The Queen's Contempt and the Barren Womb
Introduction: Two Kinds of Worship
There are two kinds of religion in the world, and they are perpetually at war. One is the religion of the living God, full of blood and life and undignified joy. The other is the religion of respectable appearances, a starched and sterile formalism that is deeply embarrassed by the first kind. One is the religion of David, dancing before the Ark with all his might. The other is the religion of Michal, his wife, looking down from her window with contempt in her heart.
We must not fool ourselves into thinking this is an ancient, irrelevant squabble. The spirit of Michal is alive and well. It is the spirit that prefers a professional, polished, and predictable church service. It is the spirit that is more concerned with what the unbelieving world thinks of our worship than what God thinks of it. It is the spirit of the thin-lipped, who want a faith that is tidy, manageable, and above all, dignified. It wants a king who acts like a king, not a fool for God.
But the God of the Bible is not a tidy God. He is a consuming fire. And the worship He demands is not a matter of keeping up appearances, but of whole-hearted, self-forgetful adoration. This passage brings this conflict to a head. It is a domestic dispute that reveals a cosmic divide. In the clash between David and Michal, we see the clash between authentic, God-centered worship and proud, man-centered religion. And in the conclusion of this story, we see the inevitable results of each: one leads to life and glory, the other to barrenness and a curse.
The Text
But David returned to bless his household, and Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said, "How the king of Israel has glorified himself today! He uncovered himself today in the eyes of his servants' maids as one of the worthless ones shamelessly uncovers himself!" So David said to Michal, "It was before Yahweh, who chose me above your father and above all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of Yahweh, over Israel; therefore I will celebrate before Yahweh. And I will be esteemed even more lightly than this and will be humble in my own eyes, but with the maids of whom you have spoken, with them I will be glorified." And Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death.
(2 Samuel 6:20-23 LSB)
The Scorn of the Sophisticate (v. 20)
We begin with Michal's bitter welcome.
"But David returned to bless his household, and Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said, 'How the king of Israel has glorified himself today! He uncovered himself today in the eyes of his servants' maids as one of the worthless ones shamelessly uncovers himself!'" (2 Samuel 6:20)
David is coming off the mountain. He has led Israel in a great victory, successfully bringing the Ark of the Covenant, the very presence of God, into his new capital. He has blessed the people and fed them. Now he returns to do what a patriarch does: bless his own household. This is a picture of a godly king, ordering his realm and his home under God. But he is met at the door not with celebration, but with dripping sarcasm.
Michal's words are pure contempt. "How the king of Israel has glorified himself today!" She means the precise opposite. She is saying he has disgraced himself, shamed the monarchy, and made a complete fool of himself. Her charge is specific: he "uncovered himself." This does not mean he was naked. He was wearing a linen ephod, a priestly garment. But he had laid aside his royal robes. He had set aside the pomp and circumstance of his office to worship as a simple man before his God. To Michal, this was an unforgivable breach of protocol.
Notice her obsession with appearances and class. He did this "in the eyes of his servants' maids." She is a snob. She is ashamed to be associated with a man who would act like "one of the worthless ones." She is the daughter of Saul, and she still thinks like it. Saul's kingdom was all about image, about being a head taller than everyone else, about looking the part. Saul's great sin was his fear of man, his obsession with public opinion (1 Sam. 15:24). Michal has inherited her father's disease. She worships at the altar of human respectability, and she is disgusted that her husband does not.
The Pious Rebuke (v. 21)
David's response is not an apology. It is a sharp, theological correction.
"So David said to Michal, 'It was before Yahweh, who chose me above your father and above all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of Yahweh, over Israel; therefore I will celebrate before Yahweh.'" (2 Samuel 6:21)
David's first three words reframe the entire event: "It was before Yahweh." Michal's mistake was thinking horizontally. She was worried about what the maids thought. David thinks vertically. He knows there is only one audience that matters. His worship was not a performance for the people; it was an offering to God.
Then he brings the hammer down. He reminds her that Yahweh is the one "who chose me above your father and above all his house." This is not just David being cruel. It is the theological heart of the matter. God's kingdom does not operate by the principles of Saul's house. God rejected Saul's proud, image-conscious kingship and chose David, the shepherd boy. David's entire reign is a testimony to God's sovereign, upside-down grace. For David to now adopt the stuffy, man-pleasing decorum of the court he replaced would be a betrayal of the very God who put him there.
Because God chose him, David says, "therefore I will celebrate before Yahweh." His worship is a direct consequence of his theology. He understands grace, so he responds with uninhibited joy. Michal, who still sees the throne as a birthright of dignity, does not understand grace, and so she cannot stand the sight of it in action.
A Vow of Greater Humility (v. 22)
David is not finished. He does not just defend his past actions; he promises to become even more undignified in the future.
"And I will be esteemed even more lightly than this and will be humble in my own eyes, but with the maids of whom you have spoken, with them I will be glorified." (2 Samuel 6:22)
This is a magnificent statement of godly leadership. David is saying, "You think that was bad? You haven't seen anything yet. I am willing to become even more contemptible in your eyes, and in my own, for the sake of honoring my God." He is free from the tyranny of what others think. He seeks humility, not worldly glory. This is the spirit of the apostle Paul, who was willing to be a fool for Christ (1 Corinthians 4:10).
Then he brilliantly turns Michal's insult back on her. "But with the maids of whom you have spoken, with them I will be glorified." The very people Michal despises, the lowly servant girls, are the ones with the spiritual perception to see what is really happening. They are not offended by David's worship; they are edified by it. They honor him for it. The humble recognize and appreciate humility. The proud are repulsed by it. David is telling his blue-blooded wife that he would rather have the respect of a godly maidservant than the approval of a scornful queen.
The Judgment of Barrenness (v. 23)
The chapter concludes with a short, stark, and terrifying sentence.
"And Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death." (2 Samuel 6:23)
This is not an unfortunate coincidence. This is the judgment of God. Michal was obsessed with the honor and dignity of the royal line. She despised the life-giving, joyful worship of Yahweh. And so God, in a stroke of divine irony, cuts her off from having any part in the future of that royal line. Her womb, like her heart, becomes a barren place.
Her pride and formalism produced sterility. This is a permanent, physical sign of her spiritual condition. She looked down on the Giver of Life, and so life was withheld from her. This is a profound warning to the church in every age. When a church becomes the church of Michal, when it values respectability over vibrant worship, when it is more concerned with its reputation than with joyful abandon before God, it is on the path to barrenness. It may have beautiful buildings and dignified services, but it will have no spiritual children. Its womb will be closed.
Conclusion: A Fool for God
The conflict between David and Michal is the conflict between the gospel and the world. David's "undignified" dance is a foreshadowing of the great King who would come from his line. Jesus Christ, the Son of David, humbled Himself far more than David ever did. He laid aside not just royal robes, but His divine glory, taking the form of a servant (Philippians 2:6-8).
He was the ultimate undignified king. He touched lepers, ate with tax collectors, and was executed like a common criminal. The Michals of His day, the scribes and Pharisees, looked on with contempt. How could the Son of God act in such a way? But the servant girls of His day, the prostitutes and the sinners, recognized their king and were glorified with Him.
The question for us is simple. Whose side are we on? Are we looking out the window with Michal, sneering at any display of genuine religious affection as unseemly? Are we embarrassed by brothers and sisters who raise their hands, who sing too loud, who get too emotional about their salvation? Is our faith a matter of maintaining a certain aesthetic, a certain level of sophisticated decorum?
If it is, then we should tremble. The spirit of Michal leads to a closed womb. It leads to a sterile, lifeless Christianity that produces nothing for the kingdom of God.
The call of the gospel is to come down from the window, throw off our royal robes of self-importance, and join the dance. It is the call to become fools for Christ's sake, to celebrate the grace of God with such abandon that the respectable world thinks we have lost our minds. For it is in that humility, in that willingness to be lightly esteemed, that we find true glory and true fruitfulness. Let us be the people of David, who dance before the Lord, and not the children of Michal, who watch with contempt and die barren.