If you grew up Baptist there was one thing (among many) that you did NOT do: dance! I remember my Baptist grandmother telling me stories of how people were reprimanded for dancing in public back in the day. Baptists were known not to play cards or go to movies. Wow, it must have been exciting to be a Baptist in the 1930’s.
In 2 Samuel 6:1-5 & 12-19, David dances with all his might. Why? David decided to move the capital city of the Israelites from Shiloh to Jerusalem. He wanted to bring the Ark of the Covenant to be in the new religious center of the nation. It had been a long time since the Israelites had a specific location that would serve as a center for worship. Now, the Israelites had this symbol of God’s presence carried into the center of the Jewish people. You can imagine the excitement.
This is what happens next, they all go crazy:
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. 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; 13and when those who bore the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatling. David danced before the Lord with all his might; David was girded with a linen ephod. 15So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet.
What a celebration! There was a huge procession. As David and the people rejoice with God, they participated in a unique worship experience. All of Israel is celebrating God’s power. This where were we begin to see a picture of worship that is unlike worship we have ever since before in scripture. Sure, it is not the worship exactly found in the synagogue, but all of Israel was gathered into corporate worship.
We need to be more like David in our worship of God. I’m not saying we need to get up and dance on Sunday morning, but that type of excitement should pervade our worship hour. Worship is much more than watching. Worship is about participating in the experiential acts of worship: prayer, confession, music, movement, giving our gifts, and responding to the Word. We should be excited and be at the ready to respond. When was the last time you were so excited that you started dancing? Did you ever think you could dance for God? We need to begin to think about new and exciting ways we can “dance” before God in worship.
You want to see some crazy dancing? Check out this guy break dancing:
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