We will not be quoting the entire chapter due to its length. Verse 1 gives us the purpose that God intended in this chapter. It says, “Moreover David and the captains of the army separated THE SERVICE of the sons of Asaph, of Heman, and of Jeduthun, WHO SHOULD PROPHESY WITH HARPS, STRINGED INSTRUMENTS, AND CYMBALS.” Worship in the Old Testament was quite different from worship in the New Testament, for the children of Israel used “musical instruments” in their praise and worship of God. Yet even then, it was “spiritual in nature” for in their music they were “to give thanks and to praise the LORD” (verse 3). The LYRICS in their songs were to be “the words of God” (verse 5) and “all these were UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THEIR FATHER (Jeduthun) for the music in the house of God.” If God was to be praised and worshiped in truth, the words that were sung by His worshippers were to be under His guidance. We then read how “God gave Heman fourteen sons and three daughters. All these were UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THEIR FATHER for the music in the house of LORD, with cymbals, stringed instruments, and harps, for the service of the house of God” (verses 6-7). In these words, we learn that the TUNES of their songs were to be guided by God as well. The WORDS and the TUNES were to be complementally. If they were singing a JOYFUL song the tune must be in keeping with that theme; if they were singing a SOBER hymn the tune that carries those thoughts should be more somber. These brief thoughts of the first 7 verses express the key teaching of the chapter and then in verses 9-31 we see, as another has said, “lots were cast to determine at which point of the calendar each group of singers would function.”

I said that worship in the Old Testament differed from worship in the New Testament. You may recall the Lord’s conversation in John chapter 4 with the woman of Samaria. She brought up the subject of worship in verse 20, “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.” The Lord responded with these words, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither worship on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the TRUE WORSHIPERS WILL WORSHIP THE FATHER IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH, for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and THOSE WHO WORSHIP HIM MUST WORSHIP HIM IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH.” In these words, the Lord was exposing the false worship of the Samaritans, the true worship of the Jews up until that time, and the new worship that Christ was introducing in His revelation of the God the Father. We have just seen from 1 Chronicles 25 that God had ordained true worship for His earthly people (the Jews), but now God was ordaining another form of worship for believers in the “Church Age” which would be “in spirit and truth.” What did He mean by that?

The words “in spirit” imply that there would no longer be “PHYSICAL aids like musical instruments” in the worship of believers today. There is no mention in the New Testament of “musical instruments” being used in Christian worship. Instead of harps, stringed instruments, and cymbals we read in Ephesians 5:19 of us “singing and making melody WITH YOUR HEART to the Lord.” It is the “strings of our hearts” that produces the melody that goes up to the Lord with praise, worship, and thanksgiving.

The word “truth” implies that the truth we have today which forms our worship is different from the truth that Israel had. They worshiped the “One true God” but did not have the knowledge of God the Father. Jesus came to reveal the Father as we see in John 1:18, “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared Him.” Believers today can cry “Abba Father” (Romans 8:15) because we know that we are the “children of God” (John 1:12-13) through faith in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:26). The children of Israel had no access into the presence of God but through Christ’s death and the shedding of His blood, we can go into “the Holiest by the blood of Jesus” to worship our Father (Hebrews 10:19-20). Believers in the Old Testament worshiped God with “animal sacrifices that foreshadowed the death of Christ” (Hebrews 10:1) but we worship God with “spiritual sacrifices of praise” for the finished work of Christ (Hebrews 13:15; 1 Peter 2:4-5). Israel worshiped under the direction of certain men guided by God. Believers today worship under the direction of the Spirit of God (Philippians 3:2) with Christ in our midst to lead our praises (Matthew 18:20 with Hebrews 2:12). How blessed we are today to have the “truth” of God fully reveled to us through Christ so we can “worship the Father in spirit and truth!”  (DO)  (685.5)