St. Antony’s Cave

In the March 8/15 issue of World magazine, Marvin Olasky references 2 Samuel 6:16 to bring up short those of us defending liturgical worship.  He quotes the passage: ” ‘As the ark of  the Lord came into the city of David, Michal the 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.’” And then says, “Some church leaders who prefer solemnity despise those who leap and dance.  But David insisted to Michal, ‘I will make merry before the Lord,’ and some evangelicals rightly say the same.”  Do they?

Is it a case of David danced so why can’t I?  David wasn’t dancing to be dancing.  He was dancing to be humiliating himself before the Lord.  The context here is important.  David had just tried to bring the ark of the Lord from the house of Abinadab where it had been for 20 years to its rightful place.  Uzzah, one of the sons of Abinadab who had no doubt grown up with the ark, helped in the move.  David was there too celebrating the move with all kinds of musical instruments.  The oxen stumbled and to keep the ark from falling Uzzah touched the ark to steady it.  2 Samuel 6:7 says, “And the anger of the Lord burned against Uzzah, and  God struck him down there for his [literally “the”] irreverence, and he died there by the ark of God.”   Think of the tragedy.  Can you blame David that he “became angry because of the Lord’s outburst against Uzzah?”

Evidently, David could be blamed.  He was led to the conclusion it was his fault and not the arks by the fact that to the house of Obed-edom, where the ark was left after Uzzah’s death, came only blessing for 3 months.  Then he realized it wasn’t the Lord’s ark that was the problem but the people who moved it.  The next time David moved the ark.  He danced to a different tune: that tune being he wasn’t doing something for God but God was doing something for him by giving him His  presence at a definite place and time.  The holy God was condescending to dwell among sinners.  This ought to humble sinners.  It does Mary when she is told the Christ will dwell in her.  It does communicants who are told, “The Body of Christ.”  We rightly respond with the Orthodox, “”Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof.”

David dances before the Lord in a linen ephod which was short.  He dances and leaps, and repeatedly we are told in 2 Samuel 6 that it was “before the Lord.”  Michal his wife despised him not because he was worshipping the Lord but because he was humiliating himself before people.  She says in verse 20, “How the king of Israel distinguished himself today! He uncovered himself [remember the short ephod] today in the eyes of his servants’ maids as one of the foolish ones shamelessly uncovers himself.” Aristotle said some 700 years later, “Great men don’t run [in public].”  Well, they probably didn’t dance either.

When confronted with his self-abnegation, David explains, “It was before the Lord who chose me before your father and above all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel; therefore, I will celebrate before the Lord.  And I will be more lightly esteemed than this and will be humble in my own eyes.”  It’s about humility not about dance, about humbling oneself not worshipping however one chooses.

The Church does a similar thing in the Palm Sunday processional.  It is meant to be humiliating to carry a flimsy palm in procession.  Originally, this was done outside of the church.  Imagine the one time the outside world saw your church was as you marched around it waving a palm signing a hymn.  No matter how big the congregation your song sounds feeble and weak in the open air.  In Germany they also used a wooden donkey.  Catch the humility?  Why I just as soon dance in a mini-skirt!

The problem is the contemporary worship movement hasn’t added dancing or bumping another rump for Jesus in humility but as a better, more enlightened form of worship.  It is more exciting.  They get more out of it.  David got less out of it.  He got the distain of his wife.  He was abasing Himself before the Lord who condescended to come to where He is.  He danced because he knew he was unworthy.  Christians bow and kneel when receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus for the same reason, and those of us who do are considered foolish by some who don’t believe anything is there but bread and wine.

The Lord had cautioned the Old Testament Church about worshipping Him in a way he had not instructed.  David was certainly not introducing or suggesting a new way.  The Lord, however, had given no such cautions about new ways of humbling yourself.  The Church has rent clothes, put on sackcloth, marked themselves with ashes, bowed, genuflected, kneeled, and fully prostrated themselves.

Where the pagan philosopher Fredrick Nietzsche said, “I would believe only in a God that knew how to dance,”  the Christian writer Marvin Olasky appears to say he believes only in a God who accepts dance as a way of worshipping.  The pagan is closer to the truth.  I don’t know if my God, Jesus, can dance, but I do know He has the flesh and blood to do it if He wants to.  Well then, do I believe only in a God who rejects dance as a way of worshipping?  I believe in a God who wills to be worshipped in Spirit and truth, and from dancing around the golden calf to limping around the altar to get Baal’s attention, from rain dances to fertility dances, dancing doesn’t have a lot to commend it.  Humbling oneself does.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 at 4:19 pm and is filed under Contemporary Worship. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.