1 Chronicles 16:4

To minister ; i.e. to officiate, as we should say, in the service before the ark. The verse seems to describe what should be the essence of that service. It was threefold— to record, to thank , and to praise the Lord God of Israel. The word here used for "record" is the Hiph. of זָכַר (to remember), and is remarked upon by Gesenius as a title strictly appropriate to the character of the two psalms 38. and 70; on the head of which it stands, as meaning, "to make others remember" (see also such passages as Exodus 20:24 ; 2 Samuel 8:16 ; 2 Samuel 18:18 ; 2 Samuel 20:24 ; Isaiah 43:26 ; Isaiah 63:7 ). The minds of the people were to be refreshed in this service and in their very psalm of praise (so note in this sense 1 Chronicles 16:8 , 1 Chronicles 16:9 , 1 Chronicles 16:12 , 1 Chronicles 16:21 , etc.), by being reminded or told, so far as the youngest of them might be concerned, of God's marvellous and merciful deeds for their forefathers of many, many a generation. Then they were to give intelligent and hearty thanks. And, lastly, they were to offer to approach that purest form of worship which consists in adoring praise. One might imagine with what zest they would have accepted, with what fervour they would have added lip and instrument of music to it—that one verse which needed the revolution yet of nearly another three thousand years, that it might flow from the devotion or' Addison.

"When all thy mercies, O my God,

My rising soul surveys,

Transported with the view I'm lost

In wonder, love, and praise."