2. Joy
| David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD with all his might, while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets. 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 David returned home to bless his household... (2Samuel6:14-20) |
The obvious first aspects of joy are that there was a group of people singing before the Lord and David expressed his joy in exhuberant uninhibited and un-self-conscious dancing. (This is quite a shift from many of us who sing in church with our hands firmly planted by our sides...)
But there is more to David's joy than gyrations...
David also sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to the Lord. This is the expression of his devotion and love to the God who has brought him
Then he blessed the people. Now David was not a priest, it was not his job to bless the people, but in this moment he feels abundant gratitude and joy and it expresses itself in the desire to pass this on to others. It's a beautiful moment of overflow. Elsewhere he described this as "my cup runneth over."
The joy continues to manifest itself in radical generosity: every person is given a loaf and two cakes. We should note that this could not have been spontaneous, David must have planned for it. Joy is not simply an emotion, it is thoughtful, abundant and generous.
Finally, David wants to come home and bless his family. Living out our faith with our immediate family can be hard. Living out a "form of faith" in the public eye is easy, bringing it home makes it genuine. Unfortunately he comes home to a critical wife who had not let joy into her heart, but David doesn't let that deter him.
So this is what joy looks like:
- It's celebration: music, movement and uninhibited.
- It's devotion, offering our best to God.
- It's expressing the overflow of God's goodness to others.
- It's generosity, pre-meditated and thoughtful.
- It's taking it home to our own private spaces proving it is real.
Nehemiah told a repentant people, "the joy of the Lord is your strength." The Holy Spirit fills us with Joy. We can let others quench it or we can resolve to embrace joy!
