15:1 David began to build up the city around him, referred to as the City of David. David also prepared a place for the ark of God. As king, David's priorities influenced the kingdom and reverence for God was at the top of his agenda.
15:2 The ark was placed temporarily in the house of Obed-Edom. The first attempt at moving and placing the ark was interrupted by God. They ark had been handled by people other than the Levites, to whom God had charged responsibility of the ark. The reason why it was imperative that the Levites handled the ark was because they were the most devoted students and teachers of God's word. Where matters of the faith were concerned, it was important that those with the most knowledge of God's word were involved. Somebody less familiar with God's commandments might more easily steer the faith of the nation in the wrong direction.
15:3-10 Once David assembled the Levites, they journeyed once again to bring the ark to a more permanent resting place.
We are all students of God's word, no matter how long we have been alive and studying it. As students, we are always hearing different interpretations of scripture. The strict conditions regarding the placement of the ark remind us to be strict about where we place our faith. God has provided us the qualifications a person needs to meet in order to be a teacher worth following, Matthew 7:20: by their fruits you will know them. Scripture has determined good fruit to be that which compassion yields, truth yields, humility yields, justice yields.
The context of the curriculum of our faith is like a nest. The twigs and branches and feathers we weave around us are the teachers, the sermons, the verses, the studies we utilize to establish and deepen our faith. We must ensure that our nest is build out of quality materials, materials that will be able to keep our eggs, that is: all the places our faith is new and young, protected while they incubate. If we do, every time our faith burgeons into something deeper and more complex, it rooted in truth.
God felt that Israel's best chance at retaining faith that had been propelling them into prosperity was in the hands of people who studied His word as a lifestyle. The Levites were not better than anyone else, but because they lived every day in the context of God's word, they were the most likely to keep the kingdom rooted in it. And when Israel did rebel, that is precisely what they did: Ezekiel 44:15 “But the priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok, who kept charge of My sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from Me, they shall come near Me to minister to Me..."
15:11-13 David called for the priests Zadok and Abiathar and for Levites: Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel, and Amminadab and appointed them the heads of the Levites. David asks them to prepare and sanctify themselves for the task at hand: properly placing the ark. David is not too proud to admit his first mistake: we did not consult God about the proper order.
We have ever-present, omniscient consultation in our lives in the form of God. Therefore, there is no reason not to consult Him. Matters large and small, the important and seemingly unimportant: trust God with all of it. The precise order of the universe is extraordinary, we can trust the One who ordered it to order our lives as well.
15:14-15 "So, the priests and the Levites sanctified themselves to bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel. And the children of the Levites bore the ark on their shoulders, by its poles, as Moses had commanded according to the word of the Lord." These verses are densely packed, the contain simple but sturdy life advice:
- Sanctify Yourself: make yourself a pure and cleansed vessel through which God can indwell, 1 Corinthians 6:19.
- Bring the Word of God Upon Your Shoulders: bring it with you, in an obvious and weighted manner, wherever you journey in your day and your life; keep it in close proximity with your head and heart. Take up the cross, Matthew 16:24, so that each night your spiritual feet are well exerted by the journey-work of your faith.
- According to the word of the Lord: align all that you do in accordance with God's word. If you go off-program, you go off path and God has warned us about the desolation of the alternate route, Proverbs 1:15-19.
15:16-24 A choir and band was gathered to celebrate the arrival of the ark. A prominent characteristic of David's distinguished reign is his tendency to celebrate God. David's faith never became lethargic or stagnant. He remained in awe and reverence of God's consistent goodness; he kept the faith of the nation kindled to bursting.
A life alive with faith in God is never mundane. Each morning we wake to with God as the first thought in our heart is a miracle beginning and contemporaneously, the continuation of an everlasting life. David's manner of faith kept God at the forefront and with Him, hope and joy and gratitude.
15:25-26 The ark moved with the help of God, the priest sacrifice to God. The practice of sacrifice is now antiquated, Isaiah 1:11, but in David's time, it was a method through which people could express their trust and gratitude to God. They would offer Him their best, trusting that He would provide more.
Jesus rewrote the practice of sacrifice in Matthew 9:13 when He explained that instead of sacrifice, God wants His children to live merciful lives. Our sacrifice to God now is the donation of our time and charity, the expression of our empathy for others. Because God understands that there is a personal cost, a sacrifice, to mercy; forgiveness and selflessness do not always come readily to us and it can be difficult to give away to others what we want for ourselves. But Jesus rewrote the whole philosophy of life, too: Matthew 7:12 do to others what you want done for yourself. The word of God challenges us to live opposite our worldly instincts and to adopt the lifestyle of the righteous.
15:27 Because of the nature of his purpose in life, David would have almost always been in a commander's uniform; the kingdom of Israel needed to be forged and established and David was appointed as the one to do it. With that in mind, it is especially glorious to read of David clothed in the fine linen of a worshiper of God. Linen, a representation of the pure and simple truth of God's word, adorned David's heart and soul, even when he was in full military uniform. To the kingdom of Israel, David was a king and army commander. But to God, and to David himself, he was just a man who loved God and wanted to do His will. David understood that his joy in what the linen represented enabled the success of what the uniform did.
David is our reminder that no matter our cause or profession in life, no matter what figurative uniform it requires, underneath it is a child of God. A child of God forging and establishing God's word in their own way and time.
And David reminds us to spend time in linen: to spend time in a state of celebration for God so deep that all we are is His. To spend time in linen is to remove the circumstances of our day and life and to simply bask in the presence of our Father. Let your worship of God pull you into a new space. In that intimate space, profess your love to Him... His response will overwhelm you, as he professes His love back to you.
15:28-29 The instruments played: horn, trumpets, symbols and harps and David found himself in worship. The ark of God came into the city and David danced and played his own instrument. The undercurrent of all the music: love. Love is the instrument with the sweetest sound and most profound melody.
Not everybody understood David's love for God, Michal spurned David's behavior. But there are only two entities in a relationship and therefore the moment contained only David and his God, disdain from others irrelevant in a muted background.
