DAY 109

POURING YOURSELF OUT

2 Samuel 6, 7 & 8 and Luke 15: 1 - 10

In the New Testament we come across two of three of Luke’s stories of “lost-ness.” These only appear in Luke and they are wonderful.  I want to tackle them all at once tomorrow, along with a terrible downfall in David’s life – so tomorrow might be a bit of work.

The Old Testament today has the Ark being brought to Jerusalem including a mishap along the way, a reaction by David’s wife Michal to David’s dancing in parade, and God’s Covenant with David – in many ways now that David is King over all Israel, these three events are very natural.

The return of the Ark is a time of celebration, but Yahweh struck out against those bringing it…why? We have read about how the Ark was to be carried: by poles and not a cart and by Levites. This is more of God’s tough love, but the point to David is he is not in control of “God in a box” – God is supreme and quite possibly David got a little ahead of himself.

David, after being afraid, gets up the courage to bring the Ark to Jerusalem. He is so overjoyed he “danced before the Lord in all his might” in a linen ephod and his wife is embarrassed. She has placed her pride before the un-abashed worship of God by David. Did David embarrass himself? Maybe, but that is not the point. The point is David poured himself out in worship of God. David was not trying to be lewd; he was simply overwhelmed with joy in having the Ark come to Jerusalem. Have you ever been so caught up in something that you forget yourself? I have. Usually I am embarrassed, but David has the presence of mind to realize that he need not be embarrassed because he held nothing back from God. (Think back to yesterday and Jesus’ challenge of priority to him versus family…hmmm.)

We then see God speak to David through Nathan. This is one of the first recorded dialog between God and David. David wants to build a house for God! God tells David he is not to do it, but his son. God promises he will not take away his “steadfast love.” David’s prayer of gratitude is beautiful and we gain some insight into this man who has a heart after God’s. In a way David is pouring himself out to God…and God to him.