(5) Pavilion.--A booth or hut; also of the lair of wild beasts (Psalm 10:9; Jeremiah 25:38). (Comp. Job 38:40.)

Secret of his tabernacle.--Better, hiding place of his tent (ohel), the regular word for the tent of the congregation, but also used generally of a habitation of any kind--not necessarily of the tent set up for the ark by David at Zion (2Samuel 6:17). The clause, "He shall set me up upon a rock"--i.e., for safety--shows that the tent is also used figuratively for shelter; but there may also be a thought of the sure asylum to be found in the tabernacle of the congregation.

Verse 5. - For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion; in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me. This is not to be understood literally. David means that his spirit will find a refuge with God in times of trouble, not (as some Jewish expositors argue) that he will actually hide from his enemies inside the tabernacle. From such a sacrilege he would have shrunk. He shall set me up upon a rock (comp. Psalm 18:2; Psalm 61:2). The "Rock" is God himself, who is always David's final Refuge.

27:1-6 The Lord, who is the believer's light, is the strength of his life; not only by whom, but in whom he lives and moves. In God let us strengthen ourselves. The gracious presence of God, his power, his promise, his readiness to hear prayer, the witness of his Spirit in the hearts of his people; these are the secret of his tabernacle, and in these the saints find cause for that holy security and peace of mind in which they dwell at ease. The psalmist prays for constant communion with God in holy ordinances. All God's children desire to dwell in their Father's house. Not to sojourn there as a wayfaring man, to tarry but for a night; or to dwell there for a time only, as the servant that abides not in the house for ever; but to dwell there all the days of their life, as children with a father. Do we hope that the praising of God will be the blessedness of our eternity? Surely then we ought to make it the business of our time. This he had at heart more than any thing. Whatever the Christian is as to this life, he considers the favour and service of God as the one thing needful. This he desires, prays for and seeks after, and in it he rejoices.For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion,.... This, with what follows, is given as a reason why the psalmist desired to dwell in the house of the Lord; because he considered it as a pavilion or booth, as the word (h) signifies in which he should be hid by the Lord, in times of trouble and distress, either through the heat of persecution, or of inward anxiety of mind, caused by the working of a fiery law; the allusion being, as some think, to the shepherd's tent or booth, into which he sometimes takes a poor sheep, and protects it from the scorching heat of the sun at noon: and of such use is the tabernacle of the Lord; see Isaiah 4:6;

in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; alluding either to the tents of generals of armies, who receive into them those whom they would protect from the insults and injuries of others; or rather to the most holy place in the tabernacle, called the secret place, Ezekiel 7:22; typical of Christ, the hiding place of his, people, in whom their life is hid, and where it is safe and secure;

he shall set me up upon a rock; where he would be above and out of the reach of his enemies; meaning Christ, comparable to a rock for its height, he being higher than the kings of the earth, than the angels in heaven, than the heavens themselves, and much more than the sons of men; see Psalm 61:2; and for shelter and safety, he being a munition of rocks, a strong tower, a place of defence, and rock of refuge; and for firmness, solidity, and strength, he being able to bear the whole weight of the building of the church, and every believer laid upon him; and for duration, he being more immovable than rocks and mountains; so that such who are set up upon him are in the most safe and secure state imaginable.

(h) "in tugurio suo", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius, Michaelis.