Is that a Smiley-Dance?

Yep, I don't wear grass skirts.

Now about David. Do you think David's dance was holy toward the Lord? I do realise that these people were not sophisticated and cultured in the sense that we are. They were raw and as he said "base". So maybe he didn't mind dancing for all to see but Michal was not happy about him showing all he owned to the maidens. Neither would I be if it was my husband.

I believe that his dance more than being holy was a dance of passion and excitement about the great feat of the ark coming home. He was emotional in a fleshly way. I'm not so sure that is always bad. God gave us emotions and granted we must have self control but when we clap (if we do) over a song, are we sure that it is a holy clap or is it an emotional excited clap. Same as dancing.

....................Grace

Originally Posted by Graceismine

So maybe he didn't mind dancing for all to see but Michal was not happy about him showing all he owned to the maidens.

What does this mean? David was not naked - if he was naked in public, he would be sinning - regardless of whether he was danving or not. In the passage, Michal makes a slander towards him that was unjustified.

2 Samuel 6:20-22 Then David returned to bless his household. And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, How glorious was the king of Israel to day, who uncovered himself to day in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself! And David said unto Michal, It was before the LORD, which chose me before thy father, and before all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the LORD, over Israel: therefore will I play before the LORD. And I will yet be more vile than thus, and will be base in mine own sight: and of the maidservants which thou hast spoken of, of them shall I be had in honour.

1 Chronicles 15:27-29 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. Thus all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the LORD with shouting, and with 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 the LORD came to the city of David, that Michal the daughter of Saul looking out at a window saw king David dancing and playing: and she despised him in her heart.

David had removed his kingly apparel - so Michal despised him for not holding himself above the people. He was not naked or uncovered - just not covered with what she figured he should be covered with.

Psa 150:1 Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power.
Psa 150:2 Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness.
Psa 150:3 Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp.
Psa 150:4 Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs.
Psa 150:5 Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals.
Psa 150:6 Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.

I believe this praise is for the whole church. Some Christians will go to a football game and shout and blow horns and have marching bands to honor a bunch of sweaty jocks that they worship and idolize.

As for me I only care that my Lord God Almighty and my Savior Jesus Christ get more praise than these Jocks or anybody else. I will dance, play instruments and praise Him for He is who He is. None other is worthy of praise and worship. I will honor Him by not being ashamed to raise my hands, fall on my face and pray, dance, shout praises to His name, Sing until I lose my voice praising my God.

Matthew Henry said:Psa 150:1-6 -
We are here, with the greatest earnestness imaginable, excited to praise God; if, as some suppose, this psalm was primarily intended for the Levites, to stir them up to do their office in the house of the Lord, as singers and players on instruments, yet we must take it as speaking to us, who are made to our God spiritual priests. And the repeated inculcating of the call thus intimates that it is a great and necessary duty, a duty which we should be much employed and much enlarged in, but which we are naturally backward to and cold in, and therefore need to be brought to, and held to, by precept upon precept, and line upon line. Observe here,
I. Whence this tribute of praise arises, and out of what part of his dominion it especially issues. It comes, 1. From his sanctuary; praise him there. Let his priests, let his people, that attend there, attend him with their praises. Where should he be praised, but there where he does, in a special manner, both manifest his glory and communicate his grace? Praise God upon the account of his sanctuary, and the privileges which we enjoy by having that among us, Eze_37:26. Praise God in his holy ones (so some read it); we must take notice of the image of God as it appears on those that are sanctified, and love them for the sake of that image; and when we praise them we must praise God in them. 2. From the firmament of his power. Praise him because of his power and glory which appear in the firmament, its vastness, its brightness, and its splendid furniture; and because of the powerful influences it has upon this earth. Let those that have their dwelling in the firmament of his power, even the holy angels, lead in this good work. Some, by the sanctuary, as well as by the firmament of his power, understand the highest heavens, the residence of his glory; that is indeed his sanctuary, his holy temple, and there he is praised continually, in a far better manner than we can praise him. And it is a comfort to us, when we find we do it so poorly, that it is so well done there.
II. Upon what account this tribute of praise is due, upon many accounts, particularly, 1. The works of his power (Psa_150:2): Praise him for his mighty acts; for his mightinesses (so the word is), for all the instances of his might, the power of his providence, the power of his grace, what he has done in the creation, government, and redemption of the world, for the children of men in general, for his own church and children in particular. 2. The glory and majesty of his being: Praise him according to his excellent greatness, according to the multitude of his magnificence (so Dr. Hammond reads it); not that our praises can bear any proportion to God's greatness, for it is infinite, but, since he is greater than we can express or conceive, we must raise our conceptions and expressions to the highest degree we can attain to. Be not afraid of saying too much in the praises of God, as we often do in praising even great and good men. Deus non patitur hyperbolum - We cannot speak hyperbolically of God; all the danger is of saying too little and therefore, when we have done our utmost, we must own that though we have praised him in consideration of, yet not in proportion to, his excellent greatness.
III. In what manner this tribute must be paid, with all the kinds of musical instruments that were then used in the temple-service, Psa_150:3-5. It is well that we are not concerned to enquire what sort of instruments these were; it is enough that they were well known then. Our concern is to know, 1. That hereby is intimated how full the psalmist's heart was of the praises of God and how desirous he was that this good work might go on. 2. That in serving God we should spare no cost nor pains. 3. That the best music in God's ears is devout and pious affections, non musica chordula, sed cor - not a melodious string, but a melodious heart. Praise God with a strong faith; praise him with holy love and delight; praise him with an entire confidence in Christ; praise him with a believing triumph over the powers of darkness; praise him with an earnest desire towards him and a full satisfaction in him; praise him by a universal respect to all his commands; praise him by a cheerful submission to all his disposals; praise him by rejoicing in his love and solacing yourselves in his great goodness; praise him by promoting the interests of the kingdom of his grace; praise him by a lively hope and expectation of the kingdom of his glory. 4. That, various instruments being used in praising God, it should yet be done with an exact and perfect harmony; they must not hinder, but help one another. The New Testament concert, instead of this, is with one mind and one mouth to glorify God, Rom_15:6.
IV. Who must pay this tribute (Psa_150:6): Let every thing that has breath praise the Lord. He began with a call to those that had a place in his sanctuary and were employed in the temple-service; but he concludes with a call to all the children of men, in prospect of the time when the Gentiles should be taken into the church, and in every place, as acceptably as at Jerusalem, this incense should be offered, Mal_1:11. Some think that in every thing that has breath here we must include the inferior creatures (as Gen_7:22), all in whose nostrils was the breath of life. They praise God according to their capacity. The singing of birds is a sort of praising God. The brutes do in effect say to man, “We would praise God if we could; do you do it for us.” John in vision heard a song of praise from every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, Rev_5:13. Others think that only the children of men are meant; for into them God has in a more peculiar manner breathed the breath of life, and they have become living souls, Gen_2:7. Now that the gospel is ordered to be preached to every creature, to every human creature, it is required that every human creature praise the Lord. What have we our breath, our spirit, for, but to spend it in praising God; and how can we spend it better? Prayers are called our breathings, Lam_3:56. Let every one that breathes towards God in prayer, finding the benefit of that, breathe forth his praises too. Having breath, let the praises of God perfume our breath; let us be in this work as in our element; let it be to us as the air we breathe in, which we could not live without. Having our breath in our nostrils, let us consider that it is still going forth, and will shortly go and not return. Since therefore we must shortly breathe our last, while we have breath let us praise the Lord, and then we shall breathe our last with comfort, and, when death runs us out of breath, we shall remove to a better state to breathe God's praises in a freer better air.
The first three of the five books of psalms (according to the Hebrew division) concluded with Amen and Amen, the fourth with Amen, Hallelujah, but the last, and in it the whole book, concludes with only Hallelujah, because the last six psalms are wholly taken up in praising God and there is not a word of complaint or petition in them. The nearer good Christians come to their end the fuller they should be of the praises of God. Some think that this last psalm is designed to represent to us the work of glorified saints in heaven, who are there continually praising God, and that the musical instruments here said to be used are no more to be understood literally than the gold, and pearls, and precious stones, which are said to adorn the New Jerusalem, Rev_21:18, Rev_21:19. But, as those intimate that the glories of heaven are the most excellent glories, so these intimate that the praises the saints offer there are the most excellent praises. Prayers will there be swallowed up in everlasting praises; there will be no intermission in praising God, and yet no weariness - hallelujahs for ever repeated, and yet still new songs. Let us often take a pleasure in thinking what glorified saints are doing in heaven, what those are doing whom we have been acquainted with on earth, but who have gone before us thither; and let it not only make us long to be among them, but quicken us to do this part of the will of God on earth as those do it that are in heaven. And let us spend as much of our time as may be in this good work because in it we hope to spend a joyful eternity. Hallelujah is the word there (Rev_19:1, Rev_19:3); let us echo to it now, as those that hope to join in it shortly. Hallelujah, praise you the Lord.

Jerry, I won't argue with you about David's dance. When I read "uncovered" that is how I saw it.

I thought of this verse, Genesis 9:21 And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.

The uncovering seems to infer shame. Now if it was that he removed his kingly robes it was a fleshly, shameful thing to do because that is the how the account is written.

We are discussing worshipping God with dance. I have no doubt that David was worshipping God. My point is that many who are dancing in churches today are worshipping God too.

Grace,

Lively Stone...

As for me I only care that my Lord God Almighty and my Savior Jesus Christ get more praise than these Jocks or anybody else. I will dance, play instruments and praise Him for He is who He is. None other is worthy of praise and worship. I will honor Him by not being ashamed to raise my hands, fall on my face and pray, dance, shout praises to His name, Sing until I lose my voice praising my God.

Goodonya bro'

..................Grace

Originally Posted by Graceismine

The uncovering seems to infer shame. Now if it was that he removed his kingly robes it was a fleshly, shameful thing to do because that is the how the account is written.

In David's case, he was not uncovered. Michal slandered him - he did not shame himself before God. That is why Michal was cursed by God - if David had sinned (and public nakedness is sin), then God would have chastised David, not Michal. That is why it is good to arrive at a conclusion that takes into account all related or parallel passages. 1 Chronicles gives some info that 2 Samuel does not.

1 Chronicles 15:29 And it came to pass, as the ark of the covenant of the LORD came to the city of David, that Michal the daughter of Saul looking out at a window saw king David dancing and playing: and she despised him in her heart.

2 Samuel 6:23 Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no child unto the day of her death.

I see Davids dance as an example of a man leaping and bounding with joy, much like you see on the old newsreels of men leaping and bounding down the street celebrating the of the end of WW2.

No way do I see David tippy tapping down the street in an effeminate, choreographed Fred Astaire routine.

Praise and worship dancing today is carried out with a swaying, sensual motion in rythum with rock style music. Those participating may be doing so with good intentions, but they should ask themselves..." what difference is there to my style of worship to that carried out by people attending an Elton John concert"?

As for using dance as an "invocation"...an invocation to what?, God tells Moses in Numbers 20:8 "...and SPEAK ye unto the rock before their eyes;and it shall give forth his water,..." The rock is a picture of Christ and his living water (John chapter 4) and tells us that we only need to speak to him...no need to invoke him with a Michael Jackson impersonation.

God Bless

As a pastor, I tell my congregation a few things about "dancing".
1. Don't be "shakin' your torso forever more-so
2. If you be dancing in public and not in private, you are basically putting on a show
3. Dancing from the hips is a call of the wild.
4. The Bible shows dancing as an act of worship. Are you trying to seduce the Lord or worship satan by your hip-swaying?

1 Corinthians 10:31 Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

Psalms 149:3 Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp.

Psalms 150:4 Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs.

[chette777]

One thing the Problem is when people use poetry to create a doctrine. Poetry is emotional. the preist never danced in the temple. There is a big movement here where I am serving in the Philippines. And I would have to say it is of teh flesh. the girating of hips and placing the hands behind the head and bouncing themselves in and out just doesn't seem God honoring yet they call themselves "gansters for God" When I got a chnce to meet a couple of these kids they were no spiritual minded two of them carried demonic spirits and couldn't even look me in the eye when we shook hands. I could see it all over them they weren't saved they were just a member of a dance troop claiming it was for God. Quites Emergent Church though as it blended worldly with supposed spiritual. there pastor is an entertainer, song writer seems to be more interested in getting support form Foriegn Churches (money aint that what it all comes down too).