1 Chronicles 16 Bible study: Oh give thanks to the LORD

2 Samuel 6 tells this day too. There David gave bread "to all the people, even among the whole multitude of Israel, both to men and women" (2 Samuel 6:19), and 2 Samuel goes straight on, "So all the people departed, each to his own house. Then David returned to bless his household" (2 Samuel 6:19-20). 1 Chronicles has the gift "to everyone of Israel, both man and woman" (16:3), and the going home at the very end of the chapter: "All the people departed, each man to his house; and David returned to bless his house" (16:43). Between the two it sets everything else in this chapter: the Levites appointed before the ark (16:4-6), the song "on that day" (16:7-36), and who was left where (16:37-42). Michal's scorn, which in 2 Samuel follows David home (2 Samuel 6:20-23), 1 Chronicles has already told in one verse, as the ark came to David's city (15:29). Neither book says why it tells the day in its own order, and these notes don't guess.

1 Chronicles 16:35→leads toLuke 1:74-75

The song ends with a prayer, "Save us, God of our salvation! Gather us together and deliver us from the nations, to give thanks to your holy name, to triumph in your praise" (16:35), and a blessing, "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting even to everlasting" (16:36). Earlier it says, "Remember his covenant forever" (16:15), "the covenant which he made with Abraham, his oath to Isaac" (16:16). When Zacharias "was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied" (Luke 1:67), he began, "Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people; and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David" (Luke 1:68-69). He spoke of God acting "to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he swore to Abraham our father" (Luke 1:72-73), "to grant to us that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, should serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life" (Luke 1:74-75). Luke has already told that the son Mary will name Jesus (Luke 1:31) will be given "the throne of his father David" (Luke 1:32); the horn of salvation Zacharias blesses God for is raised up "in the house of his servant David" (Luke 1:69). Luke doesn't cite 1 Chronicles 16, and "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel" opens other blessings too (Psalm 41:13; Psalm 106:48), so setting the two side by side is a reading. Some hear in Zacharias's song an answer to the prayer of 16:35: the same blessing, the covenant with Abraham remembered, and a people delivered so that they may worship. Others read 16:35-36 as Israel's prayer on the day the ark came to rest, and Luke 1:68-75 as Zacharias's own song, without looking from one to the other.

יָדָהyadahsay ya-DAH

Brown-Driver-Briggs: "throw, cast", and in its other forms "give thanks, laud, praise" and "confess". Strong's: "literally, to use (i.e. hold out) the hand". David appointed Levites "to commemorate, to thank, and to praise the LORD" (16:4), and "David first ordained giving of thanks to the LORD by the hand of Asaph and his brothers" (16:7). The song opens with it, "Oh give thanks to the LORD" (16:8), comes back to it, "Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good" (16:34), and asks to be saved "to give thanks to your holy name" (16:35). Heman and Jeduthun were chosen "to give thanks to the LORD" (16:41). 1 Chronicles uses the verb nine times, and six of them are in this chapter, the first at 16:4. Its first use in the Hebrew Bible is Leah's "This time I will praise the LORD" (Genesis 29:35).