The Philistines had captured the ark of the covenant in battle. But after their god falling on his face before the ark and the people being struck with tumors and rats, they returned it to the Israelites in a new cart. The Israelites placed the ark in the house of Abinadab and they appointed his son, Eleazar, to keep it. The ark remained there for twenty years.

Now we don’t hear about the house of Abinadab until David wanted to bring the ark into the city of Jerusalem. The ark was taken to the house of Abinadab in a new cart, so the sons of Abinadab, Uzzah and Ahio, placed the ark on a new cart to drive it to Jerusalem. When the oxen stumbled, Uzzah put his hand on the ark to steady it and the Lord struck him down. David became very angry at this and decided not to move the ark into his city. He placed it in the house of Obed-Edom.

While the ark had been in the house of Abinadab for twenty years and they did not esteem it enough to know how to care for it. The ark was with the family of Obed-Edom three months and the Lord blessed his house and all that he had. We really don’t see the difference between the houses until David came and took the ark of the Lord to the tabernacle of David in Jerusalem. Abinadab, the head of the house, did not bother himself with the ark even to having his son take care of it instead of him. When the ark was removed from his house, Abinadab is no where in the account. His sons were the ones to place it in a cart to take to Jerusalem. But when the ark is removed from Obed-Edom’s house, we immediately find Obed-Edom and his family, including his 68 brothers, in the roles of worshippers, doorkeepers and storehouse guards. Obed-Edom and his family left their homes, farms and estates to have the privilege of continuing to care for the ark of the Lord.

When David appointed the Levites to stand before the ark of the covenant to minister, to commemorate, to thank and to praise the Lord God, he appointed Asaph as chief but among the ranks next to Asaph was Obed-Edom. (I Chron 16:5) Obed-Edom, along with a man named Jehiah, became the doorkeepers for the ark of the Lord. (I Chron 15:24) Obed-Edom and his family are recorded multiple times in the rolls of the temple worshippers and caretakers. Obed-Edom was so faithful in his duties that in later years when Joash the king of Israel defeated Jerusalem, it is recorded: And he [Joash] took all the gold and silver, all the articles that were found in the house of God with Obed-Edom, the treasures of the king’s house, and hostages, and returned to Samaria. (2 Chronicles 25:24) The three months the ark of the covenant stayed in his house changed Obed-Edom to the point he gave his life to care for it.

Now notice Asaph, the chief musician and a writer of the Psalms. He saw Obed-Edom stand before the ark day after day. He saw the adoration and devotion that Obed-Edom had for the ark of the Lord. And he writes in Psalms 84:
How lovely is Your tabernacle,
O LORD of hosts!
2 My soul longs, yes, even faints
For the courts of the LORD;
My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God…
For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
Than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield;
The LORD will give grace and glory;
No good thing will He withhold
From those who walk uprightly.
12 O LORD of hosts,
Blessed is the man who trusts in You!