Lord, Who Shall Abide In Thy Tabernacle?

King David wrote many song lyrics recorded in the book of Psalms. On a few occasions, in his pain and anguished state of mind, he wrote questions presented to God Almighty requesting answers for his desire to live in accordance to what was accepted by God. One question was, “Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle?” For the honest heathen to identify those who can abide in God’s tabernacle, this is extremely difficult for them to know being there are so many differences in “Christian” (in quotes) proclaimed doctrines; doctrines of men.

Many people proclaim to live as a Christian. I am sure many attempt to live according to what they believe from Holy Scripture. However, when observed by others, there seems to be many discrepancies in their behaviors and what is perceived as true righteous Christian behavior.

Where are those who are abiding in God’s Tabernacle and how do we recognize them? What behaviors are true Christians to possess to be identified as abiding in God’s Tabernacle? Are they able to abide in the Kingdom of God according to The Father’s guidelines? Or, do they wear a false Christian facade, doing what seemeth right in their own eyes? Let us look at scripture for an answer.

The first answer which most people offer is that each true Christian will study the Holy Scripture and meditate upon it for the information by which they should behave. 2 Timothy 2:15. If they are doing this correctly, are all professed Christians on the same page? Are they translating the Word each the same having the same mind as Jesus Christ? From a world’s viewpoint, this seems to not be the case. Let us investigate all scripture to identify if we are correctly dividing the scriptures so we can abide in the Lord’s Tabernacle.

The prophet Micah says, [God] hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? Micah 6:8. In all things, through the Spirit and in all of nature, God has disclosed His will for the actions of man. Through His Word, Jesus, we can find and confirm what actions are good and what are evil.

I hope you brought your lunch with you today; we may be here for a long while, especially if we look at ALL the scripture related. Really, we only need to meditate upon just a few passages to learn how we are to behave and thus abide in God’s Tabernacle. Turn to Psalms chapter 15 and let us read:

15 Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill? We read David’s question and feel his dilemma. It appears to be ours also. There is too much confusion in the Christian religious arena to live by man’s various interpretations. Let us seek the answers. King David discloses some of them for us.

THE ANSWERS

2 He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.

Walketh uprightly! Many believe they are walking uprightly yet behave as those in the world. What does it mean to walk uprightly? To walk is to describe our manner of living, life, and behavior. Uprightly in our manner of life is to be sound, wholesome, unimpaired, innocent, having integrity: of God's way in accord with His guidelines for life. Therefore, walking uprightly is living in the sound doctrine of God’s Holy Word; having the same mind as Jesus Christ–The Word.

This seems normal and appears to ourselves as how we walk. But often we do not see what the world sees in our complete lifestyle and manner of life. We need more guidelines for comparison to determine who can abide in God’s Tabernacle.

Secondly David says, “worketh righteousness.” Worketh is to do. It implies to always do the same consistently. And what do we work–do? Righteousness. That is to do what is always right according to God’s plan. As a child we were always taught to do the ‘Golden Rule’; Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Does the world see us always doing this?

Thirdly David says, “speaketh the truth in his heart!” To answer this statement for evaluation of our behavior, let us turn to Ephesians 4:25. 25 Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another. If we profess to walk uprightly then we should never allow others to believe we may not always tell the truth. We should never bear false witness of another nor allow such. Our lives should be identified as one always speaking the truth no matter if it brings harm or offends ourselves or another. Our motto should be; Right is right and wrong is wrong. There are no other ways.