Once again today, in 1 Chronicles 24:1-26:19, we encounter more lists of names. In chapter 24, we see “the divisions of the sons of Aaron” (verse 1). The priests and the Levites were ordered into twenty-four divisions. Verses 7-18 give us the “appointed order of ministering” for the priests “when they entered the temple of the LORD according to the prescribed regulations by their forefather, Aaron” (verse 19). In verses 20-30, we see the “rest of the descendants of Levi” listed “according to their families” (verse 20). Chapter 25 provides a list of “the sons of Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun for the ministry of prophesying accompanied by harps, lyres, and cymbals … and for the music of the temple” (verses 1-6). “All of them were trained and skilled in music for the LORD” (verse 7). In chapter 26, we read about the “divisions for the gatekeepers – descendants of Korah and Merari” (verses 1-19). Generally, reading through long lists of names is not very appealing to us, largely because we are unfamiliar with those to whom these names refer. We might wonder, “Who were these people?” For some of us (like me), it’s difficult enough to remember names and faces – especially over the years – so it’s easy to get bogged down in long lists of strange information or names of unknown individuals who are now dead and gone. Still, we believe that – just as we are important and matter to God – so were they. To be sure, God informs us that we are all precious in His sight (cf., Psalm 139:13-16: Isaiah 49:14-16; Jeremiah 31:3; and Romans 5:8). In other words, every time we read a list that’s not very exciting to us, we need to thank God that all those people were included in His lists because they mattered. Praise God that He has a list that includes us.
Today, Psalm 92 spoke to my heart. I especially appreciated the contrasting analogy of the “grass” (verse 7) and the “palm tree” (verse 12) as representatives corresponding to “the wicked” and “the righteous.” God’s “thoughts” are truly profound (verse 5), but “senseless people do not know” them (verse 6). Because a good and wise God created mankind, we might wonder, “How could there be senseless people?” Clearly, we don’t have to look very far to see them. Senselessness must be a choice – a self-induced condition whereby people find themselves content to live in their limited, mindless, and dulled state of “foolish understanding” (verse 6). Such individuals do not wish to exert any of the effort necessary to learn, determine, or discern the truth. This Psalm indicates that we need daily to sharpen the “eyes, ears, and voices” of our spiritual senses by “praising the LORD, making music to His name, and affirming His love and His uprightness” (verses 1-14). If we do this, God promises that “we will flourish and bear fruit, even into old age” (verse 14). Considering my own advancing age, I pray indeed that my life would represent such a clear testimony before the watching world – not so much for my own sake – but for His.
1 Corinthians 3 informs us of a truth similar to that of 1 Chronicles 24-26 and Psalm 92. We must guard ourselves against the world’s deceptive “standards for wisdom” (verse 18) and rise above them. If we trust those standards, we have “deceived ourselves” (verse 18). By those standards, we should become “fools” in order that we “may become wise” (verse 18). What does Paul mean by that? Then he writes, “the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight” (verses 19-20). Paul is saying that the world’s standards are not worthy of our trust. They are disingenuous, unreliable, misleading, and fully inconsistent with the reality that God has created. Men who follow those standards love to boast about their so-called “wisdom,” but to God, man’s “wisdom” is utterly “futile” (verse 20). Until we accept the truth of what God is saying, we “deceive ourselves” (verse 18), and we become “caught in our own craftiness” (verse 19). To become truly wise, we must exclusively trust the eternal truth of God’s Word – and nothing else.