Selah: Worship in the Midst of Spiritual WarfareSample

Worship Invites You to Rejoice

We have consistently seen that worship leads to repentance in 1 and 2 Samuel. Guilt is sticky, and it can create further distance between you and the Lord by making you feel unworthy. However, you weren’t good enough to go before the King on your best day, which also means you’re no less worthy to go before Him on your worst day, either.

Worship is not about us. It grants us access to the Presence of God, and it redirects our priorities to reflect those things He considers important.

When we worship, we are able to recognize the many ways God rescues us. The more we recognize the many ways God rescues us, the more naturally praise pours out of our hearts. God is our Ultimate Redeemer, and our soul always finds protection in His Presence.

He wants to turn our mourning into dancing of the sweetest kind. The kind that:

• you only enjoy when you don’t care if anyone notices you.
• keeps you smiling long after you have stopped dancing.
• is meant for an Audience of One.

Worship invites you to rejoice in the Lord's presence.

Despite God’s goodness, we continue to see a growing desperation for the Davidic Covenant to be fulfilled. Even though David worked to be a kind and just king, we still read his biography and long for the coming of Jesus Christ in the New Testament.

Although the Israelites enjoyed a protected and prospering nation all around them, they continued to exasperate God with their rebellion. We see He allowed the enemy to incite David to conduct a census and count the people (1 Chronicles 21:1), and even though Joab asked him why he would want to do it, David offered no motive.

Joab conducted the census, and once he was finished, David saw the error of his pride. God disciplined them and sent word to David through Gad that he would need to go to Araunah, the Jebusite’s, threshing floor, to make a sacrifice.

This was definitely a full-circle moment. David had conquered Jerusalem and taken it from the Jebusites, setting up his palace in their former stronghold in 2 Samuel 5. However, here, David is required to return to a Jebusite’s home and ask to utilize his land.

It was as if God was reminding David that the Lord gave him everything he had received, and David would be wise to remember it.

When Araunah asked why David had come, he answered that he was to buy his threshing floor, and Araunah offered to give him anything he might need. However, David insisted.

True worship leads you to reflect on the past and admit you have fallen short of God's holy standard as you learn to separate your issues from your identity in Christ. It invites you to take responsibility, reconcile your differences, repent, and rejoice in the Lord's presence.

David bought the threshing floor and made the sacrifice to the Lord. As a result, he succeeded in turning God’s hand from harming Israel further. And despite the circumstances that drove him there, we see that worship leads us to rejoice when we reflect on God's faithfulness throughout it all.

Psalm 30 is the psalm David wrote to honor the Lord here on Araunah’s threshing floor, and he ends it by saying,

“You turned my wailing into dancing;

you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,

that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent.

Lord my God, I will praise you forever.”

Araunah's threshing floor is the place Abraham first discovered God is Jehovah Jireh, the Lord Who Provides, in Genesis 22. It later became the location for the temple Solomon, David’s son, built. Mount Moriah (or Araunah's threshing floor) is also commonly associated with Golgotha, the place where Jesus was Sacrificed on the Cross.

Worship alters the atmosphere and establishes an environment of surrender when we rejoice in the Lord’s presence. There is power in your surrender.

Reflection

1. When was the last time you celebrated in the Lord's Presence, and how did it feel?
2. How has the Lord turned your mourning or wailing into dancing?

Are you interested in going deeper? Start reading Selah: A Study of 1 and 2 Samuel today or learn more about it here.