The Critic or the Dancer?

What an awesome day.  David had worshipped with his mind, his heart, his soul, his body and now he was worshipping with his finances as well, recognizing that God had given him everything, and he in turn wanted to give.  He was aglow with worship.   He was excited to go home and bless his family as well.  As he heads up the palace steps, Michal, his wife, comes out to meet him.  She did not approve of his performance.  As a matter of fact, as the procession had entered town, she had watched the whole thing from her window. 2 Samuel 6:16 says,  “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.”  Through the remainder of the worship service, she stews and churns about the way he has worshipped.  Is she not the daughter of King Saul?  Dad would never have acted like that!  She had been raised in the royal household.  Of royal lines.  Married royalty.  And it had gone to her head.  She despised him in her heart.  This wasn’t the way royalty acted.   A Royal must always keep their dignity. Their air of mystique.  Other wise, the people would see that they were really no better than anyone else and their fat-cat lifestyle would come to an end.  So to have  David dancing around in a linen ephod would never do.  And she despised him.

He the dancer…she the critic.  And as the ecstatic David comes up to share his joy of worship, he meets the rankled Michal, and the bitter words come spilling out. "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!"

Can you imagine the effect of those words on the heart of David?  From joy-thrilled to joy-killed in a sentence.   She could have entered in to worship with him.  She remained aloof.  She could have humbled herself, but she was a royal.  Her arrogance keeps her from true worship.

Some things never change. How many of us peer through the window of aloofness and arrogance as we watch others worship, and despise them and their form of worship in our hearts?   When we see someone raising their hands in praise.  When we see someone entering totally and emotionally into worship.  Actually using their body to praise God too.

Did  you know that criticism and worship can never coexist in the heart.   Often our attitudes keep us from worshipping.  We have turned worship into a cerebral, spectator event because we too often peer from the window down on everyone else.  You Pentecostals…too wild!  You Catholics and Presbyterians…too stuffy.  And we go down the road critically analyzing every worship style, all the while our own undetected arrogance keeping us from truly worshipping. 

Who told you that our order of service is right?  Who told you that it had to be done a certain way or it was wrong.   How do you know we have the right style?  You see, while it is true that there are things God requires in worship, one of the first is ardent devotion to Him.  Not an order of service.   Another of those things is a seeking after His heart and totally entering into worship, rather than slumping in the pew and seeing what you agree with or disagree with in the service. 

True worship can take many forms.  We may worship with our minds, but a raising of the hands?  Forget it.  And yet, Ps. 134:2   Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the LORD.   And 1Tim. 2:8   I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing.

We subscribe to the body posture of worship in kneeling.  Open palms before God simply means that I am ready to receive what you want to give me Lord.

But more than our minds and our body posturing, God wants worship from the heart…in whatever form or expression that may take.

Too often we throw harsh, critical words into the face of a true worshipper, just because it doesn’t look like what we think it should.  Too often we despise a person in our heart for what appears to us to be out of line.  What window are you looking through?  Be careful.

I’ve seen it happen to young people who were trying to express their love for God in a fresh way.  I’ve seen it happen to older people who decided that they needed a fresh hold on God.  When the critic meets the dancer, the harsh words can shrivel the heart and steal the joy. 

David knew what he was about.  He knew he was honest in his heart before God.  And he responded 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.   22 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."

Notice something important here.  God didn’t censure David for his all-out worship style.  But Michal was left barren.  Her words not only shriveled the joy of David, but her womb as well.  She thought she had it right.  She thought to rebuke him to get him to get with the royal program, but David didn’t buy in.  He knew there was no rank before the Lord.  He knew that the ground is level at the feet of the Maker. But she, playing the critic of worship, was left barren and childless.  I believe that it is the critic, and not the dancer, who will also be left spiritually barren and spiritually childless.  Unable to be productive for God.

Are you a dancer or a critic?  Are you in the streets or peering through your window of arrogance?  Are you truly experiencing worship, obeying the commands of God, or are you just going through the motion with no reason other than you’ve always done it this way.

To dance before God means that you go all out, remembering what He has done for you.  It means that you have gratitude.  It means that you have expectations of closeness with Him.  It means that you have ardent devotion and you are not afraid to show it.