Nehemiah 12:45-47

And both the singers.

Thanks-giving and thanks-living

We have here the effects of the joy that was at the dedication of the wall.

I. The ministers were more careful than they had been of their work. Ii. The people were more careful than they had been of the maintenance of their ministers. The surest way for ministers to recommend themselves to their people, and gain an interest in their affections, is to wait on their ministry, to be humble and industrious, and to mind their business; when these did so, the people thought nothing too much for them to encourage them.

1. Care is here taken for the collecting of their dues.

2. Care is taken that, being gathered in, it might be duly paid out. (Matthew Henry.)

For in the days of David and Asaph of old.

The good old times

I. Nothing is necessarily good because it is old. “Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden?” Habit, education, tradition, prejudice, play an important part in history.

II. That which is old is presumptively valuable. Good lasts. Truth is as old as the hills. Application: Prove all things. Despise nothing. The present is a huge borrower from the dead past. (Homiletic Commentary.).