On the Excellence of Solomon’s Temple, Its Musicians, and Their Music

Here are five points to consider about the excellence of Solomon’s temple, its musicians, and their music:

1. In all of Scripture, there is no revelation about any more glorious physical structure over which God had more direct involvement in its design, construction, and operation than He did for Solomon’s temple.

2. In all of Scripture, there is no revelation about a historical physical structure that is extolled in any greater terms than Solomon’s temple is. In fact, there is no such physical structure spoken of in Scripture concerning its excellence that even remotely compares to Solomon’s temple concerning its explicitly-stated-in-Scripture worldwide excellence.

3. In all of Scripture, there is no record of God’s supernaturally manifesting His approval and acceptance of the sacred musical ministry of a group of musicians that even remotely matches the record of His response to the musical ministry of the group of musicians who played and sang to the glory of God at the dedication of the temple.

4. In all of Scripture, there is no record of any group of sacred musicians whose musical activities were more directly and exhaustively specified by God than were those of the sacred musicians in Solomon’s temple.

5. In all of Scripture, there is no record of any group of sacred musicians whose musical activities were more influenced by the role of supernaturally empowered and gifted leading servants of God than were the Solomonic temple musicians. Six prophets of God were directly involved in determining their musical activities: David, Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, Nathan, and Gad. At least four of these prophets were leading musicians themselves (David, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun; we do not know if Nathan and Gad were musicians or not).

Moreover, Solomon, the wisest man ever (other than Christ), exercised vital leadership over the temple musicians. Solomon was himself a supernaturally gifted songwriter extraordinaire who wrote the only song that inspired Scripture speaks of as “The Song of Songs.”

In total, there were at least 7 supernaturally empowered and gifted leading servants of God who were directly involved in determining and directing the musical activities of the Solomonic temple musicians.

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