Cymbals

Cymbals (Hebrew tzeltzelim, from a root meaning to tinkle or clash) were percussion instruments consisting of two circular metal plates struck together to produce sound. They were used in Israel's worship both at the tabernacle and the temple, and appear frequently in the lists of musical instruments employed in processional worship. David used cymbals in the joyful procession of the ark to Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6:5; 1 Chronicles 13:8), and David organized the Levitical musicians — including Heman, Asaph, and Ethan — to play bronze cymbals in the temple service (1 Chronicles 15:16–19, 28).

Psalm 150:5 calls for praise with loud cymbals and high-sounding cymbals in the concluding doxology of the Psalter — the most expansive call to instrumental praise in Scripture. Paul's use of the clanging cymbal in 1 Corinthians 13:1 — though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal — turns the image of ceremonial praise into a figure of empty spiritual performance: impressive sound without the substance of love. The metaphor becomes one of the most cited illustrations in Pauline theology.