Dr Paul Allen

“And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee. And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat.” ( Exodus 25:21-22 ) In the “holy of holies” of the tabernacle, God would meet with Israel ’s high priest once a year to commune with His people at a meeting place called the “mercy seat.” The Hebrew word was derived from the word for “atonement,” which in turn meant essentially a “covering” for the Ark of the Covenant . On the great day of atonement each year, the high priest was commanded to sprinkle the blood from the sin offerings on the mercy seat ( Leviticus 16:14-15 ) to make an atonement for all the people. This annual ceremony, of course, merely prefigures the full atonement that Christ would make one day when “by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us” ( Hebrews 9:12 ). Since this blood has been sprinkled...

King David in Prayer (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord ,’ and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.” Psalm 32:5 David ’s grief for sin was bitter. Its effects were visible upon his outward frame: “ his bones waxed old ”; “ his moisture was turned into the drought of summer .” No remedy could he find, until he made a full confession before the throne of the heavenly grace. He tells us that for a time he kept silence, and his heart became more and more filled with grief: like a mountain tarn whose outlet is blocked up, his soul was swollen with torrents of sorrow. He fashioned excuses; he endeavored to divert his thoughts, but it was all to no purpose; like a festering sore his anguish gathered, and as he would not use the lancet of confession, his spirit was full of torment, and knew no rest. At last it came to this, that he must return to his God in humble penitence, or di...