It has been on my mind for quite some time to write something about the Tent of David. Over the past couple of years, from time to time, my mind has wandered to this unique time in the history of Israel where the Ark of the Covenant was housed in a tent that King David pitched presumably on Mount Zion in Jerusalem.
Not much is recorded in scripture about this time in the history of the Ark of the Covenant and I certainly to not claim to be an expert on the matter. However, there is one thing that has become glaringly obvious to me about David’s Tent that I think is pertinent to today, and Easter seems like a wonderful time to share my observation. I will leave it to the reader to evaluate it’s significance in their lives. In order to share my observation and to ask one serious question, we need a quick review of the Tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant.
For those who aren't familiar with what the Ark of the Covenant is, Britannica.com defines it as: the ornate, gold-plated wooden chest that in biblical times housed the two tablets of the Law given to Moses by God. The Ark rested in the Holy of Holies inside the Tabernacle and the ancient Temple of Jerusalem and was seen only by the high priest of the Israelites on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
That is, in it’s most simple form, an adequate description of the Ark of the Covenant.
The Tabernacle for the people of Israel was constructed by instructions given to Moses by God when they were led out of captivity in Egypt. God was coming to live with his people. Since his people lived in tents, God would live in a tent. The tent that God would live in was the Tabernacle.
The Courtyard of the Tabernacle was surrounded by a linen fence. In the Courtyard a tent was erected and divided into the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place or Holy of Holies.
The Ark of the Covenant had a lid of solid-gold with covering cherubim called the Mercy Seat. The Ark and the Mercy Seat were considered the most holy of all of the furnishings and vessels in the Tabernacle, and they were set right in the middle of the Holy of Holies. To the people of Israel, the Ark of the Covenant represented the manifest presence of God.
God told Moses:
There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel. Exodus 25:22 (ESV)
In order to appreciate the magnitude of this I quote from David Hyde’s book, “God in Our Midst.”
“Here is such a mind-blowing idea about the God of the Bible that we have to pause for a moment. The eternal God who is not constrained by the existence of time, the infinite God who is not bound by the constraints of space, the transcendent God who dwells above and beyond all time and space, and the immense God who fills all time and space condescended to the weakness of His people and became manifest for their benefit in one locale. This God is not bound by time, but He bound Himself to the time-bound experience of His people. This God is not bound by space, but He bound Himself to this box. He is above all creational constraints, but He bound Himself to them. He is everywhere, but He was there.”
As mentioned above, the high priest was permitted to enter the Holy of Holies and stand before the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat once a year on the Day of Atonement. Very specific sacrifices had to be made and God directed rituals had to take place for the High Priest to enter the Holy of Holies to make atonement for the sins of the people. On occasion God would have them take the Ark to lead them into battle and the Ark would lead them across the Jordan River into the land that God had promised them.
For our purposes, in discussing the Tent of David, that will serve as a very primary description of the Ark of the Covenant. Exodus 25 to the end of the book provides a detailed description of the Tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant.
The Ark of the Covenant with it’s surrounding Tabernacle was the center of every encampment of the people of God for the forty years they wandered through the wilderness. It would lead them through their conquest of Canaan, the land God had promised them, and eventually ended up in Shiloh. Through it all, daily sacrifices were offered, the rituals and festivals God had given them were observed and, every year, the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies and stand before the Ark of the Covenant to obtain forgiveness for the people and the nation.
As Israel conquered the land God had promised them, the Tabernacle was eventually set up in Shiloh. It remained there for 370 years through the era of the Judges of Israel. Festivals were celebrated there. Daily sacrifices were offered, rituals were observed and one time every year the High Priest would go into the Holy of Holies, stand before the Ark of the Covenant of offer sacrifices for the sins of the people.
Things changed when the second to last Judge of Israel, Eli, was serving as the High Priest in Shiloh. It can be read about beginning in 1 Samuel 4, but here are the highlights.
1) The Philistines were defeating Israel in battle. The sons of Eli foolishly decided to take the Ark into combat with them. Israel was soundly defeated, Eli’s son’s were killed and the Ark of the Covenant was captured by the Philistines
2) The Philistines put the Ark in the temple of their god Dagon. Every morning, they would find Dagon falling on it’s face before the Ark of the Covenant. God also began pouring out judgements on the Philistines until they finally sent the Ark back to Israel (1 Samuel 5-6)
3) The Ark of the Covenant ended up at Kiriath-jearim for the next twenty years. (1 Samuel 7) .
4) Saul became King in Israel. Neither he nor the priests ever reunited the Ark of the Covenant with the Tabernacle or it’s home in the Holy of Holies.
When David became king in Israel, the Tabernacle had been moved to the high place of Gibeon, about five miles from Jerusalem, and the Ark of the Covenant remained at Kiriath-jearim. The first thing David did after becoming king was to retrieve the Ark of the Covenant. (2 Samuel 6)
King David, this man after God’s heart, did an amazing thing when he went to get the Ark of the Covenant. It would have made sense to either return the Ark to the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle in Gibeon or to bring the Tabernacle to Jerusalem. But King David did neither. David pitched a tent outside of his house on Mount Zion in Jerusalem and put the Ark of the Covenant, the manifest presence of God, in that tent.
Indeed, David offered sacrifices as he brought the Ark there, he offered a sacrifice when he got it there, but for the next forty years, as long as David was king, the manifest presence of God sat in a tent without even one sacrifice being offered. The daily sacrifices were not offered, the rituals God ordained for anyone to be in the presence of God were not followed, and the Ark with the Mercy Seat with the golden cherubim between which the presence of God dwelt was in a tent open for all who would come. All who entered could gaze with unveiled face at the glory of the Lord, and God did not strike anyone dead..
To be sure, David did not treat this flippantly. He did not wander into the tent, sit down and put his feet on the Ark and joke around with his friends.
King David commanded Asaph, who would become the author of many of the Psalms, along with 288 specifically trained singers and musicians to worship the Lord before the Ark day and night. (1 Chronicles 16:37, 25:6-7) The number ultimately grew to 4,000 individuals whose sole responsibility was to worship the Lord twenty-four hours a day every day.. (1 Chronicles 23:5)
Many scholars believe that the majority of the Psalms were originally sung as prophetic songs in the Tent of David. Many assume that David and Asaph wrote many of the Psalms as they sat or stood or bowed before the presence of the Lord in the tent.
I submit that King David was in the tent when he wrote Psalm 61.
Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer; from the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I, for you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy.
Let me dwell in your tent forever! Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings! Selah
David was standing in the tent, before the Ark of the Covenant, and gazing at the cherubim above the Mercy Seat. He was in the presence of the Lord, bathed intimately in the glory of God, and just did not want to leave. He wanted to stay there forever knowing that his only shelter was the One who dwelt between the wings of the cherubim. The Lord God Almighty!
I have written these things, not to teach about the Tabernacle or the Ark of the Covenant, but to draw a stark distinction between the Tent of David (David’s Tent, Tabernacle of David) and the Tabernacle sitting in Gibeon.
In David’s Tent, there was unrestrained praise, worship, adoration, celebration, fellowship and complete intimacy with the Lord, the God of creation. At the Tabernacle there was sacrifice, rituals, practices and traditions meant to appease a God who no longer inhabited the Holy of Holies. The glory of God was in a tent David pitched and the people stood before it adoring the beauty of the glory of the Lord.
Solomon would later build a temple. The Ark of the Covenant would be placed back into the Holy of Holies. The practices of the Tabernacle of Moses would be moved to the temple and the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies once every year and stand before the Ark of the Covenant and offer atonement for the sins of the people.
The prophet Amos said in Amos 9:11
"In that day I will restore David's fallen tent. I will repair its broken places, restore its ruins, and build it as it used to be,
Why, in this restoration process, does God choose to restore the Tent of David? Why not the Tabernacle of Moses? Why didn’t God say he would restore Solomon’s temple? Solomon’s temple was enormous and extravagant. It’s splendor far exceeded that of David’s Tent.
In the early church, James would quote that scripture in the discussion as to what restrictions should be put on Gentile believers.
There are numerous thoughts on what exactly Amos meant when that was written and they vary from the millennial reign of Christ to a time when music will be central to ushering in a new era of the church.
I do not know the answer to that debate, but I do think a big step was taken in restoring David’s Tent when the Savior, Jesus Christ, died on that cross.
And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And
the earth shook, and the rocks were split. Matthew 27:50-51 (ESV)
The curtain blocked the entrance to the Holy of Holies. The tearing of the veil was a visual demonstration that the way into the Lord’s presence was now open to all through a new and living way. It was, at the very least, a step toward the Tent of David being restored.
Believer, I have written this that you might ask yourself a question that I have been forced to ask myself as I have considered the Tent of David.
What does your worship, your praise, your closeness to our Lord most resemble? Does your intimacy with the Father and with the Lord Jesus more resemble the Tent of David or the Tabernacle in Gibeon?
Like King David, do you sit in his presence, beholding his beauty until you reach the point of never wanting to leave. The point of saying, “I don’t want to leave this place. Let me stay right here forever. You are my fortress, my protection and my stronghold. Hold me firmly in the shelter of your wings.” Is it affectionate, intimate, uplifting and God glorifying? Or is it more like the work, routine and ritualistic forms of service that were taking place in a Tabernacle empty of the manifest presence of God.
Believer, our Lord poured his love out for you through the agony of the cross and the victory of the resurrection. If you ever doubt the depth of that love, read Romans 8 over and over until it seeps deep in your soul. Concentrate on the truth of that last few verses.
Through that cross you are a beloved child of the King. You have become a temple of the Living God. Christ is in you and you are in Him. You are, in some unfathomable way, seated with Him in heavenly places. That same power that slipped into that tomb and raised Jesus from the dead now indwells you.
Given all that let me ask you this. Does your prayer life, worship life, study life, and daily fellowship with the Creator and sustainer of all things more resemble the intimacy of David’s Tent or the ritualistic work of the Tabernacle?
I am not saying that every day should be a party of praise in the presence of the Lord. Read David’s Psalms. Sometimes there was deep despair. Sometimes doubts and questioning. Sometimes he was flying high and other times his emotions were as low as they could be. I am not talking about how you are feeling when you go before the Lord, but I am asking if you are growing in intimacy as you pour your heart out to the One who cares deeply for you. Are you experiencing the intimacy of David’s tent or going through the ritual’s of the Tabernacle?
In my mind, I have drawn a circle around the alter in my office and asked the Holy Spirit to make my times in that space more and more like the intimacy that flowed through the fellowship in David’s Tent. I am asking that every space I seek Him in, even in times of fear, doubt and questioning, be like the closeness and affection that was the hall mark of David’s Tent.
Believer, we need this now. We need it today. Evil is growing every day and the enemy is boldly attacking where in the past his schemes were so much more subtle. We need believers, wherever they are praying or worshiping or seeking the Lord, to ask the Spirit of the living God to begin to begin to rebuild the walls of David’s Tent in that space. Ask him to fill it with increasing intimacy between the worshiper and the only true God who alone is worthy of all glory, praise and honor.
Abba, this Easter lead me, lead your people, your true church, to the freedom, the openness, the worship and the intimacy that the man after your own heart experienced as he sat in your presence in that very special tent. Revive us there dear Lord, that we might be revived. Begin to rebuild the fallen walls of the Tent of David in these people who are members of your New Covenant church that your Holy Spirit might soar and that an unbelieving world might be drawn to the beauty and salvation of Christ Jesus. Show them your glory Lord.
Have a wonderful Easter!
