Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 214 · August 2
Singers Before the Army
“And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the LORD, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the LORD; for his mercy endureth for ever.”
The advice arrived when things were at their worst: praise your way through it. It landed like an instruction to smile, and this is the chapter behind it.
The objection deserves its full weight. Read as a technique, this verse is cruel. It turns worship into a lever, hangs the outcome on the quality of the singing, and hands a frightened person one more thing to fail at.
The order of events answers that. Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast. Then the prayer, which ends with a king telling God in front of the whole country that he has nothing. We have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee.
Then a Levite named Jahaziel says a specific thing on a specific day. The battle is not yours, but God's. He gives them the road the enemy is coming up and the promise ye shall not need to fight in this battle. Only then does anybody appoint singers. The music followed a promise. It was never offered in place of one.
The chapter also refuses to make him a hero. Howbeit the high places were not taken away. Later he joined himself with Ahaziah king of Israel, who did very wickedly, and the ships they built were broken. This is a frightened king who once prayed a very good prayer.
What survives is the line they were given to sing, because it says nothing about the battle. Praise the LORD; for his mercy endureth for ever. That sentence was old before Jehoshaphat was born, and true on the mornings when nothing was delivered. So pray it in that order. God, we are afraid, we have no might, and we do not know what to do. Our eyes are upon you. We are not singing to make anything happen. Your mercy endureth for ever, and did before we knew about this. Amen.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 214 is Here I Am (Isaiah 58:9).