Hillbilly Worship beats the Aristocrats’ Masquerade Any Day
[14] And David danced before the LORD with all his might. And David was wearing a linen ephod. [15] So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouting and with the sound of the horn.
[16] 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. … [18] 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… [20] 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!” [21] 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. [22] 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.” [23] And Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death.
2 Samuel 6:12–23 ESV
If you’ve heard this story before, you probably heard that David danced in his underwear and Michal was embarrassed. That’s one way of reading it and that is close to what happened, but if you read it through again, you know there is more going on here than that. David was just wearing a linen ephod, which was what common people wore, but not kings. If we saw the president in jeans and a white tank top, we’d think he was dressing up to dance in Grease or something. This is kind of like that. Like running into Bob Seymour at Lowe’s when he’s in his lawn mowing clothes.
Remember that Michal is the daughter of Saul. She has grown up in the royal family and been swapped between two husbands. She has always been treated like a princess and been trained to act like a princess. So now her savage, shepherd-hillbilly husband is out dancing in the streets in his blue-jeans like some common person. She hated that he would be so un-royal, un-dignified.
When David gets home, it is a zing fest of Michal against David. Michal loved David in the early days. She covered for him while he snuck out a window and Saul’s men came in to kill a jar she hid in the bed. David was living up to be a great king then. But now she chides him for acting so common among so many people. Her dad the king would have never done that. Her dad the king always did the right religious things in front of everyone.
And that was the clincher. Saul did religion great in front of the people, but David did religion in front of God.
I was dancing before the Lord [not men or servant girls] who is the One that made me King. God didn’t choose your dad to do this, He chose me, so I’m going to be myself. And if undignified is what the Lord wants, I’ll become even more undignified than this.
It’s a shame of how this worked out, and it’s a shame the only wife of David’s that is described as loving him got shut down like this. One thing we can see in here, though, is that David wasn’t going to be somebody else. He was going to worship the Lord in the way that God had wired him to do so, and that was genuine. Michal didn’t despise David because of his sin or because of his failure, but because of preferences about the way a person should act.
It is so much better to be the undignified glory-giver than the dignified condescender.
[Author note: And for all of you that can’t read this without having this song in your head, here’s a favor:]