“Nothing on earth I desire besides…”: Daily Thoughts from 2 Samuel (2 Samuel 6:12-23)

I was taught not to offer the gospel as a way to smooth out all our problems, that the salvation God offered was not salvation from every kind of suffering. And I was taught not to offer the gospel as an insurance policy against going to hell. Certainly there are benefits to becoming a Christian, not the least of which is eternal life. But its most proper benefit is restoration to relationship with the living God. Once saved we find ourselves, however, falling back into expecting and demanding the unpromised benefits of solving all our problems and eliminating our suffering, and if God doesn’t do it, like David, we get angry with God and fearful of Him.

David is still dealing with God’s failure, from his perspective, to fulfill David’s spiritual agenda of moving the tabernacle to Jerusalem. But something has shifted in David.

And it was told King David, “The LORD has blessed the household of Obed-edom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God.” So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with rejoicing. And when those who bore the ark of the LORD had gone six steps, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened animal. And David danced before the LORD with all his might. And David was wearing a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouting and with the sound of the horn.

As the ark of the LORD came into the city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, and she despised him in her heart. And they brought in the ark of the LORD and set it in its place, inside the tent that David had pitched for it. And David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD. And when David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD of hosts and distributed among all the people, the whole multitude of Israel, both men and women, a cake of bread, a portion of meat, and a cake of raisins to each one. Then all the people departed, each to his house.

And David returned to bless his household. But Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said, “How the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of his servants’ female servants, as one of the vulgar fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!” And David said to Michal, “It was before the LORD, who chose me above your father and above all his house, to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the LORD—and I will celebrate before the LORD. I will make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be abased in your eyes. But by the female servants of whom you have spoken, by them I shall be held in honor.” And Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death. (2 Samuel 6:12-23, ESV)

David takes extra care to properly move the ark with men bearing the ark (on their shoulders by the poles inserted in the ark, we may suppose). He wants the blessing of Yahweh now more than the fulfilling of his own goal for his own glory of making Jerusalem the place of worship. And as evidence of this he dances before Yahweh in the total abandon of worship. But his wife despises him acting in such an unkinglike manner, evidencing her lack of true worship of Yahweh. David blesses his people but his blessing on his family is not wanted, and Michal never has a child by David, a thing of shame in this culture.

Do we long for relationship with God more than anything else? Jesus said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). There can be no contenders for our affections to take the place of our Creator/Redeemer. The psalmist Asaph said, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you” (Psalm 73:25). As He did David, our God gently, and sometimes not so gently, teaches us that the best blessing for us is Him. He is jealous of us in the best possible way, knowing we need Him more than anything and need to love Him more than anything.

Learning to love God for who He is more than for what He gives is a profound step in our discipleship.