Everyone has a psalm. One may be entirely for little Israel, but the next embraces the whole world!
As noticed in our last meditation, 1 Chronicles 16:8-36 is a compilation from parts of three psalms. Here’s one difference between them. As we move from one section to another, the audience shifts. Psalm 105 (1 Chron 16:8-22) is clearly focused on Israel. This first chorus of praise addresses, “O seed of Israel His servant, you children of Jacob, His chosen ones!” (v 13). And “The covenant which He made with Abraham, and His oath to Isaac, and confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, to Israel for an everlasting covenant” (vv 16-17). This first part celebrates two great chapters in the history of Israel. First, the land covenant the Lord made with His people, “Saying, ‘To you I will give the land of Canaan as the allotment of your inheritance’” (v 18). Second, when they were driven out of the land into captivity, God still protected them: “When they went from one nation to another, and from one kingdom to another people, He permitted no man to do them wrong” (vv 20-21). But when we come to the portion from Psalm 96 (1 Chron 16:23-33), the camera widens to include the whole world. “Sing to the Lord, all the earth…Give to the Lord, O families of the peoples, give to the Lord glory and strength.… Tremble before Him, all the earth…And let them say among the nations, ‘The Lord reigns’” (vv 23, 28, 30, 31). It’s thrilling, isn’t it! From a little spot in a little land, first there was a golden box in a tent, and yet from it emanated the glory of God and the moral code that rippled out to transform the world. Then, a millennium later, it was a gory cross on the same hill and the Man of whom that ark spoke, God’s mercy seat, whose love and forgiveness has reached the hearts of millions with its transforming power. No wonder one psalm wasn’t enough!