1 Chronicles 16:9

16:7-36 Let God be glorified in our praises. Let others be edified and taught, that strangers to him may be led to adore him. Let us ourselves triumph and trust in God. Those that give glory to God's name are allowed to glory in it. Let the everlasting covenant be the great matter of our joy his people of old, be remembered by us with thankfulness to him. Show forth from day to day his salvation, his promised salvation by Christ. We have reason to celebrate that from day to day; for we daily receive the benefit, and it is a subject that can never be exhausted. In the midst of praises, we must not forget to pray for the servants of God in distress.

Then on that day,.... The ark was brought to Zion, and the above persons appointed to minister before it: David delivered first this psalm to thank the Lord into the hand of Asaph and his brethren to be sung by them now, and on every proper occasion; and this seems to be the first that was delivered to them; afterwards there were many more, as the titles of the psalms show; the following is composed of part of two others, as they now stand in the book of Psalms. From hence, to the end of 1 Chronicles 16:22 is the same with Psalm 105:1, with a little variation, see the notes there; and from thence to the end of 1 Chronicles 16:33 is Psalm 96:1 which see; and 1 Chronicles 16:34 is the same with Psalm 106:1, see the notes there. See Gill on Psalm 106:1, Psalm 107:1, Psalm 105:1, Psalm 105:2, Psalm 105:3, Psalm 105:4, Psalm 105:5, Psalm 105:6, Psalm 105:7, Psalm 105:8, Psalm 105:9, Psalm 105:10, Psalm 105:11,on Psalm 105:12, Psalm 105:13, Psalm 105:14,on Psalm 105:15

9 . sing psalms ] R.V. sing praises . talk you ] R.V. mg. Meditate ye . Meditation leads to fresh proclamation. wondrous works ] R.V. marvellous works (cp. 1 Chronicles 16:12 ), i.e. works beyond man’s expectation; cp. Genesis 18:14 , Is anything too hard ( wonderful , R.V. mg.) for the Lord? 1 Chronicles 16:9

The Psalm here put before us by the Chronicler, as sung liturgically by Asaph and his brethren on the day of the ark's entrance into Jerusalem, accords closely with the passages in the present Book of Psalms noted in the marg reff. It is, apparently, a thanksgiving service composed for the occasion out of Psalms previously existing.

1Ch 16:7-43. His Psalm of Thanksgiving. 7. Then on that day David delivered first this psalm—Among the other preparations for this solemn inauguration, the royal bard had composed a special hymn for the occasion. Doubtless it had been previously in the hands of Asaph and his assistants, but it was now publicly committed to them as they entered for the first time on the performance of their sacred duties. It occupies the greater part of this chapter (1Ch 16:8-36), and seems to have been compiled from other psalms of David, previously known to the Israelites, as the whole of it will be found, with very slight variations, in Ps 96:1-13; 105:1-15; 106:47, 48. In the form, however, in which it is given by the sacred historian, it seems to have been the first psalm given for use in the tabernacle service. Abounding, as it does, with the liveliest ascriptions of praise to God for the revelation of His glorious character and the display of His marvellous works and containing, as it does, so many pointed allusions to the origin, privileges, and peculiar destiny of the chosen people, it was admirably calculated to animate the devotions and call forth the gratitude of the assembled multitude.

This hymn forms a connected and uniform whole. Beginning with a summons to praise the Lord, and to seek His face ( 1 Chronicles 16:8-11 ), the singer exhorts his people to remember the wondrous works of the Lord ( 1 Chronicles 16:12-14 ), and the covenant which He made with the patriarchs to give them the land of Canaan ( 1 Chronicles 16:15-18 ), and confirms his exhortation by pointing out how the Lord, in fulfilment of His promise, had mightily and gloriously defended the patriarchs ( 1 Chronicles 16:19-22 ). But all the world also are to praise Him as the only true and almighty God ( 1 Chronicles 16:23-27 ), and all peoples do homage to Him with sacrificial gifts ( 1 Chronicles 16:28-30 ); and that His kingdom may be acknowledged among the heathen, even inanimate nature will rejoice at His coming to judgment ( 1 Chronicles 16:31-33 ). In conclusion, we have again the summons to thankfulness,combined with a prayer that God would further vouchsafe salvation; and a doxology rounds off the whole ( 1 Chronicles 16:34-36 ). When we consider the contents of the whole hymn, it is manifest that it contains nothing which would be at all inconsistent with the belief that it was composed by David for the above-mentioned religious service. There is nowhere any reference to the condition of the people in exile, nor yet to the circumstances after the exile.

The subject of the praise to which Israel is summoned is the covenant which God made with Abraham, and the wonderful way in which the patriarchs were led. The summons to the heathen to acknowledge Jahve as alone God and King of the world, and to come before His presence with sacrificial offerings, together with the thought that Jahve will come to judge the earth, belong to the Messianic hopes. These had formed themselves upon the foundation of the promises given to the patriarchs, and the view they had of Jahve as Judge of the heathen, when He led His people out of Egypt,so early, that even in the song of Moses at the Red Sea ( Exodus 15 ), and the song of the pious Hannah ( 1 Samuel 2:1-10 ), we meet with the first germs of them; and what we find in David and the prophets after him are only further development of these. Yet all the later commentators, with the exception of Hitzig, die Psalmen, ii. S. ix.f., judge otherwise as to the origin of this festal hymn. Because the first half of it (1 Chronicles 16:8-22) recurs in Psalm 105:1-15, the second (1 Chronicles 16:23-33) in Psalm 96:1-13, and the conclusion (1 Chronicles 16:34-36) in Ps.Psa 106:1, Psalm 106:47-48, it is concluded that the author of the Chronicle compounded the hymn from these three psalms, in order to reproduce the festive songs which were heard after the ark had been brought in, in the same free way in which the speeches in Thucydides and Livy reproduce what was spoken at various times.