Pavilion of Praise
What could hurt God?
I asked that question to a group of young guitar students recently and they immediately thought I was asking what could hurt God’s feelings, or bring Him sadness emotionally. But that is not my question. My question is what could hurt God? What could harm Him or do Him damage?
The answer is… Absolutely nothing! There is nothing that all of hell and the forces of darkness could do to bring harm to God.
How would you like it if God could build a shield or a pavilion around you to make your life like that? Well I can assure you that He can. What I’m talking about is what I call a pavilion of praise.
Psalm 27:5 says that in the time of trouble God shall hide me in His pavilion, and in the secret place of his tabernacle he shall hide me up on the rock… More about that in the moment.
Psalm 31:20 says that God will hide us in the secret His presence from the pride of man. He will hide us secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues. These two verses are both worthy of more consideration and I’ll do that momentarily. But first I want to say, God’s desire is to hide you and I in a pavilion created by His presence—where He chooses to tabernacle—so that you are as safe as He is – and again, nothing can bring harm to God!
This pavilion that God wishes to establish over your life is a pavilion of praise. The above verses contain the words tabernacle and presence. The word tabernacle in Psalm 27:5 is the Hebrew word that means tent, or dwelling place. It is God’s desire to bring you into His very dwelling place and secretly hide you.
Then there is the word presence in Psalm 31:20. God wants to hide your very life in the secret of His presence—this requires that you be in His presence. I know there’s the concept, and the fact, that God is always present—He’s everywhere so He’s omni-present. He IS the Lord at our right hand. But there’s also the concept of the manifest presence of God, where we are aware of God’s presence with us… this is the place we grow to in life where we practice the presence of God. It is well worth the effort to develop a lifestyle like this, because in that lifestyle you are protected by God’s very presence. You are kept in a pavilion of praise.
Both of the above mentioned concepts are dependent upon the teaching in Psalm 21:3. This is the verse from which we get the phrase that God inhabits the praises of his people. Psalm 21:3 actually says that God chooses to move His throne into the place where He finds tehillah – the hallelujah praise songs of His people. I stated it this way because the word tehillah comes from the word halal and halal is where we get the word hallelujah. The word halal means to be obvious, or clear, that is to shine brightly – it has to do with light and or sound. And so every praise song that is based on halal would be a praise song that is obviously and clearly giving praise to God – this is tehillah. When God finds this in a place He moves His thrown into that place. God’s throne has wheels, and those wheels are on fire. We see this in Daniel 7. One of the reasons God’s throne has wheels is that He wants the portability of being able to move in and out of places where His praises are—or are not—found. With His presence comes His fire to consume everything that’s not on Him. Where His throne is is where He establishes His dwelling place, were no harm can enter.
If you want a place where you’re safe from harm let God establish a pavilion of praise in your life. Develop a lifestyle of perpetual praise and God will build a pavilion of praise around you. Live that lifestyle openly in front of people in your life and those that like that lifestyle will gravitate to you. Those that do not will flee from you. Those who gravitate toward you will dwell in that pavilion of praise with you and be kept safe, as you are. They will also have their lives transformed by your lifestyle of praise.
This is an integral component and principal and concept of the Tabernacle of David!
We find ourselves living in a day and age in which elements of society and government want to squelch praise to God in the public arena. We also find ourselves in the day and age in which those same segments of society and governments are thrashing about and scratching their heads trying to find answers to reasons for amazing acts of violence and harm to large segments of populations.
My advice to you – advice that I tried to live on a daily basis – ignore those who want to squelch praise being demonstrated publicly, and just go ahead and praise God anyway. He will be a pavilion of praise around you and those in your life.
~Michael David Riggs
Comments 20
Lead kindly light, lead thou me on
Awesome+!
Thank you for the clarification of pavilion of praise our God desires praise this will assist in understanding praise scripture.
Amen.
A sacrifice of praise. (Not feelings; we don’t always have those, speaking through sorry experience.) Sing, Church of the Eternal Beloved! He is worthy!
I was reading Psalm 31 and looked up a definition for “pavilion”. I had just sung/prayed “O Rock of Ages hide Thou me! Lo and behold, I came upon your article. It just fit! Thank you
Thanks for the above article. Really appreciate what you have to say. How true!
One correction needed: you referred us to Ps 21:3 … I think it should be Ps 22:3
Hope this is of help.
God bless!
Thank you for so eloquently defining the concept of ‘pavilion’.
This is inspiring. Thanks
Explained we’re my 8 year old can understand!!
Thank you Celia. We’ll check it out!
God is Faithful! Thanks for commenting!
Thank you for reading the blog and for commenting on it. Yes, He IS Worthy!
Blessings! Denie
I was amazed when God took me to this article. I mentioned we are going to be in the pavilion during a truck show. And the Holy Spirit clearly spoke to me when I said pavilion, at that moment I began to look it up and its meaning being Beneath god’s covering. And then I ran across your article which perfectly explains what the Holy Spirit was telling me. Under his pavilion he covers us, in his dwelling place. Thank you for clarifying for us
This article was so very timely for me. Thank you!
i’m glad that it blessed you. Take care!
THANK YOU!!!
So very well explained, in my daily devotion the Holy Spirit quickened me when I was reading Psalms 18:11about pavilion. Thank you. I needed that.
Deep insight
This truly ministered to my heart. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SHARING THIS WORD OF WISDOM!!! I simply can’t express how much of a blessing this is…. Love you, sending virtual hugs and kisses
I am so thankful to find such a clear explanation of the pavilion . This was jam packed with terms that were not on my radar. I often feel like I’m not where I should be, but God is patient to lead me to helpful resources that bring me greater understanding.
Thank you and to Celia that commented the typo of Psalm 21:3 should be Psalm 22:3.
Truly, thank you Mr. Riggs!