And it was told king David, saying, Jehovah has blessed the house of Obed-Edom, and all that is his, because of the ark of God. And David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom into the city of David with joy.
David had just watched Uzzah struck down beside the ark, and in fear he left it at a stranger's house instead of taking it home. Then word came back that this same house was now a blessed house, and the king's dread turned into gladness.
Two books of the Bible tell this moment, and they tell it differently.
There is a real difference between the way Samuel and Chronicles record the return of the ark. In one we have the simple statement of the facts. In the other we have the moral training David's soul passed through while he was afraid of God... David learned that, far from keeping away from the ark in fear, it was his privilege and blessing to be near it.
David had asked, in fear, how the ark could come to him. The answer came through what happened in another man's house.
How beautiful it is to see! David asks, in fear, "How can the ark of the LORD come to me?" Yet the house of an Obed-edom can receive it, with nothing but blessing: "the LORD blessed Obed-edom and all his household." How His grace rebukes our unbelieving fears with blessing!
The blessing that could have reached a whole nation stayed inside one home. That cost David, though it took nothing away from Obed-edom.
This was David's loss. By stopping short he gave up much blessing and privilege. The ark of God could do nothing but bless all who were rightly connected with it — though it brought judgment on those connected with it in another way, as with the men of Beth-shemesh, and Uzzah... True, things might not look so cheering. The blessing did not spread through the whole nation, as it would have done had all been right. It stayed inside the close circle of the man who had the ark in his house. Still the blessing, though narrowed, was as real and positive, as pure and truthful, as if the whole nation had been enjoying it.
Our verse says only that David went and brought the ark up. Another record of the same event shows what had changed in him.
At last David had learned his lesson! He is told what had happened, and we see that it did his conscience good. In 1 Chronicles 15:11-13, about this same event, "David called for... the priests, and for the Levites... and he said to them... Consecrate yourselves, you and your brothers, so that you may bring up the ark of the LORD, the God of Israel, to the place that I have prepared for it. Because you did not carry it the first time, the LORD our God broke out against us, because we did not seek him according to the rule." David realized that God had broken out against them because of his own disobedience. He saw that holiness is found only in the path of obedience.
Who carried the ark was never left to human preference:
God had not left it to David, or to anyone else, to say how the ark of His testimony should be carried. He had chosen the Levites for this service, and His choice must be respected and acknowledged.
The word that marks this journey is joy — and it is joy of a particular kind.
Now David is set right in his soul. The LORD is no longer dreaded, no longer the source of displeasure. He is the spring of gladness and thanksgiving. But it is holy joy. There is no brighter, happier moment, as far as I can see, in David's history as a king than that day.
The blessing on that house shows something about God, and the restored king points beyond his own reign.
In Obed-edom's house the LORD shows that it is His nature to bless, whenever men have not so forgotten His majesty that they deal with Him as they please... The heart and affections of David are restored. He has the ark carried from Obed-edom's house, and places it in the tent he had pitched for it... He is the head of his people. He re-establishes the relationship between them and his God, and he does it with joy, with offerings, and songs of triumph. It is he also who blesses the people, being in all this a remarkable picture of Jesus, and of what He will do in Israel in the last days.
- Fear — David kept God's presence at arm's length. Stopping short cost him blessing and privilege he could have had.
- Grace — one blessed household answered his fear better than any argument. Being near the ark was never the danger he imagined.
- News — the report reaching the king turned everything around. God's blessing on one home moved a whole nation.
- Obedience — the second journey went well because David sought God "according to the rule". The Levites God had chosen carried the ark.
- Gladness — dread gave way to holy joy. The king who brought the ark home and blessed the people pictures Christ doing the same for His own.
And it was so, that when they that bore the ark of Jehovah had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatted beast.
David's second try at bringing the ark to Jerusalem starts with a halt. Six steps in, he stops and offers sacrifice — the one thing the first journey had left out, and the sign of what he had learned.
The distance is tiny. The pause is the point.
David steps into a way of worship that agrees completely with God's thoughts. "And when those who bore the ark of the LORD had gone six steps, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened animal." David makes sacrifice the very center of this worship. The first time (astonishingly enough) they had forgotten the sacrifices! The cart (notice how much one missing detail matters) had no need to stop. But when the priests and Levites carried the ark, they had to pause — and at each pause they offered sacrifices.
With the cart and the oxen gone, the whole character of the day changed.
The Lord was glorified in all this, and He could therefore give real joy and gladness, strength and energy. There was no more stumbling of oxen — no more human effort to keep the ark from falling; the truth of God was dominant, and the power of God could act.
Two kinds of offering are possible here, and the short distance tips the balance.
The Levites had gone only six steps from the house when these oxen and fatlings were sacrificed. So this seems to have had more the character of a peace offering than a burnt offering.
Commentators differ here. One reads the offerings as a rhythm that continued the whole way up:
David, however, learned the lesson. Later he set the Kohathites in their proper place. Then God "helped them" as they carried the ark of the covenant, and the joy in Israel was right and blessed. At every stage of the Levites' onward progress, they offered a bullock and a ram.
The change between the two journeys was not only in method but in attitude.
This time we read of those who "bore the ark" (v.13). They had only begun to walk when David offered sacrifices to the Lord. This shows a better attitude than before, because it means putting self down so that Christ may be exalted. Our only real relationship to God is on the basis of the sacrifice of Christ.
What happened to the Levites sets a pattern for us.
Notice how God takes account of the Levites when things are according to His mind. He helps them, and then, in picture, the sacrifices show worship flowing up to God. If you and I set ourselves to truly obey the Word of the Lord, whatever it costs, we too will find that God helps us. There will be joy in our souls, and worship, and fruitful service toward God.
Earlier the ark had been something to dread. That is not how the day ends.
Now David is put right in his soul. The LORD is no longer someone to dread, no longer the source of displeasure; He is the spring of gladness and thanksgiving. But it is holy joy. As far as I can see, there is no brighter or happier moment in David's life as king than that day.
- Six steps. The short distance is the message. Worship stops for sacrifice before it goes anywhere, and what the first journey left out is now put first.
- Carried. A cart never needs to pause; men carrying the ark do. The stop that man's way skipped is exactly where the offering belongs.
- Peace offering. The sacrifice came after only six steps. Writers read that detail as marking a peace offering rather than a burnt offering.
- Basis. Sacrifice is not decoration. Our relationship with God rests on the sacrifice of Christ, and self goes down so that Christ is exalted.
- Joy. Obedience draws God's help. Help releases worship, and worship ends in joy — the brightest day of David's reign.
And David danced before Jehovah with all his might; and David was girded with a linen ephod.
David is bringing the ark of God up to Zion at last. The king leads the procession himself, dancing, dressed not as a ruler but in a plain priestly garment. Why would a king lay aside his dignity in public, and what made the ark worth such joy?
David led the whole procession, yet he wore nothing that would draw eyes to himself.
He takes a priestly place. He was the king, and he led this great procession that brought the ark of God to Zion. Even so, there was no show of royal robes or earthly grandeur. David was most exalted when he took the place of nearness to the ark of God. The linen and the ephod were there for one purpose — that he might rightly come near it. That was his point — not the throne but the ark. He had the throne, and valued it as God's gift, chosen and called to it by God. But the ark of God was far nearer and deeper to him.
The ephod was priestly dress, and David had no claim to it by birth.
It is startling to read in 1 Samuel 2:18 that the child Samuel was "clothed with a linen ephod". Samuel was a Levite, but he was not from the priestly family. Only one other man outside Aaron's family is ever said to wear an ephod: David, when he brought the ark of the LORD up from Kiriath-jearim to Zion. ... Samuel and David, prophet and king, point to the glorious One Who is coming. He will unite in Himself every office that human need calls for.
Another writer sees the same joining of two offices in David.
The king was clothed with a linen ephod (v. 14), the distinctive garment of the priests. Here we see him once more become a picture of Christ in His future glory. There is something of Melchizedek in David as he appears here. Here we have kingship united to priesthood. Blessing goes up from the people to God through David's mouth. Blessing comes down from God on all the people through His mediator.
Wholehearted worship is easily mistaken for mere emotion. One writer separates the two.
David brought the ark to Zion, and Solomon later brought it into the temple. Both were days of national rejoicing. But David had a holy enthusiasm that was his own, and it was very precious to God. ... This was not mere fleshly excitement, but genuine delight in God. God was coming nearer to His servant. Michal might despise his displays of joy, but God valued them at their true worth. Wholeheartedness is surely due to such a God as ours! ... Lord, save us all from dead, respectable formality in the things of God. Give us David's spirit.
David's own answer, after his wife mocked him later in the chapter, explains the scene.
Ah, but David's reply makes it all clear. "It was before the LORD." Yes, that was the secret of his self-forgetfulness. He had acted before the LORD, not before his people. In front of them it was right to wear royal robes and act with dignity — to look every inch a king. But before the LORD, on a special day of thanksgiving, he was a worshipper rather than a king. The splendid robes of state did not suit him. The plain linen garment and the priestly ephod did.
Scorn like this is not unusual.
The world often calls the worship God's children give Him ridiculous. The more that worship follows God's will, the more the world will despise those who offer it. This happens because the worshipper thinks nothing of himself.
The dancing is not the point; the ark is.
This was a great day to David's heart; there was none like it. The day he defeated Goliath was only a small thing next to the day the ark came in. Others danced in his honour then; he dances in honour of the LORD now. This was just the secret of the joy.
And what made the ark worth so much was what it showed of God Himself.
The ark was the most glorious display of God. It pictures how God showed Himself in Christ — not only in meeting us, but in glorifying Himself. It was upon the ark that the blood was sprinkled perfectly — before it and upon it. ... David saw what lay far within, for he looked at what was unseen. David felt much more for God than for himself. Nothing blesses us more than forgetting ourselves in the glory of God.
- Ark first. David's joy came from the ark, not from himself — the day it entered Zion outranked the day he killed Goliath.
- Robes off. He set aside royal dress. His aim was nearness to the ark, not display of rank — and he was most exalted when closest to God.
- Ephod on. Outside Aaron's family, only Samuel and David wore a priestly ephod. King and priest in one man points ahead to Christ.
- Might, not show. "With all his might" was genuine delight in God, not excitement of the flesh. It is the cure for lifeless formality.
- Scorn follows. Worship that forgets self will look ridiculous to onlookers. David's answer was that he did it before the LORD.
And David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of Jehovah with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And as the ark of Jehovah came into the city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul looked through a window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before Jehovah; and she despised him in her heart.
David has brought the ark of God up to Jerusalem, and the whole city is celebrating with the king himself leading the dance. From a window his wife watches, and the sight that fills a nation with joy fills her with contempt.
David had known great days before this one.
This was a great day for David's heart; there was no day like it. The day he conquered Goliath was a small thing compared with the entrance of the ark. Others danced in his honour then; he dances in honour of the LORD now. That was the whole secret of the joy. David rose higher before God the more he honoured the Lord God of Hosts and kept Him holy in his heart. And no one can keep Him holy in the heart without it showing in his ways.
David's clothing that day was deliberate. He set aside the robes that would have drawn eyes to himself.
David dressed rightly for the occasion, for he was clothed "with a robe of fine linen," and he also had "on him an ephod of linen" (1 Chr. 15:27). He was not a priest, but he wore priestly clothing. His spiritual judgment saw that his royal robes would not have suited such a holy gathering. God's ark was the centre of attraction and attention, not the king of Israel. David was not occupied with himself, but with the Lord.
The linen carried its own meaning.
David did not wear his kingly robes, as though he was of any importance next to what the ark stood for. He was clothed instead with a linen ephod (or tunic). This speaks of practical righteousness, a far more important thing than man's dignified outward place of honour.
Scripture does not call her David's wife here. It names her after her father.
No wonder the Spirit of God calls her Saul's daughter. I thought she was now David's wife. Yes, but what woman that day behaved less like it? She was "Saul's daughter" still. It was the true expression of her father. She had no right feeling towards her husband in this matter — and how close it was to his heart! Still less did she value the LORD's bond with Israel, which the bringing of the ark to Zion made known.
Her position tells its own story. She is near enough to see everything and far enough to share nothing.
The procession came into the city with the shouting of the people and the sound of at least one trumpet. Michal, the daughter of Saul, took only enough interest to look through a window. She did not have the concern of a godly Israelite to be present and take part in giving God His place in the kingdom. The whole thing meant nothing to her, and when she saw David taking a lowly place, she despised him in her heart. This is nothing but the unholy pride of the flesh. Her father Saul would never have done what David did. He cared too much about keeping his own royal dignity.
Michal was not the last person to see worship this way.
"David danced before the LORD with all his might" (v. 14). He made himself ridiculous. At least that is what Michal, Saul's daughter, felt and said. She saw her husband forgetting his dignity so that he might exalt the Lord alone. Often the world judges the worship God's children give Him to be ridiculous. The more that worship is according to God, the more the world will despise those who offer it. This is because the worshipper makes no account of himself.
Her scorn also exposed how little she understood of what she was looking at.
Michal only stood for the unbelief of Saul's house, the unbelief of the natural heart. She had no sympathy. She felt herself degraded by David humbling himself before the ark of the LORD. She had no appreciation of the moral grandeur of the scene.
Her contempt did not stop at a look.
All the people are blessed and satisfied. Michal, left in her proud loneliness, is struck with barrenness to her shame until her death. From then on she is a stranger to David. The character of this daughter of Saul reflected that of her father. In Saul there was hatred; in Michal there was contempt for the LORD's anointed. There can be no more fellowship between her and the king.
The lesson is short:
We may be despised by the world, but what does it matter if we have the Lord's approval?
- The joy — This was the highest day of David's life, higher than his win over Goliath. The honour went to God, not to him.
- The clothing — He laid aside royal robes for linen so that the ark, not the king, would be the centre of attention.
- The window — Michal watched instead of joining. Her distance from the procession was distance from the worship.
- The heart — Her contempt was the pride of the flesh and the unbelief of Saul's house. She was blind to the greatness of what she saw.
- The cost — Scorn for God's anointed ended in barrenness and separation. The worshipper who forgets himself ends the day blessed.