The Dance of David
Download MP3We're continuing our study on the gospel and the life of David. So I invite you to turn in your Bibles to 2nd Samuel chapter 6. It's also printed in your worship guide, 2nd Samuel chapter 6. We'll begin reading in verse 12. And it was told King David, the Lord has blessed the household of Obed Edom and all that belongs to him because of the ark of God.
Joel Brooks:So David went and brought up the ark of god from the house of Obed Edom to the city of David with rejoicing. And when those who bore the ark of the Lord had gone 6 steps, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened animal. And 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 horn. As the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal, the daughter of Saul, looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing And place inside the tent that David had pitched for it.
Joel Brooks:And David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. And when David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts, and distributed among all the people the whole multitude of Israel, both men and women, a cake of bread, a portion of meat, and a cake of raisins to each one. Then all the people departed each to his house. And David returned to bless his household. But Michal, the daughter of Saul, came out to meet David and said, How the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of his servants, female servants, as one of the vulgar fellows shamelessly uncovers himself.
Joel Brooks:David said to my call, it was before the Lord who chose me above your father and above all his house to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the Lord. And I will make merry before the Lord. And I will make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be abased in your eyes. But the female servants of whom you have spoken, by them, I shall be held in honor. And my call, the daughter of Saul, had no child to the day of her death.
Joel Brooks:Pray with me. God, we ask that you would open up your word to us that we would hear you speaking. God, that you would begin transforming our lives where we look more and more like you, Jesus. I pray that my words would fall to the ground, blow away, and not be remembered anymore. But, Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us.
Joel Brooks:We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Over the years, I have encountered some pretty unusual worship stories. There's a college ministry in Ohio that does a Worship Through the Decades, in which they they pick a decade and everybody would just dress accordingly. So if it was the seventies decade, everybody would be, you know, wearing bell bottoms.
Joel Brooks:They would be listening to Abba, I guess praise music. They would, they would dress like the seventies, and they would sing like the seventies. Another story I heard about worship that's equally ridiculous, actually more, is is one of my pastor friends, he was going to speak at a camp, and the worship leader had brought with him all these ornate boxes about so big. And, yes, wait, what's in the boxes? He was thinking of some kind of musical instruments, something, you know, along that lines, and then the pastor worship leader said, Oh, those are my puppets.
Joel Brooks:He was a ventriloquist, and he incorporated ventriloquism into his worship leading. And, I mean, what what what really can you say about something like that? It's easy to mock that form of entertainment, but a lot of churches lean heavily on entertainment for their worship. Not as bizarre as puppets, but, equally as heretical. I was I was leading a a I was actually leading worship.
Joel Brooks:I was the one playing, for a conference one time, and the the speaker came to me, and he wanted to give me a few just helps on how to lead worship for this. And he said, Now when you finish leading your first song, I need immediately to go into the next song. Just just you can't have any awkward silence, no pause because I found that if there's if there's a pause that the the Holy Spirit leaves. And, which is just really astounding because you think of it, Jesus Christ conquered sin and death. Yet the one thing He can't overcome is a 2 second, you know, awkward pause.
Joel Brooks:You know, when that, when that happens, He has to leave at that moment. Another time, I was talking to a a prominent worship leader just about leading worship. And and, so tell me your thought process when you're doing this. Because I don't think at all. I mean, I just I kinda get up there.
Joel Brooks:I don't think about the lyrics. I just it just I just kinda flow, and it's really just kind of goes from there. You don't think at all about about what you're saying, because no, not at all. And and to me that was kind of like, it's more like a vibrating bed, you know, you just put in like a few tokens of praise, get your chill bumps and, it's really nothing substantial happens. And and these are like these are worship leaders in which this is happening.
Joel Brooks:But are they worshiping? Was David worshiping? You know, a couple of weeks ago, we looked at David's first attempt at worship, When he brought the ark into Jerusalem, and there was singing, there was dancing, there was celebration, It looks like worship, sounded like worship, felt like worship, and yet they were not worshiping the holy god. And so god has to remind them of who He is and who they are. And so He strikes us dead in that moment, and people are reminded that they are sinners and that God is holy.
Joel Brooks:You see, to worship God is anything other than holy is really nothing more than worshiping before a mirror. It is self worship, not god worship. God is holy, and we have to worship Him as such. And if you think about it though, when you think about His holiness, that this is somewhat strange because we sing a whole lot of songs about god's holiness. About every other song is declaring god's holiness.
Joel Brooks:But let me ask you a question, and it's a very important question that that if you don't know the answer to this, you might not be able to worship. What exactly is it about god's holiness that benefits you? Is there any benefit at all to us as worshipers of God's holiness? Now, all the other attributes of God, you can actually find a benefit for. You know, you can ascribe to God His mighty power, but his power can benefit you.
Joel Brooks:It can save you. His power can make it rain. His power can heal somebody. His power can get you out of a jam. And so of course, we want to ascribe to God power or wisdom.
Joel Brooks:God, you are wise, but that can benefit us because through God's wisdom, He can He can navigate through our life, and He could tell us which is a good decision and which is a bad decision. Or God's mercy. I mean, who doesn't want to celebrate God's mercy because it's in that that we have forgiveness of sins. Or His faithfulness. Of course, His faithfulness benefits us, because when we fail, that means God still holds on to His promises.
Joel Brooks:But what about holiness? Every other attribute that god has can benefit you. What about holiness? What did did Uzza? Did he feel the benefit of god's holiness when he touched the ark?
Joel Brooks:Yet for some reason, it's in every song we sing. Not only that, but God's holiness is the anthem for all of eternity. For all of eternity, the 24 creatures or the 4 creatures, they surround the throne, and they're saying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. Forever, never ends. And when you think of that, you get you're thinking, how incredibly dull?
Joel Brooks:How dull is heaven gonna be? How boring if that's that's all you're gonna hear for all of eternity? Unless there is a delight in that declaration. If the story of David had ended, if it had ended when when Uzzah had touched that ark and died, then I I would have to agree, affirm that worship is is nothing more than pure drudgery, worshiping a holy god. I mean, we would be just declaring god's holiness out of a sense of misery or fear.
Joel Brooks:We we have to we we sing to him because we have to, because we know what happens when a holy god gets angry. If we don't And so so we have to go through the motions, and we have to sing, and we have to make these declarations because an angry holy god, who who can stand before him? If I would imagine if some of you were honest with yourself, you would, you would acknowledge that that's how you feel about your worship. That you have to do it. That somehow, you you you gotta work yourself up, and it's really out of fear that god will somehow be pleased with you, that that that He'll be angry with you, and so you know you've got to come to church.
Joel Brooks:You've got to worship this holy God so you don't feel His wrath. And the only joy that you've ever gotten in worship hasn't come from truly thinking about the holiness of God. It's actually been when you you hear a melody you like, or you hear a guitar riff you like, and it distracts you from thinking about the holiness of God. And in that moment of distraction, you actually feel a little bit of joy. Hey, I kinda like this song.
Joel Brooks:And you're not thinking about the Lord at all. Because to think about him brings up those that fear, that anxiety. Thankfully, the story of the Ark coming into Jerusalem, does not end with Uzzah just dead on the ground. And David wondering how in the world God can never come to him. Now after this happened, David said, hey, put put the ark in that house over there.
Joel Brooks:Put it in Obed Edom's house. And I mean, I just like the picture of this story from Oedib Oedibim. What is Obed Edom's point of view. I mean, he's he's probably standing there at the door and he's watching this procession go by, and he sees us as struck dead, and I'm picturing like Raiders of the Lost Ark, you know, face melting, things like that. And then David says, take that and put it in his house.
Joel Brooks:He he's thinking this is a death sentence, an absolute death sentence. And he's a foreigner, he's a Gittite, so he doesn't really have any rights. I mean, it's like you don't put it in your house. Well, then it just doesn't become your house. We deport you.
Joel Brooks:Alright? It's going in your house. And so they put it in there, And there it is for months. And he had to be thinking any moment he would die. But but as the months pass, he doesn't die.
Joel Brooks:And not only that, he's blessed. He and his entire household are blessed. And this is completely unexpected because up to this point, the the Ark of God is kinda like radiation. The nearer you get to it, the more likely you are you're going to die. And so you kinda want it far away from you.
Joel Brooks:The art can never come in your presence. It brings sickness and death with it, yet here it is blessing. And when David hears this news about what is happening to Obed Edom, His view of God, his view of worship is utterly transformed in this moment. Now we do have to understand that this is a 1000 years before Jesus. David doesn't understand everything.
Joel Brooks:Clearly. He is still looking through a glass dimly. But he did know that somehow you can approach God's holiness, and there would be blessing, and there would be joy. It could happen. And and the very next thing he does in verse 13, it says, he made a sacrifice.
Joel Brooks:He knew sacrifice was next necessary. Verse 14, He's wearing the ephod, meaning he's wear he's dressed up like a priest. He knew there needed to be some kind of kingly priest in order for the ark to come. And what you're seeing is the the beginnings in him of realizing the gospel. And that a holy god can come and that a holy god can bless.
Joel Brooks:The apostle Peter, when you read through the Gospels, you see that he had a very similar transformation. If you remember, the first time that Peter met the Lord, they're in a boat and, he's in the boat Jesus is so he could preach to the masses that are on the shore. And when he's done preaching, he tells Peter, Hey, why don't you throw your nets out? Peter didn't really want to do it, but he did it anyway. So, he threw his nets out on the boat and his nets started breaking.
Joel Brooks:He he could not haul it all in. And and the reaction that Peter had at that was he was aware of the holiness of Jesus, and he said, depart from me for I am a sinner. You gotta get you gotta get away from me. When he just sees a glimpse of who God is, he says, or of the holiness of Jesus is he says, you cannot come near me. You must depart from me.
Joel Brooks:Now you go to the end of Peter's life. One of the last encounters that Peter has with Jesus and it is almost an identical situation. Once again, there's a boat. Once again, Peter is fishing. This time, Jesus isn't actually in the boat.
Joel Brooks:He is he's off on the shore. Peter doesn't know that it's Jesus there. Jesus has died. He is as He has now risen from the dead, and He is waiting on the shore. And He calls out to Peter, Cast your nets out on this side.
Joel Brooks:Peter does for some reason, and he can't haul it all in. And he becomes aware it's Jesus. This time, he jumps in fully clothed to the water, and he swims as fast as he can to his savior. You you have almost the exact same miracle. First time, Peter says, There there is no way you can be close to me.
Joel Brooks:2nd time, Peter is swimming as fast as he can to his savior. What happened? What what what happened but in his life there that caused that? And it's not that, you know, Peter found religion or also became a better person. It's not that he got his act together.
Joel Brooks:If anything, Peter's life fell apart. He had just denied Jesus three times. He just had the greatest moral failure of his life. Get all he wants to do is be with Jesus. The holiness of Jesus no longer repels him.
Joel Brooks:It attracts him. Why? It's the gospel. It's the gospel. He realizes that his relation lord.
Joel Brooks:And when he realizes that he will do anything, he'll swim as fast as he can as he is drawn in to the worship of Jesus. The holiness of Jesus. The holiness of God which once repelled him now becomes this thing of beauty. It becomes beautiful, and it pulls them in. Now, understanding understanding how the holiness of God becomes a beautiful and an attractive thing absolutely changes the way David approaches worship in all of Israel.
Joel Brooks:I'm not exaggerating this. All of Israel changes the way they worship god because of Obed Edom. Up to this point, the worship of god was centered around sacrifices. That that's what the priest did. That's the only thing they did was they made sacrifices.
Joel Brooks:To be a priest and to be a butcher, they were synonymous. Okay? That's all you did was you made sacrifices over and over and over. But David changes that. The sacrificial system would still be in play, but it is no longer the dominant form of worship.
Joel Brooks:There would now be singing. There would be music. And He sets up a whole group of priests. He says, You're no longer butchers. What you are is you are musicians.
Joel Brooks:What you are are singers, and he sets up professional choirs in the priesthood. And from this point on, there is much singing, there is much music, and the worship of God in Israel. And the reason is he just saw the beauty of holiness. And beauty needs to be artistically expressed. The only way that you you you can really when confronted with beauty, the only natural outpouring is song.
Joel Brooks:And so it becomes central in the worship of God in Israel. And so Israel is utterly changed, just like David is utterly changed when they see that Obed Edom is blessed. And so now, this time as David is entering into Jerusalem, it's different than the previous time because now he has a professional choir. He's got professional musicians. And man, the the the noise, the music, the party was just in full throttle.
Joel Brooks:And so David dances like he has never danced before. He leaps and dances with all of his might before the Lord. And the word there that's used to describe his dancing, karrar, it it means whirling. It's it's the same word that would be used to describe a tempest, like a whirling tempest. He is he is spinning around in all of his all of his might.
Joel Brooks:And so, when when you picture David here dancing, don't don't picture me like at the prom, okay? That's that's not, that's that's not what is going on here. Lauren and I went to a lot of dances. We dated all through high school. So we we went to all the proms and stuff.
Joel Brooks:We had the pictures to prove it. And, and I hated dancing. I mean, really, I actually hated it so much my my body would react against dancing, and I would get a temperature. Every time I'd have a temperature of about a 100 or 101, dance fever. Yet, yet the opposite of that.
Joel Brooks:It was it would mean I just did not want to dance. I would do like the slow zombie hip dance, and during the the the couples thing, but fast, no. That that wasn't gonna happen. The best I ever did was I would like just adjust my clothes out there and hope that, you know, kind of look like dancing. That was that was it.
Joel Brooks:So it's really it's hard for me to to picture it, let alone identify what's what's going on here. I mean, I didn't dance like this during prom, and David's dancing like this in a worship service. And there's a part of me that really just kind of rubs me the wrong way because it doesn't seem really reverent. David was just exposed to the holiness of God, and so you think there should be a little bit of reverence here. You know, and when when I picture, you know, reverence, I picture people talking in hushed tones, you know, you kind of murmur through some creeds.
Joel Brooks:You sing hymns with an organ, you know, very, very reverent and that's not what's going on here. And I think I have come to believe a subtle lie about reverence. And and I've equated being reverent with being reserved. That doesn't exist in the bible. We are always commanded in our worship to be reverent, to treat god as he is holy, but you are never ever commanded to be reserved in your worship.
Joel Brooks:You are to worship and you are to sing before him. You are to give him everything with all of your heart, all of your soul, and all of your strength. You worship the Lord, but you are never reserved, And our worship has to reflect that. David here holds nothing back. Verse 14 says, he dances with all his might.
Joel Brooks:You likely don't hold back when you're at some, you know, sporting events, some football or baseball game. You don't hold back. Parents, I know you don't hold back when you're cheering your children play sports, or if they're at a recital. You know, if if I'm at a YouTube concert and the edge breaks out and where's where the streets have no name, I I don't hold back. I I I cheer.
Joel Brooks:And that's right, because you you were meant to celebrate greatness. You were meant to praise greatness. That's worship. It's just that God needs to be the object of your affection. But you were meant to do that.
Joel Brooks:You were meant to celebrate and to not hold back when confronted with such majesty and beauty, and there is nothing more beautiful than the holiness of god. So David does this. And my call, his wife is watching him from the window. Verse 16 says, she looked at him and she despised him in his heart. When David gets home, she lets him have it.
Joel Brooks:She says, oh, how vulgar you were dancing around before all the maidens. She was she was humiliated. Now, apparently, the the that David was wearing was was a little small, they they usually are. As David's doing all this whirling around, he he exposed himself apparently a little bit to some of the maidens out there, and, and and my call was mortified at this. I mean, she she was a princess.
Joel Brooks:She grew up in a palace. You don't do things like that. Her dad certainly would never do things like that, and yet here was David doing it. And granted, I I would argue David probably lacked a little bit of judgment in in what he was doing here, and what he wore, but his heart was in the right place. And he responds to her let's read verse 21.
Joel Brooks:He responds to us saying this, David said to my call, it was before the Lord who chose me above your father and above all his house to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the Lord. And I will make merry before the Lord. I will make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be abased in your eyes. David's response to her teaches us 2 profound things about worship. First is this, worship is the result of election.
Joel Brooks:Worship is the result of election. Hear hear me out on this. They David tells my call. He says, he's dancing before the Lord who chose him. I'm doing this because God chose me.
Joel Brooks:I am not king because of any work I've done. I'm not king because I'm any more moral than other people. I'm not king because of the good decisions I've made. I'm not king because of all my natural abilities. I'm king for one reason, and that's because God chose me.
Joel Brooks:God put his spirit inside of me and enabled me to become king. It was his work, not mine. And when David thinks about God's choice of him, apart from any work he has done, he is filled with incredible joy. This is exactly how our Lord Jesus responded when he thought of election, and God's choosing of us. In scripture, Jesus is only recorded as having rejoiced one time.
Joel Brooks:I'm sure he rejoiced others, but in scripture, he rejoices one time. And this time, it says he not only rejoiced, but he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit. So he is giddy. He is super happy about this. And here it is in Luke 10.
Joel Brooks:In that same hour, Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, I thank you, father, lord of heaven and earth, that you've hidden these things from the wise and the understanding, and you've revealed them to little children. Yes, father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed to me, by my father and no one knows the son except the father or who the father is except the son and anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal Him. So here here, Jesus is almost giddy, absolutely filled with joy in the Holy Spirit. Why?
Joel Brooks:Because he says, look at these idiots. Look at these little babes. They're not wise, they don't have any understanding, yet God chose them. He chose to save them. And when he thinks about how incredible God's plan is in all this, he just burst out in joy.
Joel Brooks:It's exactly what David is doing here. He laughs and and he celebrates when he thinks I had absolutely nothing to do with this. God chose me, and I will celebrate before him. So David realizes he's done nothing to have the ark come to him. The second thing we see in this is humility.
Joel Brooks:Humility. And that's that's also related to election. Understanding that David did nothing to get into this position produced in him a posture of humility. When David says, that he will make himself even more contemptible than this, That word contemptible is the opposite of the word glory. The word glory mean is kabod in Hebrew.
Joel Brooks:It literally means heavy. It means substantial, weighty, solid, thick, immovable. It is heavy. That's what the word glory means. It has substance to it.
Joel Brooks:And the word that David picks here that is translated contemptible literally means light. Light. David says that he will become even lighter than this. He will become even less substantial. He will become even less glorious than this.
Joel Brooks:And this is both a posture of worship and the outcome of worship. It's both. It's the posture needed for worship, and yet it is also the outcome of worship. It's this lightness and this humility. David's already humble here, but the more he worships, the more humble he becomes.
Joel Brooks:And the more humble he becomes, the more he worships. And it's this ongoing cycle. And that's how worship and humility go hand in hand. Because it really worship, you know, you know, humility isn't just thinking little about yourself. It's not thinking about yourself.
Joel Brooks:That's what humility is. That's also what worship is. True worship. In order for true worship to happen, you have to forget about yourself. And I bet that when you think of the happiest moments in your life, the ones that brought you the most joy, maybe the birth of a child, or listening to some glorious music, or being at some game, important championship you win, or something like this.
Joel Brooks:This this huge moment, you You were caught up in the moment. You were experiencing joy outside of yourself, and that's worship. Worship is when you forget us about yourself completely and you were utterly taken up with God, with just enjoying God. You become nothing, he becomes everything. And there is such there's such a lightness to that, just this blessed lightness that comes in worship.
Joel Brooks:David says that this lightness is going to define his life. He's going to think about himself less, and he's going to think about God more. He's going to be less glorious. God's going to become more glorious. Wouldn't you like to feel light?
Joel Brooks:I mean, would wouldn't you like that? I mean, I I know some of you need lightness in your life. You you feel heavy, You feel burdened. You feel all of the anxieties. You feel it crushing you, and the reason is, is you're thinking so much about yourself.
Joel Brooks:And Jesus is here to free you of that. To give you this this lightness of the soul. He's saying, you don't have to think about your so yourself so much. You don't have to prove yourself. You don't have to work so much.
Joel Brooks:You don't have to do that. You are accepted. You no longer have to try and be glorious. You just have to worship the glorious one. I wasn't gonna go in this, but I've got time.
Joel Brooks:I'm going to because I bet there's some of you who can identify with this and you're you're As you're thinking through this story, you're like, all right, I'm following with you, but honestly, hey, I'm never gonna dance. Let's just let's just be honest. I I I really can't relate that much to David. If anything, I relate more to my call than David. I hope this is encouragement to you.
Joel Brooks:This won't be the most articulate way of saying this, but, there is sin all over this text here. There's there's sin all over it. David is a sinner. My call is a sinner. The people of Israel are sinners and yet worship happens.
Joel Brooks:Alright. Just look at David's wife, my call. Alright. What what we don't realize because we've skipped over some of these chapters is when David had to go in hiding for years, the moment he left the palace, she was given away to another man in marriage. She's been married to another man for years, all right.
Joel Brooks:Well, while David has been off hiding and now David has become king and the first thing David does is he sends his servants, some soldiers, Go bring me back my wife. He doesn't go and get her in person. And so she's literally ripped away from her new husband who she has a life with. Husband walks on the road next to the guards the entire time as they are bringing her back, and and it says the husband is weeping, saying, please don't do this. Please don't take my wife.
Joel Brooks:And yet David rips her from him and brings him back to his house. She's had a hard life, and now she's thrown into, back back to be a family with David, yet David's been off collecting a harem. He's been collecting a lot of concubines. He's collected multiple wives, and now she's just part of them. She's had a horrible life at this point.
Joel Brooks:Now she's up there looking out the window and seeing David flirt with these other girls, and she is ticked. Can you understand her now? Just a little bit. Yet, she should have worshiped. Yet, I can kind of sympathize with her.
Joel Brooks:And and I look at David, I'm like, what are you what were you doing all of this time? How can you treat her that way? How can you get a harem? How can you keep marrying all these women and become just like all the other kings of all the other nations? And yet he did.
Joel Brooks:And so you've got sinner, you've got sinner, you've got a whole sinful mess here, and yet worship happens in the middle of it. That is good news, at least it is for me. Is that there there is no perfect situation until Jesus comes. Yes. Then we worship him face to face.
Joel Brooks:But till that happens, we worship him in an imperfect world, and there can be true, joyful worship. And we're invited to come and not be on the sidelines, but to be a part of that. And David was able to do this because once again, he didn't rest on any work he had done. He was resting in the fact that god himself blessed. God himself saved.
Joel Brooks:That's our hope and that should be our rest as well. Pray with me. Lord, all of us here are in just a big sinful mess. We're hurting some of us from the sin of others, all of us from our own sins. Lord, we we look at this and we see celebration.
Joel Brooks:We see joy. Lord, we want that. So I pray that you would make us lighter We would cast our burdens on you. Lord, that we would not trust in any of our own works, any of our own righteousness, but we will lean holy on Jesus. And God ignite in us a heart of worship through your gospel.
Joel Brooks:Ignite in us, something a fan that we would fan into flame and it cannot be extinguished. Our god, you are worth your worth worship that has done with all of our heart, soul, and strength. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
