So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet.
So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD to David's city, Jerusalem, toward the holy city, with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet. It was a vast triumphal procession winding along the hills and valleys in solemn gladness and triumph such as Israel had not witnessed for a long time. The men of Israel followed with exultant shouts and songs of rejoicing, and a multitude of voices joined in melody with harps and psalteries and timbrels and cornets and cymbals, as all played before the Lord to honor the ark as the symbol of the divine presence.
The bringing up also involved sacrifices and music and dancing, and it ended with the ark placed in a tent prepared for it. David himself danced in reverent joy before God, and Israel brought up the ark with music and dancing in joyful praise to God. The procession expressed gladness and reverence and joyful praise and honor for the sacred ark.
The ark brings blessing and strength to those who obey God's commandments. David's humility and devotion in leading the procession and humbling himself before the people was honored by God, whose Spirit abode upon him and whose blessing rested on him. The season of gladness was turned into grief and mourning at Nachon's threshingfloor when the oxen shook the ark and Uzzah put forth his hand and took hold of it. God smote him there for his rashness so that he died by the ark, and sudden terror fell on the rejoicing throng. David, astonished and greatly alarmed and questioning God's justice in his heart, felt it unsafe to have the ark near him and determined to let it remain nearby in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite.
The music and dancing belonged to holy worship that caused the remembrance of God and exalted His holy name. It has not the faintest resemblance to fashionable modern pleasure-loving dancing, which is associated with folly and midnight reveling and sacrifices health and morals to pleasure. That modern dancing leaves God out of thought and reverence, and is a device of Satan to cause men to forget God and dishonor Him. David's joy gives it no justification, and the decisive test is that Christians are not to seek amusements that weaken love for sacred things and lessen joy in the service of God.
So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD to David's city, Jerusalem, toward the holy city, with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet. It was a vast triumphal procession winding along the hills and valleys in solemn gladness and triumph such as Israel had not witnessed for a long time. The men of Israel followed with exultant shouts and songs of rejoicing, and a multitude of voices joined in melody with harps and psalteries and timbrels and cornets and cymbals, as all played before the Lord to honor the ark as the symbol of the divine presence.
The bringing up also involved sacrifices and music and dancing, and it ended with the ark placed in a tent prepared for it. David himself danced in reverent joy before God, and Israel brought up the ark with music and dancing in joyful praise to God. The procession expressed gladness and reverence and joyful praise and honor for the sacred ark.
The ark brings blessing and strength to those who obey God's commandments. David's humility and devotion in leading the procession and humbling himself before the people was honored by God, whose Spirit abode upon him and whose blessing rested on him. The season of gladness was turned into grief and mourning at Nachon's threshingfloor when the oxen shook the ark and Uzzah put forth his hand and took hold of it. God smote him there for his rashness so that he died by the ark, and sudden terror fell on the rejoicing throng. David, astonished and greatly alarmed and questioning God's justice in his heart, felt it unsafe to have the ark near him and determined to let it remain nearby in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite.
The music and dancing belonged to holy worship that caused the remembrance of God and exalted His holy name. It has not the faintest resemblance to fashionable modern pleasure-loving dancing, which is associated with folly and midnight reveling and sacrifices health and morals to pleasure. That modern dancing leaves God out of thought and reverence, and is a device of Satan to cause men to forget God and dishonor Him. David's joy gives it no justification, and the decisive test is that Christians are not to seek amusements that weaken love for sacred things and lessen joy in the service of God.