Thursday, November 17, 2016

So how do you feel about public worship???

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 they brought in the ark of the LORD and set it in its place, inside the tent that David had pitched for it. And David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD. And when David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD of hosts and distributed among all the people, the whole multitude of Israel, both men and women, a cake of bread, a portion of meat, and a cake of raisins to each one. Then all the people departed, each to his house.
And David returned to bless his household. But Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said, “How the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of his servants' female servants, as one of the vulgar fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!” And David said to Michal, “It was before the LORD, who chose me above your father and above all his house, to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the LORD—and I will celebrate before the LORD. I will make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be abased in your eyes. But by the female servants of whom you have spoken, by them I shall be held in honor.” And Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death.
(2 Samuel 6:16-23 ESV)
While David had been on the run, in hiding, the thing he missed most was not a warm cozy bed.  It was being able to worship the LORD with His people, at the site where the Ark of the Covenant of God's presence was, in his own land. Now that he was back in Israel, and had his own city, the next step was to bring back the Ark of the Covenant and resume public sacrifice and worship.  So he did, and he did so with his whole being.  Saul could have cared less when he was king, and apparently his daughter, Michal, felt the same way. She didn't get it. Do you? To be a person after God's own heart includes many things: submission, sins confessed, sacrificial servanthood, and a sincere desire to worship God together.  It is a package deal: all or nothing, take it or leave it, spiritually dead or spiritually alive. So, how do YOU feel about public worship?

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