Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Delight in the Lord (Part One)

Delight in the Lord (Part One)

A couple of nights ago my husband was reading to me from a daily devotional book by D.A. Carson, titled For the Love of God. The reading was for September 11th. In the devotion the author described David as "an intense man, exuberant in his pleasure, crushed in his discouragement, powerful in his leadership, unrestrained in his worship."

It was that last part which most captured my attention - "unrestrained in his worship". What does; what could that possibly look like? II Samuel 6:14 gives us a clear, unmistakable example of David's intense worship before the Lord. Verse 14a says, "and David danced before the Lord with all of his might. The verse finishes by saying, "David was wearing a linen ephod. An ephod? Now, I have to be honest and tell you, my first thought was one of David in his underwear. The image came from watching "David", the Hollywood produced movie wherein he is portrayed dancing through the streets in what looks look a loin cloth...in other words, underwear.

Anyway, being ignorant of the word, I though it best that I at least look it up. Guess what, it isn't what I thought. The short definition - it's an apron, but not just your mama's old apron. This apron, according to Webster is "a richly embroidered apron-like vestment having two shoulder straps and ornamental attachments for securing the breastplate." When I looked it up on the internet I was impressed by how ornate it actually was. So, needless to say, David was dressed for the occasion and after closer investigation in scripture I believe he was more than appropriately dressed. He was after all celebrating God. (Sort of puts how we choose to dress for Sunday morning worship in a different light.)

So we know from this that not only did David dance with all his might, he did so in priestly garments. What is the chance that David was concerned about how he looked? To dance with all your might has to look a little bit crazy, but David didn't care one iota what any single, solitary, individual person thought of him. His love for God was huge, so huge that not even funny looks or potential murmurings of men deterred him from worshipping His God. At that moment worship was the only thing on his mind.
In David's mind and heart God was big and people were small. D.A. Carson pens it like this, "...he is so God-centered he cares very little about his persona."

I think it's safe to say that I am not like David. I tried to be the other day and I couldn't do it. I was too conscious of where I was and the fact that I might be seen.
All the way to work that day I was singing and praising God in my car. (Since I was driving I obviously was not able to dance.) But oh how I wanted to. I so much wanted to get out of my car and dance before the Lord. I thought to myself, "why don'tcha?" So, I decided I would do exactly that just as soon as I arrived at work. I drove on the grounds, clocked in, parked and got out intending to do just as I'd planned. The song was still playing and both my mind, heart and body were ready to go...but I didn't do it. I was after all here at work, and dancing isn't allowed, and someone might see me, blah, blah, blah. I chickened out! Nonetheless, my joy was still intact and I praised God in a different way.

What is the point of all this? My point, my hope is to encourage us to long for, and seek after God in such a way that we, like David can just as passionately abandon ourselves and worship God with all our might. No excuses.
Our worship may not look like David's and dear ones, that's 100% okay. Whatever it looks like will be and is as individual as we all are. Whatever it is; whatever the measure or intensity of your worship, do it!

Indwelling each of us is the Spirit of the same God that David's heart was after. Dare we be bold enough to take God at His Word and enter into worshipping Him, without a care of who sees or hears; without any concern over how we'll be judged or criticized?

Stephanie

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