praise and celebrate God, i.e., singers and players to sing psalms as a part of the regular worship. להזכּיר, literally, “in order to bring into remembrance,” is not to praise in general, but is to be interpreted according to the להזכּיר in the superscription of Ps 38 and Psa 70:1-5, by which these psalms are designated as the appointed prayers at the presentation of the Azcarah of the meat-offering (Lev 2:2). הזכּיר accordingly is a denom. from אזכּרה, to present the Azcarah (cf. Del. on Psa 38:1), and is in our verse to be understood of the recital of these prayer-songs with musical accompaniment. הודות, to confess, refers to the psalms in which invocation and acknowledgment of the name of the Lord predominates, and הלּל to those in which praise (Hallelujah) is the prominent feature. In 1Ch 16:5 and 1Ch 16:6 there follow the names of the Levites appointed for this purpose, who have all been already mentioned in 1Ch 15:19-21 as accompanying the ark in its transmission; but all who are there spoken of are not included in our list here. Of the chief singers only Asaph is mentioned, Heman and Ethan being omitted; of the singers and players of the second rank, only nine; six of the eight nebel-players (1Ch 15:20. יעיאל is a transcriber's error for יעזיאל, 1Ch 15:18), and only three of the six kinnor-players; while instead of seven trumpet-blowing priests only two are named, viz., Benaiah, one of those seven, and Jehaziel, whose name does not occur in 1Ch 15:24.
Verse 7
On that day David first committed it to Asaph and his sons to give thanks to Jahve. נתן is to be connected with בּיד, which is separated from it by several words, and denotes to hand over to, here to commit to, to enjoin upon, since that which David committed to Asaph was the carrying out of a business which he enjoined, not an object which may be given into the hand. ההוּא בּיּום is accented by אז. בּראשׁ, “at the beginning,” “at first,” to bring out the fact that liturgical singing was then first introduced. אחיו, the brethren of Asaph, are the Levites appointed to the same duty, whose names are given in 1Ch 16:5, 1Ch 16:6. But in order to give a more exact description of the ליהוה הודות committed to Asaph in vv. 8-36, a song of thanks and praise is given, which the Levites were to sing as part of the service with instrumental accompaniment. It is not expressly said that this song was composed by David for this purpose; but if Asaph with his singers was to perform the service committed to him, he must have been provided with the songs of praise (psalms) which were necessary for this purpose; and if David were in any way the
