True worship calls for being less self-conscious and self-absorbed and more God-conscious and God-absorbed. After watching him dance before the Lord, David’s wife gave him an earful: ‘How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, going around half-naked in full view of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!’ (v. 20 NIV). To which David replied, ‘It was before the Lord, who chose me…he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel – I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become…undignified…humiliated in my own eyes’ (vv. 21-22 NIV). David provides us with a picture of pure worship. Worship is undressing. It’s taking off the things in which we find our identity and security outside our relationship with Christ. It’s a reminder that our own righteousness is like filthy rags in the sight of God. Worship is not about what we can do for God but what God has done for us. He has loved us, saved us, and clothed us in the righteousness of Christ. It’s the truth that inspired hymnist Charles Wesley to write, ‘O for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer’s praise.’ The Bible says we can praise God in nine different ways: speaking, shouting, singing, clapping our hands, playing musical instruments, raising our hands before the Lord, kneeling, lying prostrate in His presence, and dancing before Him. David said, ‘I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth’ (Psalm 34:1 NKJV). And he tells us why. ‘I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears’ (v. 4 NKJV). So, the word for today is – worship with abandon.
