Dancing Before The Lord

Introduction

I remember when working with teenagers there was a particular song they would get excited when the worship leader would. It was a song that David Crowder sang called Undignified Praise. It was a song that the worship leader would become animated playing and the teenagers would react the same way. The song leader would dance around and they would do a call and response in other parts of the song. It was all fun and exciting worship for them.

The song was based on the scripture where King David danced and sang before the Ark of the Covenant on its journey back into Jerusalem. His wife did not approve of his actions and let him know what she thought about his behavior. The song was based on verse 22 where David responded that he will be even more over the top in his worship. Lets go to the passage for today which is broken down into two parts. The first part is where they began the process of trying to bring the ark back to Jerusalem. The second part is where they are finally able to bring the ark into Jerusalem. Listen to 2 Samuel 6:1–5 and then 2 Samuel 6:12–19

2 Samuel 6:1–5 NRSV

1 David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand. 2 David and all the people with him set out and went from Baale-judah, to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the Lord of hosts who is enthroned on the cherubim. 3 They carried the ark of God on a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart 4 with the ark of God; and Ahio went in front of the ark. 5 David and all the house of Israel were dancing before the Lord with all their might, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals.

2 Samuel 6:12–19 NRSV

12 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.” So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with rejoicing; 13 and when those who bore the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatling. 14 David danced before the Lord with all his might; David was girded with a linen ephod. 15 So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet. 16 As the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal daughter of Saul looked out of the window, and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart. 17 They brought in the ark of the Lord, and set it in its place, inside the tent that David had pitched for it; and David offered burnt offerings and offerings of well-being before the Lord. 18 When David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the offerings of well-being, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts, 19 and distributed food among all the people, the whole multitude of Israel, both men and women, to each a cake of bread, a portion of meat, and a cake of raisins. Then all the people went back to their homes.

Now if you want to hear the exchange between David and Michal his wife, you will need to reach through verse 23. My focus today is about the way in which David worshipped. In some ways it is completely unorthodox for a king to act this way. This was something that David poured out all his passion in this act of bringing the ark back to Jerusalem. This was a huge celebration and he showed his passion for this joyous occasion.

Verse 5 and verse 16 in NRSV say dancing . When I looked up the original word and meaning it was two different words. They both come down to playing and dancing. What this means is that worship was happening here. This included David dancing, this included others playing instruments, it also included others singing. This sounds like a worship service, right?

Circling back around to Michal and her despising of David, there may be a few reasons. Later on she says he was showing off and exposing himself before others in inappropriate ways with his dancing and leaping around. He was not acting like a king but acting foolishly. A king should act honorably and dignified which is not what David was doing with his dancing worship.

Michal his wife despised him in her heart. It may be that she really thought he had turned into a fool with his behavior. Or maybe this despising of him was also rooted in him taking her back after she had been remarried and now he had other wives and concubines too. At any rate, his behavior made her despise him in her heart. She strongly disagreed with his kind of worship.

If you keep reading in this passage as I mentioned earlier, you will see he doesn’t care she disapproves and in fact he will act even more contemptuous in her eyes because others will appreciate what he is doing. Not good marriage advice here but his point is that worship is about pouring out passion with many different forms. This celebrating worship service bringing the ark back into Jerusalem was a demonstration of this unorthodox manner of worship. In some ways, King David went against the grain here by pouring out his passion before God without regard whether he looked foolish to some and courageous to others. He simply worshipped God with all his heart and in this case, that meant he danced and sang.

It is funny if you think about it. Could you imagine the President breaking out in dance and song while giving a speech? Could you imagine the scandal it would be if the Governor of TN broke out in song and dance at a press conference? This would be scandalous and people might think them foolish. Putting aside for feelings (positive or negative) on the person there now but the position itself holds a certain level of dignity and respect. This would definitely break that image of dignity and respect would it not?

Could you imagine the scandal if I broke out in song and dance in the middle of a sermon? Don’t worry there is very little chance of that happening. However, you get my point of how shocking or controversial it may be. Rest assured, worship today is not scandalous nor would I try and do something that does not uphold the dignity and purpose of worship directed to God. What I will do is ask to keep minds open to what worship is and what different types of worship may bring to a service.

There is the ongoing struggle between traditional songs and contemporary songs. There is this struggle that we need to play this kind only or that kind only or this kind is the only good ones and the other is not good. However, we need to take a step back to look at worship songs in general. What purpose do they fulfill? What are they meant to accomplish in a church service?

A church service is made up of many different elements or can include many different elements. In songs, there is one rule, is it scriptural? This helps to say whether this is a worship song or just a song. There are good songs and there are bad songs. There are good worship songs and there are some worship songs that are not. In the same vein, separate the music and the lyrics. Music is not what determines whether something is a worship song or not. Lyrics set to music is what helps us to worship through song.

I would like you to walk through a handful of songs where I will walk through traditional songs where theology is shared and then I will walk through contemporary songs where experiences and emotions are shared. While this is my own way of categorizing, I don’t expect you to adopt it but I only ask you to listen to what each of these songs offers when we sing them.

Lets start with a familiar traditional hymn. Turn in your hymnals to #64 - Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty. As you read through these verses you will see that it shares theology. The recurring opening of each verse is “Holy, Holy, Holy” This song declares over and over that God is Holy. We worship, praise, and adore Holy God. The second part I want you to notice in your hymnal is in the footnotes. Notice it mentions Revelation 4:8-11. This song’s lyrics are based on this passage. In other words, the recurring words, the theology being taught here is based on this passage which states this.

There is another song that is considered contemporary. Hillsong has a worship song called Hosanna. In starting with scripture, it is based on Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem where the people shouted Hosanna as Jesus entered Jerusalem. A bit more on this word helps explain all that is bundled up in that one word.

Stepbible.org defines it as such

Vocab

ὡσαννά (hōsanna) 'Hosanna!' (G5614)

Hosanna! (exclamation of praise, originally "Save [us]!") Occurs in the Bible ~6 times

Meaning

Hosanna! (exclamation of praise, originally "Save [us]!") Hosanna! save now, help now, Mt. 21:9, 15; Mk. 11:9, 10; Jn. 12:13*

The people are praising Jesus and exclaiming Save Us. They are joyous that Jesus has come to save them. They are excited and joyous that this moment has finally arrived. Jesus has come to save them. In the same way this Hosanna song by Hillsong elicits by its lyrics set to music to stir up in us that same hopeful joy that Jesus has come to save us from sin, to help us to change and become more Christ like. It is about experiencing the life changing grace which has the power to free us from sin, set us free to love, to be healed of our hurts, to be made whole by Jesus.

These are just two examples of songs where they are based on scripture and they open our hearts in a way to worship God, to proclaim truths and praise God. Traditional or contemporary worship songs are both valuable in our worship. It comes down to music which may be different.

Next I want to talk about two very familiar songs that are considered traditional but are not based on a specific passage but rather on theologies, or our understanding of God’s truths. Turn in your hymnals to 377 It is Well with My Soul and on the next page is 378 - Amazing Grace. If you look at the bottom notice there is no scripture reference but lets examine what they are sharing as truths learned by their authors.

If you know the story behind It Is Well with My Soul, then you know the tragedy that struck Horatio Spafford where he was inspire to write this hymn. He lost his business, his children and yet somehow, he knew he would get through this. He expressed the concept of peace which surpasses all understanding was sustaining him through both trials and sin. Tragedy and sin did not break the peace in his soul.

The next page contains the familiar song Amazing Grace. John Newton wrote it share the truth that what he used to be, a vile slave trader, grace was able to redeem him. Grace is the center of his hope. God’s amazing grace is all we can rely on. While this may not be based on a specific passage, it is a truth John Newton wrote down and shared.

The last song I will talk about is 10,000 Reasons by Matt Redman and Jonas Myrin. It was loosely based on other 2 other traditional hymns and Psalm 103. The song emphasizes the unending list of ways in which we have been blessed by God. It is something worth praising God for the way in which blessings have flowed into our lives constantly. This song elicits a sense of gratefulness and a feeling of hope and security we have in God, the source of blessings.

There are many other songs we could discuss but I hope this has helped you to take a look at songs you may not have examined before or maybe written off as not appropriate. We went through and explored both traditional songs and contemporary. We explored songs that were scriptural and a couple that were sharing experiences that are based on scriptural truths. Always examine what the lyrics are to see what it means after putting the music aside. While the music is important, remember it does not change the words you are singing.

This brings me to the conclusion and an announcement of upcoming changes starting in August. What we will be doing is changing up the service some where we will be mixing both traditional hymns and contemporary songs in the service. While change can be uncomfortable and in some ways risky, I believe in my heart this is what we need to do, along with other steps such as study groups and activities. We will take this journey together in making Asbury grow once again and have each generation plugged in.