march. And so it illustrates the reality of Israel's warfare here, where they are seen as the army of God, the hosts of the Lord, a point we made out a couple of weeks ago. Now from First Chronicles chapter 12, from the day men came to David to help him until there was a great army, like an army of God. We have that same emphasis coming up once again here, and in more narrative form, and the way David is to go out into this military campaign. Right, and so David goes out again, and again he defeats the Philistines because the Lord is with him. And once again we see the fame of David, the renowned of David, spreading forth among all of the nations that are surrounding him. So in 1 Chronicles 13 and 14, we see the worship and the warfare being united together once again. But then in chapters 15 and 16, we have a particular focus shifting back to worship particularly once again. And I'll say 15 and 16, be honest with you, we're not going to get into chapter 16 today. I imagine that we're used to that sort of progress by now. Maybe I should just stop trying to do two chapters a week and just do one. I always have these grand plans of going very quickly, and I never do. But it's more fun that way, isn't it? Slowing down, looking at some stuff. Anyway, so I mentioned this a little bit earlier, but I want to bring it up again. Chapters 15 and 16 are, for the most part, material completely unique. to the book of Chronicles. In fact, only a handful of verses, chapter 15, verse 25 to chapter 16, verse 3, and then chapter 16, verse 43, are the only passages that have any parallel to the book of Samuel. So this entire narrative, almost, is unique to the book of Chronicles. And remember back, gosh, when was it? Second week of, first week of December. It was December 8th. Merger Sunday, wasn't it? When we started this class. December 8th, I talked about the distinctions between Samuel and Chronicles or Samuel Kings and Chronicles, how we should not be surprised that in the space of just a handful of chapters that not everything that happens in the context of someone's life is going to be recorded. But I also made the case there that it's in the material that is added or that is different. that we begin to see a lot of the particular emphases of the book of Chronicles. And so that these two chapters is material almost exclusively found here, except for those handful of verses, brings to the forefront, once again, the focus of David, not merely as a warrior king, but a worshiping king, one who will worship the Lord in spirit and in truth. Here, the chronicler talks about not merely the reality of David bringing the ark into Jerusalem, which is what happens here, but David organizing worship around the ark and then engaging in worship at the ark. That's really the organizing principle of chapters 15 and 16. Chapter 15, David organizes and prepares for worship. Chapter 16, they engage in worship. And I think this is a significant thing to keep in mind in terms of preparing for worship. And it's that worship in the Old Testament is not some spontaneous, you know, here we go, let's just get ourselves up into some sort of spiritual fanaticism or something like that and then burst out in worship. It's actually particular in its plant. It's something he does, I'll even say here in a little bit, decently and in order. David establishes a plan for worship. He doesn't just engage in it willy-nilly. And so chapter 15, David begins his preparation for worship. And this chapter is broken up into three particular parts. The first part, he organizes the Levites for bringing in the ark. So one, and this is in verses two to 15. bringing in the Ark. The second one begins in verse 16 and goes to verse 24, where it's not just the Levites being organized, but a particular chapter of the Levites, you could say, and the organization of Levitical singers. And then the last part of chapter 15, verses 25 to, I don't remember, off the top of my head, let me see, 29, really 28. concerning the elders, the elders of Israel being gathered together for this act of worship. And then verses one and verse 29 kind of bracket out this narrative. And so all of these things in one way or another focus in on David organizing and establishing proper worship around the ark. And I want to look at this section by section. So verse one is kind of David's introductory acts in preparing to organize everything and bring the ark into Jerusalem. And it begins saying this, David built a house for himself in the city of David, right? I saw the exact same thing in chapter 14, verses one and two. And he prepared a place for the ark of God and pitched a tent for it. So here's David. His initial act is to get the city ready for worship pertaining to the Ark. He does not just prepare the worshipers, he prepares the people that are going to bring in the Ark, the Levites and the leaders, but he prepares the city itself, prepares the place for worship by pitching a tent. pitches up a tent here, and I think the focus on David needing to pitch this tent is something he learned from the proximity of Uzzah to the ark in 1 Chronicles 13, and that it is that it's a dangerous thing for sinners to be in the presence of God, and so he's pitching this tent to kind of provide a a protective presence around the Ark of the Covenant, set it aside for a particular place for this Ark to be. However, I think it's worthwhile noting as well that this tent is not the tabernacle. In chapter 16 verses 37 to 40, which we'll get at next week, we find that the tabernacle is still left at the high place that is in Gibeon. This means that David has not moved the tabernacle with the ark into the city of Jerusalem. This makes an interesting situation where there is going to be worship being partaken of in Jerusalem focused on the ark. It's even going to be led by the sons of Asaph, which we're introduced to this week. And then there's the tabernacle in Gibeon where Zadok and the priests lead in the worship there. Now this, I say, is a strange situation because back in Exodus and Leviticus, the ark was to be situated within the tabernacle, right, in the Holy of Holies and ministered to there. So what do you make of this? And he's making this narrative where here's David, he's pitching this tent that's not the tabernacle and engaging in worship in a place where he was not, strictly speaking, prescribed to worship at the Ark Inn, right? The Ark was tied together with the tabernacle. This is not the tabernacle. What do you do? No one's thought about that one? It seems like at the beginning of chapter 16 that he must have built an altar. So it seems like it was more than just the art. The entire cult system is operative in two places. Offering up of sacrifices, singing in the presence of the Lord. Both of these would have been happening both in Jerusalem and at Gibeon. Yeah. So the chronicles written to the exiles would not have a tabernacle or temple with them. So it's showing that worship is possible even without a place for it. It's possible, but remember, maybe we don't remember because it's been almost two months now. Chronicles was not written to exiles, it was written to returning exiles. And the context of returning exiles was actually the construction of the temple in Jerusalem. Ezra and Nehemiah would have been the contemporaries here. And so in that context, you would almost expect a more focus on the need to construct the temple, because what are those two guys focused on, Ezra and Nehemiah, as well as Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi? It's like, come on, guys, get after it. Rebuild the temple. That's really their focus there. So I don't think that's quite it, just based on the historical context. But given what we read in other places throughout the Old Testament, one might assume that David is sinning against the Lord because he's doing things that God has not commanded him to do. Yeah, so that's one interpretation of this. It's improper worship being offered up because it's not the place where God had called him to worship quite yet, right? We'll find later that the temple is going to be built here and this is the place that it's going to be worshipped. And so a good number do argue just that. David is not being fully faithful to proper worship in the Old Testament order. He should have brought the tabernacle and all its various vestments up with the ark. However, another argument is made by some where the ark being placed in this tent is merely a temporary measure on the way to the construction of the temple and the replacement of the tabernacle. So there's two options of interpretation here in verse one. Should have left a little room, but I didn't. So I'll go down here, verse one. Verse one is a possibility that's bad, but the other possibility is provisional. And I say it's a possibility as a provisional because everything that kind of happens after this in the book of Chronicles with the covenant with David, his further organization of worship, the preparing for the construction of the temple, kind of begins here. It begins here with the ark being brought in and it's kind of a beginning phase of the replacement of the tabernacle with the temple. Right, and so it allows a context where tabernacle worship is thoroughly maintained and yet there's a clear transition away from the tabernacle and to the temple. This is not, neither of these options are necessarily bad or necessarily good. And I say that because looking at it, it's a little bit of an argument for silence, isn't it? This first verse here does not give us any indication that David is sinning in doing this, neither does it give us any interpretive element saying, and this was in order to transition from tabernacle worship to temple worship. So it's not something we need to be hyper-dogmatic about. But among these two, I err on the side of the provisional transitional element here, mainly because everything else in these two chapters seems overwhelmingly positive. It seems overwhelmingly positive, and if the context is overwhelmingly positive, then I don't want to present a negative aspect to it. Think of contrasting it again with 1 Chronicles 13 versus 1 Chronicles 15. Virtually everything in 1 Chronicles 15 is gung ho, go David. You're doing it right. You're doing everything in accordance with the word of the Lord. Here we go. And so with that sort of context, I err on this side while saying that that one's also an okay take on this particular passage. So seeing it in terms of that contrast with 1 Chronicles 13, I think this pitching of the tent in Jerusalem is in a sense the first step towards the temple. It's the first step towards replacing the mobile tabernacle place of worship to a stationary and more permanent place of worship. But moving on from the enigmatic to the clear, I think we see in the remainder of the chapter a focus on trying to do everything in accordance with the word of the Lord. And let's look together at this first section here. And once again, I'm taking much longer than I planned, but hey, it's all right. Beginning in verse 2, David said that no one but the Levites may carry the ark of God. Uzziah wasn't a Levite, here we are. And then he gives us a reason why. He says, for the Lord had chosen them to carry the ark of the Lord and to minister to him forever. Verse 3, David assembled all Israel at Jerusalem to bring the ark of the Lord to its place at which he had prepared for it. And then beginning in verse 4, David gathers together especially the sons of Aaron, the priests, and the Levites. So beginning all the way in verse 2, we have David being very particular about how he is now going to approach the ark. It must be done only in accordance with the ways that the Lord had prescribed the ark to be handled. The reason is because the Lord had chosen this particular people to carry the ark. And then he gives, before jumping back to what they are to do, a brief little genealogy of the Levites and the priests. I think this ties it in with the genealogies that opened 1 Chronicles in chapters one to nine, bringing us back again to that particular focus on worship that we highlighted there. But then he gets even more particular in verse 13, where he jumps back to kind of the content from verse two, and he's now speaking to the heads of the houses of the Levites and the priests, saying, because you did not carry it the first time, the Lord our God broke out against us, and then here his reason, because we did not seek him according to the rule. The reason why God broke out against Uzzah is because the people did not seek God as God told them to seek Him. And so anyone who does not approach the Lord as the Lord calls them to approach Him, leads to their destruction. And so the conclusion of this in verses 14 and 15, Therefore, the priests and the Levites consecrated themselves to bring up the Ark of the Lord, the God of Israel. And the Levites carry the Ark of God on their shoulders, hear this, with the poles, as Moses commanded, according to the word of the Lord. The limousine has been ditched, it's no longer on the new ark, but now they're doing everything as Moses had commanded and in accordance with the word of the Lord. So all of the actions concerning the ark of God and the worship of God that happens at the ark must be carried out in accordance with the word of God and any violation leads to death. David has learned the regulative principle of worship. He knows that he can only approach God with how God calls him to approach. A lesson that, if you remember from last week, I made an argument that we need to be attentive to today. And so this reasoning and presenting David as this key worshiping king and doing things in accordance with the Lord, especially worship in accordance with the Lord, in 2 Chronicles is one of the main themes of critiquing the various kings and what they do. So in Samuel and Kings, a lot of the kings are judged in accordance with their maintaining justice and righteousness. Things of this sort, not absent from worship. But a lot of the kings and chronicles are gauged in particular because of their deeds with worship. I think of the very first king of the northern kingdom of Israel, Jeroboam. So remember Solomon, just after his death, his son Rehoboam decides that he wants to have even more control over all the tribes of Israel. And the northern kingdom, the northern ten tribes under Jeroboam split off. And what does Jeroboam do? We have very little information about him in Chronicles. Except for this little narrative in 2 Chronicles 11, verses 14-17, where Jeroboam kicks all the priests and Levites of the Lord out of the northern kingdom of Israel, and instead he does this. He appoints his own priests for the high places and for his goat idols and the calves that he had made. Jeroboam, the king of the northern kingdom of Israel, is judged by the simple line here that he kicks out the priests of the Lord and appoints his own idolatrous priests in the northern kingdom. Rehoboam is actually judged similarly. In the narrative that we have here, Rehoboam, for the first couple of years of his life, pursues fidelity to the Lord like his father David, inquires of the Lord whenever he goes to battle. But there's a little bit of a problem. Judah gets too comfortable. Judah gets too comfortable, and so just like we often do today when we get really comfortable, what do we not do? Well, we stop consulting the Lord, don't we? It's kind of a nature of our human fallen condition that we love to pursue the Lord when things are going bad, but whenever things are going well, we think we stand on our own two feet. And Rehoboam did the same in 2 Chronicles 12. It said that Rehoboam later in his life abandoned the law of God and all of Israel with him. And then the Lord judges Rehoboam for bringing up the nation of Egypt against them. In contrast, the righteous kings are judged in a same way. Asa, which was the, who's Asa? He's the grandson of Rehoboam. The grandson of Rehoboam is weighed as a righteous king because of his act in removing the idols and tearing down the high places that the kings before him had set up. And so the kings in Chronicles are largely judged by the same principles that we see David holding to here in 1 Chronicles 15. Whether or not they worship the Lord in accordance with the word of the Lord. And so here David has his regular principle and he is going to follow it to a T. As the narrative progresses into verses 16 and 24, going into our second aspect here, David gets even more particular about the worship that is to be had at the tabernacle, or not at the tabernacle, at the ark. And he's giving a function of a particular class of Levites here where we're going to find the Levitical singers being organized and placed around the ark for worship. And let's read these verses quickly together. And so David also commanded the chiefs of the Levites to appoint their brothers as the singers who would play loudly on musical instruments, on harps and lyres and cymbals to raise sounds of joy. So the Levites appointed Haman, the son of Joel, and his brothers Asaph, the son of Berechiah and the sons of Mariah, the brothers Ethan and the son of Cushahiah, and with them their brothers of the second order, Zechariah, Zeaziel, Oh, my. Shemirah, Moth, Jechiel, Unai, Eliab, Benaiah, Messiah, Mothi, Haya, Eliphilehu, a couple other names, Obed, Edom, and Jeliel, and then another group of singers after them. Focusing in especially on verse 22, and Kenaniah appointed as the leader of all the Levites in music. And the reason given there is because he understood it. A few things to note on this. First, this musical procession is very organized. It has a director in Kenaniya, a director of music, because he understood the musical elements there. And there's even ordering among the musicians. You can kind of see a first order and a second order. The first order and the first couple of verses, and then in verse 18, we have a second order of musicians following after them. Now, I don't know if this is like a first string or a second string type of thing, or it's just two classes of singers assigned to do different elements here, but I think it is pretty clear by looking at it that the singing element that is going on here is very orderly. And as I was saying earlier, it is decently and in order. These songs and these singers are organized by David. They don't just get to get up and jump around and do whatever they want. And so worship and song in the Old Testament, I believe also for us in the New, was to be done in an orderly manner and even led by particular officers. And here even those who understand music. Maybe this is a charge to seminaries to have some music classes in them because then we produce guys like myself that Kenaniah and I will never be the closest of buds because I do not understand the music. I appreciate it, but I don't understand it. And so David here is organizing the worshipers. It's being done decently and in good order. But I think also it does illustrate an aspect of worship that we talked about last week and the requirement to sing songs. God wants his people to approach him in singing, in praising his name in the form of a song. But even then, these songs are to be set within the context of God's work to redeem his people. We're going to look at this especially next week when we get into 1 Chronicles 16, where the songs that the people sing are always, in one way or another, connected to God's great acts of redemption. Think of how many times the Exodus is mentioned in the book of Psalms and things like this. And so the singing that the people of God do is tied to the work of God in redeeming them from their own sins and bringing them unto himself. And in those works of redemption, we also have things revealed to us about who God is, right? What God does as well as who God is, and our songs are conformed to those things. Right, conformed to who God is and conformed to what he does. And both of those aspects are necessary elements of our worship in song. Songs must relate to and be rooted in God's works of redemption. Thinking of our current New Testament context, I'm trying to go a little faster, you can only have a few minutes. I think it is perfectly proper to take the name of Christ on our lips in song, right? And so as we are working as a worshipful body today, I think there is a redemptive historical charge to write songs about the work of Christ. and what he has done, and in light especially of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ from the viewpoint after that particular period. To set myself apart from some other views here, there are those who argue and have some good arguments for singing only and exclusively the Psalms of the Old Testament. And I think they're right that we should and indeed must sing the songs of the Old Testament, the Psalms here. However, that does not negate a pattern that we observe in the Bible of whenever the Lord works in great acts of redemption, those great acts of redemption are almost followed by a particular song. Think of the song of Moses, Exodus chapter 15. The Lord brings them through the Red Sea. What happens immediately after that? Exodus 15, Moses writes a song commemorating that event. David, one of the great psalmists of the Old Testament, many times in his life whenever the Lord works an act of redemption, he produces a song. And we'll even see that here. As the Ark of God is brought into Jerusalem, what is produced? A song about how the Lord is king and how he reigns among his people. So I think this pattern produces a context where after the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, the people of God must continue forward in singing, writing songs about the work of our Lord. Yeah? Would you categorize the singer as the human? Well, there's definitely a lot of them. It doesn't really tell us. Well, I think here, whenever they're bringing the Ark in, it's clearly a processional worship and it would be, you know, all of them together engaging in this act. And we'll get into this more next week, evidently, instead of this week. I think what this is an image of is actually the new heavens and the new earth. when all the Church of God is brought together, brought into the heavenly New Jerusalem, not on the ark, but following Christ, our King, and all of us together join up into this worshipful song. And so in terms of designating as a choir, completely separated from the people of God, for this epoch, maybe we can call it that, But when we're thinking about everyone as, you know, the whole church as a priest, then, or the priesthood of all believers, then perhaps the entire church would be the choir of this period. Yeah. Use some musical instruments. And there's no absolute requirement saying you can only use a piano or only use an organ or you can't use a guitar or things like that. Various churches have that in terms of the circumstances rather than elements of worship. Various churches, even among OPC churches, some will use only a piano. The church in Amarillo, for example, they will use a piano. They have two people playing the violin. They have a couple of people leading and singing because the pastor there, like myself, sounds like a wounded walrus. Um, uh, and they also have a guy with like an acoustic guitar and things like that. Their philosophy is anyone who wants to, you know, play their instrument to the glory of God in the service can do so. But qualification, it must be done decently in an order, right? Um, uh, them, uh, they have their instruments all at the back of the auditorium and to the left. Trying to be very particular that whenever you're engaging in the singing of worship, what you're not doing is looking to a leader on the front stage and watching a rock show or something to that effect, but seeking to glorify the Lord alone. So there's various elements of wisdom that Sessions used to guide us in these things, but there is no exact requirement that it must be one instrument and not the others. A couple other points on these songs, and we'll pick back up here. The songs sung in worship, like the one David is about, or really the sons of Asaph, in David's name, are about to write, must be theologically accurate and theologically robust. And one of the great detriments of a lot of songwriting these days, and I actually stopped listening to typical Christian radio, is because it has neither of those categories. It is neither accurate, nor is it robust. I remember hearing one song, it just repeated, you know, like, what was it? I don't remember, but I think it was like, this is love, or something like that, like 50 times. And that was pretty much the entire song. Another time, I went to go hear a friend of mine preach for his first time ever. And it was at a worship service in a non-Presbyterian church, pseudo-charismatic. And they were singing this song. By the end of the first line, I decided, I can't sing this song. Because I didn't believe what they were singing theologically. And so our songs must be theologically accurate and theologically robust. It must be included in worship. And it must bring up the redemptive work of God in musical form. We should, and indeed must, take the name of Christ on our lips in song. As an act of worship, the singer can only approach in song in the name of Christ. Like, as you're approaching the ark, you can only approach the ark by means of the blood of a substitutionary sacrifice. Well, in song, we're being brought into the throne room of God in heaven, and we can only do so through the blood of Christ. Fourth, it must be done with thankfulness to God. Sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And finally, I know I'm going over, our songs look forward to a day when we sing yet another new song in the new heavens and the new earth, right? As I was saying before. As God works in history, redeeming his people, every great act is followed by great songs. And as the Lord comes again and brings us into the heavenly new Jerusalem, that will be commemorated with new songs, singing unto the Lord at his throne forevermore, singing theologically robust and accurate songs. All right, any questions about that? Okay, we'll pick up here next week as the elders and David engage in this procession of worship going into the city of Jerusalem. Let's close in a word of prayer. Father, we thank you that you are a God who calls us to worship you in your holy name, that by the work of Christ, you have renewed us into a people that would sing songs to your praise. And Lord, we ask this morning that we would do so only in his name, with thankfulness in our hearts to you. May we sing robustly and accurately concerning who you are, as well as what you have done for us. And it's in Christ's name we pray, amen.