Whaddabout David Dancing?
Sometimes in defense of “entertainment worship,” specifically rock music and dancing girls, 2 Sam 6:14-22 comes up: “Whaddabout David Dancing?” - which is presented as a proof text, almost like “WhaddaBout the Thief on the Cross” as the sedes doctrina used by anti-Baptists to remove 1 Pet 3:21 from the canon.
In fact, in a discussion regarding so-called “liturgical dancers,” I asked why they were always female, almost always nubile, and wearing skin-tight “vestments.” Isn’t that interesting? Well, there was that one disturbing picture of the ELCALGBTQ guy in the tighty-whities. That might be an example of the ad nauseum fallacy. I asked one guy who was defending the practice if he had ever seen a male “liturgical dancer,” and he answered “David.”
So whaddabout David Dancing?
David was celebrating a military victory outside. Had he touched the holy ark while doing his dance, he would have been incinerated.
There are things that are appropriate in different contexts. Urinating is appropriate behavior in the context of a bathroom. It is common as opposed to holy. Urination is not evil. It is part of how God designed our bodies.
And yet, it is not a fitting way to worship. It would not be meet, right, and salutary to urinate as a form of worship at the altar, even though it can be very satisfying, and feels good to do. There is a time and place for appropriate urination, and in the Holy of Holies is definitely not that place. That’s not what it means that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t mean anything we do with our bodies is good as a form of worship.
God called for reverence in worship (read Exodus and Leviticus). In His presence at the altar - which is different than His presence everywhere else - the worship that pleases God was given in minute detail, involving beautiful artwork and fabric, precious metals, vestments, and incense. Great care was to be taken that nothing be profaned, that the holy and the common be separated.
The wise men bowed bodily before Jesus in His physical presence. They did not urinate as a form of worship - even though some might argue that it would have been an adiaphoron.
They bowed. It was a sign of submission. They didn’t dance around like perhaps they might have after a military victory, or a win in a sporting event.
A bride loves her husband by submission. She doesn’t just do whatever she likes. The church submits to her Bridegroom. We used to know this and do this in our worship. We knew - that is until the 1960s - that worship was, by definition, reverent, and focused on the one being worshiped. Now we have churches with theater seating and cup-holders, with rock music and dancing girls.
Since we are better than our ancestors, we figured out that everything is about our entertainment. And we started making everything ‘fun.’
Meanwhile, our Bridegroom died for us at the cross. I wonder how many of the disciples were dancing at that time? I suspect there were a few demons dancing in their delusion of victory. There may have been a few Pharisees dancing to go along with the mockery.
It’s funny how nobody thinks it would be appropriate to dance at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, or during the presentation of the colors, or when Taps is played. We wouldn’t think of dancing at a presidential funeral. That’s because we take our patriotism seriously, and we treat worship as play.
Many years ago, I officiated at a wedding service (not in the church) that included dancing - and it was planned apart from my knowledge. The bridegroom was processing in to Pachelbel’s Canon, and then the DJ changed to music to “Another One Bites the Dust.” The groom danced to the song. Everybody had a good laugh. That sums up boomer worship and how Americans treat something as holy as matrimony. It also explains our divorce rate and biblical illiteracy.
There is a reason we have ancient traditions. We live in an age of revolt against tradition, because we know better. We are irreverent. We are self-centered. We no longer understand the sacredness of certain moments of time and space.
The prevalence of pornography and the fact that nothing is private any more has bled over into what we call worship. And now it is self-worship.
The good news is that there is a general backlash going on among younger people. They want a return to reverence and dignity and the centrality of Christ and Him crucified when we gather for worship, as opposed to everything being a spectacle, a show, a production.