I am sure many of you have studied about the Tabernacle of Moses.  I have often used the tabernacle as a model for prayer.  It is a very meaningful and helpful guide.  However the Old Testament Tabernacle of Moses, for a brief time, was set aside and the Tabernacle of David replaced it.  It is the Tabernacle of David I would like to consider today.

David set up the tabernacle on Zion’s hill: the hill the Jebusites reluctantly gave up.  I am sure they did not know that they gave up that land because God decided He was ready to make use of it, but give up the land they did and God used it.  Psalm 78:65-72 says, “Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, Like a mighty man who shouts because of wine.  And He beat back His enemies; He put them to a perpetual reproach.  Moreover He rejected the tent of Joseph, And did not choose the tribe of Ephraim, But chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which He loved.  And He built His sanctuary like the heights, Like the earth which He has established forever. He also chose David His servant, And took him from the sheepfolds; From following the ewes that had young He brought him, To shepherd Jacob His people, And Israel His inheritance.  So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, And guided them by the skillfulness of his hands” (NKJV).  Yes, God chose a shepherd, a man after His own heart and gave him a sanctuary in which to worship Him day and night, 24/7. 

There was no veil in David’s Tabernacle.  For about 40 years David led his people in worship.  He and the people enthroned the Lord on their praises.  It all must have seemed so strange.  David was not a high priest.  Only the High Priest was permitted to go into the Holy of Holies and that was only once a year.  There was a VERY thick veil between the Holy of Holies and the people.  But all of that changed…for here was David as Ps. 73:17 explains…going into the sanctuary of God.  It was there David found wisdom.  It was there he communed with God.  But the days of David’s Tabernacle were brief.  It seems God used it as a prototype of the face-to-face worship that we now have available because Jesus came into the world and once and for all rent the veil that separated us from His presence. 

May I ask you to consider that the real battle this Christmas is over the glory of God?  If Jesus is the Lord of your life, His glory is in you and His glory can be released through you.  There is no veil keeping you from entering into His presence.  What keeps us from His presence is our stuff, our fears, our self-focus, our pride, in short our flesh.  But dear one, we can choose this Christmas to step on our flesh and the things of this world.  We can choose to worship the Lord our God in Spirit and in Truth.  By His grace we can let go and let God fill your heart with His glory.  How amazing is that!!

We can even come together as a body and this same glory can be manifested in our churches in a greater dimension than we have ever known.  Yes, let us win this battle this Christmas.  Praise Him and give homage to Him through worship, let the atmosphere be filled with His glory.  Now that will surely be a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Patricia Wenzel
WOC Graduate

For further study:  Mediate upon Psalm 92, 149, 150

Some information above taken from:
Worship as it is in Heaven by John Dickson and Chuck Pierce, Regal, 2010