“Then David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the house of the LORD, and worshipped: then he came to his own house; and when he required, they set bread before him, and he did eat.” 2 Samuel 12:20
I was intrigued the other day by a blog post from a friend entitled “Weary of Death.” I was so struck with the thought; I had intentions of writing this week along the same lines; however, something happened on the way to the text that begs attention. The question came to me as I was reading a passage. “When do we worship?” Let’s examine when worship happened in the scripture.
Worship proves hard to define because it is as much of an attitude as it is an action. The action, according to Strong’s Greek and Hebrew dictionary, is to “prostrate especially reflexive in homage to royalty or God, to bow (self) down, humbly beseech, do (make) obeisance, do reverence.” The attitude is as different as the worshippers themselves. Worship means something a little different to all believers. Jesus did tell the woman at the well in John 4:24 that “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”
We often think that worship takes place in times of jubilant celebration, which it does; however, our passage this week is not that. The fact that David is worshipping immediately after the death of his child is what got my attention. In the verses before our focus verse, we are told, “David therefore besought God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night upon the earth.” V.16
After the child died, David washed and anointed himself, changed clothes, and went into the house of the Lord, and worshipped. His actions seemed strange to his servants, and they questioned why he fasted and wept for the child while it was alive, but when the child died, he got up and ate. David explained, “And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who can tell whether GOD will be gracious to me, that the child may live? But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me. 2 Samuel 12:22-23
David worshipped the Lord because of the hope of the promises of God. He knew that he was going where the child was – that was only possible because of the hope we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you have this hope? It is my prayer that you do.
Elder Tim White
Ider, Alabama
