Worship

On The Shoulders of Prayer and Praise

by Terry Barlow
03/17/18
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Just as it was the Philistines who in their ignorance of holy scripture started the precedent in the Old Testament of carrying the ark of the covenant on a cart (1 Sammuel 6), so sometimes the church today takes its cues from the worldly culture around it for how to conduct its worship of God. David later employed the same method of attempting to transport the ark to Jerusalem using a cart and oxen which lead to the death of Uzzah, who reached out to “steady” the ark actually touching it, not realizing in all his good intentions that such was forbidden.(2 Samuel 6). The Mosaic law had taught that the ark of God’s presence was to be transported only on the shoulders of appointed priests using poles inserted in rings attached to the chest of the ark. In the new covenant we are all priests, a royal priesthood. (1 Peter 2 v5&9).  We bear the presence of our God on our “shoulders” of praise and prayer.’ We don’t dishonor God’s presence by attempting to invoke that presence or carry it by carts and methods that originate among those who don’t even claim to know God or have a relationship with God, or even, in some cases, to believe that God exists.
   Though David was shaken by the loss of Uzzah and the way he was lost, it did not keep him from returning three months later to the ark of God's holy presence, having heard how the one who was harboring it in his home was so exceedingly blessed (Obed-Edom the Gittite), and transporting it the correct way to Jerusalem amid much dancing and rejoicing!  He and his entourage had researched and done their homework the second time.  Oftentimes we fail like Uzzah to show proper reverence in our own contemporary worship and end up putting our own hand to it and becoming overfamiliar, using our own tools when God said that the stones of His altar are not to be hewn by mere human means.  (Keep in mind that the ark of God's presence had been in Uzzah's home for an extended period of time, 20 years!  See 1 Samuel 7 verse 1-2), long enough for it to become too familiar of a sight to his eyes and his family's eyes.)  That could detract significantly from the awe that was always meant to surround the ark.  God deliver us from any tendency toward overfamiliarity in Your holy Presence!  Thank God we are not judged so severely for our carelessness under the covenant of grace as Uzzah was in his day!