A Fool for Jesus

Saturday, March 15, 2008
Read 2 Samuel 5:1 through 7:29.

(6:21) "I was dancing before the LORD, who chose me above your father and his family! He appointed me as the leader of Israel, the people of the LORD. So I am willing to act like a fool in order to show my joy in the LORD." (NLT)

You know, we have to hand it to David... at this point in his life, he got it. He really got it. He understood the prize he had in his relationship with God. And his lifestyle was the evidence. Did you see his patience, God's anointed king wading through seven-and-a-half years of civil war before receiving the authority that was rightly his (5:1-5)? Did you read also in chapter five, "David became greater and greater, for the LORD God of hosts was with him" (5:10)? That's relationship! And there's trust and intimacy in relationships... the deepest give and take. Why, apparently it was even allowed for David to be angry over God striking Uzzah (6:6-8).

But what hits me like a hammer is how David worshiped. He was out to honor God with all his devotion, with all his reckless abandon. How others judged his expression of joy was irrelevant. He was going to praise and please the Lord His God. Nothing was more important to him, and nothing should be more important to us.

Is that what's most important to you? It seems these days that many believers want to talk more about worship and even debate more about worship than they actually want to worship. What would our services and church lives be like if we brought God David's spirit for praising Him? How quickly would our services bounce from deathly to lively, becoming real expressions of joy and responses of faith? And who would be impacted because they saw our joy bursting forth in praise?

I'm beginning to think it better to look the fool while praising God than be a fool for neglecting the opportunity.

We used to think that the chief end of man was to glorify God. Now we're tempted to say the chief end of God is to gratify man.
Oswald Sanders