King David, the temple, and the halleluyah chorus

Judaism, Fall, 1998 by Shubert Spero

8. Heiler, Prayer, History and Psychology, pp. 239-260, p. 358.

9. Noticed by Plato in the Euthyphro, 14d, e.

10. Part of David's last advice to his son Solomon: "And thou Solomon my son, know the God of thy father and serve Him with a whole heart and with a willing spirit" (I Chronicles 28:9).

11. Evelyn Underhill, Worship (New York: Harper Brothers, 1936), pp. 111-113.

12. Underhill, Worship, p. 195.

13. Exodus 25:22; also Numbers 7:89.

14. II Samuel 6:2.

15. I Chronicles 15:16.

16. I Chronicles 15:28. In the corresponding account of this event in the Book of II Samuel 6:12, which is told in four verses, the difference between the first "unsuccessful" attempt and the second "successful" transfer of the Ark to Jerusalem is alluded to by reporting that during the latter, the Ark is "borne" rather than transported on a cart and that after every six paces were safely traversed, "an ox and a fatling were sacrificed." Here there is no mention that the Ark was borne by the Levites or that the procession was accompanied by organized Levitical singing and playing.

17. I Chronicles 16:39; II Chronicles 1:3; I Chronicles 21:29.

18. I Chronicles 16:40, 42.

19. Although a later tradition links the Mount Moriah of the Akeda with the hill in Jerusalem (Temple Mount) where David was to build an altar to God (I Chronicles 21:18) and which is referred to as Mount Moriah (II Chronicles 3:1), and the city Salem, whose king was the mysterious Malchizedek (Genesis 14:18) is identified as Jerusalem, these were not sufficient to consider Jerusalem, which had not been occupied by Israelites until the time of David, as a place to worship God, by contrast with Bet El, Beer Sheva, Hebron or even Shechem.

20. I Chronicles 16:4.

21. I Chronicles 16:37, 41.

22. Underhill, Worship, p. 205.

23. I Chronicles 16:8-11; Psalms 98:5.

24. I Chronicles 17:1.

25. Psalms 27:4, 6.

26. Exodus 26:33; Leviticus 16:17.

27. "And these are they that David set over the service of song in the house of the Lord [really the 'tent'] after that the Ark had rest. And they ministered with song before the Tabernacle of the tent of meeting until Solomon had built the house of the Lord in Jerusalem and they took their station at their service according to their order" (I Chronicles 6:16).

28. These passages also appear in Psalms 105:1-15; Psalms 96:2,3; Psalms 106:47,48.

29. I find Levi and his descendants to be the most versatile and interesting of the Children of Israel and in terms of leadership to run a close second to the tribe of Judah. After a rather violent beginning which earns him the condemnation of his father Jacob (Genesis 49:5-7; see Rashi on 49:5), the tribe of Levi comes in for some rather elaborate praise from their illustrious member, Moshe ben Amram, with a blessing for future achievement (Deuteronomy 33:8-11).

It is of course the prophetic leadership of this triumvirate, Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, which places a Levite stamp upon this crucial founding period of Israelite peoplehood. Paradoxically, while the Levites rally to the support of Moses during the crisis of the Golden Calf (Exodus 32:26,27), the first uprising against the authority of Moses comes as well from his own tribe (Numbers 16:1-6). Aaron and his descendants are consecrated to serve as priests forever and the rest of the Levites are set apart to be on permanent stand-by in the service of God to assist their brothers in the priesthood. Both a teaching role and a military role are hinted at for the Levites (Deuteronomy 33:10,11) who are later employed as teachers, judges, Temple guards and officers of the court (I Chronicles 9:19; 23:4; II Chronicles 17:7-10; Nehemiah 8:7,9).