Tabernacle
of David
© 1999, William
H. Hopper
Just what is all the to-do about tehillah, this spontaneous praise? Did you know that it is the only type of praise that scripture says God inhabits? I place no restrictions on God -- He can inhabit anything He wants to. Fact is though, there is only one place in scripture that says He inhabits the praises of His People:
Ps 22:3
3 But You are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel.
(NKJ)
The word enthroned is translated to ‘inhabits’ in some translations. In the actual Hebrew text, it is inhabits. So why would God choose to inhabit tehillah? It is spontaneous, and therefore creative. God is the Creator. If we are to be like Him, we are to be creative. He inhabits the creative song, the spontaneous song from our heart. To inhabit is to dwell on an ongoing basis.
Ps 34:1
1 I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
(NKJ)
The word praise here is tehillah, and notice that it says continually. Our desire is to have God dwell in us. If we tehillah continually, He is in us continually. Does this mean we sing all day long? We could, but we’d get little else done. Is it possible to praise Him with our very lives?
Actually, continually can mean all the days of our lives and not necessarily with every utterance of our mouth. If we only speak truth, we have praised him and if we abide in truth we have praised Him continually. We’re talking about tehillah here, though, so I am convinced that this means daily throughout our lives.
In the New Testament we find that Jesus lives within us. So why bother to tehillah at all, since Jesus is in us? Are we not already, then, inhabited by God? Nowhere in the New Testament does it say that we should cease to offer God our tehillah. In fact, when the early church was formed, they did not have the New Testament to go by. It had not yet been written. They used the Word of God for their instruction in worship and praise. This would be the Old Testament pattern established by God through His servant, David. Since it has not been modified in the New Testament, it is still a principle of praise.
Some argue that if it is not in the New Testament, it is not valid. I choose not to enter that argument. The New Testament scriptures do validate that we are to offer up hymns, psalms and spiritual songs… (Eph 5:18, Col 3:16 and I Cor 14:26) We know that this is the pattern established by God in the tabernacle of David in that David used the Psalms (set pieces of music) hymns (spontaneous songs that were recorded as they came forth) and spiritual songs (as evidenced by prophecy in the psalms).
Jesus is the same today, yesterday and tomorrow. Our God delights in doing a ‘new thing’, and yet He never changes. He gave us a pattern for praise, and how to worship. Nowhere did He tell us to modify that or to cease.
Jesus did not abolish praise and worship. He abolished the ceremonial law of sacrifice, having offered Himself up as a sacrifice once and for all. The rest of the scriptures still stand. We were not given a choice between worshiping and not worshiping, between praising and not praising. We were not given liberty to praise and/or worship as we see fit. That is an idea of man.
If we are still to praise Him, we need to learn how He wants it done and give Him the praise that He desires.
There are 57 references to tehillah in the Old Testament, found in 57 separate verses. You will find that some of these scriptures are very familiar.
Here are a few scriptures using tehillah (spontaneous praise) that I feel stand out. I like to substitute the specific word tehillah for the translated word praise. It helps to drive the message home. You will find all 57 verses listed at the end of this chapter for your convenience.
Ps 33:1
1 Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous! For praise from the upright is beautiful.
(NKJ)
God says spontaneous praise is beautiful!
Ps 35:28
28 And my tongue shall speak of Your righteousness and of Your praise all the day long.
(NKJ)
How long?
Ps 40:3
3 He has put a new song in my mouth-- praise to our God; many will see it and fear, and will trust in the LORD.
(NKJ)
The unsaved will see this manifestation of God in His people and will fear and trust the Lord. This is evangelism.
Ps 48:10
10 According to Your name, O God, so is Your praise to the ends of the earth; your right hand is full of righteousness.
(NKJ)
How far is tehillah extended?
Ps 66:8
8 Oh, bless our God, you peoples! And make the voice of His praise to be heard,
(NKJ)
This is commanded is it not? Whose praise? What kind of praise? Tehillah. To be heard!
Ps 79:13
13 So we, Your people and sheep of Your pasture, will give You thanks forever; we will show forth Your praise to all generations.
(NKJ)
How long will the people of God 'tehillah'? Who do you suppose wants us to stop? Why? Who would want to silence God speaking through His people?
Ps 100:4
4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
(NKJ)
We are to enter His courts with tehillah.
Ps 119:171
171 My lips shall utter praise, when thou hast taught me thy statutes.
(KJV)
The KJV most closely follows the Hebrew text. When will we utter tehillah? If we are in Him and love Him, we will keep His commandments. If we keep His commandments, we know His statutes. We then should tehillah.
Ps 111:10
10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth forever.
(KJV)
How long does tehillah endure? Shouldn’t we be doing it?
Ps 147:1
1 Praise the LORD! For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant, and praise is beautiful.
(NKJ)
It is good to sing praises to our God. Tehillah is beautiful. Some translations use the word comely which means pleasing and wholesome in appearance.
Isa 60:18
18 Violence shall no longer be heard in your land, neither wasting nor destruction within your borders; but you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise.
(NKJ)
You shall call your gates tehillah. Lift up your heads all ye gates! Hmm…
Isa 61:3
3 To console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified."
(NKJ)
We all know this verse. This is the one Jesus references when He read in the temple and then closed the book and sat down. This is talking about when and/or after Jesus came the first time. The garment He gave us in exchange for heaviness is tehillah! This clearly tells us that we are to tehillah even to this day. His tehillah endureth forever!
Isa 61:11
11 For as the earth brings forth its bud, as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.
(NKJ)
Where is He going to cause tehillah to spring forth? Before ALL the nations. He is going to raise up the tabernacle of David so the REST OF MANKIND MAY SEEK HIM! We are talking about the great day of evangelism that we hear about in the church. We must not stand in the way because we are not comfortable with ‘some forms of worship’! We must embrace tehillah and make it normal in our church. God planned it and wants it. He will cause it to happen with or without us!
Isa 62:7
7 And give Him no rest till He establishes and till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
(NKJ)
Till He makes JERUSALEM A TEHILLAH IN THE EARTH!
Jer 13:11
11 'For as the sash clings to the waist of a man, so I have caused the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to cling to Me,' says the LORD, 'that they may become My people, for renown, for praise, and for glory; but they would not hear.'
(NKJ)
"THAT THEY MAY BECOME MY PEOPLE, FOR RENOWN, FOR TEHILLAH, AND FOR GLORY; BUT THEY WOULD NOT HEAR". I don’t want to be counted among those that would not hear.
Zeph 3:19-20
19 Behold, at that time I will deal with all who afflict you; I will save the lame, and gather those who were driven out; I will appoint them for praise and fame in every land where they were put to shame.
20 At that time I will bring you back, even at the time I gather you; for I will give you fame and praise among all the peoples of the earth, when I return your captives before your eyes," says the LORD.
(NKJ)
Where, in verse 19, does it say we will be appointed for tehillah?
These are by no means all of the references to tehillah, just the ones that grabbed me. Clearly it is to continue forever and we are to practice it to, before and in all the nations of the earth!
So let’s look at a key here. Tehillah is inhabited by God. If this is true, then He literally is in each utterance that comes forth. If we realize this and yield to Him, then it is Him speaking or singing through us. We have just transitioned to the spiritual song.
Wow! Pretty easy, huh? Just begin to sing spontaneously and listen to God. When you hear Him, yield and let Him sing and you have the spiritual song. If God is doing the singing, then could it be said that this is prophetic? Certainly! If you say you can't sing spontaneously, then how do you pray? Do you pray a prayer someone wrote for you? I think you pray spontaneously. If you sing your prayer, it is tephillah. Tephillah is a type of tehillah is it not?
Prophesy is not just foretelling the Word of God, but is also forthtelling the Word of God. If He gives you a scripture and you sing it, you have prophesied. If He gives you new words and you sing them you have prophesied. This spiritual song is the ‘new song’ that you find throughout the Bible. The ‘new song’ is the prophetic ‘song of the Lord’.
So we can prophecy, can’t we? Do you have to be a prophet to prophesy? No. Paul said he would that all would prophesy. We can prophesy. We do not all hold the office of a prophet, but we can all prophesy.
Some people get stuck here because they feel that they simply can’t. I would like to dwell on this just for a moment. The Word of God says:
Phil 4:13
13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
(NKJ)
I can do all things. Put your name in this and see. You can do all things. Proverbs 23:7 says "as a man thinks in his heart, so he is". The word thinks means:
8176 sha` ar (shaw-ar');
a primitive root; to split or open, i.e. (literally, but only as denominative from 8179) to act as gate-keeper (see 7778): (figuratively) to estimate:
KJV-- think.
We are to act as a gatekeeper. What does a gatekeeper do? He tends the gate, and only lets in or out that which should come in or go out. This verse says we are what we gatekeep or allow in.
If we say to ourselves ‘I can’t’, then we are in direct conflict with the Word of God. The word of God says we can do all things through Jesus. When we hear ‘I can’t’ in our minds, we need to tend the gate and keep it out. If we let it in, we become that thought and we become out of alignment with the Word of God.
ANY inroad of the enemy is a big deal. The fact is, everyone can sing. How well is a matter of subjective taste. We should not fear man’s opinion of our singing. God wants to hear it, why should man stand in the way? Just who is it we are singing to anyway? Does man’s opinion matter when we are singing to God?
It is God’s opinion that matters, and I know that He loves to hear me sing. He loves to hear you sing! He wants to hear you sing! People who are gifted in the performance of song should not in any way make those that are not gifted uncomfortable about their ability to praise. The reality is that all can sing praise to God. The quality of the voice or the song coming forth is not of concern. It is God that gives us the fruit of our lips. Should I judge God? Why then judge His servant, or the voice He created within His servant?
The bottom line in the matter is that you can sing and praise God spontaneously. If you think you can’t, read the above portion again. Think you can’t preach or evangelize? Read the above again.
Here are the 57 references to tehillah:
| Exo 15:11 Deu 10:21 Deu 26:19 1 Chr 16:35 2 Chr 20:22 Neh 9:5 Neh 12:46 Psa 9:14 Psa 22:3 Psa 22:25 Psa 33:1 Psa 34:1 Psa 35:28 Psa 40:3 Psa 48:10 Psa 51:15 Psa 65:1 Psa 66:2 Psa 66:8 Psa 71:6 |
Psa 71:8 Psa 71:14 Psa 78:4 Psa 79:13 Psa 100:4 Psa 102:21 Psa 106:2 Psa 106:12 Psa 106:47 Psa 109:1 Psa 111:10 Psa 119:171 Psa 145:1 Psa 147:1 Psa 148:14 Psa 149:1 Isa 42:8 Isa 42:10 Isa 42:12 |
Isa 43:21 Isa 48:9 Isa 60:6 Isa 60:18 Isa 61:3 Isa 61:11 Isa 62:7 Isa 63:7 Jer 13:11 Jer 17:14 Jer 33:9 Jer 48:2 Jer 49:25 Jer 51:41 Hab 3:3 Zep 3:19 Zep 3:20 |