The Presence-Centered Kingdom, Part 1: Samuel and the Restoration of Prophetic Worship

Samuel and the Restoration of Prophetic Worship

“And there he built an altar to the LORD.” — 1 Samuel 7:17

From the very beginning, Israel’s story was meant to be the story of a presence-centered kingdom. When Moses ascended Mount Sinai and received the pattern for the tabernacle, he wasn’t merely given blueprints for a portable tent; he was given heaven’s design for how God would dwell among His people on earth.

“Let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.” — Exodus 25:8

That was the heartbeat of the covenant. Israel was not chosen simply to have a law, a land, or a lineage, but to live as the people among whom God dwelt. Every tribe was positioned around the tabernacle. Every festival revolved around His presence. Every victory and every loss hinged on whether Yahweh’s nearness was honored or ignored.

But over time, the nation became wayward and their destiny dimmed.

The Loss of the Presence

By the end of the period of the judges, the ark of the covenant, once the symbol of God’s enthroned presence, had been captured. Shiloh, the location of her sanctuary, lay desolate (Jer 7:12–14). The priesthood had fallen into corruption under Eli and his sons.
The prophetic voice had fallen silent.

“The word of the LORD was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision.” — 1 Samuel 3:1

Israel still existed as a nation, but she no longer lived as the presence-centered kingdom she was called to be. The rhythms of worship had become hollow rituals, and the people “did what was right in their own eyes.”

This is the context into which Samuel was born. He was a transitional figure standing between the collapse of priestly Israel and the rise of the Davidic order. He would become the vessel through whom God restored the prophetic voice. And ultimately through restoring His voice, He restored His presence among His people.

The Voice Returns

Samuel’s story begins with a barren woman’s agonizing prayer and a whispered call from heaven in the night. From his earliest days, Samuel ministered “before the Lord” at Shiloh (1 Sam 2:18). When God called him by name (1 Sam 3:4), Samuel became the first prophet to hear the divine voice after a generation of silence.

This was no small thing. Throughout Scripture, the restoration of God’s presence is always preceded by the restoration of His voice.

When Samuel began to prophesy, Israel’s condition began to change:

“The LORD revealed Himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the LORD.” — 1 Samuel 3:21

God’s presence that had once been withdrawn from Shiloh now began to move again in Israel, through a man who heard and obeyed His words.

The Altar at Ramah

For years Samuel operated in power encounters and prophetic interventions. He led Israel in repentance and facilitated God’s deliverance from the Philistines. Finally, Samuel returned to his home in Ramah. There, he did something that marked a profound turning point:

“Then he would return to Ramah, for his home was there. And there he judged Israel, and there he built an altar to the LORD.” — 1 Samuel 7:17

The place where the ark had been kept at Shiloh, was now fallen, and the tabernacle system which thrived under Moses was fractured. There was no recognized central sanctuary. In that vacuum, Samuel’s altar became a new center of worship. It did not replace the law, but it prophetically anticipated the next stage in God’s redemptive plan.

Keil and Delitzsch’ commentary notes that Samuel’s altar was legitimate because “the sanctuary at Shiloh had fallen; hence Samuel, as the recognized prophet of the Lord, was justified in erecting a local altar for sacrifice.” In other words, Ramah became the seed of a new worship order.

At Ramah, Israel began once more to gather around the presence of the Lord.
Here, prophetic worship and intercession were reborn. And here, a young fugitive named David would one day find refuge and receive a vision that would define his kingdom.

Naioth and the Prophetic Community

1 Samuel 19:18 tells us that David fled from Saul and “came to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done. And he and Samuel went and stayed (lived, ESV) in Naioth.”
Naioth literally means “dwellings” or “habitations.” It likely referred to a cluster of residences where Samuel’s company of prophets lived, worshiped, and ministered before the Lord.

When Saul’s soldiers came to arrest David, the Spirit of God overwhelmed them. Even Saul himself came under the power of the prophetic unction and was caught up in move of prophetic utterance (1 Sam 19:20–24).
What happened there was not chaos but concentrated glory. It was as if God was saying: You cannot touch what I am establishing. My presence is the true refuge of My anointed.

Ramah was more than Samuel’s hometown; it was a prototype of David’s future tabernacle. It foreshadowed a community centered on God’s presence, overflowing with prophetic worship, protected by divine power.

Peter Leithart describes this moment as “the liturgical seedbed of David’s kingdom — the point where prophetic word began to blossom into prophetic song.”

From Moses to Samuel: The Continuity of the Presence

What began with Moses, the vision of a people ordered around the dwelling of God, was revived under Samuel at Ramah. Moses received the pattern for the sanctuary; Samuel restored the culture of that sanctuary: hearing, interceding, and worshiping before the Lord.

Israel’s vocation had not changed, but it had been forgotten. Samuel recovered it.
He reignited Israel’s original calling: to be a kingdom whose life flowed from the presence of God in the midst of His people.

Conclusion: The Prophetic Voice Before the Presence

In every generation, God restores His presence by first restoring His voice.
Before David’s songs filled Jerusalem, Samuel’s prayers filled Ramah. Before continual worship in Zion, there was continual intercession in the prophet’s home.

Samuel shows us that revival begins when the word of the Lord is publicly proclaimed again. It’s important to note that the story of Israel as the presence-centered kingdom doesn’t begin with David’s harp, but has its roots in Moses’s Tabernacle and finds it spark at Ramah with Samuel’s school of the prophets ministering to the Lord at an altar.