Passages Showing How The Old Testament Musical Instruments Helped

The musical instruments used by the prophets in the Old Testament had a prescribed, prophetic use for that dispensation: you especially see it in some texts, such as in 1 Chronicles 15:16:

"And David spake to the chief of the Levites to appoint their brethren to be the singers with instruments of musick, psalteries and harps and cymbals, sounding (shama`) by lifting up the voice (qowl) with joy."

The word qowl, often translated "voice" in the KJV and other translations, does not necessarily mean the human voice, though here it does. Strong's concordance shows it to also be translated as "noise,' "sound," "thunderings,' and "proclamation."

The Levitical priesthood appointed to song were, by use of their human voices and with instruments of music, to lift up a voice that produced this "sounding," this shama`. You can see how the idea of proclamation could apply here.

In 2 Chronicles 5:13:

"It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound (qowl) to be heard in praising and thanking the LORD; and when they lifted up their voice (qowl) with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of musick, and praised the LORD, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the LORD..."

The human voices together with voices of the trumpets, cymbals, and instruments of music "were as one;" lifted up together, they made one voice "to be heard."

And in 2 Chronicles 7:6:

"And the priests waited on their offices: the Levites also with instruments of musick of the LORD, which David the king had made to praise the LORD, because his mercy endureth for ever, when David praised by their ministry; and the priests sounded trumpets before them, and all Israel stood."

The musical instruments made by David were unique in that dispensation, for they had a specific use; David praised God by their ministry; these musical instruments were commanded by God through David, Gad the seer, and Nathan the prophet (2 Chronicles 29:25) to serve a purpose for that time. David wasn't free to dispense with them, to change them, or to add to them. He wasn't free to innovate with them or with the words sung in any way. All must be done exactly as prescribed through the Old Testament prophetic office.

They are no longer commanded but have been done away with, since Christ has ascended and sent his Spirit to give something better—enabled the church to raise her voice and make melody in, or with, the heart (Ephesians 5:19) to the Lord (see this article regarding this phrase). The "sound," the "voice" of the carnal means prescribed by God in the Old dispensation has been replaced by the spiritual worship that Jesus promised, without the need for shadows and types (John 4:21-26).