- Sermon Notes
- Scripture
Living in God’s Presence
2 Samuel 6:12-23
Illus. Baby on board.
One powerful promise God has given in Scripture is that He is always present with us. As I thought back on some of the most comforting Scriptures in times of trouble, I was reminded of how comforting the Scriptures that detail God presence with His people have been throughout my life.
In Psalm 46:1 we are told that God is our refuge and strength, and ever-present help in trouble. In Psalm 16:8 David declared that he knew the Lord was always with Him. In Isaiah 41 God encouraged His people who were in fear with these words, “fear not, for I am with you; do not be afraid, I am your God.” Jesus told His followers in Matthew 28:20 that He is with us always. From John 14 we know that when we receive Jesus as the Lord of our lives, His Spirit remains with us and lives in us. In Galatians 2:20, Paul wrote that when we lay down our lives and receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, is it no longer us who live, but Christ who lives in us.
Psalm 139:7-10, Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take up the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there Your hand will lead me, and Your right hand will take hold of me.
When David wrote about God’s presence in Psalm 139, he was writing about God’s omnipresence. He was highlighting the biblical truth that God is always everywhere present.
Illus. Receiving.
With God’s presence in mind this morning, I want to look specifically at three lessons for living in God’s presence that we can learn from David in 2 Samuel 6:10-23.
Last week, we studied much of the first 11 verses of chapter 6, where David, after being anointed king of all Israel and setting up his kingdom in the city of Jerusalem; prepared a place for the ark of God by establishing a tent, or tabernacle in Jerusalem (1 Chronicles 15). The ark of God as we discussed last week, represented the immediate presence of God in Israel.
Illus. The Ark of God.
When the ark was moved, there were specific instruction given surrounding the way it would be handled. Only the sons of Kohath, a Levite family were to transport it. There were to cover it and there were golden rings on the corners with poles that passed through them. The ark was to be carried with the poles by placing them on their shoulders. They were not to touch the ark of God.
God had given the prescribed way of approaching and transporting the ark of God, but as David and his 30,000 men go to get the ark from Baale-judah and head toward Jerusalem. As they do, they do not transport it according to God’s instruction, nor do they approach it according to God’s prescription. It was a representation of God’s presence and power, God is holy and with their disregard for God’s instruction and prescription, tragedy struck that day.
As we pick up in verse 12 this morning, we see David after the Ark remained in the house of a man named Obed-edom for three months, go again to get the ark of God, only this time, pursues the ark God’s prescribed way, and what we see is great blessing, worship, and joy depicted that day.
From David’s approach and posture toward the presence of the Lord in verses 12 to 23, and I want to point you to three lessons we learn in these verses for living in God’s presence.
- Pursue His Prescribed Way
2 Samuel 6:12, Now it was reported to King David, saying, “The Lord has blessed the house of Obed-edom and all that belongs to him, on account of the ark of God.” So David went and brought the ark of God up from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with joy.
- The ark of the Lord was taken to the house of Obed-edom part way through the journey to Jerusalem.
- It was about a 9-mile journey from the play it had sat for 20 years to Jerusalem, but on the way, just about halfway, there are conditions that delay its delivery.
- The house of Obed-edom is at about the halfway point. So, it would need to be taken another 4 miles or so in order to make it to Jerusalem.
- In 2 Samuel 6:11-12 we read that David received a report that the house of Obed-edom was blessed while the ark of the Lord was in his house.
2 Samuel 6:11, The ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite for three months, and the Lord blessed Obed-edom and all his household.
- For three months, the ark of the Lord, the presence of the Lord, remained in his house, and he was blessed.
- We aren’t told specifically how he was blessed, but we are told his household was blessed and everything he had was blessed because of the ark of God.
- David learns of the blessed the ark of God brought upon the household, and he goes again to get the ark. Bringing it from the house of Obed-edom with joy (Verse 12).
- This is quite a change in disposition for David, who is seen in verses 9 and 10 as unwilling to move the ark and fearful of moving forward. It is there that he asks the question, “how can the ark of the Lord come to me?”
- And we don’t get the specific answers to his question in 2 Samuel 6, but in 1 Chronicles, which covers many of the same events as 1 and 2 Samuel but with different focus, we get details into how David’s approach to the presence of the Lord was different than before and the reason for the change.
- It is in 1 Chronicles 15 we see David assemble all Jerusalem to bring the ark of the Lord to the place he had prepared, then he assemble the Levite priests starting with the descendants of Kohath and make sure they knew that they were the ones who would bring up the ark of the Lord.
1 Chronicles 15:13, It was because you, the Levites, did not bring it up the first time that the Lord our God broke out in anger against us. We did not inquire of him about how to do it in the prescribed way” (NIV)
- We have been looking at this often in David’s story, that word, “inquire,” we have seen it as a theme.
- We have seen the times when David inquires of the Lord and things go well, and times when he doesn’t, and they don’t go so well…David says here, we did not inquire of Him about how to do it in the prescribed way.
- Earlier I noted how they were to transport the ark, by putting the poles that go through the golden corner rings on the shoulders of Levite priests, particularly Kohathite Levites.
- The way they had transported the ark at the beginning of chapter 6 was on a cart. It was the way the Philistines sent the ark back to the Israel in 1 Samuel, 20 years prior, on a cart.
- That was not the way to approach or interact with God’s presence, however.
- For us today, God has given the Way.
John 14:6, Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.
Ephesians 2:18, Through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father.
- David acknowledged after doing about things his own way, that it was because he had not sought the Lord regarding His prescribed way, but as the story continues David pursued God’s prescribed way.
1 Chronicles 15:14-15, So the priests and the Levites consecrated themselves to bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel. The sons of the Levites carried the ark of God on their shoulders with the poles on them, just as Moses had commanded in accordance with the word of the Lord.
- God’s word had already been prescribed, David just needed to go with it.
Illus. Prescription.
2 Samuel 6:12(b), So David went and brought the ark of God up from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with joy.
- Interestingly, Obed-edom was a Kohathite priest. David realized he had gone about the moving of the ark in the wrong way, and he will realize the right way, this seems to be the first step.
- David pursued God’s prescribed way, and the scene is filled with blessing, joy, and praise before the Lord!
Psalm 16:11(a), You will make known to me the way of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy…
- Praise Him in Every Step You Take
2 Samuel 6:13-15, And so it was, that when those carrying the ark of the Lord marched six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened steer. And David was dancing before the Lord with all his strength, and David was wearing a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with joyful shouting and the sound of the trumpet.
- As the priests carry the ark scene becomes quite powerful to see.
- We see David dancing with all his strength, all the house of Israel was shouting joyfully as the trumpet was sounding. And in addition to these things we see something striking.
- Verse 13 tells us that every six paces, or six steps, David makes a sacrifice to the Lord.
- They have about 4 miles to go, they are only part way there, and David decides that they were going to make a sacrifice to the Lord every six steps.
- David was going about things differently than before.
- He was going about his journey through godly methods, the priests were now carrying the ark properly.
- And he was setting his heart on worship with every step.
Illus. Every Six Steps.
Romans 12:1, Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
- There is great joy and praise in God’s presence. From verse 14 we know that it was all being done before the Lord and in the presence of the Lord.
- Many wonder what the scene would have looked like, we don’t know other than the description, but we do know that David was devoted to giving glory and praise to God, not a performance or promotion of himself.
- David was before the Lord, and in the joy of His presence, He worshipped and gave praise to God!
Illus. Praise examples.
- As the story continues, great attention is going to be given to what David was wearing while he worshipped. Verse 14 tells us that he was worshipping while wearing a linen ephod.
- A linen ephod was a sleeveless long shirt that priest word under other garments. It was typically reserved for priests and those ministering before the Lord.
- The picture is of David setting aside his royal robes as worshipping the Lord alongside the people of Israel as any other worshipper.
2 Samuel 6:16, Then it happened, as the ark of the Lord was coming into the city of David, that Michal the daughter of Saul looked down through the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she was contemptuous of him in her heart.
- Michal was David’s first wife and the daughter of Saul. As David worshipped the Lord all the way the Jerusalem, Michal sees him through a window and was contemptuous of him.
- It is a word that means she despised him, she thought of him as despicable…In other words, she didn’t like what she was seeing.
- In verses 17 to 19, the ark arrives in Jerusalem, and it is set in the place David prepared for it. David offered sacrificial offerings before the Lord, blessed the people, and provided food to the multitude.
2 Samuel 6:20, Then all the people left, each to his house. But when David returned to bless his own household, Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said, “How the king of Israel dignified himself today! For he exposed himself today in the sight of his servants’ female slaves, as one of the rabble shamelessly exposes himself!”
- David was acting as any other worshipper, she saw it as below him, unbecoming of him, despicable and undignified in her eyes…But David is going to point her to the fact that he was in the presence of the Lord, and that was who his worship was for.
III. Prioritize What is Dignified in His Eyes
2 Samuel 6:21-22, David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.” (NIV)
- David declared the truth to Michal, that his worship, his posture, his praise was for God not for others.
- Michal said, you didn’t look like a king today. And David responds, that is because I was before the Lord, the King of kings.
- He removed the crown, removed the robes, he recognized that God was worthy, he recognized that the ground was level before the Lord.
- David understood the importance of humility on God’s presence. He understood surrender to Him. He understood the joy and power of God’s presence.
- David recognizes and reveals to Michal that what he was doing was right in God’s sight, and though she could not see any dignity in what he had done, David declared that he would celebrate before the Lord, and was willing to be humiliated in his own eyes, undignified in her eyes, that was not his priority, rather he prioritized was dignified in God’s eyes.
- The word “dignified” from verse 20, is the word honored. In 1 Samuel 2:30, the Lord declared “those who honor me, I will honor.”
- David reminded Michal that the Lord had chosen him, and he was choosing the Lord.
- So many people were aware of what David was doing. The people walking with him, and in verse 16 we see his wife looking down on him through a window, then we see the sight of the servants, then David’s own sight.
- David was willing to be undignified before others, humiliated by others, despised by Michal, and he was willing for all of that, because he placed his priority on what God was seeing.
Illus. Point of view.
2 Samuel 6:13-23