WORSHIP: is loud bad?

So David and the elders of Israel and the commanders of thousands went to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD from the house of Obed-edom with rejoicing.
1 Chronicles 15:25

David marked his love for the Lord with expression in his worship. He could not help it. It was his passion for God and thankfulness for God's blessings coming out. David had an artistic side to him that was expressed most in his worship of God. We have the book of Psalms as testament to this. We know he played musical instruments (most notably the lyre) and he led this loud worship service as the Levites carried the ark to Jerusalem. I am sure it was quite a spectacle. The text says there was shouting with the loud music of horns, trumpets, cymbals, harps and lyres (1 Chronicles 15:28).

Praise ought to be heartfelt. And every personality is a little different, but expression is the key. There is nothing more disheartening than being in an assembly of Christians who are just "going through the motions" in a worship service. I don't mean liturgy. I have been in intense, meaningful liturgical assemblies. I mean instead that the worship has degenerated into passionless procedure. May we spare God our dry drudgery!

Personally, when I hear a few complaints about the volume or the content of the "performance level" in a worship service, I tend to go to this episode in the life of David for an evaluation context. In my mind, I wonder if the complainter might be a little like Michal (1 Chronicles 15:29) who despised David's display of rejoicing. There are certainly technical matters to consider in any worship gathering. The sound engineer ought to be able to keep things at a controlled decibel level for the size room. But in the end, a little shouting and rejoicing seems to me to be a biblical precedent to gauge authentic praise and worship! And no sound console should contain that!

I do know this... when I get embarrassed at my own worship of God, it is NEVER because I got "way too into it". It is always because I felt too reserved or I held back or I failed to truly worship God in spirit and in truth. Rejoicing is expressive... whatever that looks like for any person... and that must be the gauge by which we measure honest to goodness, heartfelt praise.

Commanded by God

And David did as God commanded him, and they struck down the Philistine army from Gibeon to Gezer. And the fame of David went out into all lands, and the LORD brought the fear of him upon all nations.
1 Chronicles 14:16-17

God brought deliverance to Israel under the leadership of King David because David was submissive to God's control over the nation. Twice in this chapter the Philistines attack Israel. And twice David does nothing until he first inquires of the LORD. That was the secret of his success in defending Israel.

The first episode is one of Philistine aggression. David hears that the Philistines are against him. David decides to take a "strike first" position and inquires of the LORD. God confirms David's decision, and under God's blessing Israel routes back the Philistine advances with overwhelming success. David gives all the credit to God who delivered the nation. On the battlefield the Philistines abandon their Baal figurines. David has them all collected and burned. The king will not let even a hint of foreign idolatry taint his heart or tempt the nation.

The second engagement finds a Philistine counter attack coming against David's army. Again David seeks the LORD, and this time God asks David to strategically retreat, then outflank the Philistines, waiting for a miraculous sign from God to then bring on the attack. Again, the king obeys God as commander and the Philistines are overwhelmingly defeated. The result was that the reputation of the military might of Israel under David spread to neighboring nations. A peace came to Israel through the strength that God gave to David.

David was a military man. He was a shrewd fighter and a magnetic commanding general. But he did not rely only on these personal gifts. Instead, he entrusted himself to the power and person of God. He was under God's command. And God was glorified as He blessed David and made his name to be feared not only throughout Israel but also to the gentile world. David's trust in God shows how much such real faith can give the faithful heart. It challenges such faith to guide decisions even today.

worship is the center

Then let us bring again the ark of our God to us, for we did not seek it in the days of Saul.
1 Chronicles 13:3

And so began David's personal passion to lead Israel with the kind of deep worship that he had for God in his own heart. He wanted to bring the ark of God (really the entire tabernacle) to Jerusalem and there to build a permanent temple dedicated to the worship of the Lord. He wanted to set the example of commitment to the covenant that the nation needed to follow to see success and experience God's blessing.

Saul's reign had not been characterized by this. It wasn't that Saul was an active idolater. It was just that he was not earnest in his worship of the Lord. He was not really a spiritual leader. And that was shown in his unwillingness to wait on the Lord. It was shown in his readiness to consult a spiritist rather than a prophet when seeking divine guidance. It was shown in his quick decision to disobey God's direct command to destroy everything Amalekite. He did not love the Lord enough to surrender his opinions and desires to Him. It was always "Saul's god, Saul's way". And David meant to change that for the kingdom. His example would be submissive and worshipful.

Seeking to have the ark near the throne would convey to the nation how serious David was about seeking and trusting God. This move was deliberate repentance and really was a good thing. The tabernacle and its furnishings were meant to be portable. There was no command to keep it in any one place. Having God's center of worship in the same city as Israel's center of government would be exactly the right thing to do. It let the Israelites know that God was their king's king.

David's desire to keep the worship of God the central focus speaks a challenge to us today. So many things will shove the real worship of the Lord to the periphery of our experience. May we take David's desire to our own hearts and never see worship as anything other than the center of our lives! And if necessary, let's take it back and place our focus squarely there.

slow trickle to greatness

For from day to day men came to David to help him, until there was a great army, like an army of God.
1 Chronicles 12:22

God brought together in His unique providential way all the men who would comprise the army of Israel under David. And David began his rule with this military foundation. It was what the times demanded. Israel was being oppressed by Philistine control. The previous king, Saul, and his sons were killed in battle with this enemy of Israel. When David ascended to the throne, he had to finish this Philistine war.

It makes sense that the powerful people under David as general would still have influence under David as king. These army commanders came from every tribe and region. David's reliance upon them in wartime forged alliances in peacetime that unified the nation around the king's leadership. The shared experiences in battle led to shared responsibilities in the civilian government.

What is striking in this passage is that David did not need to canvass the countryside to recruit good fighters to his cause. This was a volunteer army that God led together. Every day as the forces grew, eventually it coalesced into a group used by God under David's command to deliver the nation. It became mighty as under David Israel went from being a puny confederation of tribes to a powerful nation of warriors. God was doing a sovereign work. He used a gifted and battle hardened general to full advantage at a time when that was exactly the kind of leader that was needed.

This insight is not so much about military might, political power, or lessons in leadership. It is testimony to God's sovereign control over human affairs. he will use what people naturally do to perform His will among the nations. When God needed a strong and victorious Israel, He created a leader in shepherd boy named David, forced him to defend his life in battle for years under Saul's manic manhunt, and then trickled in an army of discontents and misfits for David's command. Incredibly, something bigger than the sum of its parts started to emerge. The hand of God is seen through His powerful providence.

brave hearts and a sovereign God

Now these are the chiefs of David's mighty men, who gave him strong support in his kingdom, together with all Israel, to make him king, according to the word of the LORD concerning Israel.
1 Chronicles 11:10

This chapter quickly details David's installation as king over all of Israel. Most of it is a listing of the key leaders in Israel's army. David was a man of war, and most of his advisors and key leaders come from that military experience. The text says something as to the bravery and the exploits of these men.

When I read these accounts, I can see the sweat and blood that earned these guys the name "mighty men". The few war stories that are recounted are the stuff of a testosterone-soaked action movie! Just look at this short list:
> dispatching 300 of the enemy with a spear in one encounter.
> risking lives as an expeditionary team to sneak across enemy lines to bring back to their general a cup of water from his hometown well.
> singlehandedly driving back the enemy when a position has been overrun and the soldier's own platoon has retreated.
> killing a lion in a pit on a snowy day.
> slaying a giant with his own spear.

These men were amazingly brave. Their leaders were the "SEAL Team Six" of their day. And God used their service and valor to protect David so that he could faithfully lead the nation. But if I read this only seeing the elements of a Chuck Norris action flick, I will miss the big picture. Yes, these men were incredibly strong and heroic. But it was God that was moving through them to establish the house of David and to work His plan to bring the Son of David to the world, so that Jesus could be our heroic Savior! And Jesus did the ultimate heroic act: He gave His life for the sins of the world.

Breach of Faith

So Saul died for his breach of faith. He broke faith with the LORD in that he did not keep the command of the LORD, and also consulted a medium, seeking guidance.
1 Chronicles 10:13

Seeing God at work in a world that is miserable
will test resolve and power to believe.
The problem is that God is invisible
and is apprehended by data only souls receive.

When times get hard we can easily forget
that God is there in the leanest days.
We tend to focus on what our own hands get
us. We walk around in a spiritual haze.

Then circumstances force us to big decision
with consequences we did not comprehend.
We may ignore God by our own volition
and disobey Him to gain our own ends.

God's gracious call comes in that sin
to ask us there and then to repent
and turn away from the mess we're in,
return to God, from faithlessness relent.

Pain attends, resistance hurts, judgment in the wake
of stubborn hearts... in selfish pride we bathe.
Hardened by sin, God's justice falls, death at stake...
all because we turned from God, sin gave us, just breach of faith.

The faithlessness of men & the faithfulness of God

So all Israel was recorded in genealogies, and these are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel. And Judah was taken into exile in Babylon because of their breach of faith.
1 Chronicles 9:1

This comment serves as a summary of eight chapters worth of genealogical lists for each of tribe in Israel. And it all leads ups to a disturbing and disastrous moment. Each of the tribes, including those comprising the Southern Kingdom of Judah, ended up being led away into exile. All those hundreds and hundreds of names and it showed ultimately a lack of faith.

But there is one final large list that completes the story in 1 Chronicles 9:3-34. It is a list of exiles who returned specifically to Jerusalem. This is testament to the faithfulness of God whereas the eight chapters preceding it tend to point to the faithlessness of people.

So I scan through these lists and they make me keenly aware that each name was a human life filled with all the kinds of thoughts, actions, and activities that fill my days... just in a different time, language, and culture. And each life was a unique creation by God for His glory. The cumulative effect of all these lives was meant to exult the worship of Yahweh in Israel. When they failed to do so, He displayed His power through discipline, then deliverance. That is a mosaic of God's master plan masterpiece. And you only see it by reading these genealogies and looking at the thin little purpose statements like this one that punctuate the story.