Heman, the "he-man"

Heman was an unusual fellow, had an unusual job with an unusual family. He - with two other men, Asaph and Jeduthun - were three chosen leaders to head up King David's music department of 288 persons. They were the original teams of vocalists and musicians established by David to publicly praise and honor God in a practiced, ordered manner.

As mentioned already, Heman was one of the three men whose sole, full-time, paid job was to train and practice these 288 musicians. Oddly, there was no "selection process" as we would generally expect, for all of them were "born into" their special, musically gifted responsibilities.

If you were a son or a daughter of Asaph, Jeduthun or Heman, you were expected - and trained - from early childhood to sing and/or play a musical instrument, and eventually participate in public worship music.

Some might think: "How could this be? Some individuals cannot keep time or carry a tune in a bucket". This is easy for me to accept, having been born into the J. C. Wise family (my maternal grandfather). All seven children - five girls and two boys - could sing beautifully and play just about any musical instrument they wanted to or were asked to. But, more importantly, as the Scriptures often relates, God especially gifted these biblical musicians to perform their specialized tasks.

So, what made Heman a "he-man"? If you were to read 1 Chronicles 25:4-7, it would quickly become apparent. Heman had fourteen sons and three daughters, and I took the liberty to edit their long names a bit. Buck, Matt, Uzi, Sheb, Jerry, Hank, Hans, Eli, Giddi, Rom, Josh, Mel, Hoss, Mac, Shari, Judi and Hanah.

Just think of it! 17 children with Dad and Mom would compose either a small orchestra or very large combo within just one family! Heman was a real "he-man", and his wife, Carlene, not too shabby either!

(I gave the women names. They did have them, you know). WLB