Levites, to minister a.nd to attend to the Ver. 89.-Whi!e those above-mentioned service of praise before the a.rk. And the were to officiate before the ark on Zion those first of them ma.y be considered to mark a.n mentioned in this and following vers~s are important step in advance in the crystal- the officiating staff at Gibeon. It is now lizing of the world's ecalesiastical institu- brought into prominence that the ark and tions. Asaph and his brethren of song a.re the tabernacle a.re in two separate places. left there before the ark of the covenant ... The great ordinary sacrifices a.vd services, to minister before the a.rk oontinna.lly, as "all that is written in the Law of the Lord," every da.y·e work reqnired. A permanent are carefully observed on the original altar local ministry and choir are thus established, (Exod. xxxviii. 2) in the tabernacle. Other with a. fixity of place on Zion, and regu- and special sacrifices evidently were offered larity of time that had been hitherto un- in the presence of the ark. The tabernacle attainable. erected in the wilderness was first stationed Ver. 38.-0bed-edom wall their brethren. at Shiloh (Josh. xviii. I ; I Sam. iv. 3, 4). Exp la.nation is needed of the plural pronoun The occasion or its reILoval to Nob (I Sam. "their." Either another name is wanted xxi. I ; xxii. 19) is not narrated. The with Obed-edom, or tacit reference is ma.de present passage first tells us where it had to " Asaph and his brethren," o.s though been since the slaughter of the priests a.t the name Aeaph had not been followed in Saul's command by Doeg the Edomite. it.a own place by the clause "and his Some distinct statement, like that of eh. xxi. brethren." Keil draws attention to the 29 and 2 Chron. i. 3, might have been ex- " three score and two" of eh. xxvi. 8, in pected here. Zadok the priest is given (eh. connection witli the three score and eight vi. 4-9) as in the line of Eleazar. of this place; and it has been proposed to Ver. 40.-To offer burnt offerings; i.e. the make up this number by some of the sons customary morning and evening sacrifices. of Hosa.h, of our following verse and of Vere. 41, 42.-Compa.ringthese verses with eh. xxvi. 11. In thls case the name Hosa.h vers. 4-6 and 37-40, it may be supposed might be the name missing before, "and that we a.re intended to understand that of their brethren." Conjecture, however, ha.a all who were set a.part and who bad been ex- not sufficient clue here to warrant it, and pressed by name (as e.g. eh. xv. 4-24), some the textual state of this verse must be were now formally appointed to serve before debit.ed with the obscurity. The ambiguity the ark, and some in the tabernacle at respecting tile name Obed-edom lie,s nlready Gibeon. The confusion existing in these (eh. xiii. 14) been e,llnded to. Neglecting verses by the repetition of the preposition tliis ambiguity, it may be repeated that with, and the proper names Heman and Obed-edom, ... son of Jedithnn (as the Keri Jeduthun, betrays some corruptness of text. of this pe.sse,ge is) was a .Mere,rite Levite, The Septuagint does not show them in the while Obed-edom son of Jeduthun (eh. xv. latter verse. The BODB of Jeduthnn are 25) we,s of Ge,th-rimmon, a Gittite (2 Sam. vi. found in eh. xxv. 3. 10-12; Josh. xxi. 24), a Koha.thite (eh. vi. Ver. 43 -(See 2 Sam. vi. 19, 20.) 66, 69), and a Korhit" (eh. xxvi. 1-5).
HOMILE'l'ICS.
Vere. 1-43.-27ie inaugural services on Zion's height, typical. The greater part of the contents of this chapter must be viewed as borrowed matter-the appropriating of portions of sacred songs or psalms which already existed, to this individual occasio~. 'l'he stricter homiletic treatment, therefore, of our vers. 7-36 may be better found ID the portions of the psalms concerned, in their own proper place. But there are some larger aspects offered by the matter of this chapter, which may be appropriately con- eidered in this place. And we may notice- . I. FrnsT OF ALL THE GATHERING FORCE OF RELIGION. It has mdeed already gathered such force as to co~quer for itself the place which it holds on this great day of David. To this it bas grown since the day of Seth and Enos, when we read of it thus," Then began men to call on the Na.me of the Lord" (Gen. iv. 26). And though true it is tb~t we may not critically make any great doctrine or argument depend on ~he uncertam exegesis of that one sentence, yet we know that the/acts, so far as we require them now, were not distant from what the sentence says. '!'he religion of mankind then, where existent at all, was the pure, individual, esse1,tial principle, ~e~vrn-given and reigning in the hearts of a very few-this still and evermore of necessity its essence, Then, how· till. xn. 1--43.J TliE Fttts'l' BOOK OE' TilE CilRO:NICLES. M9