Respectful Awe vs. Comfortable Familiarity

I had a second thought from 2 Samuel 6 I want to share. This is quite tricky because we need to have a balance. We cannot be so cavalier as to think God is there only for our benefit. And we cannot view God as so distant that He has nothing to do with us. In fact, He wants us to be completely satisfied by His entirety.

What do I mean? Let’s look at 2 Samuel 6:5 in the Complete Jewish Bible (CJB).

David and the whole house of Isra’el celebrated in the presence of ADONAI with all kinds of musical instruments made of cypress-wood, including lyres, lutes, tambourines, rattles and cymbals.

At first glance, what happened may seem like a good occurrence; however, the key to understanding what David and the rest of Israel did wrong is found in the Hebrew word translated “celebrate.” The word written in English is “sachaq.” It has the connotations of laughter, mocking, making merry, jesting, and joking all in a frivolous manner. This is not the attitude God desires of us when we approach Him or desire to worship Him.

How is this different than what David and the people did later? The second half of verse 12 says,

So David went and joyously brought the ark of God up from the house of ‘Oved-Edom into the City of David (CJB).

Isn’t celebrating the same as being joyous. After all later in the chapter we see David and the people dancing and playing the shofar (a kind of horn made from a ram’s horn). This time we look at the Hebrew word for “joyous.” It is “simchah” and means inner joy and gladness of heart. It’s not an outward or showy celebration that focuses on the happiness of the participants.

What this all means for me is that we need to be careful not to lower our standards of worship to a raucous party-like atmosphere. While dancing and singing and playing of instruments are not wrong in and of themselves, it’s the condition of our hearts that God is looking for. He wants us to approach Him with a sense of awe and wonder. He wants us to have inner joy and a deep gladness in our hearts. And, he does want us to come to Him with our problems, concerns and joys. It’s a balance between respectful awe and comfortable familiarity.

Making Decisions

Recently I had the thought to revamp my weekly schedule. I came up with a “brilliant” idea all by myself. The goal was to make more time for writing. As I mapped out in my head what I was going to do, I made assumptions based on my superior intellect. I assumed I’d be stellar in my writing performance without the activities I was cutting out. One was an AA meeting at 8:15 on Monday mornings, and the other was my volunteer work at a mission in my town on Thursday mornings. As I said, I had it all mapped out in my head.

As I said last week, last Tuesday I spent some extended time with God, reading His Word and asking for guidance. I also said that a key thing I received from that time was ideas about how, when, and who to be praying (basically it was before, during, and after I write). The other main lesson was that I should make writing (God’s calling on my life) a priority in my schedule. So I decided to schedule writing time into the time slots I freed up by skipping the meeting and volunteering. I should’ve prayed some more . . .

In 2 Samuel 6 we have the story of David moving the ark of God to Jerusalem. David also made some assumptions about how things should be done. He decided to move the ark the way the Philistines had returned it to Israel (that account is found in 1 Samuel 6). David did not even consider searching the Scriptures or asking the priests to examine the Scriptures to see if God had given any instructions in how to move the ark. As a result, tragedy struck and one of the attendants tried to steady the ark as the oxcart it was in looked like it was going to turn over. That attendant, Uzzah, died immediately upon touching the ark.

David decided to leave the ark in a nearby lodging of some Levites and go back to Jerusalem without the ark. The passage in 2 Samuel 6 says David was upset and frightened of God that day (vs. 8-9). He was afraid of what trouble the ark of God might cause for him and he didn’t want it in or near his capital city. After three months everyone was talking about how the people the ark was left with were prospering above and beyond what was normal. So David decided to move it again.

This time he must have studied the Scriptures and found the passages that explain how God’s ark is to be handled . . . using rods through the designed rings on the ark and having the Levite clan of Korhath bear the ark on their shoulders. It doesn’t say in the text that David did his research and/or consulted wise counsel, but he must have because he knew how to move the ark this time.

Back to my story. My scheduling plan was to take action without consulting God or wise counsel. But I paused – probably the Holy Spirit’s nudging – and sought counsel. My therapist and AA sponsor both told me the same things. Start with every other week so I can keep my accountability in AA and continue to serve world missions by the volunteer work. With further counsel and much more specific prayer, I freed up one day a week to devote to writing by going to the meeting and the volunteering opposite every other weeks. A much healthier plan than I thought should be done.

Are there areas or decisions or actions on which you need to be consulting God? I know there are many other situations in my life where I try to make the decisions for myself and the results do not work out as well as I thought. My goal is to seek God’s Scripture wisdom before I act.