David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the LORD with all kinds of wood instruments, harps, stringed instruments, tambourines, sistrums, and cymbals. Sermons
I. IN RESPECT TO THE WHOLE CHRISTIAN WARFARE AND WORK, THE SUPERNATURAL EVENTS BY WHICH OUR RELIGION WAS INAUGURATED MAY BE THUS REGARDED. In the incarnation of the Son of God, his supernatural revelations, the miracles of his life, death, resurrection, and ascension, in the all-sufficient sacrifice he offered for sin, and in the descent and operations of the Holy Spirit, God went before his people to lead them on to victory. They were not for the men of that age only, but for all ages. We, recalling them to mind, may ever take courage in the assurance that we are following where God has led and still leads. Evermore they remain as calls to us to "bestir" ourselves with confidence of success; the eternal motives to energy and hope; the eternal armoury, too, from which we draw the offensive and defensive arms we need in the war. II. IN RESPECT TO OUR OWN PERSONAL SALVATION, THERE ARE AT TIMES SPECIAL INDICATIONS THAT GOD IS GOING BEFORE US TO GIVE US SPECIAL HELP AND BLESSING. We ought not, indeed, to wait for these. The knowledge of our duty, the memory of Christ, the promise of Divine aid, the experiences of the past, constitute sufficient reasons for habitual diligence, prayer, and hope; and special inspirations may be most confidently expected by such as are thus ever "exercising themselves unto godliness," ever striving against evil and for the attainment of greater good. But there are moments of peculiar sensibility which afford peculiarly favourable opportunities and special calls to "bestir" ourselves that we may secure the blessings which they promise. Startling events which deeply move the conscience and heart; personal afflictions which compel retirement and produce impressions favourable to religious exercises; bereavements which bring face to face with death; losses which make the uncertainty and insufficiency of earthly good felt; sermons which unusually touch the heart; earnest appeals of a friend which produce deep emotion; whatever, in a word, brings God and eternity, Christ and salvation, nearer, and creates a sense of their supreme importance, whatever excites a craving for a higher good, are signs that God is working for us, and calls to "bestir" ourselves by special meditation, prayer, etc. We may at such seasons obtain more spiritual blessing in an hour than at others in a month. III. IN RESPECT TO THE WARFARE AND WORK OF THE CHURCH FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD, THERE ARE SIMILAR SIGNS FROM HEAVEN ADAPTED TO STIMULATE AND ENCOURAGE. Such are: 1. Remarkable openings made for the entrance of the gospel. The operations of Divine providence preparing a way for the operations of Divine grace. These may be on a small scale, laying open to Christian effort an individual, a family, or a neighbourhood; or on a large scale, opening a continent crowded with scores of millions of the human race. The discoveries of travellers, and the removal of barriers and obstacles by military conquests, are thus to be regarded. India, China, Japan, and Africa furnish instances of God going before his people, and calling on them to "bestir" themselves and follow whither he leads. 2. Impressions favourable to religion. In one person, or in a family, a congregation, a town, or a nation. Impressions by sickness, by war, pestilence, or other calamities; or by signal displays of the Divine goodness. By these God goes before, and prepares the way for his people to publish more diligently and earnestly the gospel, with good assurance of success. 3. Unusual religious earnestness in Christians themselves. Extraordinary emotions of love and zeal towards God and Christ and the souls of men, and of longing to rescue the perishing and enlarge the Church, however they may have been excited, are to be regarded as the yearnings of God's Spirit in the Christian heart, and as calls and encouragements to exertion. The sign that God is working and leading his people to victory is more conspicuous when these emotions are shared by many. 4. Successes in the Christian war summon to new efforts and encourage the hope of new successes. They show that God is working, and assure us that he will continue to work with his faithful servants. - G.W.
David and all the house of Israel played before the Lord. The orchestra was probably as rustic and rude as the procession. "Instruments made of fir-wood" sounds strange, and probably the text should be emended from the account in 1 Chronicles, which reads, "with all their might, even with songs." The instruments specified are two-stringed, and three of percussion. "Castanets" should be "sistra," which were much used in religious ceremonies, and consisted of rings hung on iron or other metal rods, which made a harsh noise when shaken. Like Eastern music in general, it would have struck our ears as being "a joyful noise," rather than a concord of sweet sounds. But it meant gladness and praise, and that was the main thing. His felt nearness should be, as the Psalmist says, "the gladness of my joy." Much of our modern religion is far too gloomy, and it is thought to be a sign of devotion and spiritual-mindedness to be sad and of a mortified countenance. Unquestionably, Christianity brings men into the continual presence of very solemn truths about themselves and the world which may well sober them, and make what the world calls mirth incongruous."There is no music in the life That rings with idiot laughter solely." But the Man of Sorrows said that His purpose for us was that His joy might remain in us, and that our joy might be full; and we but imperfectly apprehend the Gospel if we do not feel that its joys "much more abound" than its sorrows, and that they even burn brightest, like the lights on safety-buoys, when drenched by stormy seas. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) People Abinadab, Ahio, David, Israelites, Michal, Obed, Obededom, Perez, Saul, UzzahPlaces Baale-judah, Geba, Jerusalem, Perez-uzzahTopics Brass, Castanets, Celebrating, Corded, Cornets, Cymbals, Cypress, Cypress-wood, David, Fir, Fir-wood, Harps, Instruments, Kinds, Lutes, Lyres, Making, Manner, Meanwhile, Melody, Merry, Played, Playing, Power, Psalteries, Sistra, Sistrums, Songs, Stringed, Tambourines, Tambours, Timbrels, WoodOutline 1. David fetches the ark from Kirjath Jearim on a new cart,6. Uzzah is smitten at Perez Uzzah 9. God blesses Obed-Edom for the ark 12. David brings the ark into Zion with sacrifices, and dances before it; 16. for which Michal despises him 17. He places it in a tabernacle with great joy and feasting 20. Michal, reproving David for his joy, is childless to her death Dictionary of Bible Themes 2 Samuel 6:5 5420 music Library Emmaus. Kiriath-Jearim. "From Beth-horon to Emmaus it was hilly."--It was sixty furlongs distant from Jerusalem.--"To eight hundred only, dismissed the army, (Vespasian) gave a place, called Ammaus, for them to inhabit: it is sixty furlongs distant from Jerusalem." I inquire, whether this word hath the same etymology with Emmaus near Tiberias, which, from the 'warm baths,' was called Chammath. The Jews certainly do write this otherwise... "The family (say they) of Beth-Pegarim, and Beth Zipperia was out of Emmaus."--The … John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica The King --Continued. The Danger of Deviating from Divine Institutions. Excursus on the Present Teaching of the Latin and Greek Churches on the Subject. Letter xxiv (Circa A. D. 1126) to Oger, Regular Canon Reprobation Asserted: Or, the Doctrine of Eternal Election and Reprobation Promiscuously Handled, in Eleven Chapters. Samuel Links 2 Samuel 6:5 NIV2 Samuel 6:5 NLT 2 Samuel 6:5 ESV 2 Samuel 6:5 NASB 2 Samuel 6:5 KJV 2 Samuel 6:5 Bible Apps 2 Samuel 6:5 Parallel 2 Samuel 6:5 Biblia Paralela 2 Samuel 6:5 Chinese Bible 2 Samuel 6:5 French Bible 2 Samuel 6:5 German Bible 2 Samuel 6:5 Commentaries Bible Hub |