Month: December 2023

1 Chronicles 16:34, 36 O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good; for his mercy endureth forever….Blessed be the Lord God of Israel forever and ever. And all the people said, Amen, and praised the Lord.

David proclaims parts of his own Psalms in thanks and praise for His Presence coming to His resting place among the people. He repeats an often spoken refrain, giving thanks for His goodness and mercy. “Surely Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Bless God forever, for not only is His eternal life in my heart as long as I live, but I will enjoy it forever without end.

My response to the Gospel of goodness and mercy is to praise the Lord for who He is and thank Him for what He does. This blessed response continues every day of my life, and it goes on forever. I bless God by saying good things about Him all the time. Giving thanks marks my daily living and praise is my life.

My constant response to the Good News is to say Amen every time I hear it, and I hear the Gospel every day. My life is an Amen to God, for I declare: “Yes, yes, it shall be so in my life, too.” Amen is faith in Jesus and a serious commitment to God. Amen.

1 Chronicles 16:23-24 Sing unto the Lord, all the earth; shew forth from day to day his salvation. Declare his glory among the heathen; his marvelous works among all nations.

After David brought the Ark to its resting place, he led the people in raucous celebration, and he penned this Psalm. Here he calls for a celebratory response from all the earth. The Lord has come; everyone and everything on earth should be so excited they will sing to the Lord; they will show the world God’s salvation every day of their new life; and they will declare the glory of God and His marvelous works to the heathen nations that do not yet know how good and how great God is. This great and good God is now here among us in our hearts.

”The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows His handiwork.” And all the created things wait for the revealing of the sons of God (the Second Coming). And the human believers articulate the gospel to the nations that have not yet heard and believed. Along with singing, worship, and preaching, the human believers respond by living a life that gives glory to God. The world’s people hear, believe, and are saved. “Joy to the world, the Lord has come.”

1 Chronicles 16:15 Be ye mindful always of his covenant; the word he commanded to a thousand generations.

The best daily response we could have to the grace and salvation of God is to be mindful always of his covenant. The people need to be reminded regularly of the covenant God made with them. To be reminded, there were covenant renewal ceremonies, three annual national festivals, the weekly Sabbaths, and daily sacrifices and rituals. The purpose was to make them mindful always of God’s love and mighty works of salvation. God’s covenant promise is eternal and He won’t forget, but we need reminders that elicit faith and the consequent good works that follow.

The eternal promise of God needs to touch us and be made active in our day to day lives. We are liable to forget how easily we can forget. We are quickly distracted by the things and matters of the world, and it becomes too easy to ignore God. We get busy, and God is set aside. We need grand yearly festivals, like Christmas and Easter, the weekly Sunday reminder of the Gospel, the remembering in the Sacrament of Communion, and the daily remembering of our Baptism, and in our daily sacrifices and offerings and good works for the benefit of other people. We receive love to give love, and in the doing we are mindful of God’s covenant promise based on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

1 Chronicles 16:10-11 Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord. Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his face continually.

David wrote this Psalm after the ark was settled in its place. The Presence of God is now among His people. The ark is the presence of God, as evidenced by the words, his holy name and His face.

Glory in (boast in, take pride in, rejoice in) the name, which is the presence of God on the earth. The presence is now in the hearts of believers in Jesus, the body of Christ, which is the Temple of the living God. We do this by praying, “Hallowed be thy name.” We are aware that the Lord is always here, in the heart, and we boldly access Him at any time. This knowledge brings great comfort and joy in times of trouble.

Seek (look for, turn to, pray to, trust in) the Lord and His strength, rather than leaning on your own understanding or looking to the world for wisdom and strength. Seek His face, His presence, which is as close as your heart and lips. This we can do continually, for He is always there to help in time of need. Practicing the Presence is an extremely valuable and helpful exercise. The Word and the Spirit give us the words and thoughts and prayers.

1 Chronicles 16:10-12 Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord. Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his face continually. Remember his marvelous works that he hath done, his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth.

The ark of God (the Presence of the Lord) is settled in its prepared place in the midst of God’s people. For NT believers the Lord resides in the heart of those who have received Him. They have been baptized and believe. They are a new creation with a new and eternal life.

Once that faith is sure and the receiver believes Jesus, then our response is to glory, rejoice, seek, and remember. We glory in the Cross, yea, even boast in what Christ has done for us, not in ourselves. We rejoice in the Lord always, meaning in good times and in bad we call up the joy of the Lord. We seek first the kingdom of God, looking for the presence, power and love of Jesus in all circumstances. We remember the wonderful work of Jesus on the cross, the astonishing resurrection, and the Word of Law and Gospel that brings repentance and salvation. And we need to be reminded weekly and daily, for distraction and forgetfulness is always present to us.

The Holy Spirit does all this in us when we pay attention to the Gospel.

1 Chronicles 16: 8-9 Give thanks unto the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people. Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him, talk of all his wondrous works.

When the ark had been brought to its resting place in the midst of God’s people, David wrote a Psalm to be sung for the occasion. This is a great day: we will rejoice and sing, pray and give thanks, tell the world what He has done, and talk of His wondrous works. The celebration on that day was exuberant; it was recorded and written for our learning and emulation.

When Jesus comes into our heart, the event calls for a time of proclaiming the Gospel, witnessing, thanking God, and worshipful singing. When we remember our baptism and coming to faith and Jesus coming into our heart to live there, we respond with this kind of worship and daily lifestyle. We do all these things at Christmas and Easter celebrations, every Sunday in Divine Worship, every day in our quiet time with Jesus, and in our hearts all through our daily lives.

Unto us and into us the Lord has come. We were lost sinners, who have lost our way, lost God, and lost life. Into that doomed and empty existence Jesus has come to forgive, redeem, restore, and bring us back to God. What Joy! God is here! This realization calls forth in us celebratory remembrance with weekly and daily proclamation, prayer, thanksgiving, singing, and rejoicing. Every day is Christmas, for every day He comes.

1 Chronicles 16:4 And he appointed certain of the Levites to minister before the ark , of the Lord, and to record, and to thank and praise the Lord God of Israel.

After David had settled the ark of the covenant (the presence of God) in its resting place, he arranged for the ministry of thanks and praise to the Lord. He appointed some chosen Levites serve before the presence of God by continually offering up thanks and praise to the Lord. In this way all the people would know that the Lord will always be honored and remembered throughout their lives and in all that they do.

Once Jesus has settled in to our hearts and taken up residence there, we go about our lives with never-ending thanks and praise. The awareness of the presence of God in the heart prompts a permanent gratefulness and influences our lives, thoughts, words and actions. This attitude of gratitude brings joy to the heart and a smile to the face. Our very bodies are the temple where Jesus lives. The knowledge of “God with us” generates the response of thankfulness, worship, and praise.

1 Chronicles 16:1 So they brought the ark of God, and set it in the midst of the tent that David had pitched for it: and they offered burnt sacrifices and peace offerings before God.

David and the people responded to God’s grace and salvation by bringing in the ark, the earthly presence of God, and setting it in the tent David had pitched for it. God Himself comes into our world at Christmas; He comes into our hearts at Baptism and being born again by faith; He comes weekly into our lives in Divine Worship; and He comes daily into our hearts and lives when we repent and believe the Gospel.

We pitch a tent for Him, that is, we prepare a place in our heart to receive Jesus, and He dwells there with us, Immanuel. Our bodies become a temple of the living God, the place where God lives among us with grace, mercy, and peace. We respond to His coming by receiving Him by faith, repenting and receiving forgiveness. Jesus comes and lives “within my heart that it may be a quiet chamber kept for thee.”

When that is settled, we live lives of sacrifice and offering out of faith. God’s presence is so wonderful that we gladly give of ourselves for the good of others, and we offer everything we are and everything we have in the service of other people. We die to self and live to Him, for He has come.

1 Chronicles 15:28 This all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the Lord with shouting, and with sound of the cornet, and with trumpets, and with cymbals, making a noise with osalteries and harps.

With David, all the people brought up the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem. This was a big deal. God was coming to us to be with us! They pulled out all the stops to celebrate the coming of the Lord: shouting, noise, and all kinds of musical instruments. It must have been quite a scene.

It is similar to all the extravagant ways in which we celebrate the coming of God into our world during the Christmas season. And in fact it should be, for this is a momentous occasion, worthy of all the raucous celebrating we can muster. God Himself entered our world and our lives to bring life and salvation to all. No expense or effort is overkill when it comes to remembering the God-man, Jesus, coming for us.

Our weekly Divine Service celebrations also respond joyously to His coming to us in the Gospel through Word and Sacrament. And it is loud and raucous if we could only see and hear the angels worshipping with us. The sheer joy of the Lord produces an unbridled response in believers every time God’s people gather. The same uplifting response occurs whenever two or three gather in His name.

But more: this crazy kind of party goes on every day of our lives when we remember our baptism, repent and believe the gospel, and make melody in our hearts to the Lord. Praise and thanksgiving in the heart has no time limits or noise limits. Jesus is always coming; He is always here.

1 Chronicles 15:12, 14 And said unto them, Ye are the chiefs of the fathers of the Levites: sanctify yourselves, both ye and your brethren, that ye may bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel unto the place that I have prepared for it….So the priests and the Levites sanctified themselves to bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel.

David gathered all Israel together in Jerusalem to bring up the ark of the Lord to the place which he had prepared for it (the temple was not yet built). The priests and the Levites were to carry the ark and go before it, but before bringing it up they had to sanctify themselves. And they did.

The Presence of God was coming into their midst with much music and great celebration. A special place was prepared for the Holy Presence of the living God. And those who were charged with bringing it up were told to sanctify themselves, for this was a holy thing and a solemn event. And no unclean or common sinner could touch the holy ark, like Uzzah, and live. No human can approach a Holy God, or attend the wedding feast, without a robe of righteousness, lest he die.

Therefore, the priests were to become clean and pure before coming near the Holy Presence. They made themselves holy by going through the proper rituals, washing themselves, and offering sacrifices, according to the Law. All of this was a symbol and a prophetic foreshadowing of the Messiah, who would make us holy.

Jesus has fully accomplished all the ritual cleansing, washing, and sacrificing for us. We prepare our hearts by confession, repentance, believing Jesus, and receiving forgiveness. The Holy Spirit applies that Gospel to our hearts and makes us holy so that may touch God. God touches a heart sanctified by the Word and the Spirit. Then, like at Christmas, a holy God comes into a prepared heart.