King David could show an exuberance before God that demonstrated his absolute trust, adoration and dependence on God.
His many psalms are testimony to his relationship with God. He wrote and sang about everything. He poured out his heart to God in prose and poetry, songs and exaltations.
Sometimes he was so unconscious of where he was or who he was with that he surprised those who were around him, even his own wife.
One day, when it was revealed to him that the Ark of the Covenant had been made available to him, his attitude went from fear to jubilation because God had permitted him to bring the Ark to the City of David.
God had so blessed the household of Obed-Edom, where the Ark was being kept, that it was clear that the Ark was being restored to Israel.
Now it was told King David, saying, “The LORD has blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God.”
2 Samuel 6:12
This was the signal that David could go ahead and return the Ark to Jerusalem. The very Presence of God was to come back into the nation.
So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with gladness. And so it was, when those bearing the ark of the LORD had gone six paces, that he sacrificed oxen and fatted sheep. Then David danced before the LORD with all his might; and David was wearing a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet.
2 Samuel 6:12-15
Even though David was wearing loose revealing clothing he danced with all his might. The joy of the Lord was so upon him that he allowed himself to consciously enter abandonment in his worship of God.
Mical’s dismay and loss
Sadly, Mical, David’s wife, was affronted by his exuberance. She was so offended by David’s dancing that she allowed herself to despise him in her heart.
Now as the ark of the LORD came into the City of David, Michal, Saul’s daughter, looked through a window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the LORD; and she despised him in her heart.
2 Samuel 6:16
Leaping and twirling and praising God. Fully abandoned to Him.
When David returned from a great time of blessing with Israel, Micah scorned him for his excitement, mocking him for the undignified manner of his dancing.
So David said to Michal, “It was before the LORD, who chose me instead of your father and all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the LORD, over Israel. Therefore I will play music before the LORD. And I will be even more undignified than this, and will be humble in my own sight. But as for the maidservants of whom you have spoken, by them I will be held in honor.”
2 Samuel 6:21-22
Mical would never bear children after this. Her bitterness towards David’s dancing affected her ability to reproduce.
Being undignified in our worship before God is not a sin. No, rather, it is a blessing. It shows that we care for Him more than anything else in the world.
His abandonment to God was seen as humility, not humiliation. There is a difference.
The Ark represented and held the very Presence of God. It was an assurance of God’s closeness to David and his people. It was the container for the covenant made between God and His people, ratified with blood.
Worship is an integral part of our lives before God. Abandonment to His love and grace is gift from us to Him. God created and owns everything. Nothing we have did not come from Him.
What we do have to give Him is our praise and adoration. That is the true gift. Jesus summed it up:
“But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
John 4:23
Amen.
