The Levites prepare the people for a covenant with the Lord
On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and having dust on their heads. 2 Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the wickedness of their fathers. 3 They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter of the day in confession and in worshiping the LORD their God. 4 Standing on the stairs were the Levites—Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani and Kenani—who called with loud voices to the LORD their God. 5 And the Levites—Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah and Pethahiah—said: “Stand up and praise the LORD your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting.”
After the joyful celebration of the Feast of Trumpets and the Feast of Tabernacles, the people returned to a consideration of their sins. They observed a day of repentance to prepare for renewing their commitment to the Lord. The 24th day of the seventh month was not a holiday prescribed by the Law of Moses. The Day of Atonement, the main penitential day of the Old Testament worship calendar, was supposed to be celebrated on the tenth day of the seventh month. Since it is not mentioned here, perhaps it had not been properly observed and this day of repentance was taking its place.
The people prepared to reaffirm the Sinaitic covenant by fasting and wearing sackcloth and ashes, which symbolized humility and repentance. A survival of these symbols of repentance is the practice, observed by some Christians, of wearing ashes on Ash Wednesday and fasting during Lent. Separation from foreigners and hearing God’s law were other preparations for renewing the covenant. It is not clear if the separation from foreigners refers to new reforms or to the earlier reforms of Ezra.
Two groups of Levites led the worship service that prepared the people to renew their covenant with the Lord. One group led in prayer; the other group chanted or recited a penitential psalm that reviewed the history of God’s relationship with Israel.
This psalm, which will take up the remainder of Nehemiah chapter 9, contrasts God’s goodness with Israel’s continued disobedience and unfaithfulness. It emphasizes God’s covenant with Abraham, a gospel covenant based on God’s grace and on the promise of the coming Savior. It was not a legal covenant that depended on the people’s obedience, as did the covenant made through Moses.
At Mount Sinai the Israelites had promised to obey the Law (Exodus 24). They had renewed that promise when they entered the Promised Land (Joshua 24). Because they had not lived up to these promises, the people could not appeal to the covenant of Sinai as they asked God for help. They had not kept their part of that bargain. Their only hope, then, was the Lord’s mercy and faithfulness to the gospel promise he had first delivered to Abraham.
This truth is the theme of the psalm that the Levites recited. Their psalm is similar to other historical psalms with a penitential theme, such as Psalms 78, 105, and 106. The Septuagint, a very ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, lists Ezra as the author of the psalm in our text. Since it is similar to Ezra’s prayer in Ezra chapter 9, this is a plausible suggestion.
Because this psalm sweeps through the whole of Old Testament history, it will not be possible to comment on it in detail here. Instead, we will let it speak for itself. The headings added to the psalm include the main Scripture passages summarized in each section of the psalm. You may read these passages for further information about the historical circumstances described in each section of the psalm. A few of the more obscure references will be briefly discussed in the commentary following the psalm. But our primary interest is the central theme of the psalm: the contrast between God’s faithfulness to his gospel promise and the Israelites’ unfaithfulness to their promise to serve and obey God.