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Psalms and Song of Songs

  1. Lesson One
    Overview of Poetry
    31 Activities
    |
    1 Assessment
  2. Lesson Two
    Poetic Structures
    22 Activities
    |
    1 Assessment
  3. Lesson Three
    Praise and Lament
    24 Activities
    |
    2 Assessments
  4. Lesson Four
    The Diversity of Psalms
    28 Activities
  5. Lesson Five
    Song of Songs
    20 Activities
  6. Course Wrap-Up
    Course Completion
    1 Activity
    |
    1 Assessment

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Psalms and Song of Songs Poetic Structures In | Psalms of Korah, Ethan, Heman and Asaph
Lesson 2, Activity 13

In | Psalms of Korah, Ethan, Heman and Asaph

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Like Asaph, each of these figures was connected with the sanctuary and the music performed there when David was king. In an earlier passage in 1 Chronicles: 

David told the leaders of the Levites to appoint their fellow Levites as musicians to make a joyful sound with musical instruments: lyres, harps and cymbals.

So the Levites appointed Heman son of Joel; from his relatives, Asaph son of Berekiah; and from their relatives the Merarites, Ethan son of Kushaiah; and with them their relatives next in rank . . .

The musicians Heman, Asaph and Ethan were to sound the bronze cymbals.

1 Chronicles 15:16-19

Korah was also a Levite and a temple musician. He was one of the men “in charge of the music in the house of the Lord after the ark came to rest there,” and “[who] ministered with music before the tabernacle” (1 Chron 6:31-32). So these four men, though lesser known in the wider Bible story, were crucial to the liturgical life of Israel and acted as song leaders or bandleaders around the tabernacle and ark of the covenant.

Reference: C. Hassell Bullock, Encountering the Book of Psalms, 2001, pp. 62-65.