Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Chronicles 16:23-33

"Sing unto Jehovah, all the earth; Show forth his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, His marvellous works among all the peoples. For great is Jehovah, and greatly to be praised: He also is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols: But Jehovah made the heavens. Honor and majesty are before him: Strength and gladness are in his place. Ascribe unto Jehovah, ye kindreds of the peoples, Ascribe unto Jehovah glory and strength; Ascribe unto Jehovah the glory due unto his name: Bring an offering, and come before him: Worship Jehovah in holy array. Tremble before him, all the earth: The world also is established that it cannot be moved. Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; And let them say among the nations, Jehovah reigneth. Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; Let the field exult, and all that is therein; Then shall the trees of the wood sing for joy before Jehovah; For he cometh to judge the earth." — 1 Chronicles 16:23-33 (ASV)

See Psalm 96. This psalm, in the Psalter, consists of five strophes or stanzas of six lines each—an artistic arrangement that has been violated here. The subject is the extension of Jehovah’s kingdom over all the world, a thought familiar to the readers of the Book of Isaiah, where most of the ideas and phrases of the psalm may be found.

Sing unto the Lord, all the earth.—The second line of the psalm. The spirited opening of the psalm is purposely weakened, by omission of the first and third lines, in order to make it fit in here. Strophe I is thus compressed into four lines (1 Chronicles 16:23–24).

All the earth.—All the land (of Israel).

Show forth.—Hebrew, tell the (good) news of.

His salvation.—Deliverance (from exile).

Heathen.—Nations (1 Chronicles 16:31).

Strophe II of the psalm. Jehovah is the Creator; other gods are nonentities.

(25) He also.—And he. The conjunction is not in Psalm 96, and is a prosaic addition of the compiler. (Compare to 1 Chronicles 16:20).

People.—Peoples.

Idols (’ĕlîlîm).—A favourite expression in Isaiah.

Strength and gladness are in his place.—Psalms 96:6: Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. The psalmist’s idea of the heavenly temple seems to have been understood of the earthly; and then his phrase was altered as unsuitable.

Gladness (hedwâh).—A late word, occurring again in Nehemiah 8:10 only. “Beauty” (tiph’èreth) is ancient.

His place—that is, the tent of the Ark on Mount Zion. (Compare to 1 Chronicles 15:1; 1 Chronicles 15:3).

Strophe III of the psalm, mutilated. A call to all nations to come and worship in the Temple of Jehovah.

(28) Kindreds of the people.—Clans (races) of the peoples.

So far each verse of this ode has symmetrically consisted of two clauses. The present verse has three—another mark of awkward compilation.

Come before him.—Psalms 96, into his courts, that is, the Temple courts: an expression modified here to suit another application.

Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.—Rather, bow you down to Jehovah, in holy vestments. This line ought to be the first of the next couplet.

Fear (plural).—Literally, Writhe you.

Before him.—The preposition is a compound form common in the Chronicles; in the psalm it is simple.

The world also shall be stable.—A line, which precedes this in the psalm, is omitted here, to the detriment of the sense. That line—Say you among the nations, Jehovah is king—begins the fourth strophe of the original hymn, but is here strangely transferred to 1 Chronicles 16:31.

Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice.—In the Hebrew, the initial letters of these words form an acrostic of the sacred Name of Jehovah; and those of the first half of 1 Chronicles 16:32 make up Iahu, another form of the Name.

And let men say.—An adaptation of Psalm 96:10: Say you among the nations.

Let the fields rejoice.—Here begins the fifth strophe of the original psalm.

Fields.—Hebrew, the field, or open country.Psalms 96 has an archaic spelling of the word (sâdai), which is here modernized (sâdèh).

Rejoice.—Exult (not the same word as in 1 Chronicles 16:31).

At the presence of.—The compound preposition of 1 Chronicles 16:30. The climax of the psalm—He shall judge the world in righteousness, and peoples in his faithfulness—is here omitted; and this long and heterogeneous composition terminates with verses borrowed from a third source.