The Window of Superiority...

So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with gladness. And so it was, when those bearing the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, that he sacrificed oxen and fatted sheep. Then 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 trumpet.  

Now as the ark of the Lord came into the City of David, Michal, Saul's daughter, looked through a window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart. So they brought the ark of the Lord, and set it in its place in the midst of the tabernacle that David had erected for it. Then David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. And when David had finished offering burnt offerings and peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts. Then he distributed among all the people, among the whole multitude of Israel, both the women and the men, to everyone a loaf of bread, a piece of meat, and a cake of raisins. So all the people departed, everyone to his house.

Then David returned to bless his household. And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, "How glorious was the king of Israel today, uncovering himself today in the eyes of the maids of his servants, as one of the base fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!"

So David said to Michal, "It was before the Lord, who chose me instead of your father and all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel. Therefore I will playmusic before the Lord. And I will be even more undignified than this, and will be humble in my own sight. But as for the maidservants of whom you have spoken, by them I will be held in honor." Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death.--2nd Samuel 6

To My Daughters

These are some of the saddest verses in Scripture and should serve as a warning to each of us to keep our hearts with all diligence.  Michal's heart was filled with vanity and superiority...and her spirit was critical.  It was empty of God and filled with Michal. What was important to Michal was Michal.  Truly, as the Scripture says, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.   David's worship before the Lord,  also expressed the abundance of his heart..which was love, loyalty and gratitude toward His God...he held nothing back. He danced before the Lord with all his might.   He was humble before his God and understood that he was who he was only by his God's grace and mercy.  He understood that it was God who had lifted him up and made him king...these people were not David's but God's.  What an example the psalmist was for the people of God.   What an example he is for us today.   

Michal was clearly not of one accord with her husband...she was not rejoicing when he was rejoicing but was instead looking down on him from what Spurgeon calls the "window of superiority."  She tried to censure God's chosen...why?....because she thought it made her husband look base and common..which reflected poorly on her.  She did not see the beauty of his humility nor the transparency of his heartfelt devotion to God.  Her pride and vanity blocked her view of what was truly precious and praiseworthy about her husband.  Clearly, Michal had spent much time in the "balloon of self". Her view of her husband and her God were obstructed by her own pride which, sadly, was her biggest obstacle between a beautiful and fulfilled relationship with both her husband and God. 

How many of us treat the people God has placed in our lives as Michal treated David here?   When we do, we are truly our own worst enemies and very effectively tear down our own houses.  How hateful and ugly does Michal appear to us as she greets her husband who had come home with the express purpose of blessing his household.  Her first words to him were filled with bitter sarcasm as was her heart. Her desire was not to encourage her husband in his love for the Lord but to rain on his parade. He had embarrassed her and she was going to get her pound of flesh.  I loved David's response...He did not allow her bitter spirit to dampen his day or his spirit.   His response to her was open and honest and in my opinion gentle...filled with love and loyalty to His God...which was the abundance of his heart.  

Listen to his words..

So David said to Michal, "It was before the Lord, who chose me instead of your father and all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel. Therefore I will playmusic before the Lord. And I will be even more undignified than this, and will be humble in my own sight. But as for the maidservants of whom you have spoken, by them I will be held in honor."

I did it for God, not you, Michal.  It was for the delight of my Lord (not the maidens) that I danced and worshipped...It was He who appointed me to be ruler over His people.    David understood that it was God who was the true chosen King of Israel.  He goes on to promise her that in the future he would be even more undignified and would be humble in his own sight.  What ever Michal's thoughts about David were...David thought even less of himself.  Spurgeon speaks to this well:

"Brother, if any man thinks ill of you, do not be angry with him; for you are worse than he thinks you to be."

David bore the reproach of his wife and was despised in her eyes because of His love for His God.  Jesus was not accepted by the members of his own household and was despised and rejected by his own people.  David was in very good company. Psalm 69:7-9 says this:

Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face. I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children.  For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.

Appropriately, either by divine judgment or due to the fact that David did not have relations with her again, Michal was barren to the day of her death.  She was thus prevented from bearing a child to be heir to David's throne from the family of Saul by her own pride and critical spirit.  Michal neglected the hidden person of her heart allowing it to be come filled with pride and self.  Michal was concerned with the outward and did not look to the inward person that had become ugly... 1 Peter 3:4 says this:

"rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God"