16 Then David spoke to the chiefs of the Levites to appoint their relatives the singers, with instruments of music, harps, lyres, loud-sounding cymbals, to raise sounds of joy. 17 So the Levites appointed Heman the son of Joel, and from his relatives, Asaph the son of Berechiah; and from the sons of Merari their relatives, Ethan the son of Kushaiah, 18 and with them their relatives of the second rank, Zechariah, [b]Ben, Jaaziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Obed-edom and Jeiel, the gatekeepers. 19 So the singers, Heman, Asaph and Ethan were appointed to sound aloud cymbals of bronze; 20 and Zechariah, Aziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Maaseiah and Benaiah, with [c]harps tuned to alamoth; 21 and Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Obed-edom, Jeiel and Azaziah, to lead with [d]lyres tuned to the sheminith. 22 Chenaniah, chief of the Levites, was in charge of the singing; he gave instruction in singing because he was skillful. 23 Berechiah and Elkanah were gatekeepers for the ark. 24 Shebaniah, Joshaphat, Nethanel, Amasai, Zechariah, Benaiah and Eliezer, the priests, blew the trumpets before the ark of God. Obed-edom and Jehiah also were gatekeepers for the ark.
25 So it was David, with the elders of Israel and the captains over thousands, who went to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord from the house of Obed-edom with joy. 26 Because God was helping the Levites who were carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord, they sacrificed seven bulls and seven rams. 27 Now David was clothed with a robe of fine linen with all the Levites who were carrying the ark, and the singers and Chenaniah the leader of the singing with the singers. David also wore an ephod of linen. 28 Thus all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the Lord with shouting, and with sound of the horn, with trumpets, with loud-sounding cymbals, with harps and lyres.
29 It happened when the ark of the covenant of the Lord came to the city of David, that Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and celebrating; and she despised him in her heart.
We see once more the heart of David, and how he loved God. He arranged quite the celebration to bring back the ark of God, but even more than that, David was in the midst of the procession, leaping and celebrating. So much so, that his wife Michal despised him for it. That’s a whole different story, but suffice it to say, David celebrated with his whole heart, and he didn’t weigh the opinions of man as more important than God’s glory and honor.
A part of being human is caring about what other people think. For whatever reason, that’s just built in to our human nature. I’d dare to say it’s part of what doesn’t make us different from the animals. And though it can be helpful (to prevent us from doing foolish things), it can also get in the way of serving God.
Thus, we must put to death this part of our flesh (really all our fleshly impulses), so that we can truly show our love and devotion to God as we ought to. It’s no small task, but if we believe and trust in God, He has made us a new creation, and God himself will help us in this herculean task. He will make us more like his Son every day, so that we can serve God as David did (and more).