Now, let me go on the record, I do believe that God did inhabit the praises of his people just as indicated in the Psalms. I do believe that He did… I just don’t believe that He now does. Why? Because is completely unnecessary. Why? Because He now inhabits the people of His praise. That is the difference between then and now. And that distinction makes all the difference in the world. The Apostle Paul declares, “I have been crucified with Christ and I know longer live, but Christ lives IN ME.” If Christ now inhabits us, the truth of which is at the very heart of the Gospel, then it is illogical and redundant to think that if we praise him, he then comes and inhabits those praises. He inhabits the Christian whether we are praising him or not. And He does not inhabit us any more or any less depending on our style, or quantity, or quality, or volume, or frequency of our praise, or the lack thereof. We can stand in the midst of a million praising Christians and His indwelling presence does not increase in us because of it. During the Old Covenant it was necessary for the Lord to inhabit the praises of His people for He did not inhabit them. Which leads me to my next question.
What is the difference between the person who is anointed and the person who is baptized? The answer is quite simple, and it is the very matter that is at the center of what I am trying to say. The man anointed lives on. The man baptized lives no more! The man anointed knew not the resurrection power… The man baptized knows the incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead… - Ephesians 1:19-20.
David needed an anointing for he could not know what it was to have the power available only through baptism. We need not an anointing since having been united with Jesus in His resurrection. Don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. - Romans 6:3-5
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