Instruments of Music in the Worship.
that the commandment was of the Lord by his prophets;" but what commandment? Clearly not the instrumental service which here as elsewhere is said to be commanded by David; but if this be the correct reading, the feast of the passover, which was now observed, was commanded by God through his prophets. While I believe this is true, there is no doubt that the Lord tolerated the instrumental service as he did the kingdom. He did not approve the kingdom. When they asked it, he told them, "They have rejected me, that I should not reign over them," and warned them of the evil it would bring upon them; yet he tolerated it, and it was called "the kingdom of the Lord." (2 Chron. 13:8.) The Septuagint Version, the one used by Christ, reads: "For by the commandment of the Lord, the order was in the hand of the prophets, and the Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets." The Syriac, the Arabic (two of the oldest translations), and the Vulgate agree with this. It certainly does not mean that God commanded the use of the instruments, when it is so often said that David commanded them, in contrast with the things that God commanded.
"And the Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets. . . . And when the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord began also, and the trumpets, to get her with the instruments of David king of Israel." (2 Chron. 29:26, 27, R. V.) Josiah observed the passover feast. "And the singers the sons of Asaph were in their place, according to the commandment of David." (2 Chron. 35:15.) The contrast is kept up between the things commanded by God and those commanded by David. Ezra went up to Jerusalem from Babylon and made an effort to reinstate the kingdom after the captivity. "And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the Lord, after the order of David king of Israel." (Ez. 3:10, R. V.) Remember, the priests with the trumpets
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