The Table of Divine Glory

Lord, I have loved the habitation of Your house,
And the place where Your glory dwells.

(Psalm 26:8)

David loved the house of the Lord, the place where God manifested His presence in a special way, the place where the light of His glory shone bright. It was the place David most wanted to be, the place where he could gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and inquire of Him (Psalm 24:4).

The Hebrew word for “glory” is kabod. Literally, it means weight; figuratively, it refers to the weight or value of that which is good. The glory of God is the expression of His goodness, the manifestation of His majesty. In Isaiah 6, the seraphim in the prophet's vision of the temple declared that “the whole earth is fully of His glory.” The glory of God has always been here. What is needed, though, is the revelation of that glory.

In the Old Testament, the tabernacle was the place where God made His special habitation on earth; the Ark of the Covenant was His abode, the throne of His glory. In the New Testament, through faith in Jesus Christ, we are now the house God inhabits, the place where His glory dwells.

Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:4-5)

Jesus Christ is the ultimate expression of God’s glory. Indeed, He is called “the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person” (Hebrews 1:3). He is the Word of whom John says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

Jesus is the full expression of God’s glory. The mystery of the Gospel is that Christ dwells in us with all the glory of God. He is

the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:26-27)

As believers in Jesus Christ, we are now the place where God dwells by His glory. There is for us a positive expectation, a joyful anticipation that His glory will be fully expressed in us. This is what John is talking about:

Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. (1 John 3:2)

The Table of the Lord is a divinely instituted sign of Jesus’ presence in His body, the Church. When we take the bread and the cup, we are receiving the signs of His glory into our bodies. Though He is already always with us, the Table of the Lord is a place where He makes His glory known in a special way.

The Table of the Lord is the Table of Divine Glory.