“And he [Hezekiah] set the Levites in the house of Jehovah with cymbals, with psalteries, and with harps, according to the commandment of David, and of Gad the king’s seer, and of Nathan the prophet; for the commandment was of Jehovah by his prophets.”
It is clear that Old Testament worship services included not only instruments of music (Psalm 33:2; 43:4; 71:22), but also burnt-offerings of bulls and rams and he-goats (Leviticus 16:1-19), and clouds of “sweet incense” (Leviticus 16:12-13; Exodus 30:7; Deuteronomy 33:10), and dancing (2 Samuel 6:14: Psalm 150:4), and hand-clapping (Psalm 47:1), and shouting (Psalm 47:1). It is clear also that the entire Old Testament worship services have been cancelled, nailed to Jesus’ cross (Ephesians 2:5-16; Colossians 2:14:16).
It is clear also that the New Testament worship services include singing, the “fruit of the lips” (Hebrews 13:15; Romans 15:9; 1 Corinthians 14:15), and playing, not on a literal harp (as in Psalm 71:22), but figuratively on the strings of the human heart, “making melody with your heart to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:19), and praying (1 Thessalonians 5:17), and, on the first day of the week, the Lord’s Supper (Acts 20:7), and the collection (1 Corinthians 16:1-2).
