Nehemiah lists the names of the priests and Levites who came with Zerubbabel in the first movement (v1-11) and the priests in the days of Joiakim (v12-21), and the Levites (v22-26). A record of the priests and Levites had been kept during the reign of Darius the Persian. Names of the gatekeepers were noted, these all lived in the days of Joiakim and in the days of Nehemiah, the governor and Ezra the priest and scribe.
The importance of these people becomes clear at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem (v27-29). The Levites were sought for to bring them to Jerusalem to celebrate, with gladness, thanksgiving and singing. The Levites were responsible for the work and worship and praise to God. Singers were brought from the villages where they were living around Jerusalem.
We are told that they sang with musical instruments. The Levites led the worship and praise and seemed to be proficient musicians, and sons of singers were brought in to add to the praise of God.
Singing plays an important part in praising God. No-one who knows me will doubt that I love singing and music, but I believe that many have got the wrong idea about music today. How often have you heard the service leader say, ‘Now we will have a time of worship’. What they mean is singing. I have to ask, what have we been doing up to now, even before we came to the service? I have been involved in the music in church for over fifty years, but I refuse to be called a ‘worship leader’. Worship is 24/7, it is how we live our lives before God, it is our service for God (Romans 12:1,2) not just our singing. In fact, I venture to say that some of things we sing are somewhat hypocritical in that our lives do not match up with what we sing. The time of music/singing is not a performance nor is it entertainment although we should enjoy it. I’ve said before that some of the music in our churches and on Christian Radio etc today would never have been recognised as Christian thirty or forty years ago. Our singing/playing must be for the glory of God alone. Yes, it should do us good, but the main aim is for His glory. The words are vital and sadly, they are drowned out by the music and, often, leave much to be desired and I’m not sure that God is glorified.
You will probably say that it is my age of many decades or that I am old fashioned. I’ve been to and seen churches with blacked-out windows, flashing lights and even smoke, with the performers gyrating in their performance and the auditorium in darkness or semi-darkness. Many of the leaders and performers are treated like rock stars and celebrities. Many of them are excellent musicians/singers but it is no different to a night club or a pop concert. Some of this can be dangerous. I have a medical condition which says that I should avoid flashing lights, do we consider such people? I often believe that we do a disservice to people, especially young people when we have a ‘concert’ with music which is hardly distinguishable from the world and invite them to our churches and they find that our services are nothing like that. They don’t come back, or they go to a church whose service is closest to it, but sadly they don’t get sound teaching from The Word of God.
How need to disciple men and women of all ages to be fully immersed in The Bible and putting it into practice in our daily lives. That was the Great Commission in the Gospels.
Some of our ’Christian songs’ are good, even very good, but they are produced by churches which are involved in false teaching. I could mention some but save to say that we must be very careful of the music we use and inquire as to the background of the producers and writers. Some have excellent words but are written by members of cults, who make lots of money through the copyright use of them. There are many excellent newer songs but there are many equally excellent old hymns. Let’s not throw them out just because they are old. There is room for both. Our singing should be good, and we should give of our best for the honour and glory of God.
A most important step was taken (v30) – the priests and Levites purified themselves, the people, the gates and the wall. It was important that they did this first so that they were in a position to lead the people. Anyone in leadership must do this so that they will effectively lead others. We must set an example. Then they purified the people. All this was necessary to be in a position to worship The LORD. If we are not in this position, we cannot worship The Lord effectively. The Psalmist said that we need clean hands and a pure heart (Psalm 24:3,4,) How do we become pure? By repentance and receiving The Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord and confessing each day our sin and need of His cleansing. We do not need to come with a sacrifice like they did in the Old Testament for The Lord Jesus is our final, complete sacrifice for all our sin.
It is not a case of us being perfect as we shall not be until we leave this body of sin, but we can and should be in the right spirit when we come to worship God. We are to worship Him in spirit and truth. We can be pure as we come to The Lord and confess our sin and receive His forgiveness.
They then dedicated and purified the gates and the wall. It was important that their surroundings were blessed. It should include the places we live, worship and work. The gates and wall had been restored at God’s command and there was no doubt that God was in it all.
We then come to the singing, and two large choirs were appointed (v31-43). One went to the right on the wall toward the Refuse Gate. They were followed by Hoshaiah and half the leaders of Judah with Ezra and others, some priests with trumpets. Zechariah and his brethren with musical instruments, described as those of David the man of God. Ezra went before them. By the Fountain Gate they went up the stairs of David’s city, on the stairway of the wall as far as the Water Gate eastward.
The other choir went in the other direction and Nehemiah went behind them with half the people, past the Tower of the Ovens as far as the Broad Wall and above the Gate of Ephraim above the Old Gate, above the Fish Gate, the Tower of Hananel, the Tower of the Hundred, as far as the Sheep Gate; and they stopped by the Gate of the Prison.
The two choirs, called thanksgiving choirs, stood and sang loudly in the house of God, Jezrahiah was the director of music, and they rejoiced with great joy, the women and children also rejoiced, and their joyful singing was heard far away. It was God who made them rejoice because of what He had done for them.
I’ve sung in and directed choirs and one of the big problems is to show that you are enjoying your singing. Some might think that means you have to go over the top with dancing, arm waving etc., like crowds do at sports events. I’m not saying that one can’t, but the joy should be in our faces rather than looking somber and serious when we sing. Sometimes the words call for that, but one doesn’t necessarily look ecstatically happy when singing about The Lord’s sufferings on the cross, but people should be able to tell that we are moved by it and that we mean what we sing.
Obviously not everyone sang, others had other duties to attend to which were equally important. In verses 44-47 we are told that at the same time others were appointed to supervise the storerooms where the gifts had been brought – the offerings, the firstfruits and tithes. Both singers and gatekeepers were equally important for the purification, which was not just for the one event. They all did their work joyfully.
