WEDNESDAY 2 December, 2015
Heart Condition
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. - 2 Samuel 6:15-16
This story of David and the children of Israel bringing the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem reminds me of Psalm 105, verses 1-15, and Psalm 96, because it speaks of King David leaping and whirling before the Lord; not before the people, before the Lord! That was the heart of David before the Lord.
Notice, David and the people were dancing and shouting before the Lord—worshipping Him—but all of Israel did not join in. Saul’s daughter, David’s wife, Michal saw David dancing before the Lord and she despised him in her heart. The Hebrew word for despise is bazah, and it means “to despise, regard with contempt.” She held her husband, the king of Israel in contempt.
Michal was not a godly woman. She looked at things with her flesh and not with her spirit. She did not recognize the heart David had for the Lord. She saw him dancing before the people of Israel and assumed he was showing off. She misjudged him.
God is the only one who truly knows the heart of a man. When we assume we know what is in another person’s heart, we will often assume the worst and misjudge them. We need to be more concerned with the condition of our own hearts and allow God to handle the hearts of others.
There is far more wickedness in all our hearts than we know.
~J. C. Ryle~
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