1 Chronicles 16:4-7 meaning
1 Chronicles 16:4-7 records David's establishment of a permanent ministry of music and thanksgiving before the ark: He appointed some of the Levites as ministers before the ark of the LORD, even to celebrate and to thank and praise the LORD God of Israel (v 4). The three verbs define the job. Celebrate translates a Hebrew form of "zakar," meaning to remember, used here in the sense of bringing to remembrance or causing to be remembered; the Levites were to keep God's acts before the people's minds. Thank is "yadah," to acknowledge openly what God has done and comes from the same root as Judah (Yehudah in Hebrew). Praise is "halal," the root behind "hallelujah." Remembering, thanking, praising—the psalm that follows does all three in that order, opening with "give thanks" (1 Chronicles 16:8), commanding "remember" (1 Chronicles 16:12, 15), and ending in "praised the LORD" (1 Chronicles 16:36). In 1 Chronicles 15 the Levites' task was to carry the ark; now that the ark has come to rest, their task becomes to keep Israel's memory alive before it.
The roster follows: Asaph the chief, and second to him Zechariah, then Jeiel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Mattithiah, Eliab, Benaiah, Obed-edom and Jeiel, with musical instruments, harps, lyres; also Asaph played loud-sounding cymbals (v 5). Most of these men were among the singers and gatekeepers appointed for the procession (1 Chronicles 15:17-21), so the choir that brought the ark up the hill stays on as the choir that serves it. Asaph is set first. The order to celebrate, thank, and praise in verse 4 and the title chief here together mark him as the founder of a guild whose name would head twelve psalms (Psalm 50; Psalms 73-83). Later generations spoke of "the words of David and Asaph the seer" (2 Chronicles 29:30), pairing the king and his chief musician as the two sources of Israel's songbook.
Priests add their own instrument: and Benaiah and Jahaziel the priests blew trumpets continually before the ark of the covenant of God (v 6). The law reserved the silver trumpets for "the priestly sons of Aaron," who were to sound them over the sacrifices and on the appointed days so that Israel would "be remembered before the LORD your God" (Numbers 10:8-10). The Levites' music brought God's deeds to the people's remembrance; the priests' trumpets brought the people to God's. Continually signals that this was a standing order, a sound that would keep rising from Zion day after day.
The section ends by dating the tradition: Then on that day David first assigned Asaph and his relatives to give thanks to the LORD (v 7). The Hebrew says, more literally, that David "gave at the head," or for the first time, thanksgiving to the LORD "by the hand of Asaph and his relatives"—he put the song into their hands. The specification of "On that day" fixes a beginning. Everything the chronicler's readers knew of temple singing, and everything the book of Psalms preserves under Asaph's name, traces back to the day the ark came to rest in David's tent. The New Testament keeps the same priority: believers are to be "speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks" (Ephesians 5:19-20). David's first assignment to Asaph remains the church's assignment.