Week 4 of the Amazing Race had us reading through the end of 1 Samuel, all of 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings. I learned so much about King David this week. I've always found David to be an amazing man and hope to do the Beth Moore study on him at some point. I've heard it's great. I have two things that really stood out this week.
The first is in 2 Samuel 6. David is bringing the Ark to Jerusalem. King David is "leaping and dancing before the LORD" (2 Samuel 6:16) and Saul's daughter, Michal, sees him from a window and despises him. When David returned home, Michal came out and chastised him for "disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would" (2 Samuel 6:20) David replies, "It was before the LORD...I will celebrate before the LORD. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes..." (2 Samuel 6:21) This passage made me think of the Matt Redman song, "Undignified." To see a live version of the song, click here. It is an awesome song! All too often, even within the safe walls of our churches, we are afraid to dance and sing and praise before God the way we really want to. We are afraid of being undignified. I admired David's wild abandon for social protocol and his willingness to let go of all human inhibitions and just praise the LORD! I so want to do that too!
The second part of the scripture I especially loved this week was David's song of praise in 2 Samuel 22. I encourage you to read it in its entirety because the entire passage is so full of eye-opening praises for God. One of my favorite selections is from verses 19 and 20. "...but the LORD was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me." Being severely claustrophobic like I am, the mental picture I get from this verse is of God just pulling you up out of a cave where you are trapped and can't breathe. I know God has rescued me from emotional caves of anxiety, depression, and overwhelming sadness and grief. He has always brought me "out into a spacious place" where I feel like I can breathe again. Also, how awesome is it to think of God delighting in us!?!? It's easy for me to imagine delighting in Him because He is so awesome, but for Him to delight in me is just incredible!
I also loved verses 31-33, "As for God , his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him. For who is God besides the LORD? And who is the Rock except our God? It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect." One of my biggest failures as a Christian, is my tendency to plan, plan, plan without ever consulting God. I am a planner by nature and when things don't go according to my plan, I get quite upset! God has taught me a major lesson in this area lately. I think I may have finally learned that I can't control anything and that God is truly in control. Not only that, but his way is better than my way (Isaiah 55:8-9), it is perfect!
I am officially through the first phase (30 days) of this plan and am excited to still be on track! This week will have us through 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, and most of Nehemiah. Stay tuned to see what happens next!
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