With rejoicing and with singing

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2 Chronicles 23

• Summary

It is now 7 years since Athaliah, mother of the late King Ahaziah, had all the heirs to the throne slain (as she thought) and made herself Queen.  Jehoida, the priest, who has been hiding the only surviving rightful heir to the throne starts rallying support, firstly with the captains of the armies and then the Levites and the chiefs of the fathers.  They all come together to the temple in Jerusalem, where in a heavily guarded ceremony the young prince is crowned and anointed King.

When Athaliah hears all the people praising the newly crowned King she comes to the temple, and seeing and hearing all that is going on rents her clothes saying, 'Treason, treason'.  Jehoida orders the Captains to follow her out of the temple and kill her, which they do, and then the people all went to the pagan house of Baal and broke it all up, killing the priest of Baal too.  

Meanwhile Jehoida re-orders the temple worship and brings the King into the king's house, setting him upon the throne, to which all the people rejoiced, and there was peace in the city.

• Thoughts

I particularly noticed how when Jehoida organised the worship in the temple, that it had been ordained that the burnt offerings of the LORD should be done so 'with rejoicing and with singing' (verse 18).

The burnt offerings were instituted after the Israelites' exodus from Egypt, and were to be offered every day, morning and evening, with special burnt offerings on the Sabbath, at Feast Days and at the Atonement Day.  My study Bible explains that they signify 'dedication' and entire consecration to God in worship.  

We can apply this to our daily lives through the word of Paul in Romans 12 where he says, 'I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.  And be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye might prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God'.

At our daily times of worship how often our minds wander and we think of other things - but this encourages us to make it a time where we re-dedicate ourselves to the Lord, giving him our hearts, submitting to his will and thanking him for all his blessings.

This isn't something which comes naturally - we want to be independent and to be in control, to do our own thing and what pleases us - but when the Holy Spirit has revealed to us the love of God and a little of all he is, going to him in prayer and telling him all our life's circumstances and needs is like a child going to it's father.  And when there are those times that we know we should be like this, but we can't feel it, we can still go and tell him asking him to soften us and renew our love to him.

But what particularly struck me was the way in which David had ordained the burnt offerings to be performed, with rejoicing and with singing.  David had organised four thousand Levites to praise and thank the LORD on instruments which he had had made, morning and evening (1 Chronicles 23:5, 30, 31).  His reason was because, 'The LORD God of Israel, hath given rest unto his people that they might dwell in Jerusalem for ever.' (Verse 25)

This is expressed beautifully in some of the Psalms, such as 100:

'Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.
Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.
Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves, we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.'

How this encourages us as we come to the Lord at our times of worship, to come with joy!  Joy that we have such a great God, who is our Father, our elder brother, our Saviour - who loves us with a love so great that he gave himself for us, that we might be forgiven.  Joy that he cares for us in all our daily circumstances and needs. Joy that with him 'all things are possible'.  Joy that we may have the privilege of leaning on him as we try to serve him.  Joy that he forgives us for our continual fresh sins, and washes them away when we confess them.  Joy that he will help us to turn from them and for his mercy and his grace.

How this encourages us to come to him willingly...to run to his open arms...to tell him all, to confide in him, to nestle there as we rest in his love.  We have so much to praise him for!

We feel it much that at the moment due to the pandemic and restrictions we cannot sing as we would.  How this is a lesson in itself - something that we have taken for granted.  Perhaps you like I, had never really appreciated the blessing of being able to sing praises to God.  May we continue to praise him in our hearts, making melody in our own homes, lifting up our thoughts and hearts to him with rejoicing for his goodness to us.

Bird singing photo by Ryk Naves on Unsplash

Man singing photo by David Beale on Unsplash  with thanks