“This will be written for the generation to come, that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord.” (Ps. 102:18, NKJV)
In the Psalm that is used as opening Scripture it is clear that David prophesies about another dispensation in praise which will one day come into being. This “generation to come” of which he speaks about, the “people yet to be created”, is the new nation of which Ex. 19:6 also prophesied, and of which 1 Pet. 2:9 speaks: “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light …” Clearly this grouping is the one mentioned earlier in verses 15 to 16, as Zion (= the Bride): “So the nations shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth Your glory. For the Lord shall build up Zion; He shall appear in His glory.”
The Levites who, according to 1 Chr. 15:2, were chosen to carry to the ark of the covenant (= the presence of God), in the new dispensation of a new order priesthood, and according to Isa. 43:21, are the “people I have formed for Myself”, they who “shall declare My praise”.
In Isa. 16:5 we find an important key regarding this new dispensation: “In mercy the throne will be established; and One will sit on it in truth, in the tabernacle of David …” The term ‘David’s tent’ points to the tabernacle which David had built for the Lord. It was not completely similar to the tabernacle of Moses in the desert. 2 Sam. 6:17 explains it as follows: “So they brought the ark of the Lord, and set it in its place in the midst of the tabernacle that David had erected for it. Then David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord.” Note – David was a king, not a priest or high priest. As functionary of this tabernacle he thus becomes the first person in the priesthood of Melchizedek: “For it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood. And it is yet far more evident if, in the likeness of Melchizedek, there arises another priest who has come, not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life. For He testifies: ‘You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.’” (Heb. 7:14-17). [Remember: the tribe of Judah was the tribe from which kings originated, and the tribe of Levi was the tribe from which the Levitical priesthood originated. Jesus was thus often referred to as the Lion of Judah – the lion is the totem of the tribe of Judah (see Gen. 49:9; Hos. 5:14; and Rev. 5:5).]
The order of Melchizedek was a “royal priesthood” (1 Pet. 2:9) and they function in this third dimension, which is then also known as “the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down”: “On that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, and repair its damages; I will raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old …”
Within Charismatic hermeneutics the concept of the ‘tabernacle of David’ has, over the last two decades or so, become strongly intertwined with the idea of 24/7 praise and worship. One pioneer in the establishing of this idea was Mike Bickle and his ministry International House of Prayer (IHOP), and an associated ministry named Harp and Bowl. Their website provides the following description: “The International House of Prayer is a 24-hour a day, city wide worship and warfare, interdenominational prayer ministry serving the Body of Christ. This ministry is modelled after the Tabernacle of David with singers and musicians being released to lead corporate intercession and worship 24 hours a day … The House of Prayer for all nations ministry includes continuous praise and prayer dethroning the principalities and powers over a region declaring God’s sovereignty. This is in the spirit of Rev. 4-5 ‘Harp and Bowl’ worship and warfare prayer gatherings, the harp representing praise and the bowl representing the prayers of the saints which is at the heart of David’s Tabernacle.”
From this it explicitly follows that the tabernacle of David is mainly directed toward continual praise and worship. In his book Glory in the Church – a fresh blueprint for worship in the 21st Century, Jarrod Cooper presents the following truth about praise and worship in the contemporary church: “There is a subtle understanding now that suggests that music alone constitutes worship.” (For a period his church removed all forms of music as praise and worship, “to test the genuineness of their worship … They learned to worship without music.”)
In most Charismatic ministries we are taught that praise and worship are part of spiritual warfare. “Worship is taught as something which actually accomplishes something in the spirit world and is linked to prophetic revelation and spiritual warfare. More and more believers look to music as the primary source of spiritual fulfilment. New generations of charismatics are proclaiming that God is restoring to the overcoming end time church forms of worship that purportedly occurred in David’s tabernacle.” (Orrel Steinkamp: ‘The Restoration of Davidic Warfare/Worship’, in The Plumbline, Vol. 7, No. 4, September/October 2002.)
In a book like David K. Blomgren’s Restoring God’s Glory: The Present Day Rise of David’s Tabernacle this ‘restoration’ of the Tabernacle of David is primarily linked to “God’s plan to restore His glory to the final church as a prelude to the Second Coming of Christ”. Michael Moriarity argues in a similar vein in his book The New Charismatics: “Bible teachers of our day who are moving in present truth have discovered God’s anointed plan to restore the Tabernacle of David, which is the perfect pattern of praise and worship all New Testament believers are to follow. The restoration of the pattern of praise and worship that once prevailed in King David’s day will release a prophetic stream of praise in our day that will energize the church with new power and demolish the works of Satan. Believers will approach God in new ways such as singing in tongues to activate revelations, prophesying in song, dancing rhythmically in the Spirit and all the traditional charismatic methods (hand clapping, raising of hands etc.). Those who resist this restoration of worship will fall short of God’s standard and will continue to operate in a faulty form of worship and will be in danger of the glory of God departing from their churches.”
A total misunderstanding of the concept of the Tabernacle of David lies at the heart of this perspective. In the following teaching we will have a more in-depth look at especially Acts 15:16 and that which preceded it, so that we can point out how the myth of organised praise in the ecclesia being of central importance when praising God came about.
- Selah: What do you understand by the term ‘the tabernacle of David’?
- Read: 18; 1 Sam. l 28-31; Ps. 121; Ps. 123-125; Ps. 128-130
- Memorise: 121
- For a more in-depth understanding: Read Jarrod Cooper’s book Glory in the Church – a fresh blueprint for worship in the 21st Century
