Overview of 1-2 Chronicles

And so we begin our final set of Old Testament books, 1 and 2 Chronicles. While two books in our Bible, originally it was one story, split across two scrolls.

In our Bible, these are placed directly after 1 and 2 Kings, which can be unhelpful. Considering a lot of the content is the same you can often feel like, "oh, this again". But in the Hebrew Bible, Chronicles comes at the end, serving as a recap of the story so far.

We don't know much about the author of Chronicles. Some have attributed the book to Ezra though we have no evidence for this. It was likely written a couple of hundred years after the Jews had returned from exile. It takes the entire history of the Jewish people and reframes it in light of the words of the prophets for the future.

As the people wait for a priest king from the line of David, the author of Chronicles takes us on a journey through the line of David to begin to shape our expectations of the future king.

1 Chronicles 1-9 - Genealogies

1 Chronicles 10-29 - The reign of David

2 Chronicles 1-9 - The reign of Solomon

2 Chronicles 10-36 - Judah’s kings

Unlike 1-2 Samuel, we don’t have any negative stories about king David. We do, however, have new stories about David that position him as a Moses-like figure. In this, David serves as an image or shadow of the future king.

Also unlike 1-2 Kings, we don’t get any stories about kings of the northern Kingdom of Israel. Instead, the book focuses on stories of obedient and disobedient kings, each serving as a character study for the readers on how to live right before God.

1 Chronicles 1-10

The first nine chapters of the books are predominantly genealogies. We've spoken on genealogies before. To cultures, such as that of the Jews, that put a lot of importance on ancestry and family lines, genealogies speak to a person's history and their identity.

1 Chronicles 1 takes us from the first man, Adam, all the way to Jacob and his brother Esau. 1 Chronicles 2-8 then explore the genealogies of Jacob's twelve sons, who became the twelve tribes of Israel. Two tribes are given specific focus.

The first is Judah, as this is the tribe that David and his descendants came from. This is the tribe of the royal line. The second is Levi, the tribe of the Levites and the priests. A third tribe is also given some extra focus, the tribe of Benjamin. This is the tribe that Israel's first king, Saul, was from.

The bulk of 1 Chronicles 9 is then focused on the genealogies of those who had returned from exile and are now living in Jerusalem. This is to help tie those that are living in Jerusalem now, with the full body of Israel's history before the exile.

The second half of 1 Chronicles 9 establishes the genealogy of Saul before jumping into his reign in 1 Chronicles 10, where we read of how Saul and his son died in battle with the Philistines, paving the way for David to be king.

In these ten chapters, the author has given us an overview of Israel's history from Adam, all the way to David. As the readers would read each name, they would be reminded of the stories concerning that person, and of the history during that time. As most of us aren't as familiar with our Israelite history, or Old Testament stories, I'll give my own recap to bring you back up to speed.

In the beginning were Adam and Eve, the first man and woman. They were in the garden of Eden, living with God. But they chose to do live their own way, without God, and so were cast out of the garden. From there, their descendants got progressively more and more wicked.

God tried to start a fresh with Noah, but that didn't last long. So, eventually, God decided to split the people up into different nations and disown them. He then chose a man to form a new nation from. That man was called Abraham.

Through Abraham's descendants, the whole world would be blessed and restored to God. Abraham had a son called Issac who had a son called Jacob. Jacob had twelve sons who would become the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel.

The family move to Egypt and stay there for 400 years. During that time, the family grows and multiplies to being a nation in of itself, and the Egyptians begin to get scared and oppress them. God rescues his people out of Egypt and makes a covenant (binding contract) with them that he will be their God and they will be his people. God leads these people through the wilderness and into their own land, as the nation of Israel.

But established in their own land, the people keep turning away from God. During this time, the people were led by judges, men and women chosen by God. The people would turn from God, God would remove his protection from them, they would become oppressed by their enemies and cry out to God, God would send a judge to save them, the people would celebrate but before long turn from God again. This cycle repeated itself over and over again, but as time went on, even the judges became more and more corrupt.

Finally, the people ask God for a king like the other nations had. God chose Saul to be the first king and, to begin with, things seemed like they were going well. But like the judges before him, Saul began to fall away from God, become corrupt and lead the people from a place of selfishness and pride.

A young shepherd boy called David had won himself a reputation for killing the Philistine giant Goliath and was quickly rising in prominence in the king's court. Saul, jealous of David, tried to kill him multiple times, but failed every time. Then, while at war with the Philistines, Saul and his sons were cut down and killed, creating room for David to step up and take his role as king.

That's where we are so far. As we progress through 1 and 2 Chronicles, we'll be reminded of the kind of king David was, and then recap what happened with the kings after him.

Psalm 63

This psalm is attributed to king David ‘when he was in the wilderness of Judah’. This could be when he was fleeing Saul (1 Samuel 21-23) or when he was fleeing his son Absalom (2 Samuel 15:13-30). It falls into the category of a trust psalm.

Psalm 63:1-2 - The psalmist thirsts for God

Psalm 63:3-4 - The psalmist praises God

Psalm 63:5-8 - The psalmist finds joy in God

Psalm 63:9-11 - The psalmist’s enemies will be defeated by God

The psalmist opens with a similar opening to Psalm 42. They use the Hebrew wordplay, where the Hebrew ‘nephesh’ can mean both soul and throat. Both thirst for God. They want more of him. Life without God leaves them dry and weary.

Because of this, the psalmist praises God. God is a loving and faithful God, and the psalmist will trust him as long as they live.

The psalmist also finds joy in God. God is more satisfying than the richest of food. The psalmist will meditate on God and sing of the joy they find in him. They cling to God because he is the one that sustains them.

We then get a little of the psalmist’s story. There are people who to see them dead. But the psalmist is confident that God will give them over to their wickedness.

This psalm could have been a lament psalm. The psalmist finds themself in a desert, tired and weary, chased by enemies that want them dead. But instead of lamenting, the psalmist only seeks to praise God and seek more of him.

This is why we need the range of the psalms. Some people will only let themselves think about good things, as though to acknowledge the bad dishonours God. Because these people don’t let themselves lament, they never get to work through their hurts.

Then there are others who only lament and focus on the bad. Sometimes you need to pick yourself up and, despite your struggle, praise God for his goodness. We need the full range of experiences and expressions to grow in our relationship with God and work through the difficulties of life.