Monday, September 25, 2023

A hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets....

 

At last the temple planned by King David, and built by Solomon his son, was completed. “All that came into Solomon’s heart to make in the house of the Lord,” he had “prosperously effected.” And now, in order that the palace crowning the heights of Mount Moriah might indeed be, as David had so much desired, a dwelling-place not for man, but for the Lord God, there remained the solemn ceremony of formally dedicating it to Jehovah and His worship.... .

At the appointed time, the hosts of Israel, with richly clad representatives from many foreign nations, assembled in the temple courts. The scene was one of unusual splendor. Solomon, with the elders of Israel, and the most influential men among the people, had returned from another part of the city, whence they had brought the ark of the testament.... With singing and with music and with great ceremony, the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord unto his place, to the oracle of the house, into the most holy place. As they came out of the inner sanctuary, they took the positions assigned them. The singers—Levites arrayed in white linen, having cymbals and psalteries and harps—stood at the east end of the altar, and with them a hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets. 

It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praising the Lord, saying, For He is good; for His mercy endureth forever; that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord.—Prophets and Kings, 37-39. RRe 270

 

We are homeward bound. He who loved us so much as to die for us hath builded for us a city. The New Jerusalem is our place of rest. There will be no sadness in the city of God. No wail of sorrow, no dirge of crushed hopes and buried affections, will evermore be heard. Soon the garments of heaviness will be changed for the wedding garment. Soon we shall witness the coronation of our King. Those whose lives have been hidden with Christ, those who on this earth have fought the good fight of faith, will shine forth with the Redeemer's glory in the kingdom of God.—Testimonies for the Church 9:286, 287 quoted in Maranatha, 352. Hvn 139

 

 

It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying, For He is good; for His mercy endureth for ever: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord. 2 Chronicles 5:13. KJV