“Tabernacling” in Eden

April 1, 2001 am
MF Blume


Psalm 27:1-14  A Psalm of David. The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.  Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident. One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.  For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.   And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the LORD.  Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me.  When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek.  Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy servant away in anger: thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.  When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.  Teach me thy way, O LORD, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.  Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.  I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.  Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.


All through this Psalm, and many others like it, if you look carefully, are references to EDEN.

This is a theme throughout the Bible, which we have clearly seen in the last few years.

And Goshen, in Egypt, was the best of the land of Egypt!
Genesis 45:18  And take your father and your households, and come unto me: and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and ye shall eat the fat of the land.

Gene 47:5-6  And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph, saying, Thy father and thy brethren are come unto thee: The land of Egypt is before thee; in the best of the land make thy father and brethren to dwell; in the land of Goshen let them dwell: and if thou knowest any men of activity among them, then make them rulers over my cattle.

The promised land was also like the Garden of Eden.
Joel 2:3  A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
When God gets hold of His people we read Him describe it like this:
Isaiah 51:3  For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.

Ezek 36:33-35  Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded. And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by. And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited.

The idea of being scattered from the land or being gathered to the land speaks of whether or not you are in God’s favour.

Adam disobeyed God's will.

So there is a land versus the wilderness theme in the Bible. And since Eden was on a Mountain, the idea of getting on a mountain is also speaking of the same idea.

Basically is simply a RETURN TO GOD’S PERFECT WILL.

And this is in the New Testament especially!

The Kingdom of Heaven cannot be HEAVEN to which we go after we die. Its entering a protected domain. But some call Him “Lord, Lord,” and are not in any spiritual Garden, but are instead like scattered without blessing.

Out in the wilderness are wild beasts.

Isaiah 35:8  And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.  No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there:  And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
Look at the disobedient compared to the obedient.
Genesis 11:4-8  And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
Contrast that with this:
Genesis 12:1-3  Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
God drove and scattered the people trying to make a name for themselves and to not be scattered like they were making their own Eden without God. But God takes Abram and says He will give him a name that will be great, and give him a land to not be scattered. Abram obeyed God.

And we also read:

Man built his own city in Babel, but Abram was getting a city built by God!

Even Cain built his own city after God cast him even further east from Eden than Adam was driven.

Genesis 4:13-17  And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment [is] greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, [that] every one that findeth me shall slay me. And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.
But this city is built by God and is named after God’s Son, not Cain’s son!!

Jesus told the Church at Philadelphia...

Revelation 3:12  Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, [which is] new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and [I will write upon him] my new name.
Last week we spoke about the WAY OF THE TREE OF LIFE. The Hebrew word for “placed,” can also be translated elsewhere as “tabernacled”. And the word “pavilion”, also, is the same word as “tabernacle”.
Psalm 18:6-13  In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears. Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under his feet.  And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind.  He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.  At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed, hail stones and coals of fire.  The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire.
This speaks about God’s GLORY CLOUD that came when David cried out to God for help in time of trouble.

It said THICK CLOUDS and Dark waters was his PAVILION.

And our text in Psalm 27 said that He will hide me in HIS PAVILION.

Notice that we also read that God will set us up on a Rock.

We already read that the wise man builds the house on the ROCK, when he hears the word and thereby enters the kingdom of God.

Ezekiel 28:13-14  Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.


So The Garden was UPON A MOUNTAIN.

That is the reason that we read that not only are we in his pavilion, which is His tabernacle, but the mountain that we are on speaks of the Garden!

Both the tabernacle/pavilion and High Rock point to the garden... for he tabernacled cherubims there at its entrance...
...and the Garden was on a mountain.

No wonder Noah’s ark rested on a Mountain and Noah was told the same thing as Adam.  “Multiply and replenish the earth.”

And where is the Lord to be praised?
Psal 48:1-8  A Song and Psalm for the sons of Korah. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King. God is known in her palaces for a refuge. For, lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together. They saw it, and so they marvelled; they were troubled, and hasted away. Fear took hold upon them there, and pain, as of a woman in travail. Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind. As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the LORD of hosts, in the city of our God: God will establish it for ever. Selah.
It is established because its on a Rock and storms cannot destroy this house!

SERMONS