1 Chronicles 26
In 1 Chron. 26:1-21 we find the courses of the doorkeepers. Obed-Edom is here, as always, the object of special blessing. Whereas Meshelemiah, the son of Korah, numbers eighteen sons and brethren destined to this office in his family, and Hosah of the family of Merari, thirteen sons and brethren, Obed-Edom numbers sixty-two in his direct posterity. He had eight sons, for it is said that God had blessed him (1 Chron. 26:5). Had he not, together with his family, been the keeper of the ark in his house for three months? It was at that time that the Lord had blessed his house (1 Chron. 13:14; 16:38). He had become a doorkeeper of the ark when David brought it up to Jerusalem (1 Chron. 15:18). We see him and his numerous family with him here as doorkeepers of Solomon's future temple. Of his sons it is said that they were rulers in their father's house, that they were mighty men of valor, able men in strength for the service. We do not reflect often enough that the service of the doorkeepers, like that of the priests (1 Chron. 9:13), required these qualities. It is hardly enough to say that this unprepossessing task requires humility, dependence, zeal, and self-forgetfulness; strength and valor are necessary also.
The doorkeepers had charge of all the gates of the temple. They must be able to repel any undertakings against the house of God besides watching with continual energy so that no defiled person might enter the courts of the Lord, but also must keep the doors open so that no member of the priesthood who had the right to enter the temple might be excluded.
The doorkeepers of the future temple were indicated by lot, which moreover designated the keepers of each gate. Shelemiah had charge of the door to the east; Zechariah, his son, a wise counselor, had charge of the gate northward; Obed-Edom was in charge of the door to the south, but he was always specially blessed among all the others, for his sons had under their direction the storehouse.
Among the Levites (1 Chron. 26:20-28) we find those appointed over the treasures of the house of God and over the treasures of the holy things. During this period which preceded the reign of peace a descendant of Moses (1 Chron. 26:24) was the overseer of the treasures; another, Shelomith with his brethren, had charge "over all the treasures of the dedicated things, which king David, and the chief fathers, the captains over thousands and hundreds, and the captains of the host, had dedicated (from the wars and out of the spoils had they dedicated them, to maintain the house of Jehovah), and all that Samuel the seer, and Saul the son of Kish, and Abner the son of Ner, and Joab the son of Zeruiah had dedicated: all that was dedicated was under the hand of Shelomith, and of his brethren" (1 Chron. 26:26-28), until the moment when all these treasures would be employed by Solomon. Here for the third time Joab's activity is seen in a favorable light.
Other Levites from among the Jizharites were officers and judges (1 Chron. 26:29). Those who remained at Hebron, where David's kingship had begun, were established "for the administration of Israel on this side Jordan westward, for all the business of Jehovah, and for the service of the king" (1 Chron. 26:30), and "king David made" them "rulers over the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh, for every matter pertaining to God, and the affairs of the king" (1 Chron. 26:32). Thus those who from the beginning of David's reign had been his witnesses and companions receive a special distinction.