High Walls and Loud Praise Text: Nehemiah 12:31-43
Introduction: The Acoustics of Obedience
We live in an age that is desperate for joy, but which has no earthly idea where to find it. Our culture treats joy as a therapeutic commodity, a subjective feeling to be pursued through entertainment, self-expression, or chemical assistance. It is a private affair, a quiet hum to be cultivated in the soul. But the joy of the Bible is something else entirely. It is objective, it is corporate, it is loud, and it is a weapon. It is not something we work up from within; it is a gift that God gives from without, and it is a gift that follows hard-won obedience.
The scene before us in Nehemiah is the culmination of a massive project of cultural and spiritual reconstruction. The enemies of God had mocked the Jews, saying their work was feeble. Sanballat and Tobiah had jeered that a fox could knock their wall over. But after fifty-two days of trowel in one hand and sword in the other, the wall was finished. The physical barrier separating the holy city from the pagan wilderness was complete. The enemies were demoralized, and the people of God had a mind to work.
But the work is not truly finished until it is dedicated. A wall without worship is just a pile of rocks. A city without God at the center is just a collection of houses. What Nehemiah orchestrates here is not a simple ribbon-cutting ceremony. It is a declaration of victory. It is a liturgical conquest. It is the sound of a city being reclaimed for God, and the central note of that sound is thunderous, God-given joy. This is not the quiet hum of the therapist's office. This is the glad noise of a people who have labored, fought, and won, and who know exactly who gave them the victory. This is the sound our own sad and joyless world needs to hear.
The Text
Then I had the leaders of Judah come up on top of the wall, and I had two great choirs of thanksgiving stand, the first proceeding to the right on top of the wall toward the Dung Gate. Hoshaiah and half of the leaders of Judah followed them, with Azariah, Ezra, Meshullam, Judah, Benjamin, Shemaiah, Jeremiah, and some of the sons of the priests with trumpets; and Zechariah the son of Jonathan, the son of Shemaiah, the son of Mattaniah, the son of Micaiah, the son of Zaccur, the son of Asaph, and his relatives, Shemaiah, Azarel, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethanel, Judah, and Hanani, with the musical instruments of David the man of God. And Ezra the scribe went before them. At the Spring Gate they went directly up the steps of the city of David by the stairway of the wall above the house of David to the Water Gate on the east. The second choir proceeded to the left, while I followed them with half of the people on the wall, above the Tower of Furnaces, to the Broad Wall, and above the Gate of Ephraim, by the Old Gate, by the Fish Gate, the Tower of Hananel, and the Tower of the Hundred, as far as the Sheep Gate; and they stood at the Gate of the Guard. Then the two choirs took their stand in the house of God. So did I and half of the officials with me; and the priests: Eliakim, Maaseiah, Miniamin, Micaiah, Elioenai, Zechariah and Hananiah, with the trumpets; and Maaseiah, Shemaiah, Eleazar, Uzzi, Jehohanan, Malchijah, Elam, and Ezer. And the singers made their voices heard, with Jezrahiah their overseer, and on that day they offered great sacrifices and were glad because God had given them great gladness, even the women and children were glad, so that the gladness of Jerusalem was heard from afar.
(Nehemiah 12:31-43 LSB)
A Procession of Ordered Thanksgiving (vv. 31-37)
The celebration begins with deliberate, structured order. This is not chaos. This is not a riot of emotion. This is sanctified joy, given a shape and a direction by the leaders of God's people.
"Then I had the leaders of Judah come up on top of the wall, and I had two great choirs of thanksgiving stand..." (Nehemiah 12:31)
Nehemiah, the civil magistrate, the governor, is the one organizing this worship service. This is a fatal blow to the fiction of the sacred/secular divide. The wall, a project of civil engineering and national defense, now becomes the platform for worship. The leaders of Judah are on the wall. The purpose of building the wall was to protect the worship of God, and so the first thing they do on the wall is worship God. The central activity is not just singing, but "thanksgiving." Gratitude is the essential posture of the redeemed. An ungrateful Christian is a contradiction in terms.
The long list of names that follows is not tedious filler. God is the God of individuals. He knows His people by name. These are the men who led, who worked, who fought. Their names are recorded in the book of God because their labor was not in vain. This is a corporate celebration. They built the wall together, and now they praise God together. Notice also who is there: leaders, priests, and musicians. Civil and ecclesiastical authorities are united in this great act of public thanksgiving.
And what are they using? They have trumpets, and they have "the musical instruments of David the man of God." This is critically important. They are not inventing a new kind of worship. They are not trying to be relevant or contemporary. They are deliberately reaching back into their history, to the pattern of worship established by King David under the direction of God. Their worship is rooted. It is traditional, in the best sense of the word. It is grounded in the history of God's covenant dealings with His people. And who leads this first procession? "Ezra the scribe went before them." The man of the Word leads the worship. The Scriptures must always go before our praise. Worship that is not governed by the Word is just noise.
A Pincer Movement of Praise (vv. 38-42)
The second choir is organized to move in the opposite direction, creating a magnificent picture of the whole city being encompassed by the praise of God.
"The second choir proceeded to the left, while I followed them with half of the people on the wall... Then the two choirs took their stand in the house of God." (Nehemiah 12:38, 40)
Nehemiah himself is in this procession. The leader is not above the people; he is with them, leading them in worship. The two choirs march around the entire perimeter of the city, a great pincer movement of praise. The wall that was built to keep the pagans out now serves as a great stage to proclaim the glory of God to the world. They are marching on the high places, declaring the lordship of Jehovah over Jerusalem.
And where does this procession end? It ends where all true worship must end: "in the house of God." The civic celebration on the wall finds its ultimate purpose and climax in the corporate gathering at the temple. The state's work, when done rightly, serves the church's worship. All of life, from politics to bricklaying, is meant to drive us to the feet of God in praise. The priests are there with their trumpets, instruments of warfare and royal proclamation. The singers are there, and we are told they "made their voices heard." The Hebrew is emphatic. They sang loudly. This was no timid, mumbled hymn. This was a full-throated, robust, masculine roar of victory and praise. This was disciplined, organized, and overseen by Jezrahiah. True worship is not sloppy.
The Source, Scope, and Sound of Joy (v. 43)
This final verse is the theological heart of the entire chapter. It tells us why they were glad, who was glad, and how glad they were.
"and on that day they offered great sacrifices and were glad because God had given them great gladness, even the women and children were glad, so that the gladness of Jerusalem was heard from afar." (Nehemiah 12:43)
First, their joy is founded upon sacrifice. "They offered great sacrifices." Before there can be true gladness, the problem of sin must be dealt with. Their joy was not cheap. It was bought with blood. This points us directly to the cross of Jesus Christ, the one great sacrifice for sin that makes all our joy possible. We cannot come to God with gladness unless we first come to Him through the blood of His Son.
Second, their joy is a direct gift from God. They were glad "because God had given them great gladness." Joy is not a human achievement. It is a divine bestowal. It is a fruit of the Spirit. When we are obedient, when we work and fight and build according to His Word, God opens the windows of heaven and pours out a blessing of joy that we cannot contain. He is not a cosmic killjoy; He is the fountain of all delights.
Third, their joy was covenantal. "even the women and children were glad." This was not just for the civic leaders or the soldiers. This was for the whole covenant community. God builds His kingdom through families. When the men lead in faithfulness, the blessing of joy overflows to their wives and their children. A culture is rebuilt one household at a time, and the sign of a healthy Christian culture is the sound of laughing children.
Finally, their joy was evangelistic. "the gladness of Jerusalem was heard from afar." This is the great apologetic. The sound of a truly joyful, obedient, and thankful people is a witness to the nations. It is a sound that cuts through the gloom and despair of the pagan world. The enemies who had mocked them from afar now had to listen to the sounds of their victory party. This is postmillennial praise. This is the sound of the kingdom advancing. True, biblical joy is loud, public, and contagious. It is a weapon that demoralizes the enemy and a beacon that draws the lost.
Conclusion: Rebuilding for Joy
The task given to the church today is no different than the one given to Nehemiah. We are called to rebuild the ruined walls of our culture, our communities, and our homes. We are called to do it with the Word of God as our blueprint, with a trowel in one hand and a sword in the other. It is hard work, and we have our own Sanballats and Tobiahs who mock us and threaten us.
But we must never forget what the goal is. The goal is not just grim-faced duty. The goal is joy. The goal is a gladness so great and so loud that it is heard from afar. We are not rebuilding for the sake of having strong walls. We are rebuilding so that those walls might become a platform for the praise of our God. As Nehemiah said earlier, "the joy of the Lord is your strength" (Neh. 8:10).
This joy is not a vague optimism. It is grounded in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our wall of salvation. He is the great sacrifice who makes our praise possible. He is the King who leads us in our victory procession. Because He rose from the dead, we know that our labor is not in vain. The future belongs to Him, and therefore, the future is one of ever-increasing gladness.
So let us be about the work. Let us teach our children, build our institutions, love our neighbors, and fight our enemies. And let us do it all with a spirit of robust and thankful joy. Let the world, which is drowning in its own self-pity and despair, hear the sound of our singing. Let them hear the laughter of our children. Let them hear the gladness of our city, and let them know that our God is the only God who gives great gladness.