Password!

Password!

You can pass through his open gates with the password of praise. Come right into his presence with thanksgiving. Come bring your thank offering to him and affectionately bless his beautiful name! Psalms 100:4 TPT

Fairly long piece, but the lessons are important. In placing today's extract in the right context, we need to cast an eye over the tabernacle that God commanded Moses to build. Moses was specifically instructed to ensure that he followed the exact pattern as he had been shown. Recall this: They serve in a system of worship that is only a copy, a shadow of the real one in heaven. For when Moses was getting ready to build the tabernacle, God gave him this warning: "Be sure that you make everything according to the pattern I have shown you here on the mountain". Hebrews 8:5 NLT. 

What was the pattern? First, there was a need for God to reveal his Presence, Power and Potency, and what better way for him to show himself to his people than through a system of worship? Note: God is not limited to walls, but He wants to reveal Himself. The whole essence of worship is to meet with God. If all I do is enjoy songs and melody, without a corresponding experience of the power and presence of the One who makes it worth it, then I have just wasted my time. 

Secondly, there is a structure and process and order to how things are done: looks like a two-part worship process: with praise preceding worship. The outer court was the place of praise and the inner courts was the place of worship, consecration and service. You had to enter into the outer courts through gates, which were always open. Funnily, a password is mentioned. It tells me that being present in the location of the temple does not guarantee you an experience of the God of the temple. You have to know and use the password to get access into His presence, and that is Praise. That outer court is a place where you lay yourself bare before God, confessing your sins and humbling your heart before God. You cannot access the inner courts with sin in your heart. The penalty for such at the time was death.

And then comes the approach right into his presence. Thanksgiving for all He has done and the new life He has given become the basis of this experience. In the inner courts, the table of showbread, the altar of incense and the golden lampstand all point to the Word of God, his Presence and a reminder of His holiness. You cannot but be humbled by that experience. 

Could it be that the reason why we do not have the regular demonstration of God's power is because we have lost our awe of Him? We come now to show off our gifts, forgetting that all we are and have come from Him. We come out of a sense of duty or boredom, just looking forward to the end so we can go about our daily life. We must go back to God and ask Him to reveal Himself again to us. If God were to deal with man as He dealt with Israel in the old testament, I wonder how many of us would be alive to this day. 

As we live our lives from day to day, let us be reminded: God has not changed. If this pattern is the heavenly format, the standards have not changed. Let us return to God and learn his pattern for worship and praise. He wants to show Himself strong in our lives but we must let Him. Jesus is the embodiment of all that the old tabernacle was: He is the Gate; He is the door; He is the Lamb of sacrifice that has cleansed us from our sins; He is the Word of God; He is the Light and the Lamp; and He is the access into the Holy of Holies, where God waits for us. What else is left? Why would we want to do church and leave Him out? His time of favour is here.