In His Pavilion

Titus Women

In His Pavilion
by Frances Hughes

Psalm 27:5-6 KJV

"For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; in the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me; He shall set me up on a rock. And now shall mine head be lifted above mine enemies round about me. Therefore will I offer in His tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord."

I like that word pavilion. It sounds rather private and personal in spite of the fact that it is a very open covering similar to a tent without sides. Sometimes I feel it also has a romantic feeling. You would often see the use of them in movies on the desert when they would set them up for use during the night or a time of staying in one place for awhile.

This pavilion God is going to put inside His tabernacle and set David upon a rock. That rock is Jesus as one of our hymns states. "Be very sure, be very sure, that rock is Jesus, the only one." I rather imagine this to be something very beautiful and elaborate, since God never does anything halfway but always the very best.

Inside this place would be every comfort God could bring to anyone in need for whatever their situation. David was a needy person in spite of the fact that he was King. I am speaking in reference to his spiritual needs. Yes, many times when he was hiding from Saul his needs were different. But I want to think about his spiritual needs. He was no different as a person than any of the rest of us. We all have the need to be wanted, loved, cared for, important to someone, useful in circumstances where counseling is involved. I guess the list could be larger, but this will be enough for now.

"In the secret of His tabernacle, shall He hide me." God's tabernacle is in heaven. This is where He dwells and to be placed there would seem to me to be one of much blessing. There God has said He would place David. God's tabernacle was also here on earth as His dwelling place where the priests would come to offer the sacrifices God required. So I would have to say that in the tabernacle where David would go to worship, would be where God would hide him here on earth.

Can you imagine any better place than to be placed upon a rock named Jesus. What do you think of when you think of a rock? Something strong, rugged, solid, a good foundation. He is all of that and much more. I am not knowledgeable enough to go much further than this in explanation of what this particular portion means than what it says. God was placing David in a secure place of safety from all his enemies and assuring him of His protection.

In return David says,

"Therefore will I offer in His tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord."

Sacrifices of joy.....I wonder what that means? The only thing I can come up with on this is that when we were lost and in our sins we had many things of joy in our life. Some were sinful, others were looked upon as not being something we wished everyone to know about. They were joyful to us and we really enjoyed them. When we became redeemed, looking back on them, they became things God could not accept in our life anymore because He hates sin.

The desire to remain in them, He graciously removed, took them away from us. Some which had been more active in our life were a harder struggle for us to abandon. But by His grace we were able to do so. These are the sacrifices (act of giving up) we made after becoming a Christian. We desired for these things to be removed from our life so we sacrificed them to God.

The word JOY is quite different than being happy. Before we were saved joy was felt in doing things and being involved in situations that made you joyful. All this was an external joy. Happiness is also something that can only be felt (in my opinion) externally also. Because if it is felt internally within the heart then it is much greater than just being happy it is an emotion of JOY put there by the Lord, something no one can steal away from you.

In John 16:22 when Jesus was speaking to His disciples before He went back to heaven, He told them

"And ye now, therefore, have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your JOY no man taketh from you."

Happiness can come and go but the JOY God gives you will never be taken away by anyone.

Singing praises to the Lord would not seem like an offering of much in comparison to all the wonderful things God bestows upon us. But remember our God is well pleased when whatever we do for Him is done from the heart and not for any glory we might receive. When a person's heart is so full of love for God, a love based only on the person of Him alone, it is a pure love with no expectation of anything in return. I would think a person would be continuously sings praises to Him with out being reminded to do so by someone else. Is this not one of the many ways we can show our love for Him who gave His all for us?

Reading His word is another way that is also pleasing to Him but it is two-fold. We also receive instruction and much, much more for it. Is The Bible not known as "The Roadmap of Life" for us who belong to Him? This is one way the Holy Spirit makes God known to us as we read it. For a person who desires to be more like the Master, how else can we learn more than from the Holy Word. Spending time in the Lord's Presence is the most rewarding part of loving Him.

Note: The verses referred to here are from the King James Version.

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