1 Chronicles 16: Praise God with Passion and Every Part of Your Being

How do you praise God? How often do you praise God? Do you praise Him with passion and all your strength? In today’s chapter, King David shows us how to praise God and you’ll see how over a 1000 years later, the people did it again. Let’s dig in…

1 Chronicles 16

The Ark of the Covenant has a temporary home in Jerusalem. Image by Sweet Publishing from FreeBibleImages.org, (CC BY-SA 3.0)

They brought the Ark of God and placed it inside the special tent David had prepared for it. And they presented burnt offerings and peace offerings to God. ²When he had finished his sacrifices, David blessed the people in the name of the Lord. ³Then he gave to every man and woman in all Israel a loaf of bread, a cake of dates, and a cake of raisins.
⁴David appointed the following Levites to lead the people in worship before the Ark of the Lord—to invoke his blessings, to give thanks, and to praise the Lord, the God of Israel. ⁵Asaph, the leader of this group, sounded the cymbals. Second to him was Zechariah, followed by Jeiel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Mattithiah, Eliab, Benaiah, Obed-edom, and Jeiel. They played the harps and lyres. ⁶The priests, Benaiah and Jahaziel, played the trumpets regularly before the Ark of God’s Covenant.

David’s Song of Praise

⁷On that day David gave to Asaph and his fellow Levites this song of thanksgiving to the Lord:
⁸Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness.
    Let the whole world know what he has done.
⁹Sing to him; yes, sing his praises.
    Tell everyone about his wonderful deeds.
¹⁰Exult in his holy name;
    rejoice, you who worship the Lord.
¹¹Search for the Lord and for his strength;
    continually seek him.
¹²Remember the wonders he has performed,
    his miracles, and the rulings he has given,
¹³you children of his servant Israel,
    you descendants of Jacob, his chosen ones.
¹⁴He is the Lord our God.
    His justice is seen throughout the land.
¹⁵Remember his covenant forever—
    the commitment he made to a thousand generations.
¹⁶This is the covenant he made with Abraham
    and the oath he swore to Isaac.
¹⁷He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree,
    and to the people of Israel as a never-ending covenant:
¹⁸“I will give you the land of Canaan
    as your special possession.”
¹⁹He said this when you were few in number,
    a tiny group of strangers in Canaan.
²⁰They wandered from nation to nation,
    from one kingdom to another.
²¹Yet he did not let anyone oppress them.
    He warned kings on their behalf:
²²“Do not touch my chosen people,
    and do not hurt my prophets.”
²³Let the whole earth sing to the Lord!
    Each day proclaim the good news that he saves.
²⁴Publish his glorious deeds among the nations.
    Tell everyone about the amazing things he does.
²⁵Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise!
    He is to be feared above all gods.
²⁶The gods of other nations are mere idols,
    but the Lord made the heavens!
²⁷Honor and majesty surround him;
    strength and joy fill his dwelling.
²⁸O nations of the world, recognize the Lord,
    recognize that the Lord is glorious and strong.
²⁹Give to the Lord the glory he deserves!
    Bring your offering and come into his presence.
Worship the Lord in all his holy splendor.
³⁰    Let all the earth tremble before him.
    The world stands firm and cannot be shaken.
³¹Let the heavens be glad, and the earth rejoice!
    Tell all the nations, “The Lord reigns!”
³²Let the sea and everything in it shout his praise!
    Let the fields and their crops burst out with joy!
³³Let the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord,
    for he is coming to judge the earth.
³⁴Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!
    His faithful love endures forever.
³⁵Cry out, “Save us, O God of our salvation!
    Gather and rescue us from among the nations,
so we can thank your holy name
    and rejoice and praise you.”
³⁶Praise the Lord, the God of Israel,
    who lives from everlasting to everlasting!
And all the people shouted “Amen!” and praised the Lord.

Worship at Jerusalem and Gibeon

³⁷David arranged for Asaph and his fellow Levites to serve regularly before the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant, doing whatever needed to be done each day. ³⁸This group included Obed-edom (son of Jeduthun), Hosah, and sixty-eight other Levites as gatekeepers.
³⁹Meanwhile, David stationed Zadok the priest and his fellow priests at the Tabernacle of the Lord at the place of worship in Gibeon, where they continued to minister before the Lord. ⁴⁰They sacrificed the regular burnt offerings to the Lord each morning and evening on the altar set aside for that purpose, obeying everything written in the Law of the Lord, as he had commanded Israel. ⁴¹David also appointed Heman, Jeduthun, and the others chosen by name to give thanks to the Lord, for “his faithful love endures forever.” ⁴²They used their trumpets, cymbals, and other instruments to accompany their songs of praise to God.And the sons of Jeduthun were appointed as gatekeepers.
⁴³Then all the people returned to their homes, and David turned and went home to bless his own family.
1 Chronicles 16 NLT

How to Praise God

Obviously, anyone can praise God in whatever way they wish — just as long as they’re praising the Living, Triune God and not any other dead people and graven or painted images. What’s great about how David praised God was that it was genuine, honest and humble. Above all, it was NOT robotic, choreographed, or phoney. The peoples’ praise served a 3-fold function. They…

…commemorated the Lord
…gave thanks
…praised Him

In David’s song, he praised and thanked God for His Everlasting Covenant with the Land of Israel. First off, God doesn’t lie — He is incapable of doing so. Second, the land belongs to God and He gave it to Israel. Period.

Out of the 150 Psalms, David authored at least 73 of them. Today’s chapter is a compilation of 3 of them. Psalm 96, 105 and 106. In fact, the Psalms are songs of praise, laments, cries to God. In fact, many of the psalms start out with a cry to God and end in praise as the psalmist realizes that all help comes from Almighty God – the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

Journey Though Some Psalms

Here are some studies on the Psalms and David…

And there are so many more! I hope to do posts on the rest of Psalms eventually. Subscribe so you don’t miss out.

Prophecy Fulfilled!

Lastly, compare this to Palm Sunday and Jesus’ Triumphant Entry where the people praised God and shouted! Jesus came to fulfill everything that’s in the Old Testament. Each of the 4 Gospels records His triumphal entry into Jerusalem…

Palm Sunday Jesus Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem, Image by Good News Productions International from FreeBibleImages.org. (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

⁸Many in the crowd spread their garments on the road ahead of him, and others spread leafy branches they had cut in the fields. ⁹Jesus was in the center of the procession, and the people all around him were shouting,
“Praise God! (Hosanna)
Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
¹⁰Blessings on the coming Kingdom of our ancestor David!
Praise God in highest heaven!”
Mark 11:8-10 NLT

⁸Most of the crowd spread their garments on the road ahead of him, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. ⁹Jesus was in the center of the procession, and the people all around him were shouting,
“Praise God (Hosanna) for the Son of David!
Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Praise God in highest heaven!”
¹⁰The entire city of Jerusalem was in an uproar as he entered. “Who is this?” they asked.
¹¹And the crowds replied, “It’s Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”
Matthew 21:8-11

¹²The next day, the news that Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem swept through the city. A large crowd of Passover visitors ¹³took palm branches and went down the road to meet him. They shouted,
“Praise God! (Hosanna)
Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hail to the King of Israel!”
¹⁴Jesus found a young donkey and rode on it, fulfilling the prophecy that said:
¹⁵“Don’t be afraid, people of Jerusalem.
Look, your King is coming,
riding on a donkey’s colt.”
¹⁶His disciples didn’t understand at the time that this was a fulfillment of prophecy. But after Jesus entered into his glory, they remembered what had happened and realized that these things had been written about him.
¹⁷Many in the crowd had seen Jesus call Lazarus from the tomb, raising him from the dead, and they were telling others about it. ¹⁸That was the reason so many went out to meet him—because they had heard about this miraculous sign. ¹⁹Then the Pharisees said to each other, “There’s nothing we can do. Look, everyone has gone after him!”
John 12:12-19 NLT

³⁶As he rode along, the crowds spread out their garments on the road ahead of him. ³⁷When he reached the place where the road started down the Mount of Olives, all of his followers began to shout and sing as they walked along, praising God for all the wonderful miracles they had seen.
³⁸“Blessings on the King who comes in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven, and glory in highest heaven!”
³⁹But some of the Pharisees among the crowd said, “Teacher, rebuke your followers for saying things like that!”
⁴⁰He replied, “If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers!”
Luke 19:36-40 NLT

Do YOU Love God with ALL Your Being?

Look at what Jesus told us was the Greatest Commandment…

³⁴But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they met together to question him again. ³⁵One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: ³⁶“Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”
³⁷Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ ³⁸This is the first and greatest commandment.
Matthew 22:34-38 NLT

Given that, we must praise Him with ALL our Being. He doesn’t want some half-hearted praise. We must worship Him with ALL we’ve got — money, voice, work, etc. Finally, we must worship NO other person — living or dead — and especially no inanimate object — carved or painted! That is flat out paganism and idolatry — which God hates. Jesus wants our complete and total devotion. We are to do His work while we are still here on earth until He comes to get His born again believers in the Rapture.

Jesus came the first time to fulfill many of the Old Testament prophecies and He’s coming again to conquer Satan, the Antichrist and the False Prophet. That will happen during the Great Tribulation. You really don’t want to be around for that. The only way to guarantee that you won’t, is to invite Jesus to be your personal Lord and Savior right now, while you’re still alive and coherent…

If you’re not sure if you’re saved or not, if you truly want to be born again and have the assurance of salvation, receive the Holy Spirit, feel His Shalom — a peace that surpasses all understanding, and get a 1-way, non-stop ticket to Heaven after you die, or that you won’t be left behind at the Rapture, which can happen at any moment, this is what you have to do…