July 17, 2016
When the warrior poet David became king, he set apart musicians and singers for the worship of the Lord. As an accomplished player of the lyre and a writer of psalms, his love of music was apparent. He elevated music to a regular feature of worship. Prior to this we have little record of music’s place in Jewish worship. We know that Moses set apart priests from the tribe of Levi to serve in the temple worship and that he wrote and performed at least three worship songs (Ex. 15, Deut. 32, and Psa. 90). But David was the first to “set apart” musicians from the Levites to join their brothers in worship. God gifted them, so that they “prophesied” with musical instruments and singing. This is the highest purpose of both spoken and musical language, that it would forth-tell (“prophesy”) the Word of God. And so, believing humanity joined the angels and the stars (Job 38:7) in the heavenly chorus of praise to God.