And David danced before the LORD with all his might; and David was wearing a linen ephod.
All Commentaries on 2 Samuel 6:14 Go To 2 Samuel 6
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
But because secret pride of heart is reproved by this which Elihu says, “All who seem to themselves to be wise will not dare to contemplate him,” it seems good to observe what great gifts of virtues David had obtained, and in all these with how firm a humility he maintained himself. For whom would it not puff up to break the mouths of lions, to rend asunder the arms of bears, to be chosen, when his elder brothers had been despised, to be anointed to the government of the kingdom when the kings had been rejected, to slay with a single stone Goliath who was dreaded by all, to bring back, after the destruction of the aliens, the numerous foreskins proposed by the king, to receive at last the promised kingdom, and to possess the whole people of Israel without any contradiction? And yet, when he brings back the ark of God to Jerusalem, he dances before the ark, mingled with the people, as though forgetful that he had been preferred to them all. And because, as is believed, it had been the custom of the common people to dance before the ark, the king wheels round in the dance, in service to God. Behold how he whom the Lord preferred specially above all despises himself beneath the Lord, both by equaling himself to the least and by displaying abject behavior. The power of his kingdom is not recalled to his memory. He does not fear to be of low stature in the eyes of his people by dancing. He does not remember, before the ark of him who had given him honor, that he had been preferred in honor above the rest. Before God he acted with the most extreme lowliness, in order to strengthen by his humility the bold deeds he had performed in the sight of people. What others think of his doings, I do not know; I am more surprised at David dancing than fighting. For by fighting he subdued his enemies; but by dancing before the Lord he overcame himself. And when Michal, the daughter of Saul, still mad with pride at her royal descent, despised him when humbled, saying, “How glorious was the king of Israel today, uncovering himself before the handmaids of his servants, and made himself naked, as though one of the buffoons were naked,” she immediately heard, “As the Lord lives, I will play before the Lord, who has chosen me rather than your father.” And a little later he says, “And I will play and I will become more lowly than I have been, and I will be humble in my own eyes,” as if he had said, I seek to become lowly before people because I seek to keep myself noble before the Lord through my humility.
