HEBREW WORD STUDY – WAR ROOM – QADESH קדשׁ  

Psalms 63:2: “So I have looked for you in the sanctuary to behold your power and glory.” ISV

Today in our Saturday study class we had a little mix up on the invitations and we only have five people show up.  So, I announced that we would look at a verse for which I did no preparation.  

Psalms 63:2 looks pretty straight forward. David longs to see the power and glory of God like he saw or seen in the sanctuary.  What more is there to say on that verse.  After about 45 minutes of discussion, we found there was plenty. 

For one thing, not all modern English translations say the same thing.  Some say that David wishes to see the power and glory of God as he has seen in the sanctuary.  Some simply say he has seen the power and glory of God in the sanctuary. Some keep it in the present tense indicating that he is gazing into the sanctuary at this time seeing the power and glory of God. 

The problem translators have is that they follow the belief that God’s presence was only to be found in the tabernacle over the ark of the covenant.  Therefore, David can only experience God’s presence in the tabernacle.  So, we need to put this either in the present tense that he is in the tabernacle observing the power and glory of God or he wishing he were in the tabernacle so he could be seeing the power and glory of God.  Again, the presupposition is that this sanctuary is the tabernacle and thus it has no real bearing on us today as our bodies are the temple of God and we carry God with us wherever we go. 

Yet, the Bible is full of references where the presence of God rested upon men like Samson, Moses, Elijah and most, if not all, our heroes in the Old Testament. David himself killed Goliath feeling the presence of God. 

I cannot subscribe to the theory that God’s presence only resided in the temple or tabernacle on the Ark of the Covenant. God’s presence existed and exists everywhere, He is omnipresent. It is just that there are special places where his presence if felt more intensely or differently.  A man can tell by the very presence of his wife if she is happy, sad, angry even if he is just talking to her on the phone.  She is a human being with an assortment of moods.  She is made in the image of God who also has an assortment of moods.  God presence above the Ark of the Covenant represents just a certain mood or emotion of God. When David killed Goliath, God had an aggressive emotion.  When God spoke to Abraham it might have been with loving emotion. Sometimes it is a happy or joyful mood, sometimes it is a sorrowful mood or a mood that is filled with grief. 

Note this word sanctuary is the word qadesh which is the word for holy or separate.  In extra-Biblical literature, it is used for a place which is reserved for a special purpose.  Qadesh is like a bathroom to cleanse oneself, a kitchen to prepare meals or a bedroom to sleep, each with a specific purpose.  All of these could be a qadesh. 

There was a faith-based movie out a couple years ago called the War Room.  In this story the War Room was a closet that was emptied by the main character which she turned it into a prayer room. Only things related to prayer and God were kept in the room like her Bible and prayer request that she pinned on the wall.  This was a qadesh.  It was here she met God in a special way. The movie portrayed her living a normal life attending to the affairs of life, always aware of God’s presence, but in her War Room God’s presence was special, intimate and personal.

Thus, I interpret this verse as saying that David longed to go to his special room where he saw God’s strength and glory.   How do you see strength?  The word used here for see is not ra’ah which is the normal word for seeing or looking at but the word chazah. This a word for seeing something unseen.  It is used for a vision or your imagination. David said he would imagine or picture – chazah in his mind the strength and glory of God that he saw, and here the word is ra’ah actual seeing, in his War Room or sanctuary.  The word strength is azaz which in its Semitic origin is a word for a powerful bird like an eagle or hawk.  An eagle or hawk can look down and see the whole situation as well as rise above a situation. 

I learned two things from this verse, there is a value in having a qadesh, a special room where you can go to meet God in a special and intimate way. Secondly, when in that War Room, that qadesh, you can chazah, use the imagination that God gave you to picture him in that room with you and you can talk with Him like you would with another person, for He is a person – just use a little faith.