How Should We Then Worship? Part 4

How Should We Then Worship? Part 4 

(Please read 2 Chronicles 29:26-30 again.)

When the priests signaled, the instrumentalists played the melodies provided for all OT Scripture and have been meticulously preserved for us through the te’amim below and above the entire OT texts.  (See Music of the Bible chapter eight.)  While these melodies were played by the Levite musicians, the singers sang the songs of the LORD.  As a result of these high praises, 2 Chronicles 29:28 explains that  “…all the congregation worshipped…”  We do not know which Scriptures the Levite musicians Sang, but they most certainly sang “the songs of the Lord”.  We do know that some of the music was the Davidic Psalms and Psalms written by Asaph.  We know with great certainty that these Levite musicians were “instructed in the songs of the LORD” (1 Chronicles 25:7).  So, it stands to reason that they did not sing the secular toons of Israel’s neighbors.

The fact that everyone worshiped while they sang and played the Word of YHVH should not surprise us since God has declared, in Jeremiah 23:29, “Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?”  Mark 13:31, “Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.” Isaiah 55:11, “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”  You will notice that I said that everyone worshiped.  Not only the people worshiped but as 2 Chronicles 29:29 states, “And when they had made an end of offering, the king and all that were present with him bowed themselves, and worshipped.”  Truly this example of worship in ancient Israel was corporate worship where music was used as a concomitant to the worship experience.