2 Samuel 6:20 - Meaning and Application

David had sent the crowd away with a blessing, then went home to bless his own household (2 Samuel 6:20). That means he prayed with them and for them, and gave thanks for this national act of mercy. Ministers should not think that public worship excuses them from family worship. After they have blessed the church with teaching and prayer, they should come home and do the same for their families, since they are specially responsible for them.

David had prophets, priests, and Levites around him, ready to serve like household chaplains. Yet he did not hand this duty over to them. He blessed his household himself. Worshiping God is the work of angels, so it can never be beneath the greatest person. David surely came home with more joy than ever before, since the ark, the sacred chest that symbolized God’s presence, had been brought near his house. Still, this happy day ended in sorrow because of his wife’s pride and irritation. Even royal homes are not free from family trouble.

David had pleased all the people of Israel, but Michal, Saul’s daughter and David’s wife, was offended by his dancing before the ark. When he was away, she scorned him. When he came home, she confronted him. She was not upset because he was generous to the people or because he fed them well. What troubled her was that she thought he lowered his dignity by dancing before the ark. Her anger came from pride, not greed.

When Michal saw David dancing before the Lord in the street, she despised him in her heart (2 Samuel 6:16). She thought his strong joy and devotion to the ark were foolish and unworthy of such a great soldier, statesman, and king. In her view, it was fine for him to support devotion in others, but beneath him to show that devotion himself. She must have thought, “What a fool my husband is making of himself. How attached he is to this ark, which could have stayed where it was. Too much religion has almost driven him mad.” People who have little or no religion often look down on acts of religion as if they were small and ridiculous.

When David came home in the best possible spirit, she rushed out to insult him before he could even enter privately. She mocked him, saying in effect, “How glorious the king of Israel looked today. What a sight you made in front of the crowd. How unfit that was for your rank and office.” Her contempt for him and for his worship had already grown in her heart, and now her mouth revealed it. What bothered her was his love for the ark, a love she wished he had never shown. But she gave his actions a wicked false meaning, as if dancing before the ark were loose and indecent behavior. She said he had exposed himself before the servant girls, like a shameless man. There is no reason to believe that was true. David surely kept proper order and did not lose control of himself. Yet people who attack religion often dress it up in ugly words and make it seem worse than it is.

To slander any person for sincere devotion is already deeply wrong. To speak that way about her own husband was even worse. She should have honored him. His wisdom and virtue were beyond her malicious attacks, and he had shown such love for her that he would not accept the crown unless she was restored to him (2 Samuel 3:13). Her conduct showed more of Saul’s daughter than of David’s wife or Jonathan’s sister.

David answered her reproach, but he did not throw back her own sin at her. He did not remind her how she had once left him and joined herself to another man. He had forgiven that, and so he had put it out of mind, though his conscience may have troubled him then about having taken her back, since such a union brings defilement on the land (Jeremiah 3:1). Instead, he defended what he had done.

He said that he had acted before the Lord, with God in view (2 Samuel 6:21). No matter what unfair meaning she put on it, his conscience told him that he truly wanted God’s glory. David also reminded her that God had set aside her father’s house to give him the throne, so she should not think herself the best judge of what was proper. God had chosen him instead of her father and made him ruler over Israel. He was now the one from whom honor came. If heartfelt devotion to God was once seen as low and unfashionable in her father’s court, David would still dance before the Lord and help restore that devotion to honor. And if this made him seem humble, he was willing to be even more humble (2 Samuel 6:22).

We should be careful not to condemn other people’s devotion just because it does not match our own views. We may not know whether their hearts are sincere, and we have no right to despise those whom God has accepted. If we can please God in what we do in religion, and do it before the Lord, then human criticism should not matter much. If we look right in God’s eyes, it does not matter if the world thinks us small.

The more people are mocked for doing right, the more firm they should be. They should hold fast to their religion and cling to it more tightly, because Satan works through others to shame them out of it. David’s words mean, “I will be even more humble if needed.”

He also meant to humble himself before God. “I will be base in my own sight,” he said, in effect, “and I will not count anything too low if it brings honor to God.” In judgment and in battle, no one could uphold a king’s greatness and authority better than David. Yet in worship he set aside all thoughts of royal dignity. He bowed low before the Lord, joined in the humblest tasks done to honor the ark, and did not count that as a loss. The greatest person is still smaller than the least duty connected with the ordinances of Jesus Christ, that is, the commands and practices Christ appointed for his church.

David also knew that even the very people Michal claimed to fear would respect him for this. The servant girls would not think less of him for such acts of devotion. They would admire him all the more. Those who are truly godly are sometimes approved in the consciences even of those who speak badly of them (2 Corinthians 5:11).

We should never let the fear of criticism drive us away from our duty. If we stay steady and resolute, that faithfulness will often win us a better name than we expect. Godliness has its own honor, so we should not be careless about it, or ashamed to admit it.

David was satisfied to defend his conduct and did not answer Michal’s insult any further. Michal, Saul’s daughter and David’s wife, had mocked his devotion, and God punished her for it by making her childless from that time on (2 Samuel 6:23). She wrongly shamed David for honoring God, so God justly gave her a lasting shame of her own. Those who honor God, he will honor. But those who despise him, and despise his servants and service, will themselves be held in low regard.