I Will Celebrate Before The LORD

 One of the great privileges of having a late night slot as an Adorer of the Blessed Sacrament is the possibility for unbridled intimacy. Once a week, from 11pm to midnight, I am alone with the Lord exposed under the guise of bread; there are typically no other visitors to the chapel during this hour.

Even so, my Adoration hour is typically how I would be in the presence of other people. Sometimes I read from Scripture, pray the rosary, or simply kneel or sit in silent meditation with the Lord, speaking from my heart. 

But this past week, on the heels of a retreat my wife and I attended earlier that day, I felt lead to take advantage of that alone time by verbalizing my (extemporaneous) prayer, praise, and supplication. That is, praying and speaking not just from the heart, but with my lips verbally.

It's a little strange, honestly. But divine intimacy in this manner--being unabashedly intimate with the Lord, like a child without social awareness, like the blind man calling out to the Son of David or the woman with the flow of blood who had the chutzpah to boldly reach out and touch the Lord of Lord's garment--is really a conduit of grace. I found it was like a bleed valve for a water heater or something, releasing that pent up spiritual pressure of always having to be so 'well-behaved' and composed in the company of others. 

I do love the passage in 2 Samuel in which David dances half-naked before the Lord in the Ark, and how his love for Yahweh Saboath overflows in unbridled praise and passion. Here is the verse, which I will break up and add commentary as it relates to this idea of "shameful dancing": 

David again brought together all the able young men of Israel—thirty thousand. He and all his men went to Baalah[a] in Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the Name, the name of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim on the ark. They set the ark of God on a new cart and brought it from the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, were guiding the new cart with the ark of God on it, and Ahio was walking in front of it. David and all Israel were celebrating with all their might before the Lord, with castanets,[d] harps, lyres, timbrels, sistrums and cymbals.

When they came to the threshing floor of Nakon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. The Lord’s anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down, and he died there beside the ark of God.

Then David was angry because the Lord’s wrath had broken out against Uzzah, and to this day that place is called Perez Uzzah.

This is interesting. I have not read commentaries on this, and so don't have the context, but the idea that poor Uzzah was struck dead simply for tying to keep the Ark from falling seems harsh, doesn't it! It is sobering, but not out of line with the power of Yahweh, which should fill all men with awesome fear and trembling. 

The fact, too, that David becomes angry with the Lord on account of His wrath is interesting as well. David, the lover of the Lord, felt comfortable enough having these emotions directed to Him. And yet, as seen in the next passage, David also has that sober and appropriate fear of what the Lord is capable of, his great power and might. He decides to 'park' the ark in the house of this Gittite (maybe as a kind of test, to see the outcome of such a decision?), and Obed-Edom and his household is blessed. So David decides to bring the ark to the his city.

David was afraid of the Lord that day and said, “How can the ark of the Lord ever come to me?” He was not willing to take the ark of the Lord to be with him in the City of David. Instead, he took it to the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. The ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite for three months, and the Lord blessed him and his entire household.

Now King David was told, “The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God.” So David went to bring up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing. When those who were carrying the ark of the Lord had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets.

David's dancing "with all his might" would be a sight to behold. In the presence of God, one who sincerely loves him can struggle to restrain that love. We see this in the saints (St. Philip Neri's near-exploding heart, and St Teresa of Avila's ecstasies come to mind). And yet, as we see in the next verse, the daughter of Saul is disgusted by his unrestraint. 

As the ark of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart.

They brought the ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and David sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the Lord. After he had finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord Almighty. Then he gave a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to each person in the whole crowd of Israelites, both men and women. And all the people went to their homes.

When Michal approaches David, pay attention to his response. He maintains that he is God's chosen; his confidence in God extends to his rightful vocation. His love for God compels him to celebrate. Not only that, but he promises to stoop even lower in unabashed expression of unrestrained worship to praise the Lord God almighty--his humiliation in his own eyes will be his elevation to those who view him. Amazing! This undignified king is so honest, so enraptures with the Lord of Hosts, that he strips and dances without a thought of his reputation or 'right conduct'

When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, going around half-naked in full view of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!”

David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.”

Finally, we see the virility of David, and the frigid barrenness of Michal, reflected in verse 23 in their physical outcomes. 

And Michal daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death. 

I think unchecked emotionalism when it is manufactured (as can sometimes happen in "praise and worship" congregations) should give us pause. But so should a stodgy formalism that despises those who abandon their masks and costumes in favor of intimacy with the Lord. The Lord honors those who fear him, but also to those who love Him He will not abandon. David was not wrong to dance before the Lord. He enjoyed that privileged place by his calling as King to do so. 

We also have that ability to be honest, humiliated, and forthright before the Lord of Hosts when we close the door and are alone with Him in prayer. We may not dance half-naked before the Lord in the Tabernacle--but if there were no one around to see at midnight on a weeknight, would it be so bad if we did so?