Did David dance naked (2 Samuel 6:14)?

Following David's placing the ark in its tent and his blessing of Israel, he returned to bless his own household. But Michal was in no condition to be blessed. She was ready with her caustic, sarcastic tongue to grossly insult her husband, the king: "How glorious was the king of Israel today, uncovering himself in the eyes of the maids of his servants, as one of the base fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!" (v.20). Of course this uncovering only referred to David's divesting himself of his royal apparel. Michal was so spiritually blind as to have no discernment that the greatest of human beings has no place of special honor before God: all are on the same humbled level.

David therefore answered her that what he had done was "before the Lord," a vitally important matter. More than this, he reminds her that the Lord had chosen David as king above her father Saul and above all Saul's house. God's choice was a man who would humble himself before God, not one who always sought to proudly exalt himself Therefore David would celebrate before the Lord (v.21).

The only right way to do this was in the humbling of self, and David would be willing to be more undignified than this for the sake of the honor of the Lord. As to the maidservants of whom Michal spoke, he knew that this would not depreciate the honor they would give him (v.22). They had more sense than did Michal, for they would recognize that the man who takes a lowly place before the Lord is the one who can be trusted in the place of authority over men.

David was bringing the ark of God after many years of seclusion to its rightful place in Jerusalem, "the city of the great king." His heart was filled with gratitude and praise, and, laying aside his royal robes, and clad simply in a "robe of fine linen" and a "linen ephod," he gave vent to his joy in "leaping and dancing before Jehovah," as well as triumphant shouts in which he was joined by all Israel.

But what kind of greeting met him at the door Did Michal, his wife, come out to meet him like Jephthah's daughter "with timbrels and with dances"? Were her lips filled like Miriam's with a song of praise to Jehovah? Or, if such a public display would in those later days have been unseemly in a queen, did she at least come to meet her husband with words of loving sympathy and congratulations? Alas, no! Far from repenting of the feeling of contempt which had arisen in her heart as she had witnessed David's entry into the city, she had nursed it until it now broke out in bitter sneering words unworthy of a woman, a wife, and a queen — wholly unworthy of a woman who was the wife of the "man after God's own heart."

"How glorious was the king of Israel today"! she sarcastically exclaimed. David's linen robe and priestly ephod were contemptible in her eyes: the royal robes were what she valued. She could appreciate the king, but not the worshipper. And no doubt to any eye but the eye of faith, there was something ludicrous and unbecoming in the scene she had just witnessed. A king dancing, leaping and shouting in the presence of his subjects!

Ah! but David's reply makes it all clear. "It was before Jehovah." Yes, that was the secret of his self-forgetfulness. To him, it was not in the presence of his people that he had acted thus, but in the presence of Jehovah. Before his people no doubt it was quite right to wear his royal robes, and behave with dignity, in short to show himself "every inch a king." But in the presence of Jehovah, and on a special occasion of thanksgiving, he was a worshipper rather than a king: not the gorgeous robes of state became him, but the plain linen garment and the priestly ephod.

But this was a secret of which "Michal, the daughter of Saul," knew nothing. When David had previously disobeyed God's command by having the ark carried in a new cart instead of by the Levites, we do not read that Michal or anyone else found fault with him; but now, when he had judged his error, and was acting in full accordance with the mind of God, Satan immediately stirred up an adversary against him in his own home.

Yet there was one person who had no sympathy with the festive joy of that great day in Israel, one soul who was as displeased with David now as he himself had once been with Jehovah. "And Michal the daughter of Saul [mark the significant repetition of the natural root] came out to meet David, and said, How glorious was the king of Israel today, who uncovered himself today in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!" But how dignified and withering was the rebuke of her husband! "And David said to Michal, It was before Jehovah, which chose me before thy father, and before all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of Jehovah, over Israel: therefore will I play before Jehovah." It was the service of faith. It was the king of Israel who, the more he was exalted and established of God, used all his exaltation as an offering to the Lord, and felt himself too so much the more exalted because God was everything to his soul. Nearness to God was greater in David's eyes at that moment than the throne that God had given him; and David rightly judged. And Michal, far from appreciating the Lord's grace in her soul, was thenceforth doomed to be far from a husband whom she failed to honour when he proved that his heart was set to treat all else as nothing so that he might honour the Lord.

There are points of difference between David's removal of the ark from Kirjath-Jearim to Zion, and Solomon's removal of it into the Temple. Both were days of national rejoicing, but there was a holy enthusiasm in David that was peculiar to himself, and which was very precious to God. "David danced before Jehovah with all his might: and David was girded with a linen ephod" (2 Sam. 6:14). This was not mere fleshly excitement, but unfeigned delight in God. God was coming nearer to His servant. Michal might despise his manifestations of joy, but God estimated them at their true worth. Whole-heartedness is surely due to such a God as ours! "I will praise Thee, O Jehovah, with my whole heart" (Psalm 9:1), "With my whole heart have I sought Thee" (Psalm 119:10). "I cried with my whole heart; hear me, O Jehovah" (Psalm 119:145) Thus did David delight to speak to his God. Lord, save us all from dead decent formality in divine things; give us David's spirit.

The symbolical action is by many supposed to be in vision merely, not actual. Perhaps this is due to the very uncalled-for supposition, that the call was to a condition of entire nudity. But this is baseless, as "naked" is frequently used (see too 1 Sam. 19:24; 2 Sam. 6:20; Amos 2:16; John 21:7) to express the absence, not of all covering, but of the usual outer garb, in one sort or another: so it is not uncommon in well known Latin authors, as many have shown. The prophet already wore sackcloth. This he was to loose from off his loins, and to pull off his sandal from his foot. It seems not improbable that the true sense is "for a three years' sign and portent," etc., as the Masoretic punctuation implies and the Septuagint corroborates. The aim avowedly was to produce fear and shame in all who confided in Ethiopia or boasted of Egypt; for the Assyrian was to humble both to the dust. Vain therefore was man's help.

"So David, and the elders of Israel, and the captains over thousands, went to bring up the ark of the covenant of Jehovah out of the house of Obed-edom with joy. And it came to pass, when God helped the Levites that bare the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, that they offered seven bullocks and seven rams. And David was clothed with a robe of fine linen, and all the Levites that bare the ark, and the singers, and Chenaniah the master of the song with the singers; David also had upon him an ephod of linen." He takes a priestly place. He was the king, but although he takes the lead and was the manifest chief of all this great procession which brought the ark of God to Zion, nevertheless it is no show of royal apparel or of earthly grandeur. David was most exalted when he took the place of nearness to the ark of God. The linen and the ephod were for the very purpose that he might fitly be near to the ark of God. That was his point — not the throne but the ark. He had the throne — valued the throne as God's gift, and himself chosen and called to it; but the ark of God was to him incomparably nearer and deeper.

"Thus all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of Jehovah with shouting, and with the sound of the cornet, and with trumpets, and with cymbals, making a noise with psalteries and harps. And it came to pass, as the ark of the covenant of Jehovah came to the city of David, that Michal the daughter of Saul looking out at a window saw David dancing and playing; and she despised him in her heart." But there are no details here. We must look to the book of Kings for completeness. The Chronicles give us simply a glance, a fragment, and nothing more. The great point is God's part, and not man's. Michal merely represented the unbelief of Saul's house, the unbelief of the natural heart. She had no sympathy. She felt herself degraded with David's humbling himself before the ark of Jehovah. She had no appreciation of the moral grandeur of the scene.

David was suitably attired for the occasion, for he was clothed "with a robe of fine linen," and he had also "upon him an ephod of linen" (1 Chr. 15:27). He was not a priest, but he was clothed in priestly raiment, his spiritual judgment discerning that his royal robes would not have graced 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, and he was found "leaping and dancing before the Lord" (2 Sam. 6:16).

There was, however, one discordant note that day, one whose heart could not enter into the joys of the holy occasion, for "Michal the daughter of Saul looking out at a window saw king David dancing and playing: and she despised him in her heart" (1 Chr. 15:29). Not content with despising the king in her heart, she also reproached him for his actions, but the king replied, "It was before the Lord, which chose me … therefore will I play before the Lord. And I will yet be more vile than thus, and will be base in mine own sight …" (2 Sam. 6:20-22). The flesh cannot understand what becomes the presence of the Lord, but those who know the Lord apprehend how base they are in themselves when seen in the light of God's presence, a light that not only exposes what they are, but that reveals what He is in all His love and grace.

And the trumpets! And joy! And David rejoicing with all his might before the Lord! The king was clothed with a linen ephod (v. 14), the distinctive garment of the priests. Here we see him once more become a type of Christ in His future glory. There is a bit of Melchisedek in the person of David as he is presented to us here. Here we have kingship united to priesthood. Blessing goes up from the people to God by David's mouth, and blessing comes down from God upon all the people through His mediator (vv. 17-18).

“David danced before Jehovah with all his might” (v. 14). He made himself ridiculous; at least that is what Michal, Saul's daughter, felt and said when she saw her husband forgetting his dignity that he might exalt the Lord alone. Often the world judges the worship given to God by His children to be ridiculous; and the more it is according to God the more those who offer it will be despised. This is because the worshipper makes no account of himself. “We … worship by the Spirit of God,” says the apostle, “and boast in Christ Jesus, and do not trust in flesh” (Phil. 3:3). David in himself was nothing; he was vile: “I will make myself yet more vile than thus, and will be base in mine own sight” (2 Sam. 6:22). This cannot suit the world, but thanks be to God, there are simple souls who understand this abasement and esteem it an honor when the Lord is concerned: “And of the handmaids that thou hast spoken of, of them shall I be had in honor.”

David danced before the Lord and did it for Him, forgetting himself so that God might be glorified. He divested himself of his royal dignity. David was nothing more than a simple worshipper, full of joy in the presence of the Lord of hosts who is seated between the cherubim and who had come to make His dwelling forever in the midst of His people.

Dancing in public before the ark may not have been a kingly act; but the dignity of the king was forgotten in the joy of the worshipper. And when twitted by Michal for demeaning himself as a vain fellow among his servants, his answer was, that he would yet be more vile, he would be base even in his own eyes when it was in praise to the Lord (2 Sam. 6:20). What a constraining power there is in joy and gladness; and when this joy is from God and with God, how unworthy earthly appearances and earthly considerations become. The church of God now has greater motive for joy than had David then.