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
