Hey, all. I thought you might enjoy this. r
King David, dressed in robes and crown, is sitting on his throne holding a clipboard and writing. A servant enters to interrupt...
SERVANT: King David, Asaph is here as you requested.
DAVID: Send him in. [Servant exits. Asaph enters and bows]
DAVID: Thank you for coming, Asaph.
ASAPH: Your excellency... [bows]
DAVID: I wanted to go over the worship for the Sabbath.
ASAPH: "Go over?"
DAVID: Yes, review the songs we will be singing.
ASAPH: But surely, the Spirit of the Lord only reveals those to you as we are at worship. How can we know this now?
A very short play by Paul Wilkinson
King David, dressed in robes and crown, is sitting on his throne holding a clipboard and writing. A servant enters to interrupt...
SERVANT: King David, Asaph is here as you requested.
DAVID: Send him in. [Servant exits. Asaph enters and bows]
DAVID: Thank you for coming, Asaph.
ASAPH: Your excellency... [bows]
DAVID: I wanted to go over the worship for the Sabbath.
ASAPH: "Go over?"
DAVID: Yes, review the songs we will be singing.
ASAPH: But surely, the Spirit of the Lord only reveals those to you as we are at worship. How can we know this now?
DAVID: Actually, I've been giving that some thought and it occurred to me that if the Spirit of God can inspire us as we worship Him, truly can He not also inspire us to choose those songs a few days ahead?
ASAPH: But...we've never done it this way before.
DAVID: You'll get used to it. [Looks at clipboard] So I thought we'd begin with, "The Lord is One" from Deuteronomy, and then go into "Moses' Song of Triumph" from Exodus.
ASAPH: Actually, we did that one last week.
DAVID: Oh...right.
ASAPH: I'm sorry, oh King, I spoke out of turn.
DAVID: What if we do it before the time of worship has actually begun? As people are gathering. A sort of pre-service song.
ASAPH: To what end?
DAVID: Just to help people get in the mood for worship.
ASAPH: "Get in the mood?"
DAVID: Hey, I'm King. We'll try this.
ASAPH: You know we don't have a drummer this week. He has to work.
DAVID: He cannot work on the Sabbath.
ASAPH: His master has introduced something called 'rotating shifts' at the brick plant. It allows them to keep the oven fired up all the time and produce bricks around the clock, but the men have to work at all hours.
DAVID: But he is one of the temple musicians. I don't like this 'rotating shifts' thing; it could affect temple worship for generations. ...Anyway...let's move on. What if we open with "The Lord is One" and then go into the one I wrote as a kid, "Blessed is the Man."
ASAPH: You mean the one you call "Psalm One?"
DAVID: Yeah, I am thinking of combining them into a book with some of the ones you wrote; there's got to be over a hundred of them. Maybe I'll get Solomon to do it.
ASAPH: Actually, I've been meaning to talk with you about "Psalm One." With all due respect oh King, we often sing it after "The Lord is One" and well... you see "The Lord is One" is in the key of F, and your "Psalm One" is in the key of E, and when we go down one key it always sounds... oh, I don't know... it just sounds wrong.
DAVID: Then we'll do it first, and then sing "The Lord is One" and the musical keys will be in ascending order. This will be more pleasing to the ear.
ASAPH: But "The Lord is One" is the call to worship. "Psalm One" is not, but perhaps we could sing "Psalm 100" which is a call to worship and use the other song later in the service.
DAVID: [picking up clipboard] Let me write that down. [Writes] Well...thank you for coming, I will call you again to discuss the closing of the service.
ASAPH: Do you need to write it? Won't the Spirit of the Lord remind us of what He is telling us today?
DAVID: Yes... this list is for someone new I am adding to our team, someone who I think will make a difference in our temple worship for years to come. I call this appointment, "The Sound Man."
[Asaph exits, rolling his eyes upward!]
ASAPH: But...we've never done it this way before.
DAVID: You'll get used to it. [Looks at clipboard] So I thought we'd begin with, "The Lord is One" from Deuteronomy, and then go into "Moses' Song of Triumph" from Exodus.
ASAPH: Actually, we did that one last week.
DAVID: Oh...right.
ASAPH: I'm sorry, oh King, I spoke out of turn.
DAVID: What if we do it before the time of worship has actually begun? As people are gathering. A sort of pre-service song.
ASAPH: To what end?
DAVID: Just to help people get in the mood for worship.
ASAPH: "Get in the mood?"
DAVID: Hey, I'm King. We'll try this.
ASAPH: You know we don't have a drummer this week. He has to work.
DAVID: He cannot work on the Sabbath.
ASAPH: His master has introduced something called 'rotating shifts' at the brick plant. It allows them to keep the oven fired up all the time and produce bricks around the clock, but the men have to work at all hours.
DAVID: But he is one of the temple musicians. I don't like this 'rotating shifts' thing; it could affect temple worship for generations. ...Anyway...let's move on. What if we open with "The Lord is One" and then go into the one I wrote as a kid, "Blessed is the Man."
ASAPH: You mean the one you call "Psalm One?"
DAVID: Yeah, I am thinking of combining them into a book with some of the ones you wrote; there's got to be over a hundred of them. Maybe I'll get Solomon to do it.
ASAPH: Actually, I've been meaning to talk with you about "Psalm One." With all due respect oh King, we often sing it after "The Lord is One" and well... you see "The Lord is One" is in the key of F, and your "Psalm One" is in the key of E, and when we go down one key it always sounds... oh, I don't know... it just sounds wrong.
DAVID: Then we'll do it first, and then sing "The Lord is One" and the musical keys will be in ascending order. This will be more pleasing to the ear.
ASAPH: But "The Lord is One" is the call to worship. "Psalm One" is not, but perhaps we could sing "Psalm 100" which is a call to worship and use the other song later in the service.
DAVID: [picking up clipboard] Let me write that down. [Writes] Well...thank you for coming, I will call you again to discuss the closing of the service.
ASAPH: Do you need to write it? Won't the Spirit of the Lord remind us of what He is telling us today?
DAVID: Yes... this list is for someone new I am adding to our team, someone who I think will make a difference in our temple worship for years to come. I call this appointment, "The Sound Man."
[Asaph exits, rolling his eyes upward!]