CONTENTS
As the preceding Chapter s related the regulation of the service of the Levites; this chapter is directed to inform the Reader of the appointment of the order of the singers in the temple service. They are also arranged by lot in the same number of four and twenty distinct orders.
Divine psalmody formed a large portion in the temple service. And hence we find the servants of the Lord calling upon others to this employment, by way also of exciting their own hearts to the celebration of Jehovah. Sing unto the Lord, sing psalms unto the Lord. With trumpets also and cymbals; show yourselves joyful before the Lord. Reader! under a gospel dispensation, how sweet is it to discover that those instruments are changed for the singing with grace in the heart. The phrase of prophesying with harps, and psalteries, and cymbals, seems to be meant to convey, that the words of the holy song were sometimes prophetical. Hence we find in the company of prophets Saul met at the hill of God, they were thus engaged. 1 Samuel 10:5. So the apostle Paul speaks of a psalm of prophecy. 1 Corinthians 14:26.