Songs For The Sons Of Korah

Summary

Summary prepared by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon's captions — published in summary form; watch the full sermon at the source.

Clap your hands — with understanding

He is in town on family business — his brother Caleb and Caitlin's new baby — and Pastor Tony has drafted him to preach. He honors "your man of God, the actual man, Pastor Tony," greets Coach, his wife, children, mother, and sister-in-law, and Pastor Joe, who drove up from Revival Church in Apopka to see the baby too, then reads: "Psalms chapter 47 and 1. Again, this is a very familiar text. The Bible just simply says: 'O clap your hands, all ye people. Shout unto God with the voice of triumph.' 'O clap your hands, all ye people. Shout unto God with the voice of triumph.' If you have your Bible in your hands, you will notice that just above that verse there is an inscription. The Bible says: 'To the chief musician: a psalm for the sons of Korah.' And I don't know how to title it any better than the Bible titles it. So tonight, if you will help me for the next little while, I want to just simply preach to you: A Song for the Sons of Korah." He pictures the setting before the doctrine: "Close your eyes with me, and just picture yourself in the setting this song was wrote and actually sung. This song is designed to capture your attention as you walk into the tabernacle. The sons of Korah stand at the door, letting you in if you were pure, and blocking you from coming in if you were unpure. And as you walk into Solomon's temple, and all of the wonder — the gold, the silver, the brass, and the fine linens — I would that you would picture yourself walking upon the porch of Solomon, and seeing the brass pillars that are there, and an echo comes from the choir just behind, inside the doors. The gatekeeper sings along. You walk on the inside, and thousands and thousands of pounds of gold are upon the wall, and they are everywhere that you look. And you hear the song come from the sons of Korah, standing in the choir loft: 'O clap your hands, all ye people, and shout unto God with the voice of triumph.' Oh, that makes me want to do it. When you think of the setting that it was sang in, it makes me — I don't know about you, but I'm a worshiper — and it makes me want to respond to the songs that's being sang, and clap my hands, and shout, and give God praise, because He is worthy. Hallelujah. How many of us tonight, with our Bibles closed, can quote another scripture out of this chapter? I can't either, and I'm preaching from it. This is not Psalms 100. This is not Psalms 23. This is not something that we practice in reciting... My fear is that often we use this scripture as a way to just get a response, meanwhile there are no results, because we don't understand the context of why we're clapping. So as a student of the Word of God, it has been my goal to see and to find out — because I will tell you that not one word in your Bible is wasted — it has been my desire to figure out exactly what every psalm means, what every word means. And as I began to study the Word of God, I found that this scripture is not used in the context that we use it. It's not used to hype someone up on Sunday night. It's not something that your pastor says when he gets to the pulpit just to get you to respond to his preaching. But there is power, and there is meaning, in this chapter. So as we begin to read the Word of God, we find in Psalms chapter 47 and verse 7 that we are instructed to praise God with understanding. And so the writers — the sons of Korah, these nameless men — they tell us in verse 7, they say: Don't just clap your hands, and don't just shout unto God, but you have to do it with an understanding. You have to know what you're clapping about."

Scriptures: Psalm 47:1; Psalm 47:7

The sons who walked out of the tent

Who are they? "These are the original worship leaders. These are the men that would sing the Songs of Ascent, from Psalms chapter 120 into Psalms chapter 135. They would come together, and they would sing. And it was them that would sing the song in Psalms chapter 124. We think we cool and cute, and all that, with all our call and repeat. We didn't start that. They had that way back in the Bible, in the Psalms of Ascent. It would be the sons of Korah that would get up in front of the congregation, and they would sing, 'If it had not been for the LORD who was on our side' — and then they said, 'Now may Israel say,' which means it's your turn. And you get to stand up, and then you would respond: 'If it had not been for the LORD that was on our side.' That was the sons of Korah. They sung those songs. And every day they would go to the house of God, and start at one step, and sing their way all the way up to the top. But we must understand how they came to this place of importance, because they ain't always been the lead musicians in the church. Numbers chapter 16 tells us the story of Korah and his rebellion. Korah, unfortunately, and his compadres, did not realize their importance to the kingdom of God. The Bible says that they were men of renown — an Old Testament term to describe men with power and authority. The Bible says that they were famous in the congregation. And unfortunately, these men made the decision to cross God, and unfortunately the man of God. And they said to Moses, 'Moses, you take too much upon yourself.' Basically, 'Who do you think you are, preacher?' Oh, help me, Jesus. I'm gonna preach now. Besides, Moses begins to preach, unknowingly to him, Korah's funeral... And the Bible instructs us that Korah — he is standing there with 250 men — and the earth opens up, and it swallows Korah and all of his friends. Numbers chapter 16 tells us that everything that belonged to Korah died. However, Numbers chapter 26 tells us a little bit of the story that we don't get in chapter 16. It says, 'Howbeit the children of Korah died not.' There was something in these men. Now, you can say, 'Well, you don't have Bible to back it up.' You go study it out for yourself — you'll find out I'm telling you the truth tonight. There was something that happened on that day, when Korah and his friends were coming against the man of God and coming against the things of God, that they made a righteous decision to lead a holy rebellion that said: 'My daddy might not want the things of God, and my mama might not want the things of God, and my daddy's friends might not want the things of God' — but they got up, and they walked out of the tent. And they said, 'Daddy, if you're going to do this, you're going to do it all by yourself.' Well, they walked away while their daddy was saying, 'They don't take worship anymore.' They got up and they walked away while Daddy said, 'We don't have to listen to Moses.' They got up and they walked away while Daddy was saying, 'You don't need to be at church on Wednesday night.' They got up and they said, 'You can do what you want to do, Daddy, but as for me — as for me and my house — we're going to the house of the LORD.' Some would argue that this happening in their life — their walking away from their father — would be the reasoning of the very first psalm that they would ever sing, that it would ever be recorded. In Psalms chapter 42 and verse 1, it was a son of Korah that sat down and said: 'As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God.' It was sang by the descendant of a rebellious man that said, 'I don't want anything to do with church.' And they reached past what their daddy did, and said, 'Daddy, if you don't want it, I want the things of God. If my friends don't want the things of God, I want the things of God in my family.' The first line of the first song that they would ever sing was letting God know: I don't care what everybody else does. I'm in a relationship with You. Give me Jesus in the morning. Give me Jesus in the new day. Give me Jesus in the midnight hour. When I want Him more than I want my next breath. I want Him more than I want a better job. I want Him more than I want a better car. I want Him more than I need a million dollars in my bank account. I need Jesus. And that's the deer panteth after the water — so does my soul [pant after Thee]."

Scriptures: Numbers 16; Numbers 26; Psalm 42:1; Psalm 124:1-2

Korah got tired of carrying the weight

"The issue with Korah is he just got tired of doing what he was supposed to do. 'Well, it's just another service.' No, it's not just another service. Korah — that was the issue with Korah. The issue got to a point to where it was just something he did. He put it in cruise control. He went to church, and he just went through the motions. And he worshiped when it was time to worship, and he danced when it was time to dance, and he paid his tithes and offering when it was time to pay his offering. But he never really got it. So how do you know? You can go to — again, I don't have time to get into all of this, but let me just break into a little bit of it — Numbers chapter 4, verses 9 through 11. You can see the job description that is given there. The Bible says, when Aaron and his sons begin to break down the tabernacle to be moved from point A to point B, it was Korah and his brethren's job to take the holy pieces of furniture — and Aaron and his brethren would take those pieces of furniture, and they would put them in satchels, and they would put them on a dowel rod. And Korah and his brethren's job was to back their way into the tabernacle, and pick up that anointing, and pick up that golden candlestick, and pick up all of these holy things, and put them on their shoulders, and carry them. And Korah's idea was, 'Well, why do I have to do that? Look at the Gershonites — they get to put their stuff on a cart.' Pastor Tony, what's wrong with that? Korah got upset with his job of just coming to church and doing what he's supposed to do. See, I'm a firm believer that we miss out on a lot of victory just because we don't do what we're supposed to do every service... 'Well, I didn't get my miracle tonight.' Well, did you put in what you were expecting to get out of the service? Or did you just go to the car and say, 'Well, it's just Wednesday night Bible study. Well, why do I need to give it all I got on Wednesday night Bible study?' Because you're in the presence of the Most High God. And you don't have the opportunity to waste one moment in the house of God. So I can preach a whole message on every item that he had to carry. But just let me preach this for a moment: he walks in, and nobody knows what's in these bags that he's carrying around. Korah gets tired of toting around these burdens. But if you read Numbers chapter 4 — can I give him some homework, Pastor Tony? Yup. Go home and read Numbers chapter 4. But when you read it, you'll find that it was his job to pick up this dowel rod that had a purple bag hanging on it. And hold on to that — that's important. We're going to come back to it. It was his job to put this purple bag on his shoulder, and carry it from point A to point B. And nobody in the camp knew that inside of that bag was the anointing oil. That if that anointing oil did not make it from where they are right now to where they're going, then the tabernacle cannot be sanctified. Therefore the tabernacle has no power. And Korah thought he didn't have any purpose, just coming to church and doing what he was supposed to do. But little did he know: if he didn't do what he was supposed to do, Aaron couldn't get in the pulpit and do what he was supposed to do. 'Well, I'm tired of carrying the weight.' It's anointed. But there was a son of Korah that had really been raised his whole life, Pastor Tony, watching Daddy carry the weight. And he watched Daddy get mad over having to carry the weight. And when Daddy said, 'I don't want the anointing,' there was a young man, a son of Korah, that said, 'Daddy, you can leave church if you want to. But whatever it takes, I want the anointing of God. Because I know it's the anointing that destroys every yoke. And I understand that if Aaron's gonna get in the pulpit, and Aaron's going to preach the Word, and Aaron's going to turn back sins, and Aaron's going to change Gainesville — it's gonna be because the son of Korah comes to church and says, I'm tired. I've been at work all day. But I'm so in love with this anointing, I'm so in love with the presence of God, that all of that stuff don't matter. It's heavy. It's inconvenient. But I'll carry the load.'"

Scriptures: Numbers 4:9-11

The altar of sacrifice, and the purple garment

"It was their job to carry the ark of sacrifice — the brazen altar that was carried from point A to point B. That was carried by Korah and his brethren. And so this is interesting to me, because nobody knew what anointing looked like. Nobody knew what was in that bag. But the Bible says they're to cover it in a purple garment. Again, remember that — we're coming back to it. They're going to cover this altar of sacrifice in a purple garment, and they're to put it on their shoulders, and they're to carry it around. And I can see Korah just kicking dirt: 'Well, why can't I carry the ark of the covenant? It's gold. It's beautiful.' But yet again, you don't get to the ark of the covenant without first coming to the ark of sacrifice. And so Korah is frustrated. And Korah, again — he don't know, Pastor Tony, that what I'm doing right now is making manifest what Aaron's going to do behind the veil. So if I don't do this, Aaron can't do that... Nobody knew what the anointing oil looked like. Nobody had been into the Holy of Holies, and seen that bottle that they carried around, and that censer swinging a sweet-smelling savour before the LORD. Nobody knew what any of that looked like. But every one of them had stood by that ark. Every one of them had stood there with a turtledove. Every one of them had stood there with a ram. Every one of them had stood there with an ox. Every one of them had stood there with a lamb. And they knew the shame of standing beside that ark. They knew the shame of standing beside it, when everybody in line was gonna know what their sin was. Because, you know, read the Book of Leviticus — and there were certain sins for certain things, that you had to bring to the altar of God. And when you're standing in line with a dove — that's where he was last Friday night — and you're standing to see — everybody had stood beside that ark. And everybody knew that there was something happening there at that ark. And so, everybody — there was nobody there that knew what the anointing oil looked like. But everybody knew what sacrifice looks like. Can I tell you tonight that if anointing is pure, and holy, and righteous, it's got to flow through sacrifice? And everybody around will know. You don't have to toot your own horn, baby. When you start sacrificing, not only does Aaron, but the whole congregation then looks and says, 'That's what sacrifice is.'" That is the understanding verse 7 demands: "When they say, 'Clap your hands, all ye people' — and he said in verse 7, do it with understanding — Pastor Tony, this is coming from men that, if they got what they deserved, they wouldn't have even been in the church. If they'd hung out with their daddy, they would have died in a pit and went straight to hell. And when they said, 'Clap your hands, all ye people,' and he said, 'Look, now I know you've got to carry the sacrifice, and you've got to carry all these burdens' — and they would carry those burdens from point A to point B, and they would go to church, and they would start clapping, and they would write a song and say, 'Clap your hands, all ye people, and shout unto God with a voice of triumph.' But do it with the understanding that if you've got what you deserved, you wouldn't even get to make it through the front door. 'Clap your hands, all ye people, and shout unto God with a voice of triumph.' But doing it knowing that I'm not even supposed to be here. But God, who is righteous, and holy, and worthy, saw fit to bring me into the house of God. So what are you trying to get out of this service, Brother Phillips? My prayer tonight is that you never clapped your hands for formality again. My prayer is, every time you clap your hands, you think about where God brought you from. My prayer is that every time you clap your hands, baby, you walk back down memory lane, and you remember every time that God should have left you, and that God could have left you. And that you should have died in the car wreck. And you should have OD'd on drugs. God — but clapping for— 'Pastor, I'm clapping because God's been good. I'm clapping because He saved me. I'm clapping because He picked me up and turned me around. I'm clapping because I obtained the anointing that my father rejected.' Let me just preach right now, and get this off of my chest. I've been fighting with this all day. Because some of us here are sixth- and seventh- and eighth-generation. I thank God for my heritage. I thank God my mom and daddy raised me in this Apostolic truth. But I'm going to tell you something right now: if you're not careful, you can be like Korah. And you can go through the motions. And it doesn't matter how long you've been in church. You can get to that place. That's why you need to think, every time you clap your hands: I'm here because of the mercy of God. He didn't have to do what He did." The little jobs carry the whole thing: "Okay, Korah's mad because 'I don't get to carry the pretty stuff.' If we're not careful, we'll trade in glory for gold. Because the glory don't fall without sacrifice. And he's carrying around this big heavy burden. 'All Pastor ever does' — oh, I'm preaching — 'all Pastor ever does is ask me to sweep the parking lot.' I'm preaching good now. 'All Pastor — he don't ever ask me to get in the pulpit. All he ever wants to do is me to go visit the ones that are the sick and the shut-ins. And Pastor don't ever ask me to do anything important.' But Korah, you forget that Pastor can't do what he does, if you don't do what you do. You don't believe me? Let me rewind three years back, to 2020. And I'm gonna tell you, as a preacher that tried it: ain't no fun preaching to an empty building. This happens because Aaron has a — oh God — Aaron has a relationship with the people. And if Aaron's going to be the man of God that God taught him to be, it's going to be because Korah is the saint of God that God taught him to be. 'I'm just tired of carrying this around. Yeah, I'm sick of this. Why don't I get to carry that pretty gold box? Why don't I get a title?' And all the while — remember that purple garment we were talking about? All the while, he don't even understand: he's literally carrying around a type and a shadow of Christ Jesus Himself. Because there's going to be a day that they beat Him, and they put a purple robe on Him. And when they go to put Him on the cross, they're going to yank off the purple garment, and the altar of sacrifice is going to be revealed. And they're going to nail it to a tree. And at that moment, the ministry of Aaron is going to pass away. Because we don't have a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Now we have One — Christ Jesus, the righteous One. So I'm not going to need Aaron to do his job there anymore. But Korah, I'm always gonna need a worshiper. I'm always gonna need somebody that's in the house that's just glad to be there. That's why it would be a son of Korah that would write the song: 'For a day in Thy courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.' They had a revelation: I get to go to church on Wednesday night. I get to clap my hands. I get to worship. Thank You."

Taqa: this is how I fight my battles

The last movement is the Hebrew: "So clap your hands, but do it with understanding. Understanding what the word 'clap' actually means. The word 'clap' is the Hebrew word taqa. You ready for this? This is deep. You're going to want to write this down. It means to put your hands together. That's powerful. But listen — this is straight out of the Strong's Concordance. If you don't— this is so good, I'm telling you, we might have to remodel this church again after I tell them. You know what another word for taqa is? It means to thrust a weapon. Just put it like this: this is how I fight my battles. The devil probably had me — never thought I was gonna walk out on God. See, because not everybody can dance. But baby, if you — oh, everybody can clap. And everybody's got a voice that you can lift up. This is how I fight my battles. I'm clapping with an understanding that every time I clap, I'm thrusting my sword. Every time I clap, I'm thrusting my weapon." The genealogy carries it to Samuel: "It's not in your English Bible — but if you'll go read and study the Hebrew, you'll find out it's there in the text. And I don't have time to preach the whole thing. But if you read through First and Second Chronicles, and you go through all those names — 'and so-and-so begat so-and-so,' that boring part of the Bible where it's: this guy was this guy's son, and this guy was that guy's son — and you trace it all the way down, you'll find there's another man that becomes a son of Korah — that is a son of Korah that becomes a very important man. His name is Samuel. And the LORD help me, Jesus, I'm wanting to chase rabbits right now. Korah wanted the anointing in his hand, and not on his shoulder. But little did he know, there was coming a day when Samuel was going to get the anointing in his hand. Oh yeah — Korah got it messed up. He didn't want anything to do with that. But it's in the text, in the original language, when you find that Samuel comes up, and Saul has really made a big mistake, and he's not listening to God. And he comes up, and he says, 'What's that I hear?' And he finds Agag, the king of the Amalekites. And the Bible says that Samuel found a sword. A son of Korah — God, I love this Bible stuff — he found a sword, and he taqa'd, as he chopped him into little pieces. It was a son of Korah that understood: I'm clapping, or I'm doing this, and I'm getting every demon that would stop me, every demon that would slow me down — I'm gonna clap until I push them out of the way. Because I'm just going to tell you like I feel it right now: if you're not careful, you'll let some first-generation Apostolic that came in here six months ago and got baptized and got filled with the Holy Ghost — you'll let them out-praise you. And you'll let them out-dance you. But there was something inside of Samuel that said, 'I know where I came from. I'm not supposed to be here. So, devil, if you think you're gonna run me off my promise — think again. This is how I fight my battles.' 'Clap your hands, all ye people, and shout unto God with a voice of triumph.'" The word also drives the tent stake: "The word taqa doesn't just mean to thrust a weapon. It means to drive a tent stake. It's the same word used when Sisera is killed. But it implements — because, and again, there's a whole theology to this, I don't have time to get into — but as the men that worked in the house of God, they weren't just worshipers, Brother Tony. When the Bible called them 'men of renown,' it was talking about men's men. It was talking about men that — because when the ark of God, and all of those things, came under attack — they needed somebody that knew how to fight, to protect the holy things of God. And so this idea is, it's worship and warrior culture. And they run hand in hand throughout the Word of God. And to drive the tent stake literally means — it was a war deal that happened — that when they would go out, and they would meet on the battlefield, they would fight in the middle. And whoever won the battle that day would move their tents closer to the battlefield. And then the opposing team would move farther away. That way, the battlefield moved kind of closer and closer. And you get what I'm saying. And so when they said, 'Taqa your hands,' they're, again, implementing this warrior culture that they live in. They're saying: you need to move the tent stake. Move it. I know you've been fighting hell on every side, but push the devil back, and drive a stake, and let the devil know: I'm not going nowhere." His complaint about soft saints closes the teaching: "There's this thing that happens when people come to — this bugs me. This gets under my skin. They'll come to church and talk about how bad they was when they was in the world. Oh, don't look at nobody, because every church got one. You know, they started: 'Man, when I was in the world,' and I always — oh boy, here we go — they cleaned out every barroom, bashed every knucklehead's head in. And then they'll come to church, and let the devil run all over them. I wish you would get that kind of tenacity in living for God. That when you come to church, you look at the devil: 'You want some?'... I'm preaching to somebody tonight that's been letting the devil run you over. And you need to learn how to really clap your hands, and do it with purpose, and do it with power, and do it with authority. And understand: I'm not clapping for formality. But honey, I'm clapping because I'm redeemed. I'm clapping because I'm saved." The final frame is prophetic: "Go home this week, we'll agree on — regardless of where you stand, three [closings] — we do know there's going to be a final day. And the Jews believe that the song that will be saved— the soul that will be saved at the very end, Sister Tony, at the— when the Battle of Gog and Magog's over, and it's all over, said and done, and Christ sits on the throne forevermore, they say this is the song that we're going to sing. So when you clap and you shout, you are literally walking in the prophetic of the final day, when the final battle has been won. Don't you ever just clap your hands to clap them. Don't you ever just clap your hands because it's what we do. But clap your hands, and shout, with an understanding. I wish somebody in the back, somebody on the sides, would tear out of their pew right now, and make their way to the front, and say: this is how I fight my battles. This is how we oughta — this is how I clap. And I'm gonna win. I'm gonna be victorious. Somebody give God praise on a Wednesday night like you lost your mind. Come on. Somebody's gotta go beyond Wednesday night... If you don't have the Holy Ghost — I wouldn't be a good evangelist if I didn't do this — if you don't have the Holy Ghost, if you've never spoken in tongues as the Spirit of God gives the utterance, for the very first time, I want you to tell somebody right now, 'I need the Holy Ghost. I need what that preacher is talking about.' And I'm telling you, this is the atmosphere where you can overcome every addiction. Pastor Tony already said it: every problem, every addiction, to the power of the Holy Ghost. If you need it, you need to just go ahead and start praising right now. Repent of your sins, and God wants to fill you with the Holy Ghost. Come on, do it now. God, I want You more than anything. Come on, somebody clap their hands, and lift your voice with a shout."