Tabernacle of David: The Model for Church Part 5

In our previous blogs in this series, we have established how the church at Antioch operated in similarity to the Tabernacle of David. We have also shown how Antioch was the prototypical New Testament church, one that Paul used as His basis for church planting. It’s a difficult truth to digest, but if we’re honest, the format that most of our churches follow today doesn’t remotely reflect the pattern that was established in Antioch and then reproduced throughout the New Testament. While this is unfortunate and for all the positives that have been experienced through the church, undoubtedly it has had a variety of negative repercussions. At the same time, I am filled with hope and expectation because we are living in a moment where the Holy Spirit is re-orienting the church around the person and presence of Jesus through the ministry of worship and prayer. I believe we are at the beginning of an ecclesiological reformation that will see the church restored to its first century foundations of ministering to the Lord as a kingdom of priests as the central identity in similitude to the ministry that took place in the Tabernacle of David.

When we recognize that Paul’s ecclesiology was soundly based in a Tabernacle/Temple identity we then begin to understand His many admonitions to the first century church regarding worship and singing. Let’s freshly consider Paul’s admonitions to the Church starting with Corinth:

2Cor 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

For Paul its evident that corporate beholding (ministry to the Lord) was as the center of spiritual transformation. This concept comes from Tabernacle/Temple practice.

Lets now freshly consider Paul’s admonitions to the churches of Ephesus and Colossae:

Eph 5:18 ...be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart,

Col 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs...

These admonitions to sing together and to one another in an instructional manner are reflective of the singing in the Tabernacle of David and Temple. The psalms of David were not only used as worship songs, but also as instructional teachings in which the choruses of singers would sing refrains back and forth in melodic call and response.

In this same vein let’s also consider other New Testament passages that, at the very least, hint at the church being a community that functions from the center of continual worship and prayer.

Colossians 4:2  Continue(continue all the time in a certain place) earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving;

Ephesians 6:18  praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints—

Romans 12:12  rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing(continue all the time in a certain place)steadfastly in prayer;

1 Thessalonians 5:16-17 Rejoice always, pray without ceasing,

When we read Paul’s instructions to the first century church with the understanding that he was orienting from a Tabernacle/Temple typology, his admonitions begin to take on a very clear and specific directive. He had planted church communities based after the pattern of Antioch which was based after the Tabernacle and Temple. He encouraged them to continue in worship and prayer, because in Paul’s ecclesiology this was to be the central expression of church. A kingdom of priests operating as a living temple in continuous worship and prayer.

In our next blog we will look at the Jerusalem Council to get a greater understanding of the way the disciples understood the New Testament church.