David Dances Before the Lord

Trumpets blare. People shout for joy. And at the front of the procession, a king is dancing in the street with all his might, not caring who is watching. But someone is watching. From a window above, a woman looks down, and she is not smiling.

David was now king of all Israel, and Jerusalem was his city. But one thing was missing. The ark of the covenant, the golden chest that held the tablets of the law and stood for God's presence among his people, had been sitting for many years in a house in the small town of Kiriath-jearim, almost forgotten. David wanted God at the centre of his kingdom. So he gathered thirty thousand chosen men to go and bring the ark home.

They set the ark on a brand new cart pulled by oxen, and two brothers, Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, guided it. Ahio walked in front. And David and all Israel celebrated before the Lord with everything they had: lyres and harps, tambourines, rattles and cymbals. It was a parade, a festival, a homecoming. Then they came to a threshing floor. The oxen stumbled. The cart lurched. Uzzah reached out his hand and took hold of the ark of God.

And the music stopped. The Bible says the Lord's anger burned against Uzzah for his error, and Uzzah died there, beside the ark. Readers ever since have found this a hard moment, and they have wrestled with it honestly. What the story makes plain is that God's holiness is not something to be handled carelessly. David was angry, and then he was afraid. “How can the ark of the Lord ever come to me?” he said. He would not take it any further. Instead, he had it carried to the nearby house of a man named Obed-edom the Gittite.

The ark stayed with Obed-edom for three months. And something began to happen. The Lord blessed Obed-edom and his whole household. Word got back to the king. “The Lord has blessed Obed-edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God.” The presence that had seemed so dangerous was also the source of every good thing. So David went to bring the ark up to Jerusalem again, this time with joy, and this time with care.

This time the ark was carried, not wheeled. When the bearers had taken just six steps, David stopped the procession and offered a sacrifice. Then he danced before the Lord with all his might, wearing a simple linen ephod, a priest's garment, instead of his royal robes. Shouts and trumpets filled the air. They brought the ark into the tent David had prepared for it, and he offered sacrifices and blessed the people in the name of the Lord. Then he gave every person there, men and women alike, bread, a portion of meat and a cake of raisins to take home.

But Michal, Saul's daughter and David's wife, had watched from a window as the king leapt and danced, and she despised him in her heart. When David came home to bless his family, she met him with scorn. “How dignified the king of Israel was today, uncovering himself in front of his servants' slave girls, the way a shameless fool uncovers himself!” David answered, “It was before the Lord, who chose me. I will celebrate before the Lord. And I'll make myself even more undignified than this.”

Why did things go wrong the first time? The law of Moses had already given instructions. The ark was to be carried on poles, on the shoulders of Levites, and Numbers warns that even they must not touch the holy things. A cart was how the Philistines had once sent the ark back. When the book of Chronicles tells this story, it has David explain the difference himself: the first time, the Levites did not carry it, and we did not seek God in the way he had commanded.

David Dances Before the Lord. You'll find it in Second Samuel, chapter 6. God is holy, and he is also the giver of every blessing. David learned to approach him with care, and to celebrate him without holding back. So here's the question to carry with you. When you worship God, are you more worried about doing it his way, or about what other people will think?