“Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the LORD: for great is the glory of the LORD.” (Psalms138:5)
David in this psalm gives thanks to the Lord for His loving kindness, His truth, for honoring His Word through His Name (vs2) and for answering prayer. (vs3) Then in verse 4, the psalm changes to prophesy. “All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, O LORD, when they hear the words of thy mouth.” (Psalms 138:4) The word kings means royalty. Many have interpreted this to means the kings of that day that lived on the earth or heads of nations throughout the ages. Is he prophesying about the thousand-year reign of Christ when the heads of nations will come and worship Him at Jerusalem? Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is king over all other kings. He is Lord over all other Lords.
We think on our future, the Lord’s promise to make us kings and priests before our God. “John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from Him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before His throne; And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, And hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. (Revelation 1:4-6) David writes “all the kings of the earth.” This includes kings of old, kings of the ages, of the future and includes even the children of God. Briefly because this lesson is not about our kingly and priestly position, but in order to gain understanding of the implication of this prophecy, when we gather together and worship our Lord, the church as one becomes the royal priesthood, the kingly priest offering the sacrifice of praise which is acceptable to our God. (1Peter 2:5)
Sometimes the language and manner of speaking in texts of old mean something completely different to us from its intentional meaning. For instance, in verse 5, “sing in the ways of the Lord,” is not talking about worship which we do. We worship our Lord because of joy, gratefulness, His goodness and greatness. But in this psalm the word sing means “minstrelsy.” To sing minstrelsy is to sing as we stroll. Right away we are perplexed. We conclude then to sing as a minstrel is a Scriptural way of singing. Should we? When? How? Is it a command? Or a historical description? Prophecy? The word “they” refers to the kings in verse 4. So, whether these kings be the kings of old during David’s time or before his time or the future, heads of nations or the kingly priesthood, they will stroll singing and worshipping the Lord.
This happened in David’s time when he brought the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem. The first time David tried to take the Ark to Jerusalem, he did it his way instead of the way God had commanded and Uzzah died. So instead of bringing it to Jerusalem, they left it at Obededom’s house for 3 months. The Lord blessed Obededom and his household because that was where His presence was. David attempted the second time. This time he followed the commandment of God. And as they carried the Ark, they strolled worshipping the Lord God in song and dance, sacrificing every six paces. (2Samuel 6:1-15)
Another time the word to sing minstrelsy was used was when the women came out to meet David after his conquest of the Philistines. (1Samuel 18:6) We have come to relate the minstrel to one who entertained, but God used the minstrel to quiet the soul so that He could speak or empower wisdom and understanding. There is the incident with Elisha, Jehoram king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah. Jehoshaphat went with Jehoram to help him fight the Moabs who had rebelled against Israel. But Jehoram was the son of king Ahab and continued in the sins of idolatry and witchcraft. But because Jehoshaphat was helping him, Elisha agreed to hear from the Lord what to do. Elisha called for the minstrel. “And Elisha said, As the LORD of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, surely, were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not look toward thee, nor see thee. But now bring me a minstrel. And it came to pass, when the minstrel played, that the hand of the LORD came upon him.” (2Kings 3:14-15)
When David was Saul’s armorbearer he also was a minstrel in the palace for Saul. When he played his harp, it was the only way the tormenting demons would leave Saul so that he could have peace. “And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, Let David, I pray thee, stand before me; for he hath found favour in my sight. And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.” (1Samuel 16:22-23)
In our churches today, we don’t have minstrels. We have worship teams and worship leaders who lead our worship. But David prophesies that all the kings of the earth will worship in a minstrelsy way, maybe in the Thousand-Year Reign or the New Jerusalem. He didn’t say and Scripture only says that we will worship.
Comments