Scripture Daily

Context No. 1291 of 4322 · 2 Samuel

Context · Reflection

2 Samuel 6:13-23: in context

13When those who bore the LORD’s ark had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened calf. 14David danced before the LORD with all his might; and David was clothed in a linen ephod. 15So David and all the house of Israel brought up the LORD’s ark with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet. 16As the LORD’s ark came into David’s city, Michal the daughter of Saul looked out through the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD; and she despised him in her heart. 17They brought in the LORD’s ark, and set it in its place in the middle of the tent that David had pitched for it; and David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD. 18When David had finished offering the burnt offering and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD of Armies. 19He gave to all the people, even among the whole multitude of Israel, both to men and women, to everyone a portion of bread, dates, and raisins. So all the people departed, each to his own house. 20Then David returned to bless his household. Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, “How glorious the king of Israel was today, who uncovered himself today in the eyes of his servants’ maids, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!” 21David said to Michal, “It was before the LORD, who chose me above your father, and above all his house, to appoint me prince over the people of the LORD, over Israel. Therefore I will celebrate before the LORD. 22I will be yet more undignified than this, and will be worthless in my own sight. But the maids of whom you have spoken will honor me.” 23Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death.

David is bringing the ark of God into Jerusalem with unrestrained joy, dancing before the LORD with all his might, wearing a simple linen ephod, leaping and shouting amid the sacrifices and trumpets. But his wife Michal, Saul's daughter, watches from a window and despises him in her heart. When he comes home, she meets him with contempt: how the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself before the servant girls like a vulgar fellow. David answers that it was before the LORD, who chose him over her father's house, and he will become even more undignified than this, humbling himself in his own eyes, and the very maids she scorns will honor him. Michal, the text notes, remained childless to her death.

The clash is between two views of dignity. Michal, a king's daughter, is scandalized that David would abandon royal decorum and dance like a common man, exposed and undignified, before the servants. To her, a king should be composed, elevated, above such displays. David's answer overturns her whole frame: it was before the LORD, and for the LORD he will gladly be more undignified still, worthless in his own sight. He was not dancing for the crowd or performing kingship; he was worshiping God with his whole body and did not care how it looked. There is a freedom in that most of us lack, the willingness to be undignified before God, to worship without keeping one eye on how we appear. Michal could not join the joy because she was too concerned with dignity; her scorn for undignified worship left her, the text quietly notes, barren. There is a warning in that pairing. The heart too concerned with its own dignity to abandon itself in worship, that measures devotion by whether it looks composed and respectable, ends up sterile, watching the joy from a window rather than entering it. David would rather be undignified and joyful before God than dignified and dry.

Am I too concerned with looking dignified and composed to worship God with abandon, watching the joy from a window like Michal, or free, like David, to be undignified before the LORD?

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