Margie and I have a running joke in our relationship. She’ll ask or recommend I do something and I’ll respond with, "don’t tell me what to do." It’s become quite comical, but it stems from an underlying deep-seated response we all foster within us whether we want to admit it or not. Aversion to authority. From the time we are born our sin nature grows right alongside with us. By the time we can walk and reach for things we learn the word no and then proceed to utilize it with every breath, defying all authority in our toddler lives. As we mature, we continue to buck authority, but it starts to look very different. In our teens it can be running with bad friends, shirking school work, refusing to do chores, and even escalate to the point of drug use and sexual promiscuity. In our adult years our income and mobility allows us to oppose and resist authority in much grander ways. Cheating on a spouse, alcoholism, physical abuse of others, breaking the law, and well, the list is long and unpleasant. But regardless of what a psychologist might say, the problem started with a inborn sin nature at birth. A gene trait that tells us to oppose all authority. A life of don’t tell me what to dos.
We come across a rather odd chapter in 1 Chronicles 25, a chapter that is entirely dedicated to David establishing musicians and singers to worship God. Since the ark of God is back in Jerusalem and the temple will soon be constructed by Solomon, there is a need for worship music that has never existed before. And David is more than happy to provide it.
When you think of David what first comes to mind? Most people instinctively go to Goliath. Many others see David as a military man, constantly at war, fighting and conquering the surrounding peoples that sought to eliminate God’s people. Others would look to David’s sin with Bathsheba and the fact that he murdered her husband to cover up his adultery. A black spot on David’s whiteboard that some just cannot wipe away. But for me, I first see David as a musician. A singer and a songwriter. God gifted David with a musical soul and until the day he died, it was bursting forth.
The prophet Samuel was instructed by God to anoint a new king to replace crazy ol’ Saul and that is where we are first introduced to young David. He is the youngest of his brothers and as result he is relegated to tend the sheep out in the fields. We get our first glimpse of his life as he is the only choice left as king after all of the other brothers are rejected by God. But do you recall how David was first invited into a life in the royal palace? His music got him there. God started out David’s kingly journey in music.
“Let our lord now command your servants who are before you to seek out a man who is skillful in playing the lyre, and when the harmful spirit from God is upon you, he will play it, and you will be well. And whenever the harmful spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the lyre and played it with his hand. So, Saul was refreshed and was well, and the harmful spirit departed from him.” 1 Samuel 16:16, 23
David had mastered the lyre, a small harp, and would play it to soothe the soul of Saul. Not much later that evil spirit would drive Saul to attempt to kill David, sending David fleeing for his life. And it is in this period of running for his life, living in cave after cave in the wilderness, that David wrote most of the Psalms. The evil of the world could chase David away, but music never left his side. The beauty, passion, and torment that lie within the Psalms show us that David was not only a master of the lyre, but a master of emoting his feelings in song. And as David wrote, sang, and played, the object of his music was simple…to worship Almighty God.
As David sees to it that 288 musicians will constantly worship God with beautiful music, we find a few verses that exemplify not just how David lived his life, but how these musicians lived their life…under authority.
“Zaccur, Joseph, Nethaniah, and Asarelah, sons of Asaph, under Asaph’s authority, who prophesied under the authority of the king. All these men were under their own fathers’ authority for the music in the Lord’s temple, with cymbals, harps, and lyres for the service of God’s temple. Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman were under the king’s authority.” 1 Chronicles 25:2, 6 (italics mine)
Under authority. This phrase today shocks, offends, repulses, and even enrages many. The idea of “being under” someone, being in submission to another, is a concept that has run amuck as the world’s sin nature has been allowed to run amuck. The idea that someone can tell another what to do is unpopular and often times instead heard as oppression, maltreatment, or even tyranny and enslavement. All simple descriptors that hint at the root cause of our inborn hatred of being told what to do.
But what about the ultimate authority in this life? What if you were single, had no job, lived in a cave and had no contact with the outside world? Would you still be under someone’s authority? Well, as Bob Dylan sang, it can look like many different things, but we all gotta serve somebody. And the one constant in this life is that everyone on this planet is under the sovereign, omnipresent, and omniscient authority of Almighty God. The question is, how do you handle His authority?
How do you respond to being under the authority of God today? Do you respond to Him as I jokingly refer to Margie and tell Him to stop telling you what to do? Do you look at His commands for your life as recommendations or do you truly see them as His laws for your life? Do you really love everyone, or do you just love the people that are easy for you to love? Do you see the current societal norms as trumping God’s authority in your life? That if our government says its ok to be in a same sex marriage that it overrules God’s authority? Do you live under God’s authority until it tells you you can’t do what you want and then you live under your own authority?
David had learned how it worked. He had a heart after God’s own. He submitted to God’s authority in all he did. And when he didn’t, God sharply rebuked him, and David repented. Those that followed David in obedience also knew how it worked. They were under the authority of the king. They knew that as David was under the authority of God that he would be a just, fair, and righteous king. And we even see in our study verse that children were under the authority of their fathers. The trickle-down principle that if a father is humbly under the authority of God and the king, that he will also be a just, fair and righteous parent.
Today I pray that you see God not as some mean ol’ bearded guy floating on a cloud that only wants to punish you into obedience, but you see Him as He truly is, a just, fair, righteous Father. He is your heavenly Father, and He loves you more than you will ever know. He sees your tomorrows; He sees your trials and he sees what will cause you pain. And just an earthly father, He wants for you to live a life that is safe from danger, free from self-inflicted pain, and full of peace, joy, and freedom. And all you have to do to claim this life is listen to Him. All you must do is live under His authority.
“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?” Luke 6:46
Loved this story of David.