Selah: Worship in the Midst of Spiritual WarfareSample

Worship Invites Renewal

How would you describe a friend you had to hide your true emotions from? Would you even call them friends if you forced yourself to smile and put on a facade for their benefit?

As we have learned, spiritual authority advances when intimacy increases. Authority is limited where intimacy is absent, but to have intimacy, you must grow in honesty.

There is nothing like a good cry, especially when you can experience it without fear of repercussion. It is truly one of the ways the Lord helps us experience greater healing and renewal.

God’s presence gives us the freedom to feel all the feels, as we recognize He is faithful to show up in all of it: the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful.

When David chose to host a ceremony in honor of moving the Ark of the Lord to Jerusalem, it was important.

In a time when kings only planned significant events and celebrations to honor themselves, the first and only ceremony we read about during David’s lifetime was held in honor of the Lord. He used this time to remind the Israelites that monarchy or not, it was God who led Israel, and the Lord was honored, eventually.

We often confuse the title David received from the Lord, “A man After God’s Own Heart,” as a synonym for perfection, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. David made many mistakes outside of the pain he caused Bathsheba, and one was inviting his pride to this parade.

Performance is a distraction we all fall prey to in the presence of the Lord from time to time, and it is yet another weapon that comes to distance us from God amid spiritual warfare. David is no different.

In 2 Samuel 6, we read that David gathered 30,000 men to bring the Ark of God to Jerusalem from Baale-judah (also known as Kiriath-Jearim), where it had rested for decades. Although the Israelites put away their idols and returned to the Lord under Samuel’s leadership, neither he nor Saul attempted to relocate the Ark. But David was different.

When David chose to bring the Ark of God into Jerusalem at that time, it was a big deal. However, David and the men should have focused more on God's presence than on their wish to be used powerfully. David had his men put the Ark on a cart in an attempt to move it, which shows how negligent they had been to the Lord’s instructions because it was not meant to be put on a cart. And when Uzzah reached out to catch it, he died, angering and scaring David.

Much like David, our sense of justice can also distance us from the Lord, especially when we require that He come down to our level instead of asking Him to show us how to raise our standards to His. That justice may not always seem fair, but He has a consistent, communicated standard for His people.

In God's Incredible Mercy, He gave the Israelites a gift: His presence, motivated by His love and desire to meet with His people on Earth. However, like Adam and Eve in the garden, His people were given clearly defined boundaries to enjoy that gift. Those boundaries remind us that even though He has given us a way to meet with Him (even more freely in Christ now), we are not the owner, but the steward of the gift.

So David, upset with God, left the Ark of the Lord in the house of Obed-Edom, the Gittite, where the Lord blessed everything connected to Obed-Edom and his entire household.

Something happens when we grow complacent in our calling. Spiritual warfare begins to consume our relationship with God. We start recognizing others with similar callings and sometimes grow jealous. We get jealous of:

• Their ability to walk in a similar calling freely,
• How the Lord is moving in their lives,
• Their ability to partner with God in greater ways, and
• Many more variations.

Thankfully, God can use anything. When David took note of how blessed Obed-Edom’s household was, he was finally moved out of his complacency.

David finally brought the Ark of the Lord to Jerusalem, rejoicing the entire way, and we realize the biographer makes a note of entirely different details the second time around. There is no mention of thirty thousand men, though they may have been there. There’s not much mention of the musical instruments. either.

Instead, we notice that the king was dressed as a priest, wearing a linen ephod over his robes. Furthermore, in contrast to the majesty and splendor we learned about during the first attempt, the second was a bloody mess.

Second Samuel 6:13 tells us David sacrificed an ox and a fattened calf after every six steps, dancing and shouting as they brought up the Ark into the City of David. Attention was effectively redirected from David’s goodness (as the first attempt at a coronation seemed to suggest) God's goodness.

Worship invites renewal, and when it does, nothing is off-limits. The Lord uses worship to renew our minds, our relationship with Him, and our relationships with others. It strengthens our intimacy with Him and helps us grow in authority. Continue pressing past the feelings of bitterness, and you will find the blessing and benefit of the Lord’s presence on the other side.

Reflection

1. What or whom inspires feelings of jealousy or bitterness within you?
2. How might you allow that jealousy to help you make changes in your life?