PROPER 10B 2009
David as poet, musician and worshipper of
God
Today we are going to continue our series that is looking at the life of King David. Last week we talked about David as a warrior and then said that we too, as Christians, are warriors, only we war not against flesh and blood, but against sin and evil. Our battle is a spiritual battle. This morning we are going to see that not only was David a great warrior, but he was also a poet, a musician, and above all, he was a lover of God who expressed this love in worship.
One of the reasons that we are doing this series is to encourage you to read carefully the life of David in the Bible. This story begins in 1 Samuel chapter 16 and continues in all of 2 Samuel and ends in 1 Kings chapter 2. Parts of the story are also told again in 1 Chronicles. Reading about the life of David is important for several reasons, but the main one, for me, is that we learn that central to the religious life is a relationship with God. In Judaism, as in all religions, rituals and methods of prayer and good deeds become the focus of the spiritual life instead of a living relationship with a personal God. What is so wonderful about David’s life is we see this truth lived out. David’s life teaches us that the spiritual life is not about being good and always doing the right things. In his life we learn about brokenness and repentance and joy and beauty and struggle and sin. In essence, we see in his life what the real spiritual life looks like.
I guess I would say that as we study the life of David we de-bunk the illusion that being spiritual is boring and about as exciting as some of our Sunday school classes or even a pretty middle of the road Episcopal or Lutheran Sunday morning. Here we sit, all looking pretty nice, and if we don’t go deeper in our understanding of faith, this process of going to church and being nice people is all that we think the spiritual life is. But David is earthy, real, fleshly, passionate. He is a big sinner and a big lover. He can forgive or be vengeful. In other words, he is really like us, if we are honest enough to admit it. So there is a lot we can learn from his life, and I hope that you will take the time to read the stories, as this will make all that we say much more meaningful.
Our lesson this morning is about
the bringing of the Ark of God up into the city of
Because of time, our lesson is abridged and we don’t get all of the flavor of this very interesting event. But what I would like to concentrate on this morning is David’s full bodied worship of God.
Here is what the story teller says:
2 Samuel 6:5 ( NRSV ) 5David and all the house of
This behavior of David, however, was very upsetting to his wife, Michal, the daughter of Saul – she must have been an Episcopalian, that she thought, what a fool David is. So we read this:
2 Samuel 6:16 ( NRSV ) 16As the ark of the LORD
came into the city of David, Michal 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.
Though we didn’t read this part, here is the rest of the story:
2 Samuel 6:20-22 ( NRSV ) 20David 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’ maids, as any vulgar fellow might shamelessly
uncover himself!” 21David said to
Michal, “It was before the LORD, who chose me in place of your father and all
his household, to appoint me as prince over
The wonderful lesson in this story is that David was not ashamed to demonstrate his love for God. He says that he doesn’t really care what others think, because he was dancing and singing “before the Lord.” We learn early on in the story of David that he was “skillful in playing the lyre. (1 Sam 16:16)”. Tradition says that David wrote 73 of the 150 Psalms, though today OT scholars will argue that he did not write that many. But there is lots of evidence to show that David expressed his love of life and of God through song, through music, and through dance.
David was not just a one dimensional person. He was not all warrior, Now we see the poetic and musical part of his personality. For us men today it is good for us to see that being “manly” does not mean that we cannot be artsy!
And a very important lesson we learn from David is that it is normal and even necessary, from time to time, to express our worship of God through outward emotional means. In this story he does it through dance, shouting, offering up sacrifices to God, and then giving away food to the people. In other times he wrote poems and songs and played his instrument.
For me, a faith that does not capture our emotions, which then results in some sort of outward expression of these emotions, is no faith at all. How can we not be moved by the love of God revealed to us in Jesus? If we really believed what we just read in the first chapter of Ephesians about the “riches of God’s grace” and how we are made Children of God and heirs with Christ.. if we really believed this… why… we might, like David, dance down the aisles of Faith Episcopal Church every once in a while!
Now I know that we all have different personalities and different ways of expressing ourselves, and that our tradition is a much more less emotional one than others – how could it be anything else if our culture comes from the English gene pool??
But nevertheless, worship of God should capture our very souls. It should go deep down into the very center of our being and thus unleash whatever gifts we have for the glory of God. This week I read about the death of Carl Naluai, a superb musician who was a cantor at a Jewish synagogue for many years. He used to also play and sing at the Cathedral, and he had a beautiful voice and he was highly educated and trained. He was asked why he stayed as a cantor instead of making money elsewhere in the music world, and he said something like: he was given this gift from God so he felt that he wanted to use it to give God praise and thanks for that gift.”
Everyone one of us, created in the image of God, deep down has the gifts and means of expressing outwardly our love and worship of God. I guess my desire for all of us is that somehow, by God’s grace, this part of our being would be unlocked and unleashed in our lives. Of course how our worship of God is expressed will differ in our lives because we are all different. The engineers among us may not always feel like dancing down the aisles like David, but I would argue that if their lives are touched by God, in their own way they will feel and give of themselves in worship and thanksgiving to God.
But even the least emotional amongst us, if we open ourselves to the Spirit and beauty and love of God, as we gather to worship, will “feel” the presence of God. When we gather as a community to worship, there is a greater sense of the presence of God. Over the years many people will say, I don’t like to come to church because I always cry. In a real sense, this is exactly where we should be, because gathered together we are experiencing the presence of God. To be honest, I would give up on coming to church if, from time to time, I did not really “feel” God’s presence. Somewhere in the Bible it says something like God inhabits, or dwells in the praises of His people. As we sing, or work, or pray, or dance, or play music, or give to others out of thanksgiving to God, God in turn comes to us. We sense God’s presence, and something is unleashed in our souls. Maybe we cry. Maybe we dance. Maybe we shout. Maybe we sit in silence. Maybe we simply feel the joy of the Lord in our hearts.
But the truth is, religion without feeling.. without emotion… will die or turn into dead ritual and works.
So seek, and pray for the Spirit of God to touch your souls. I don’t really know how all of this works, but I do know that our role is to be open.. to not close up our hearts… and to try and see the world with new eyes.
Many, many people will say that they experience God in nature. Most of us know the feeling of looking out at the ocean or a mountain or a meadow and feeling the power and presence of God. But this same feeling can be captured by listening to, or playing music; reading great literature; looking at art; being with people; and on and on. The truth is, we are surrounded by beauty and wonder and mystery, all of which points us to God. And when we add to all of this the wonderful story of God’s love and acceptance of us in Jesus, it will move our hearts and souls. We cannot help but be moved, or emotional.
Since day one in this church I have hoped to see a community of Christians that are not afraid to express their love for God in song and worship, as well as in outward action in our day to day life. I still hope and pray that we all, more and more, will sense the presence of God in our worship, and in our lives.
So we learn from David that religion involves our whole being. David teaches us that there is nothing wrong with showing our love and thanks to God. Let us strive to model his behavior, and not be ashamed of our faith and our love for God
Please consider taking up the challenge of reading about the life of David. It will be interesting and well worth it. Next week we will read about David’s desire to build a house for God, but God has different plans.