Today, we are wrapping up our series “wired for worship.” But how do you worship God in a world of pain and suffering? The problem is huge. And on August 29, indescribable suffering showed up again as Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast.
Some say that we can still worship God because this was an act of His judgment of those sinners on Bourbon Street. They say people suffer because of sin. Well, that’s a partially true statement. But there are babies who have suffered in Louisiana. And Jesus rejected “sin” as a blanket explanation for suffering. Check out John 9. You can’t always trace suffering back to sin.
Others say that we can still worship God in the face of suffering because God is not really fully in control. They say that He wasn’t in control of that hurricane, that God is doing the best He can under the circumstances, but He lacks real power. But the scriptures paint a different picture of God than that!
He makes the winds His messengers, flaming fire His ministers.
Psalm 104:4 (ESV)
He causes His wind to blow and the waters to flow…
Psalm 147:18 (ESV)
God is “The One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the LORD who does all these.”
Isaiah 45:7 (ESV)
If a calamity occurs in a city has not the LORD done it?
Amos 3:6 (ESV)
[God] does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay His hand or say to Him, ‘What are You doing?’”
Daniel 4:35 (ESV)
So, the question is: “How do you worship in the face of suffering this God who is almighty? How could a good God allow these things to happen?”
Some might say “Look at the suffering around us. If God is God He is not good, if God is good He is not God. God can be good, or He can be strong, but when I see all the suffering in this world, I can’t believe He is both.”
But the Bible also says,
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, who are the called according to His purpose.
Romans 8:28 (NASB)
Faith says, “God is great and God is good.” Yes, we want to know “why.” But God is not mainly to be explained. He is mainly to be admired and cherished and worshiped.
Piper, p. 50…
Let’s talk about how we can live for audience One even in the face of suffering.
You’re not the audience. God is. We are all players, performers who live and worship before Him.
Let’s set the stage for this story.
The first king of Israel was a man named Saul. Saul started out OK but in the end, he was a jealous, power-hungry failure as a leader. So, God started over with a young man named David.
After David defeated a giant named Goliath, he became a great leader in Saul’s army. That’s when Saul became jealous of David.
It ticked Saul off that Saul’s daughter, Michal, fell in love. Saul agreed to give Michal to David to marry if David would go out and kill 100 enemies in battle. He hoped David would die. But David killed 200 enemies and Saul was forced to give Michal in marriage to David.
One time, Saul’s jealousy of David grew so great that he sent soldiers to David’s house to kill him. Michal warned David of her father’s plans. She took a statue and put it in their bed and disguised it as David. Michal told the soldiers that David couldn’t be disturbed because he was ill. That delay gave David time to sneak out through a window to escape.
Finally, David was forced to run into the wilderness to get away from Saul. Saul hunted him down to kill him. While David was away, Saul gave his daughter, Michal, David’s wife, to another man.
Finally, Saul died. And that’s when David returned to Israel and the people declared him their king. And David asked that Michal be returned to him as his rightful wife. Sounds like a good end to a love story, right? Things should have turned out well, but they didn’t.
David wanted to restore worship in Israel. So, he organized a worship service to being the ark, the symbol of the presence and power of God, to the capital city. It was a major worship celebration. Singing. Dancing. People lining the streets. Let’s pick up the story in II Samuel 6:16…
16As the ark of the LORD came into the city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD,
This was a great day for David. The presence and power of God was back for the people he loved and led. He went home to bless his family. He was a joy-filled man. Most everyone seemed pleased with David’s worship. But at least one person wasn’t worshipping with the people. It was David’s wife, Michal. Look at the last part of verse 16.
… and she despised him in her heart.
“Despised.” It’s the opposite of “appreciation.” She showed contempt for David. His joy-filled day ended on a sour note. Why? His number one critic was his wife.
(Even palaces aren’t free from conflict.) When David came home after a day of Q4, audience One worship, Michal let him know she wasn’t happy. Skip down to verse 20.
20And David returned to bless his household.
David wanted his family to experience the blessings of knowing the power and presence of God in their lives. But before he hit the door, his blessing got blasted. Verse 20…
But Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David…
David was headed home excited about God. But Michal was so upset that she couldn’t wait to have a talk in the family room. She met David outside and said, “Nice dance, David!” Again in verse 20.
Michal said, "How the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of his servants’ female servants, as one of the vulgar fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!"
Can you sense the sarcasm? She’s jeering. “Uncovered.” It means that David has taken off his royal robes. He put on priests clothes – an ephod. It’s two large rectangular cloths, front and back with straps on he shoulders and tied around the waist. Under the ephod are David’s undergarments. Michal is saying, “You aren’t dressed appropriately. Kings don’t dress like this, with undergarments showing. You’ve taken off your royal robes. You put on that pitiful linen ephod.” She said that his worship was immodest – that he was acting like a common man.
She says that David looks “vulgar.” The word could be translated as “foolish” or “worthless.” “Hey David, what you call ‘worship’ I call ‘worthless.’ You’re acting ‘beneath’ yourself.”
Now over the lat few weeks, we’ve been thinking about 4 quadrants of worship.
Q1 – wrong God, wrong way
Q2 – wrong God, right way
Q3 – right God, wrong way
Q4 – right God, right way, right reason
Q3 worship is dangerous.
Q4 worship brings blessings.
That’s what this series has been about. What is Q4 worship? How do you do it? How do you live for audience One?
Now, what quadrant do you think Michal is in? I’m guessing Q3.
Maybe she thought it was OK for David to ask others to be passionate about audience One worship, but that he himself should be above it. She’s thinking, “My husband is making a fool of himself. If this is what it’s like to live with the presence and power of God, then count me out. This kind of passion in worship is crazy!”
Her heart was exposed. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. What displeased her was David’s devotion to audience One. Maybe she just wanted him to go through the motions like her.
Again, let me remind you that no one else felt that David was inappropriate. Just Michal. David was appropriately passionate. But the people who are going to be critical of your Q4 worship will paint a picture of you to suit themselves.
Michal was in the wrong quadrant. At best, she was a Q3 worshipper. Why? We’re not real sure. What’s wrong with Michal’s heart? Why wasn’t Michal with the people? Why didn’t she join the parade? Why did she steer clear of Q4 worship? She’s in the king’s palace. But she can see the procession – the worship. She sees the people. She hears the music. She’s watching. And she sees her husband, the king. And he’s whirling and dancing and leaping. It’s Q4 audience One time for David.
But Michal couldn’t bring herself to join in. Why not? Let me suggest a possibility. Here’s what we know about her. Tragedy had hit her life. I Samuel 31 tells us that in battle her father, king Saul, had died, committing suicide. And that’s what put David on the throne. On that same day, her brothers, Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua, also died. Four close family members… gone. All on the same day.
Could it be that she struggled with worshipping a God who ran the world where all that had happened? Maybe it was pain and suffering kept her from worship.
Now, think about David. Pain and suffering could have kept him from worship. David had a loyal heart toward king Saul, but Saul tried to kill him. As a young adult in the prime of his life, David had to live life on the run. His wife had been taken away from David and given to another man. David’s best friend was Jonathan, Michal’s brother. And, remember, he had died. Now, David is king. And he is trying to bring worship back to the heart of the nation. And he watched a man named Uzzah be struck down by god – a man who was helping bring the ark to Jerusalem.
He could have said, “How can I worship a God who runs a world where all this has happened?”
Maybe that right where you are today. Tough stuff has happened for you in this world that God runs. And you wonder, “Why should I worship?” Certainly, tragedy has hit the Gulf Coast. How do we worship a God who rules the wind and the waves when we see what devastation they have brought us?
David knew that God was holy – a consuming fire. He had seen Uzzah die as a result of God’s justice. But this didn’t change His worship. No. It gave him a greater passion to be a Q4 man living for audience One.
I see three lessons for us. These come from three commitments, thee certainties in David’s life.
Q4 audience One worship says…
1. … I will be happy in worship. v. 21b
We ought to weep with those who weep. We ought to mourn with those who mourn. That’s what the Bible says. But when we remember that God is good and God is wise and God is strong, we can be joyful in Him, even when tragedy hits.
21And David said to Michal, "It was before the LORD, who chose me above your father and above all his house, to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the LORD - and I will make merry before the LORD.
“Merry.” It has the idea of joy here – specifically the idea of “playing” joyfully. In fact, the KJV uses the word “play.” David is saying, “My worship will be joyful and playful. will play! And I won’t think that I’m disgracing myself in any way! No! It’s my highest honor to worship!”
And don’t forget his audience. It’s Audience One! It was “before the Lord.” It was for the Lord’s eyes only.
David is living for an Audience of One. “You can say what you want. You can think all the wrongs things about me. But my conscience is clear. I am seeking to honor God! I could never do enough for Him. I know you must think that since you were the king’s daughter, that you know more than me how a king is supposed to act. But let me remind you that God chose me over your father. So, don’t think that your dad is the model I intend to follow. If passionate worship was not considered proper in his kingdom, it is in mine! I will make merry before the Lord.”
How happy are you in worship? Where would you put yourself on the continuum?
Boring worship……………………………………………………………Soaring worship
Some of us are satisfied with just going through the motions.
Question. If you supervise anyone at work, is that what you want from an employee? Do you want people who just go through the motions? Who are bland, blasé, boring, blank?
No! We want people around us who are living lives that are irresistible. A life with impact. A life with passion. A “you-can’t-ignore-me” kind of life.
And that’s what God is looking for. He wants to know, “Are you the type of person who can worship me with great passion even when it seems like your world is falling apart?”
Some words of caution.
If you are a Q3 worshipper, don’t judge the Q4 people. Be careful how you react to passionate people. You don’t want to become a Michal to them.
If you are a Q4 worshipper, make sure you are really worshipping “before the Lord.” I’ve been around some people in worship and it felt to me like they were trying to draw attention to themselves. If your way of doing Q4 worship is really discouraging or distracting a good hearted follower of Christ, then you need to watch out.
If you are a Q4 worshipper, expect this: Some people won’t like it. Michal didn’t like David’s worship. But that’s OK. Jesus predicted this.
When the world hates you, remember it hated me before it hated you. The world would love you if you belonged to it, but you don’t. I chose you to come out of the world, and so it hates you.
John 15:18-19 (NLT)
The world can’t understand Q4 worship. “How could you worship a God who let what happen on the Gulf Coast happen?” You say, “I don’t have all the answers. But God is good, wise, and strong. He’ll come through. You’ll see. And I’m happy in Him.”
Q4 audience One worship says, I will be happy in worship.
2. … I will be humble in worship. v. 22a
One of our problems with our worship is that we care too much about what the Q3 crowd thinks. Not David. Look at what he says to his Q3 wife.
22a I will make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be abased in your eyes.
“If you have a low opinion of me because I worship God, you will have an even lower opinion. If you think that worshipping God makes me a small man, then just plan on seeing me shrink more and more in your eyes. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet! Because I’m going to worship more and more this way!”
Bottom line: Be more concerned about what the Lord thinks than what others think. Some people might not understand why we worship a God who rules and reigns over the weather. But like David, I hope we are willing to “be abased” in the eyes of the world.
Some person at your office might ask, “Why did this disaster happen?” A humble person dares not speak on God’s behalf to explain why He allowed Katrina to hit so hard. Don’t you dare say, “Well, it’s God’s judgment on those sinners in New Orleans.” Listen, He should judge me. And you. Humility doesn’t speak on God’s behalf. His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.
Yet, at the same time, we can talk about the fact that God is good and wise and strong. He rules over all things in omnipotence. So, we say all that the Bible says about God and leave it there.
Humility says, “There’s a lot I don’t understand. When I cannot trace God’s hand, I simply trust His heart. And I humbly worship Him.”
Q4 audience One worship says, I will be humble in worship.
3. … I will be honored in worship. v. 22b
Sometimes we forget that God loves to honor His people. Michal thinks that David as king is going to lose credibility in the eyes of the people because he’s so passionate about God. But look at what David says.
22b But by the female servants of whom you have spoken, by them I shall be held in honor.
He’s saying, “Here’s what I predict: The more I show up for Q4 worship, the more I will be honored by the very people you say will dishonor me.”
Jesus later reinforced this very same truth.
Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
Matthew 23:12 (ESV)
Sure, the Q3 crowd will hate me. But I’m going to live for audience One. And I know that if I do that, I will be honored by the Q4 crowd. If I live for audience One, the world will despise me, but the Lord will defend me.
Q4 audience One worship says, I will be humble in worship.
* * *
Michal mocked David. And in doing so, she brought judgment on herself. As David’s queen, she may have thought, “David and I will have a son. And that son will sit on the throne one day – the son of David and the grandson of my father, Saul.”
But God gave her barrenness for her Q3 worship.
23 And Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death.
Having no kids is a big deal. It’s a big deal today. And it was a big deal then. God judged her.
Question: Could it be that God is seeing to it that your dreams are left unfulfilled? You’re missing out. Why? You are a Q3 worshipper who mocks and despises anyone who is truly Q4.
What quadrant are you in? Will you still live for audience One when your world caves in? Once, when Jesus was asked about two different disaster scenarios, He said,
I tell you the truth, unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
Luke 13:3 (NASB)
If you are in Q1 or Q2, you need to trust Christ.
If you are in Q3, you need to become someone who worships in spirit and in truth. You need to worship biblically.
From your heart.
Through your words.
With your life.
Give to NAMB Disaster Relief fund. And look for opportunities to serve in the Gulf Coast region.
A truth to take home: If you honor God, it doesn’t matter who dishonors you.
A verse to take in: Those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed. (I Samuel 2:30b, ESV)
A change to take on: If I start to drift, I will “snap back” to Q4 worship over and over this week.
Worship when life is hard shows the world that God is more valuable to me than my comfort.
It is never too late for you to start being a Q4 worshipper. It’s never too late to start doing the right thing.
I close with a statement I made at the start. We want to know “why.” But God is not mainly to be explained. He is mainly to be admired and cherished and worshiped. When you can’t trace His hand, you can still trust His heart.
Will you worship Him?
