Undignified

2 Samuel 6: 12 – 23 (NIV): Now King David was told, "The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God." So David went down and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing. When those who were carrying the ark of the Lord had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the Lord with all his might, while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets. As the ark of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart. They brought the ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and David sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the Lord. After he had finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord Almighty. Then he gave a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to each person in the whole crowd of Israelites, both men and women. And all the people went to their homes. When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, "How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!" David said to Michal, "It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord's people Israel--I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor." And Michal daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death.

David is rejoicing because he is bringing the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem. The Philistines had taken it, and had given it back because of what happened to them; then it stayed at Obed-Edom's house, and now it was coming home to where it belonged.
What is so famously wonderful about this story is how David danced with all his might as he rejoiced before God. He threw his dignity aside and gave his all to God. “I will become even more undignified than this,” he said, “and I will be humiliated in my own eyes.”
Sometimes I fear we have become so dignified that we fail to worship God at all. We want reverence and respect, and well we should, but let's not become so dignified that we fail to worship. Yes, David cost a man his life earlier in this story because he failed to treat the Ark with proper respect, but many of us sit like wooden Indians in church, then scream like Comanches at a ball game. Isn't it interesting that dignity goes out the door in a crises, or when our favorite team is on the field. But when is the last time you let the world see your love for God?
Perhaps we are so dignified because we are full of pride. David was the King of Israel; he had to conduct himself with dignity, but when it came to worshiping God, he humbled himself.
And yes, this story comes with a warning that it may cost us at home. This incident seems to have essentially ruined his relationship with his wife, Michal, but he didn't let anything dampen his devotion to God. Find ways to worship God with all your heart, and let the whole world see you do it.