Praise the Lord!

One of the things that I have always loved about my daughters is that they love to dance. Madisyn even understands when we are going to play music in the house for her. A few years ago someone bought us an Amazon Echo and we have it sitting on the counter between the kitchen and living room. So all we have to do now is say, “Alexa play the Trolls soundtrack” and she gets so excited she starts dancing before the music even starts.

When Aubreigh was little we used to play the Disney Junior Mix on a bluetooth speaker in our bathroom and have dance parties and she loved dancing and sliding around on the tile floor and doing her best singing the words to the music.

The dance parties in our old bathroom floor and the spontaneous ones we have now in our living room with our Echo have created such wonderful memories for us as we all enjoy listening to the music and seeing the joy it brings out when the dancing begins.

I really do love these moments and love that all it takes is some music to bring that much joy into our daughters lives. This dancing and this instant joy is what immediately came to mind when I saw that today’s story was about David bringing the ark of the covenant into Jerusalem. I have to tell you that this is one of my favorite stories of the Bible.

As we all know there isn’t always all joy in our lives like there was in the bringing of the ark of the covenant into Jerusalem. David had been fighting long and hard to unite the kingdom. The ark had been in the hands of the enemies for twenty years, which meant that the very place that God’s presence was dwelling was under the hands and control of foreigners. The kingdom was no longer under the control of the Israelites which is why Saul had been appointed a ruler over the people. There were too many threats over from the outside and the main enemy was the Philistines.

We see in that David is appointed the first king of Israel by all the people of Israel. The wars are not over and the the kingdom has not yet been united by David, but the people stop and take time to recognize David as their king that will lead them to a time of prosperity in the land and with God. David then takes time to celebrate as well. He makes Jerusalem the capital of Israel after capturing it, and decides that since God is looking with favor upon him and all the Israelites it is time to bring the ark of the covenant to a place of honor. In the hands of the enemies the ark brought disaster but in the hands of the Israelites it brought blessing. David wanted that blessing to inhabit the very center of the kingdom of Israel.

The bringing of the ark to Jerusalem is the part that makes this one of my favorite stories of the Bible. And it’s actually not so much the fact that David brings the ark to Jerusalem, but how it happens. Typically when we think of ceremonies or processions like in some churches we typically do it with solemn reverence for the occasion. But that’s not what happens when the ark is brought to Jerusalem.

Loud music is playing. David, the king of Israel, and all of his friends are taking part in playing instruments and they also danced as the ark came toward the city. The stories goes on after our text today that as they finally enter the city of Jerusalem that David was wearing a linen ephod. Which sounds fine, ok so he’s wearing an ephod, so what? An ephod is basically underwear. The newly appointed king of Israel is dancing in the city of Jersualem playing his harp and dancing the streets, in his underwear! The story also tells us that not only is he dancing in his under but he is dancing with all his might.

During Vacation Bible School Madisyn and I got to hang out while the kids were in their different rotations and I loved to visit the music rotation because as soon as we walked into the church she would start bouncing like crazy in my arms and throw her hands in the air and shake them around. She was dancing for joy at the sound of the music. One of the people who was sitting in the area then lovingly referred to Madisyn as the Pentecostal baby because she would bounce and dance and throw her hands in the air at the sound of the music. Madisyn still does that today at the sound of the music in our house and in the music at the church. I love that she does it and I love the fact that someone called her the Pentecostal baby.

Can you imagine how truly exciting it must have been for David and all of Israel to bring the very presence of God into the newly established capital of the country? It was a moment of great joy and celebration and no one (well there was one person but we’re not going to talk about that) was going to sit around and be solemn about the occasion.

What brings about joy in your life? What are the things that make you dance for joy and excitement? What parts of your faith, what parts of this church make you excited for being a part of Grace and this community of believers? Where does your great joy and your faith meet? For some people it’s music. For some people it’s serving the community in need. For others it’s raising our children up in faith. For others it’s leading our services in different ways. For David it was bringing the the very presence of God in the center of the kingdom. It was bringing God’s ark back to the people so that they could know that God was in their midst.

That is why I love this story. It’s not some great theological concept, but simply the idea that we should be joyful about our faith. We should find those things that make us dance. To find those things that we love and to do them no matter what someone might say. To find joy in life and faith. To be able to dance in the streets and bring smile to our face and to know that it doesn’t matter what someone else says when we are so joyful about what God is doing in our lives that we can’t help but dance like a Pentecostal baby. May you find that joy in your lives and dance in your underwear with all your might for all that God is doing for you. Find the ways to celebrate how great and awesome our God truly is. Amen.