Before we launch into another lengthy series, let me take the next two or three weeks to deal with an issue that faces the body of Christ right now. My approach may be a bit different on this topic, and if I offend certain Christians with some of my comments, please bear with me and hear me out.
Today, we wrap up this series. For the past three months-plus, we’ve been talking about the various realms of praise and worship and how they intersected with the Tabernacle of David. Let me give you a couple of statistics from the Psalms. Did you ever stop to realize that the Psalms are the exact center of the Word? All of Creation revolves around the Worship, the Praise, the Prayers and Intercession in the Psalms. THAT was the essence of the Tabernacle of David. Let’s take it one step farther. Psalm 117 is the exact center of the Word. There are 594 chapters before Psalm 117 and 594 chapters after Psalm 117. And how does Psalm 117 read?
During the past seventy-plus years, I’ve heard everything from good old country gospel music to classical music referred to as “Worship.” Huhh Uhh! Nope! It doesn’t work like that! That doesn’t mean that one can’t worship with country-style music, nor does it mean that one can’t worship with certain classical music. We’ve experienced real worship in the midst of what I would call jazz.
Most of you have heard me share my first experience of being in Heaven and being exposed to the sound of the worship and praise that fills Heaven. I’ve shared with you how every cell of my being vibrated with that worship. It affected my DNA — so much so, that even to this day, some 67 years later, the sound of praise and worship flow through me non-stop.
We are talking about the core of the opposition that has faced those who are committed to real praise and worship, and where that opposition and persecution began. When you understand Satan’s original place in Heaven as Lucifer, the Archangel who surrounded the Throne with praise and worship, and how he was cast out of Heaven after his arrogance and rebellion and effort to overthrow the Throne of God, then you begin to understand why he so hates those who have replaced him with their love, their praise and their worship.
It probably seems to some as though we have really deviated from the topic of David’s Tabernacle and the picture of unabated praise and worship, but I assure you, we have not! The relationship that David experienced with the Lord was an intimate one. It is a strange thing that during all of his years as King of Israel, he wound up marrying so many women in his desire to match the relationship he had with the Lord. Not until he married Bathsheba (under highly controversial and questionable circumstances) did he finally feel like he had a wife in this life with whom he could be One!
Well, I warned you last week that we needed to run down a religious rabbit trail, and that we needed to blow that rabbit trail apart. You see, the problem is that throughout the centuries, God’s people have been caught up in traditions that began with their ancestors – traditions that began before their ancestors had the kind of revelation that Holy Spirit is pouring out on His people today. We need to break those traditions and get out of the religious boxes that we’ve all suffered with for generations.
I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again. Few people in this age and generation really understand what it is to be joined together by the Lord in a union that is more than physical. People often get married because they “fall in love.” The problem is that in a few months or years, they “fall out of love.” Their relationship really wasn’t based on love but on a physical attraction to one another or because of seeming parallel interests.