Asaph…Psalm 73…

 Asaph…Psalm 73…

Over my years, I have attended many churches…

At first we always had a minimum of a glorious piano player who pounded out the hymns so all could hear, other churches had organ players, some churches had both, some had only guitar players…all had a gift of musical talent and were willing to share…my mother lead choirs for many, many years…

There were musicians who could play without the music, who knew most of the songs of the hymnals, pastor’s wives who were expected to fill the role of the small church’s need for a piano player, “older” women and sometimes men who stepped up to the keys…

Then worship teams came into vogue, those who sang and directed the congregations into current praise songs, leaving the old hymns behind and finally, we have a blend of both the hymns and the praise songs…the old faithful hymns of great doctrine of past generations and the new praise songs of the present…

Asaph, an appointed musician, singer and cymbal player wrote psalms under David…ones we still read as part of the book of Psalms…they were handed down to all generations…

He faced the same realities of life as his contemporaries and we face today…he had the questions about life as we do…he came to his conclusions as we come to ours …he asked hard questions…

Reading this psalm is like reading current questions about life and what is taking place around us…mankind has really not changed, but God has stayed the same… 

Thank YOU that your Word is just as current now as it was when it was written…

 God Is My Strength and Portion Forever. A Psalm of Asaph.

Truly God is good to Israel,to those who are pure in heart.

 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,my steps had nearly slipped. 

For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 

For they have no pangs until death;their bodies are fat and sleek. 

They are not in trouble as others are;they are not stricken like the rest of mankind. 

Therefore pride is their necklace;violence covers them as a garment. 

Their eyes swell out through fatness;their hearts overflow with follies. 

They scoff and speak with malice;loftily they threaten oppression. 

They set their mouths against the heavens,and their tongue struts through the earth. 

Therefore his people turn back to them,and find no fault in them. And they say, “How can God know?

Is there knowledge in the Most High?” 

Behold, these are the wicked;always at ease, they increase in riches. 

All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. 

For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning. 

If I had said, “I will speak thus,”I would have betrayed the generation of your children. 

But when I thought how to understand this,it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God;then I discerned their end. 

Truly you set them in slippery places;you make them fall to ruin. 

How they are destroyed in a moment,swept away utterly by terrors! 

Like a dream when one awakes,O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms. 

When my soul was embittered,when I was pricked in heart, I was brutish and ignorant;I was like a beast toward you. 

Nevertheless, I am continually with you;you hold my right hand. 

You guide me with your counsel,and afterward you will receive me to glory. 

Whom have I in heaven but you?

And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. 

My flesh and my heart may fail,but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. 

For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. 

But for me it is good to be near God;I have made the Lord God my refuge,that I may tell of all your works.

Ps.73.1-28

Then he appointed some of the Levites as ministers before the ark of the Lord, to invoke, to thank, and to praise the Lord, the God of Israel. Asaph was the chief, and second to him were Zechariah, Jeiel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Mattithiah, Eliab, Benaiah, Obed-edom, and Jeiel, who were to play harps and lyres; Asaph was to sound the cymbals, and Benaiah and Jahaziel the priests were to blow trumpets regularly before the ark of the covenant of God. Then on that day David first appointed that thanksgiving be sung to the Lord by Asaph and his brothers.

1Chr.16.4-7

 David and the chiefs of the service also set apart for the service the sons of Asaph, and of Heman, and of Jeduthun, who prophesied with lyres, with harps, and with cymbals. The list of those who did the work and of their duties was: Of the sons of Asaph: Zaccur, Joseph, Nethaniah, and Asharelah, sons of Asaph, under the direction of Asaph, who prophesied under the direction of the king. They were all under the direction of their father in the music in the house of the Lord with cymbals, harps, and lyres for the service of the house of God. Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman were under the order of the king. The first lot fell for Asaph to Joseph; the second to Gedaliah, to him and his brothers and his sons, twelve;

1Chr.25.1-2, 6, 9

 and all the Levitical singers, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, their sons and kinsmen, arrayed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps, and lyres, stood east of the altar with 120 priests who were trumpeters; and it was the duty of the trumpeters and singers to make themselves heard in unison in praise and thanksgiving to the Lord), and when the song was raised, with trumpets and cymbals and other musical instruments, in praise to the Lord,“For he is good,for his steadfast love endures forever,”the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.

2Chr.5.12-14

 And Hezekiah the king and the officials commanded the Levites to sing praises to the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the seer. And they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed down and worshiped.

2Chr.29.30

 and certain of the priests' sons with trumpets: Zechariah the son of Jonathan, son of Shemaiah, son of Mattaniah, son of Micaiah, son of Zaccur, son of Asaph; And they performed the service of their God and the service of purification, as did the singers and the gatekeepers, according to the command of David and his son Solomon. For long ago in the days of David and Asaph there were directors of the singers, and there were songs of praise and thanksgiving to God.

Neh.12.35,45-46

  

https://www.compellingtruth.org/Asaph-in-the-Bible.html