Good to heard Dave Holden give an old testament story relevance to living in living in the twenty first century. It was a thorough but you need to do a personal study of the 14ish books of the Bible to get a good picture in your mind of what is really going on. David becomes king - but it took some time from 1 Samuel 16 where God tells Samuel that David will be king, to 2 Samuel 5 where David actually is made king.
This time period is interesting - what happens if someone kills him or is he unkillable?! David has an interesting time - he is a theocrat (I think I've just made that word up!! Based on the word "Theocracy" he could talk to God and get an instant answer). David asked God direct questions and got direct answers - and all because of 1 Samuel 16:13b "... and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came upon David in power."
David enquires of God : 2 Samuel 5:19 "Shall I go and attack the Philistines?" God instantly answers "Yes". David enquires of God again in 2 Samuel 5:23 and God again gives a very precise instruction as to what he should do. Theocracy in action - the Spirit of the Lord being upon him is what gave him this hotline to heaven!
Reading on from this story we get to see how David knew how to worship God and he wouldn't allow anything or anyone interfere with how he wanted to manifest this worship! But lets backtrack to 2 Samuel 5:13 where it kindly tells us a bit about Davids sex life - "he took more concubines and wives" oh how times have changed!! But on the downside, that's an awful lot of nagging!! And then onto chapter 6, David decides to transport the Ark of God. Again we see something interesting about David, he appears to be angry with God "David was angry because the LORD's wrath had broken out against Uzzah". Get over it!! You where told not to touch the Ark and he did so booosh!!
So David looses his bottle and leaves the Ark with Obed-Edom who reaps the benefits of having it in his house! But then David plucks up courage again to bring the Ark up to the City of David. But this time what on earth is flowing through Davids mind?! "Every six steps they sacrifice a bull and a fatterend calf" 2 Samuel 6 13. And then, David is dancing in such a way that I cant really imagine - the nearest I get is some kind of hippy dance from Woodstock which was acid induced!! But in the process I think he may have exposed himself in front of the young slave girls. Read it for yourself - Michal daughter of Saul didn't think to highly of the dance and had the audacity to confront David about it (2 Samuel 6:20).
That olde song we used to sing "I will dance, I will sing, to be mad for my King" (Matt Redman - Undignified), has a whole new meaning!! The challenge to get people to clap their hands in church, or go beyond tapping their foot to a upbeat number - well David wasn't reserved in his worship. But I don't think that is what Matt Redman had in mind!! Maybe a jump up in the air occasionally, or a pogo - nothing as extreme as a King Kurt concert!! But wow, David, would it be acceptable to dance like that today?!! People get upset at the sight of pants showing out the top of your trousers - imagine how those poor slave girls must have felt - scarred for life!!
So in summing up, somewhere between toe tapping and dancing like David there is a place where you should feel comfortable - but more importantly, what ever dance you manifest needs to be pleasing to God, so it needs to reflect what is going on in your heart rather then just being an act. God isn't looking at the act - He is looking at the heart. If it was the dance that counted then He will be excluding disabled people. If it was the singing that counted then He will be excluding the deaf and dumb, and those that are tone deaf! Worship is manifest in lifestyle and is reflective of what is going on inside you.
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