DANCING BEFORE THE LORD!

By Michael K. Farrar, O.D.

© God’s Breath Publications

 

It’s not a common practice for most American Christians attending church to dance before the Lord during a worship service. Yes, there are instances where special worship teams will dance in worship. Yes, there are moments occasionally when during a special event Christians will dance in celebration in small groups or individually. But overall, the majority of Christians in America are not found dancing in the isles of churches on Sunday mornings. Do the majority of Christians fail to dance, because they’re afraid they’ll appear foolish? Do they fail to dance because they don’t think it is appropriate?

 

As with any physical expression of worship it often depends on the personality of the person, their personal religious convictions and preferences as well as the surrounding culture within which the person lives. Those who dance appropriately; by this I mean in the Spirit and in truth, dance to express the fact that they love the Lord with all their heart, mind and soul. Some dance though for other reasons. Sometimes they wish to imitate the proper expression of worship because they wish to appear like those who love the Lord with all their heart, mind and soul. Sometimes they want to just have fun and the Lord is the farthest thing from their mind. Our Heavenly Father always knows the heart of those who worship Him and what is motivating their actions.

 

Dance was often used to express praise and worship to God in scripture. One specific example can be found in 2 Samuel 6:12-15.

 

“Now King David was told, ‘The LORD has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God.’ So David went down and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing. When those who were carrying the ark of the LORD had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD with all his might, while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets.”

 

Here we see King David dancing before the Lord wearing only a linen ephod. What’s an ephod you might ask? An ephod was a sacred garment of gold, blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twined linen worn by the Jewish high priest. The ephod fit closely around the shoulders and was held on by two straps. A hole in the top admitted the head. On top of each of the shoulder straps an onyx stone was encased in a filigree setting of gold and engraved with the names of six tribes of Israel. There were various types and styles of ephods but in essence they were garments that were worn by those in religious authority. The ephod David wore in this instance may have been of a simpler, more revealing design than that normally worn in the temple by a priest.

 

But let’s get back to King David dancing in the streets. Here we see a very dramatic physical manifestation of true worship. David loved God with all his heart and could not contain his love during this celebration. Before those carrying the Ark of God were able to take even seven steps, David sacrificed an animal dedicated to God.

 

While there were shouts of praise and worship with a band of trumpets David let loose with a dance of worship with all his might. I imagine sweat was flying all over the place as David, strong and athletic as he was, put all he had into his worship of his Heavenly Father. But as with any vibrant and spiritually centered worship there are critics. Listen to what happened next in 2 Samuel 6:16;

 

“As the ark of the LORD was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, she despised him in her heart.”

 

Why would anyone despise someone worshipping God? Verse 20 continues with a description of Michal’s heart of contempt for David’s manner of worship.

 

“When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, ‘How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!’”

 

Here we see Michal’s critical spirit grow from internal observations and deductions to verbal accusations and debasement. We can speculate several reasons for Michal’s criticism of David’s worship. Very likely in her marriage to David she enjoyed the honor and dignity of being married to a king and felt his behavior was not becoming of someone of his status. Maybe she did not personally express worship to God in this manner and felt that everyone should worship God only in a way that she felt appropriate. Possibly she had no significant commitment to God and could not fathom any sort of display of worship of this fashion. If Michal had no respect and commitment to God in her own heart, such intensity of physical expression of worship would fall on blind eyes, deaf ears and a dead heart.

 

It is interesting what David says in response to Michal’s criticism in verse 21.

 

“David said to Michal, ‘It was before the LORD, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the LORD’s people Israel — I will celebrate before the LORD. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.’”

 

David states here that God replaced her father as king with him because of her father’s disobedience. This brings into question the spiritual condition of not only her father, Saul, but anyone of his house, including Michal. David states that since God appointed him ruler over Israel, he would set as a priority the celebration and worship of God in his own life and in the nation of Israel. He also states that he might become even more undignified in his worship if his love for God motivated him to do so. He also implies that if he was able to watch himself worship with such passion, he might consider it a humiliation, but since the motive behind his worship was pure and holy it was honored and condoned by God. He addresses the impression he may have made on the slave girls who observed him by saying that they very likely would hold him in honor as well, knowing that he had not been inhibited in his worship of God by what others think.

 

We are not told of the response of Michal to David’s comments. We are only told in verse 23;

 

“And Michal daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death.”

 

Whether David refused to sleep with her again to prevent her from having any children or whether God made her barren we do not know. Whatever the case we see here the rewards of fleshly, secular, dead criticism upon pure spirit-led passionate worship of God.

 

We could take several lessons from King David. Are we as passionate to worship our Lord and King as he? Do we fear the criticism of those whom we worship with and hold back our expressions of worship for our Heavenly Father? Possibly we aren’t led to dance in church, but whatever way we prefer to worship God whether in song, word or action; do we do it passionately? Do we express fully our love for God? It also goes without saying we need to take care if we are thinking of being critical about someone else’s worship style or practice.

 

Of course we must beware of using such examples such as King David’s worship dance to justify inappropriate extremes in worship. Scripture taken out of context has often been used to justify all sorts of heretical behavior. Such a pure example of worship by King David here could be used to justify wild uncontrolled fleshly activities in a worship service. The point here is not that any form of worship is acceptable. The point is that the “motive” behind the worship expression needs to be God centered and God focused. It is also important to consider that what might be appropriate within your own home or a small gathering might not be appropriate in a large corporate worship in your local church fellowship.

 

In Exodus 32 we see an example where uncontrolled fleshly worship led to the chastisement and discipline of God. In this passage many Jews grew impatient waiting for Moses to return from the mountain. They convinced Aaron to take their gold jewelry and construct an idol in the form of a calf that would represent the gods they wished to give homage. They then had a great festival and indulged in all sorts of revelry and corruption, one of which was dancing before the idol. When Moses saw their sacrilegious dancing he threw down the tablets he had received from God breaking them in the process. This illustrated that the law of God had been broken. He then took the calf idol they had made, burned it and then ground it into powder, mixed it with water and made the Israelites drink it. Finally he instructed the Levites to go through the camp and kill all those who were rebellious and refused to worship and serve God in an appropriate manner.

 

Here in Exodus we see inappropriate motives behind dancing as a form of worship. We see passion that is not directed towards God but towards a god created in man’s image. We see self-centered and self-driven worship.

 

I pray that both you and I will seek to worship God with all our might. I hope that we can learn from King David’s example of dedicated and passionate worship of God. I pray that we will demonstrate in our worship, the love we have for our Savior and strive to focus on our God as we give Him honor and praise. I pray none of us will ever be tempted to worship the “activity of worship” or create a “God in our own image” that suits our own selfish purposes. May the Holy Spirit speak to your heart, mind and soul and motivate you to respond to your Savior, Lord and Master in both an appropriate and passionate way. Remember we worship God not only in song on Sunday mornings, but also in our work, play, relationships and acts of ministry.