The Characteristics of Davidic Worship
Exactly What Was Happening at David's Tabernacle?
In my early days of ministry leadership, I discovered the story of King David carrying the ark of the covenant into Jerusalem with “undignified” worship. But for years I had never taken the time to look at the biblical context, so I had never noticed that David was transporting the ark into a brand-new 24/7 worship tent. The ark’s great procession was not just a a one-time event, but rather a means to an end — to host God’s manifest presence in an ongoing way in the center of their nation. The climax of this story was the ark being placed in a tent on Mount Zion. David’s longing was always for a dwelling place in Israel for God Himself to be present with His people, and the undignified worship was actually a forerunner to day-and-night worship. As I began to study this progression in Scripture, I felt myself drawn into a greater narrative that seemed significant to our ministry and to the Church at large.
A Third Tabernacle
Despite the pervasive impact of David’s worship and kingdom on the biblical narrative, many believers go their whole lives without ever hearing one sermon on David’s tabernacle. Even many Bible commentators fail to note the significance of the story. David’s tabernacle is the primary subject of the entire book of I Chronicles and the birthplace of many of the Psalms. Every great revival throughout Israel’s history refers back to the worship order David established at his tent. Two of Israel’s prophets speak of its restoration (Amos 9:11 and Isaiah 16:5). There is no prophetic promise that Moses’s tabernacle or Solomon’s temple will be rebuilt; but David’s will. David’s tabernacle is so significant that it keeps resurfacing throughout the Scriptures, such as at the first major church council (Acts 15:16-17).
Understanding David’s tabernacle has profound implications on how we relate to God, how we function as the church, and how we accomplish God’s mission in the world. But before getting too deep into its implications, let’s look more closely at the tent David established. Before we can understand the restoration of David’s tabernacle and its effect on our lives, we need to understand the original David’s tabernacle. I want you to see it clearly. What exactly was happening under that tent on a hillside in Jerusalem three thousand years ago?
Access to God’s Presence
One of the unique features of David’s tabernacle is its simplicity of structure. There is an odd lack of rooms, decor and furniture. Reading through the description of Moses’s tabernacle in Exodus, one sees the intricate stipulated regarding the sizes, materials, and colors of every element. The most talented artists were recruited to create an elaborate sanctuary in which the priests and Levites would serve the Lord. Yet, unlike Moses’s tabernacle, there is minimal description of the physical structure of David’s tent. The story simply mentions “the tent that David had pitched for it” (I Chronicles 15:1, 16:1).
In Moses’s tabernacle, the ark was hidden in an inner chamber called the Holy of Holies. The only person who would come into direct contact with the ark would be the high priest who would offer sacrifices on the annual Day of Atonement (see Leviticus 16).
And the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron your brother not to come at any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die. For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat.” Leviticus 16:2
Needless to say, there was a measure of the fear of the Lord surrounding this mysterious and powerful piece of furniture. The kingdom of Israel was acutely aware of the power and danger that came with mishandling the manifest presence of God. The death of Uzzah during their first attempt at bringing the Ark into Jerusalem (I Chronicles 13:9-10) served as a potent reminder. With this so fresh in their memory, you would think that the nation would be wary of direct access to this ark. Yet, in David’s tabernacle, there is no mention of a veil in front of the ark at all. It seems that the Ark of the Covenant was accessible. The Levites are described as ministering “before the ark of the Lord” (I Chronicles 16:2, 37). The contrast with Leviticus 16:2 is stunning. In the tent of David, God’s people are invited to stand right in front of the ark of the covenant — to experience His presence at any time. In contrast with the Mosaic tabernacle, David’s tabernacle shifts the emphasis from the physical structure to the presence of God and the worshipers themselves.
The Centrality of the Musicians
Those worshipers were the Levites. The revolutionary praise and worship of David’s tabernacle was sustained for thirty-three years by a community of Levitical musicians and singers who provided the “service of song” before the ark of the covenant (I Chronicles 6:31-32). Their job was to “to minister before the ark of the Lord, to commemorate, to thank, and to praise the Lord God” (I Chronicles 16:4). The Levitical musicians and their prophetic songs were at the core of the purpose of David’s tabernacle. Previously the musicians had been relegated to the prophetic fringe of Israel — such as the teams that Samuel trained on the hills (I Samuel 10:5-13, 19:18-24). Yet when David came into power, the songs of the hillsides took center stage in the worship activity of the nation. The centrality of the Levitical musicians and singers in I Chronicles highlights the importance of musical worship to David’s reign. Even the chronologies put the musicians right in the center.
“The center of the center of the genealogy is a list of Levitical musicians and singers appointed by David….To be a priestly nation is, by the Chronicler’s lights, to be a choral nation. Israel fulfills its role among the nations through a continuous liturgy of praise…. Musicians are at the center. At the edges of the geneology are kings…. the king guards the boundaries of Israel to protect Israel’s central activity, which is worship.”
As soon David arrived on Mount Zion with the ark, the musicians began their songs (I Chronicles 16). It is not clear exactly how many musicians and singers were already trained at the launch of David’s tabernacle, but by the time David passed off the kingdom to his son Solomon, Israel had a remarkable 4000 musicians at their disposal (I Chronicles 23:5). It appears from the story that at least some of the musicians of David’s tabernacle lived together in a community near the tent, ministering to God together and trusting Him for their provision.
Now these, the singers, the heads of fathers' houses of the Levites, were in the chambers of the temple free from other service, for they were on duty day and night. These were heads of fathers' houses of the Levites, according to their generations, leaders. These lived in Jerusalem. I Chronicles 9:33-34
At least some of the musicians, specifically the “heads of the fathers’ houses,” were living in Jerusalem and “free from other duties” while serving at the tent full-time. David allocated massive amounts of financial resources to staffing and maintaining the day and night worship — both from his personal treasury and the nation’s wealth (I Chronicles 29:1-9).
The 24 Divisions of Singers
I Chronicles 25 describes those who provided leadership for the worship in the tent. They “prophesied with lyres, with harps, and with cymbals” (I Chronicles 25:1) and were “under the direction of their father for the music in the house of the Lord, with cymbals, stringed instruments, and harps… The number of them along with their brothers, who were trained in singing to the Lord, all who were skillful, was 288” (I Chronicles 25:6-7). It says that Asaph, Jeduthun and Heman, along with David, served as the primary musical and spiritual “fathers” of David’s tabernacle. Their twenty-four sons were the primary team leaders who each led a team of twenty-four prophetic singers and musicians — giving us 288 total prophetic singers. Each team was “under the direction” of their fathers for relational, musical, and spiritual discipleship. It’s important to note this process of mentoring and multiplication. I believe this culture of spiritual and musical fathering was David’s strategy to keep the tent of day-and-night worship in place for the entire thirty-three years of his reign. There must have been ongoing training and equipping of the musicians throughout those decades.
Some who teach on David’s tabernacle assume that the twenty-four teams must have been in place to cover the twenty-four hours of the day. While this may initially seem like a great idea, the understanding of a twenty-four-hour day was non-existent in the days of King David. It was Hipparchus who proposed dividing the day into twenty-four equal parts in the second century BC — around 800 years after King David! The twenty-four divisions of musicians at David’s tent described in I Chronicles 25 mirror the divisions of the Levitical priests described in the previous chapter (I Chronicles 24). These divisions correspond to twenty-four weeks, not the hours in a day. Each division would then come to Jerusalem and serve for one week, every twenty-four weeks. Biblical and historical evidence seems to show that each division would serve for eight days, with an overlap of two divisions on each Sabbath.
The Levites and all Judah did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded, and they each brought his men, who were to go off duty on the Sabbath, with those who were to come on duty on the Sabbath, for Jehoiada the priest did not dismiss the divisions. 2 Chronicles 23:8
The historian, Josephus, acknowledged this same system, where they would come to Jerusalem for eight days to serve their week at the tabernacle:
“David… divided them also into courses: and when he had separated the priests from them, he found of these priests twenty-four courses… and that course which came up first was written down as the first, and accordingly the second, and so on to the twenty-fourth; and this partition hath remained to this day. He also made twenty-four parts of the tribe of Levi; and when they cast lots, they came up in the same manner for their courses of eight days.”
This week-long service is also what is described with the twenty-four divisions of gatekeepers (I Chronicles 9:22-27). The gatekeepers had to keep their “office of trust” or sacred trust. This was their appointed time to serve in the house of the Lord. Groups of gatekeepers would come in for their week of the “sacred trust” to live in Jerusalem and collectively guard the tabernacle day and night. Then they would return to their “villages” when the next group arrived for the following week of service.
It is unlikely that there were 4000 full-time musicians constantly living in Jerusalem. Rather, the divisions of Levitical musicians would rotate into Jerusalem on a weekly basis to serve at David’s tent. Like a bi-annual “missions trip,” most of the Levitical families would take a pilgrimage to the capital city to serve the Lord with their songs each year. Perhaps some of the fathers and key musicians lived on-site constantly, as I Chronicles 9:33 indicates, to provide ongoing oversight and administration of the operation. Collectively these musical teams would sustain the constant offerings of praise to the Lord.
This article is chapter 5 of Matthew Lilley’s book David’s Tabernacle: How God’s Presence Changes Everything. Paid subscribers may continue reading below.