"Despise Not The Dance"

"Despise Not The Dance"

"And David danced before the Lord with all his might, and David was girded with 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." (II Samuel 6:14-15)  The ark represented the presence of the Lord, and the Hebrew word in these verses for "danced" means to dance in a circle.  Gill's exposition says that he leaped and skipped like a lamb.  David discarded his kingly robes, and wearing a linen ephod, praised the Lord in an exorbitant manner, with wild and boisterous emotion.  No wonder the Lord loved David; he gave his worship all he had   ...   the exact reason we should "Despise Not The Dance."

"And 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 dancing before the Lord, and

she despised him in her heart."

(II Samuel 6:16)

David's wife, Michal, was barren until the day of her death, because she despised David's dancing before the Lord.  We are entering a time of worldwide revival; every Nation, kindred and tongue will worship as the Lord pours out His Spirit upon all flesh, and we must allow other Nations to worship in "their own ways."  It could even seem uncouth to some of us, but we must never despise "the dance" of another.  

What a glorious age in which we are living!  You say, "How can you say that?  We're having trouble like we've never seen."  Yes, and "trouble" makes people look up!  Trouble sends mortal humans to their knees; trouble causes glorified mud balls to call out to their Creator; trouble is good  ...  in the Lord's eyes. 

The Lord is more concerned about one's soul than one's bank account; He desires the worship of His children in a flamboyant manner, rather than "lay me down to sleep" prayers.  He will take all of it, the weak prayers and the once a week or once a month feeble praises, but He loves the kind of worship that defies logic, that induces a spectacle, that causes one to lose his/her inhibitions, that pushes us through the "everybody's looking at me" syndrome.  Why?  Because "it is Real!"  The Lord Jesus Christ wants, above all, the legitimate you and me  ...  no facade, no "putting on" for others, no making our attendance for show, no doing it because everyone else is doing it  ...  He knows!  God knows!  So, when someone like David throws off his robes, his jewels of honor, his kingly rings, his royal miter, and romps about in joyous splendor of adoration and childlike glee for his Maker  ...  well, you can imagine the elation of Almighty God!

But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been

keeping his father's sheep.  When a lion or a bear

came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went

after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth.

When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and 

  killed it."  

(I Samuel 17:34)

"David said to the Philistine, "You come against me

with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against 

you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies

of Israel, whom you have defied.  This day the Lord will deliver you 

into my hands, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head."

(I Samuel 17:45)

"And David took the head of the Philistine,

and brought it to Jerusalem ..."

(I Samuel 17:54)

David was not a sissy; he killed lions, bears  ... oh, and Philistines!  He was a man among men, even at a young age.  He told the Philistine, "..I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.  And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hands." (I Samuel 17:46-47)  David made his mistakes later in life and paid dearly for them, but nobody can doubt his love, his faith, his devotion to his God! 

Dance David, Dance!  The Lord smiles on you!  And, we have much to learn from you about "worship."  Centuries later, we're still talking about you, David, and as we watch with wonder as Nation after Nation comes to the Lord, are filled with His Spirit and worship Him with exuberance, tamborines banging, tribal feathers flittering in motion, kilts swinging with the music, kimonos swishing in cadence, and painted faces swirling and weaving to drums; we will remember, David, and we will "Despise Not The Dance."

(Visit promiselandchurch.net and theexperience238.com.

PromiseLand Church, Austin, Texas, Pastor Kenneth Phillips)