A Devotional as Reflection on the Sermon-->"It Don't Take All That"
Sermon begins somewhere around the 54:05 mark
Scripture Focus: 2 Samuel 6.16, 20-23
“Michal Saul’s daughter looked through a window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before the LORD; and she despised him in her heart.”—2 Samuel 6:16, KJV
The worship is happening below her. The ark of God is entering Jerusalem. The people are shouting. David is leaping and dancing before the Lord. But Michal is not carrying the ark, offering a sacrifice, or joining the celebration. She is standing at a window, watching.
And what she sees becomes contempt in her heart.
Before we condemn Michal, however, we must remember her story. She once loved David and lowered him through a window to save him from Saul (1 Samuel 19:11–17). Saul later gave her to another man, and David eventually demanded her return during the political negotiations surrounding his rise to the throne (1 Samuel 25:44; 2 Samuel 3:13–16). Royal power had repeatedly rearranged Michal’s life. Biblical scholars therefore caution against reducing her to “the woman who did not like David’s dancing.” Her contempt emerges from a history of disappointment, displacement, and power exercised over her life.
Perhaps, when David’s body declared, “God alone is sovereign,” something inside Michal answered, Then where was God when earthly sovereigns were rearranging my life?
Avoid Windows
A window gives us a view, but never the whole view. It frames the scene, limits the angle, and shows us only one portion of an event for one moment in time. Yet we are often tempted to mistake that portion for the complete truth.
Michal sees David’s feet, but she does not perceive what has moved them. She sees him dancing, but misses that he is dancing “before the LORD.” She sees the visible action without discerning the invisible reality governing it.
We do this to one another. We see anger without knowing the fear beneath it. We see silence without recognizing the grief it carries. We see somebody shouting in worship but do not know what God brought them through. We see one decision, reaction, or mistake and act as though our window has shown us the whole person.
But “man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). Faith humbly admits: I can see something without fully understanding what I am seeing.
Windows can also turn participation into spectatorship. Watching worship is not worshipping. Watching ministry is not serving. Watching somebody else love, forgive, give, or risk is not the same as allowing God to move our own bodies toward another person.
Sometimes “It don’t take all that” is what we say when we have remained safely outside an encounter that required somebody else to surrender.
Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself
Understanding Michal’s wounds should make us compassionate toward her, but it cannot make us careless about what those wounds are producing.
Sometimes another person’s praise touches our disappointment. Someone celebrates
healing while we remember the person who was not healed. Someone testifies about deliverance while we are still waiting. Someone rejoices over provision while we wonder why the windows of heaven have not opened for us.
Our disappointment is real. Our grief is real. What happened to us is real. But if we do not examine what pain is doing inside us, yesterday’s wound can become today’s contempt. Hurt can make another person’s joy feel like an accusation. Unanswered prayer can become criticism of somebody else’s testimony.
When David returns home, he intends to bless his household. Michal comes out to criticize him. David has carried something home from worship, but so has Michal. David carries blessing. Michal carries contempt.
Her contempt did not begin at the doorway. Verse 16 says it was already growing “in her heart.” Verse 20 simply gives her heart a microphone.
What are you carrying home? Are those closest to you receiving the blessing of your encounter with God—or resentment cultivated while watching life from a distance?
Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled
David does not surrender his worship to Michal’s judgment. He remembers that God chose and established him. Neither Michal’s approval nor David’s strength can secure his house.
God establishes the house.
Human judgment cannot determine what God has called, and human power cannot build what only God can establish. That does not mean David is beyond correction; the larger biblical story will expose his failures. But in this moment, Michal’s contempt does not become sovereign over his obedience.
Neither should another person’s judgment become sovereign over yours.
“Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it” (Psalm 127:1). Christ says, “Let not your heart be troubled” (John 14:1), not because trouble is imaginary, but because trouble is not sovereign.
Keep worshipping. Keep serving. Keep seeking. Bring your disappointments honestly before God, and guard your heart from turning pain into contempt.
It may not take all that for everybody. But nobody standing outside the encounter gets to prescribe what surrender should look like when the sovereign God enters somebody’s life.
Reflection Questions
Where am I observing, evaluating, or criticizing something I have not entered deeply enough to understand? What might my limited angle be preventing me from seeing?
Whose joy, testimony, or freedom irritates me? What unresolved disappointment does that irritation touch within me?
What am I carrying into my closest relationships? Do others receive blessing from me, or resentment cultivated somewhere else?
How have experiences of being controlled, betrayed, displaced, or powerless shaped my ability to trust God’s sovereignty?
Whose approval or criticism have I allowed to become sovereign over my obedience? If I believed that the Lord establishes the house, what faithful action would I stop postponing?
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