PART 1: Uzzah and the Ark

David was dancing with all his might before the Lord wearing a linen ephod. He and the whole house of Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of the ram’s horn. As the ark of the Lord was entering the city of David, Saul’s daughter Michal looked down from the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart.
2 Samuel 6:14–16

The Ark of God was Israel’s central symbol of God’s sovereign and saving presence.

David was absolutely doing the right thing to bring it back into the forefront. By bringing it back to Jerusalem, the new capital city, he’s saying to the people that the worship of God is going to be central to his reign. He’s showing Israel who their true King is.

They are celebrating with every kind of instrument they had—wood instruments, lyres, harps, cymbals, tambourines (Jena!), and sistrums. Kiriath-jearim was rocking!

We’ve been praying that God would bring us more musicians, people who can play the keyboard, bass guitar, etc… maybe we should add sistrum to that prayer list! I don’t know what a sistrum is, but if it was good enough for David, I’m sure it would be good for us as well.

Tragedy Strikes

Everything is going amazing, incredible time of worship… until one of the oxen pulling the cart stumbled, and the ark started to fall. Uzzah instinctively tries to catch the ark, and God strikes him dead right then and there.

Put your sanctified imagination hat on for a second, put yourself in that moment. All of a sudden…

the energetic march toward Jerusalem comes to a screeching halt.
there’s dead silence. The voices go quiet, except a few in the front, who turn their singing into screaming.
People start to back away from the ark they were just celebrating.
You see the young priest Uzzah, laying on the ground, still twitching.

Is God Too Harsh?

That’s what it seems like at first, doesn’t it? It’s okay to admit that you feel that way, because that’s the way David felt as well…

David was angry because of the Lord’s outburst against Uzzah
2 Samuel 6:8

Here’s the thing: there were very specific rules in the Law related to how you were supposed to handle the Ark, and when it needed to be moved, how you were supposed to do that.

it was supposed to be covered
it was to be moved by a specific family of priests.
it was to be carried with the built in poles, and specifically never to touch the ground

When you’re reading those parts of Scripture, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, (if you’re reading through the Bible in a year, you’re probably in the throws of it right now), it’s easy to get bogged down and/or completely lost, what in the world does this all mean?

It’s easy to be so far into the forest, trying to figure out the meaning of each tree, but if you step out and look at the forest, it’s actually pretty clear what God is trying (in a thousand different ways) to get his people to understand:

Your sin is serious.

“I am entirely different than you. Your rebellion and my holiness cannot dwell together. Your sin doesn’t just defile you a little bit. You can’t just come into my presence through your own goodness, your own moral efforts, because you don’t have any. There has to be a whole new way.”

If you understand that big picture of the OT, then the story in this little corner of it starts to become clearer, too. They’re all marching and dancing at the idea of God’s presence, but they hadn’t followed a single one of his instructions on how to do so.

So yeah, when Uzzah put his hand out, he was breaking the rules, but it went way deeper than that. All of them—David included—were rejecting one of the fundamental principles of God’s Kingdom: your sin is serious.

The problem here is that when Uzzah saw the Ark falling, he thought that touching the dirt on the ground would defile the ark, but touching him wouldn’t.
Tim Keller

Their actions show that they had no real concept of the seriousness of their sin in the eyes of God.

Don’t think for a second that they were all worshiping wholeheartedly, but Uzzah broke one of God’s random rules, so He zapped him. That’s not it at all.

It’s not like God’s just making stuff up to make things harder on us. Everything he does has purpose and meaning on it’s own. His Law isn’t a separate thing from His principles & character, they’re one and the same. God’s rules are not arbitrary, and neither are His judgments.

The problem in this story is not that God is cranky, it’s that He’s holy. He’s holy, and he wants His people, then and now, to take their sinfulness as seriously as He does.

You’ve heard it before, and you see it here: you have to understand the bad news before you can appreciate the goodness of the Good News.

The fact that we feel offended on David/Uzzah’s behalf is all the evidence we need that we need to see exactly what God’s showing us in the story: your sin is serious!

David feared the Lord that day and said, “How can the ark of the Lord ever come to me?”
2 Samuel 6:9

In verse 9, David comes to precisely the place God wanted him, the place He brings us all who come to Him—the place where we say, “How can the ark, the presence and power of this holy God, ever come to me?!?”

God had ever right to let the story end with Uzzah’s funeral, but He didn’t. God’s intention is not to be angry forever.

God is on David’s side,
but He’s not in David’s pocket.
Eugene Peterson

The Ark represents the holiness of God… and, simultaneously, the possibility of a relationship with Him. He has made a way, but you have to come on His terms.

And that’s what David does.

I will meet with you there above the mercy seat… I will speak with you from there about all that I command you.
Exodus 25:22

when Uzzah died, they basically pawned the Ark off on the closest neighbor—“this just killed a guy… here!”
it was there for three months, and God blessed his household while the Ark was there.
when David hears about it, he takes it as a sign that God’s judgment wouldn’t continue

So David went and had the ark of God brought up from Obed-edom’s house to the city of David with rejoicing. When those carrying the ark of the Lord advanced six steps, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened calf. David was dancing with all his might before the Lord wearing a linen ephod. He and the whole house of Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of the ram’s horn.
2 Samuel 6:12–15

“carrying the ark” they’re doing it right this time. He got the message.

“sacrifice after six steps” David asked, “How can the ark of the Lord ever come to me?” Now he has the answer: only by sacrifice.

This is a burnt offering, which means they would put their hands on the animal, identifying themselves with it. Then they would kill it and burn it up completely in God’s presence.

The symbolism is saying to God, “I should be utterly destroyed just being in Your presence, but someone else utterly destroyed in my place.”

And then, after a three month hiatus of repentance, they resumed their worship service. (and you think that our repentance time lasts too long!)

David was dancing with all his might before the Lord wearing a linen ephod. He and the whole house of Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of the ram’s horn.
2 Samuel 6:14–15

The footnote in the CSB is amazing: dancing or “whirling”!

Say what you want about David, worship time with him was never boring. One time a guy is struck dead, the next time he’s cutting a rug (Rose!) as he celebrates the goodness of God.

But there’s someone else who has a different perspective…

Unrestrained dancing in your underpants might communicate passion, but it did not—in Michal’s mind at least—communicate dignity.
J.D. Greear

As the ark of the Lord was entering the city of David, Saul’s daughter Michal looked down from the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart…
When David returned home to bless his household, Saul’s daughter Michal came out to meet him. “How the king of Israel honored himself today!” she said. “He exposed himself today in the sight of the slave girls of his subjects like a vulgar person would expose himself.”
David replied to Michal, “It was before the Lord who chose me over your father and his whole family to appoint me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel. I will dance before the Lord, and I will dishonor myself and humble myself even more. However, by the slave girls you spoke about, I will be honored.”
2 Samuel 6:16, 20–22

You can just hear the sarcasm dripping from her voice, can’t you? Prim, proper, without a hair out of place, makeup done up perfectly, huffs at David when he comes in. “Well!”

David had an answer for her, and it’s the right one: the slave girls were not his audience. He was dancing before the Lord, and Him alone.

So what role does emotion and expression play in our worship, or what role should it play?

Nothing will stir up and agitate the emotions of Christian men and women than the role of emotions in the lives of Christian men and women!
Sam Storms

The unfortunate reality is that people will always gravitate toward one end of the spectrum or the other, and end up going to churches that lean the same way.

First United Church of Christian Feeling
Orthodox Assembly of Christian Fact

PART 2: Emotion and
Expression in Worship

Emotion Is Essential

When feelings/affection is missing, worship is dead.

Through the judgment of Uzzah and blessing of Obed-edom, God had shown David in a fresh new way that salvation and fellowship with Him is utterly by grace. “He chose me—me!”

If the grace of God toward you doesn’t take your breath away, if it doesn’t leave you absolutely dumbfounded at times, if you heart doesn’t respond to His outrageous love for you, then you need to, prayerfully, go back to the first half of this chapter. Because while you may understand it in your mind, but it hasn’t captured your heart.

When Mary came to Jesus and anointed his feet in worship, those around her were aghast. But their objection wasn’t about the act itself—anointing feet was common—it was about her extravagance in it, because the perfume was worth around a years wages for a working man.

“A little bit of devotion to Jesus is okay, Mary—we love Him too—but you took it too far. Do the same thing you’re doing, but just tone it down a bit.”

I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she as shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only a little love.
Luke 7:47, NLT

What Mary understood is the same thing David learned: when you understand the depths of God’s unapproachable holiness and, simultaneously, the inexhaustibleness of His mercy, the only logical response is joy, wonder, and adoration from the deepest part of your soul .

To pretend to have those feelings w/o them is even more offensive than not having them at all.Nobody likes to be patronized, and neither does God.

A. Emotion is essential.

B. Expression Is Inevitable

God made us not as just souls, but as wholes. When your heart is engaged, your body won’t be far behind, either.

Anywhere from 70-90% of communication is non-verbal. Your heart is caught up in the experience of the moment, which causes your body to respond outwardly. We say a lot about what we think & feel without uttering a word.
Stephen Miller

David couldn’t help himself. From the forgotten son to the sovereign king, his life had been all grace.

Remember when you proposed or were proposed to? Hopefully you felt some strong emotions in that moment. I’ll bet you weren’t thinking about how your body should respond. You weren’t worried about what the people around you thought about how you were acting.

You were simply responding to the lifetime of love and relationship that had been offered to you.

We need to ask ourselves a question: Is there a lid on the perfume of our passion? Or are we, like Mary, willing to break the battle of our pride, of our very lives, and pour out our love and adoration and praise?
Sam Storms

When we come together as a church family and sing the praises of our God, we’re putting on display God’s greatness and glory in our lives. Our worship should put our hunger for God in display, and our physical response should demonstrate that.

Those who are forgiven much love much, and throughout Scripture, that love overflows in embarrasing ways. Many of us simply need to admit that our dignity is more important to us than responding to the gospel. And we need to repent.

Expression is Variable

We’ve been shaped by our experiences, and may be tempted to forgo expressions of worship to avoid feeling awkward or uncomfortable. “That’s for other people, I was raised , and we never did that.”

People are going to express things differently. But they will express it.

Every week is not going to be this amazing mountain-top experience. But when we’re on the mountain top, that’s not the place to hold back.

Kids & Worship

You are not second tier part of this church family—you’re integral to it.

Don’t hold back. We need you. You’re actually the best at praising Jesus with abandon, because your sense of self-awareness hasn’t developed enough yet.

Don’t be intimidated because someone gives you that “Aww, you’re so cute” look. They’re not your audience!

Adults, don’t do that!

Conclusion

I will never turn away from doing good to them, and I will put fear of me in their hearts so they will never again turn away from me. I will take delight in them to do what is good for them.
Jeremiah 32:40-41

Your Father will never stop doing good to you.
Your fear of Him is part of the good He does for us.
He does it because He delights in us.

When Jesus was crucified, the temple curtain was torn from top to bottom. It’s God’s invitation to us to come in to His presence. To the mercy seat.

We have to be careful in two directions:

Don’t manufacture feelings when they aren’t really there. Pray that they come.
Don’t suppress them when they’re awakened.

No expectations in worship, other than for you to respond to his grace in whatever way the Spirit leads you.

In Yahweh’s presence, you should both tremble and dance.
Dale Ralph Davis

Is He worthy? He is.