Dance Dance Dance
Posted by:
Bible Blogger on
January 22, 2008 at
12:49PM EST
When my fiancee was driving me home this morning a Brad Paisley song
came on the radio titled "We Danced." It's a song about a young couple
and how they danced on their most important occasions. It's a great
song and Paisley really sings the stuffing out of it but it make me
think of dancing at other times and places.
"Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with
tambourine and lyre!" - Psalm 149:3 (ESV)
Have you ever danced in church?
In many churches they would have a nice friendly usher grab you and
escort you out of the building if you broke out into dance. However,
if you look at the Old Testament dancing for the Lord was a common
practice and a way of showing the joy the Lord has brought into your
life. King David danced in front of the Lord. It doesn't even say he
danced well...he just danced. (Although he must have been good enough
to get Michal jealous: "And as the ark of the covenant of the Lord came to the
city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King
David dancing and rejoicing, and
she despised him in her heart." - 1 Chronicles 15:29 (ESV). Yes, I'm kidding there...)
I know there have been times in a church service where I've felt the
presence of God so thick that I wanted to just break out dancing. I
never did because quite frankly the sight of me dancing could kill
small cattle so I would just rock back and forth and drum on the chair
in front of me. Still, I know that feeling where you want to cut loose
and you hold back because of the people around you or the nature of the
church you are in.
It's man's restrictions placed in the context of social acceptability
that keeps us from stepping out and pulling a King David. Why? Why
shouldn't we just let it loose? I know...it would disrupt many
services. I'm not saying it should happen every week because David
didn't dance every time he worshiped...but he DID dance.
I'm not telling you to do it or that your church is wrong for not
allowing it. I'm just bringing it up for thought amongst us all. If
it was good enough for King David...is it good enough for us?
