As I read through Richard M. Davidson’s long-anticipated textbook, A Song for the Sanctuary: Experiencing God’s Presence in Shadow and Reality, it reminded me of the great Puritan works in which they started with a biblical passage, discussed its context, developed a doctrine from it, and then preached a book-length sermon expounding and applying its riches. This is what I see in Davidson’s magnum opus, a 930-page exposition on the sanctuary doctrine from Psalm 27. It has all the qualities of a great expository sermon: exegetical depth, penetrating theological analysis, solid homiletical form, pathos for the subject matter, and practical application to the heart of the readers, not to mention the helpful tables and visualizations of concepts.
The homiletical form of this sermon takes the shape of four sections, or “stanzas.” Davidson focuses on key verses in Psalm 27 and relates them to all of Scripture. The first stanza introduces the theological significance of the sanctuary doctrine in 5 chapters. Stanza two unfolds in 10 chapters the meaning of David’s quest to “behold the beauty of the Lord” in verse 4. Davidson thus shows the reader chapter by chapter the beauty of sanctuary typology from Eden’s sanctuary to Israel’s sanctuaries and then to the sanctuary in heaven through the book of Hebrews.
The third stanza also issues out of verse 4, where David seeks the truth of the sanctuary, or “to inquire in His temple.” Here Davidson unpacks the theological and prophetic aspects of the sanctuary in Daniel and Revelation as present truth for Christians today. All the charges raised over the decades against the Adventist concept of the investigative judgment come into play in these 10 chapters. Two bonus chapters by other seminary colleagues complement this stanza: Jirí Moskala contributes a penetrating theological analysis of the judgment in Scripture, and John Peckham contributes an engaging systematic theology of the sanctuary. Both chapters complement and round off Davidson’s careful arguments.
The final stanza of the book is based upon verse 13, where David looks upon “the goodness of the Lord” in the sanctuary. In these final chapters of the book, Davidson trumpets the practical nature of the sanctuary doctrine for the everyday Christian by probing “the experiential relevance of the sanctuary message” (713) and what it means to have Christ as our Mediator. Like a good expository sermon, he ends the book with the “so what” of the sanctuary message. Thus, Oliver Glanz contributes an insightful essay on the contemporary relevance of the sanctuary in the appendix.
In the early 1980s, I was an MDiv student in Davidson’s sanctuary class when he was fresh out of doctoral studies and excited to share his findings with students. After I had become jaded by the Ford crisis during my latter college years, his class content and the enthusiasm he brought with it became an anchor for me amid the investigative judgment storm. Now, some 40 years later, the professor’s same enthusiasm and passion for the sanctuary message resonate throughout A Song for the Sanctuary. It represents a lifetime of scholarship, teaching, and spiritual reflection on the biblical doctrine of the sanctuary, and readers will reap its riches through careful study and prayerful meditation. It is a powerful, moving, and unforgettable exposition of Christ’s ministration in the heavenly sanctuary, “the foundation of our faith” (9)!
