The Merrymakers

I am often surprised at what I find in Scripture. It is not that I am making any "new" discoveries or that I have a special insight unlike anyone else. Sometimes it just seems that when you focus on a detail that would otherwise seem insignificant, what you find can be amazing. The following is an example:

In my Psalms reading, I have discovered another “role” that God has for His women:
Psalm 68:24, 25 says,”They have seen Your procession, O God, The procession of my God, my King, into the sanctuary. The singers went on, the musicians after them, In the midst of the maidens beating tambourines.

HMM! That’s interesting. It turns out that there is a bit more scripture on this than I had ever noticed before.

“And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.” (Ex 15:20-21)
“And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she [was his] only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter.” (Jud 11:34)
“And see, and, behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in dances, then come ye out of the vineyards, and catch you every man his wife of the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin.” (Jud 21:21)
“And it came to pass as they came, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women came out of all cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of music. And the women answered [one another] as they played, and said, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.” (1Sa 18:6-7)
“And the servants of Achish said unto him, [Is] not this David the king of the land? Did they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands?” (1Sa 21:11)
“[Is] not this David, of whom they sang one to another in dances, saying, Saul slew his thousands, and David his ten thousands?” (1Sa 29:5)
“Tell [it] not in Gath, publish [it] not in the streets of Askelon; lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph.” (2Sa 1:20)
“Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery.” (Ps 81:2)
“Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp.” (Ps 149:3)
“Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel: thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry.” (Jer. 31:4)

From these verses, and I would guess that there are more, I gather that it was a normal custom for the women to come out when their men returned from a victorious battle to sing and dance before the Lord in honor of His victory over their enemies. The men were probably tired from the fight, but for the women it was a Parade!
A few things pop out at me right away. The women must have had some sort of forerunner or scout that returned before the rest of the army to tell them the outcome of the battle. (as women, we are sure good at our grapevines, aren’t we?) They would have needed a little head start to freshen up their faces, put on their party clothes and grab the tambourines.
Also, if this was the custom, then Jephthah should have known that his daughter would greet him in this manner when he returned from defeating the sons of Ammon. His vow truly was rash. I learned later that there was also a legal provision that would have allowed Jephthah to redeem his daughter with silver had he known the law and taken advantage of it. His ignorance twice condemned her. (See Judges 11:29-40 for the whole story.)

These women lifted up their victorious men in such a way that other nations heard of it (1 Sam 18, 21, 29).
The custom was not limited to the women of Israel (2 Sam. 1:20).
Some times it speaks of the virgins performing the custom, and other times it does not specify. A woman's class, wealth, or station seems to make no difference in her participation.
In the passage in 1 Chronicles 15, when David brings the ark of the covenant to it’s rightful place in Jerusalem after being stolen and returned by the Philistines, he dances before the Lord in the same manner. His wife Michal despises him for this. Could it be that she saw it as “woman’s work” and her problem was not just that he was “naked” (or clothed in his ephod rather than his royal robes)? Perhaps, if she had performed the custom for her husband, there would not have been a need for him to do it himself. It is also interesting to note in 2 Sam. 6:20-23 the remainder of the incident. Michal chastises David for being undignified before his servant’s maids, who were probably dancing with him according to the custom. David defends himself quite well to her by saying that it was before the Lord that he was dancing, not man. He continues by saying that he would be humbled much worse than that in the future, but that he would be distinguished in the eyes of the maids. (Was this possibly because the lower class is always edified when those above them stoop for a time to help in their humble duties?) Michal’s punishment was barrenness until the day of her death (a sentence passed by God, or by David?).
A look in the Strong’s Concordance reveals that the word for “dances” used in these verses is the same in every case except for David’s. The definitions looked identical, but the primary root word was different. (I need to consult another source.) It used the words “whirl” and “twirl”. I don’t think that I can derive from these passages that it was an organized, choreographed dance. Neither can I imagine that it was an animal-like frenzy. A happy jumping for joy comes to mind.
What implications does this carry for me? The most obvious would be an unabashed display at God’s victories in my life. Make it colorful, loud and full of joy!
I think it can also be said that the same display needs to be given to God’s triumphs accomplished through my husband. How true that our men often come home victorious, but too exhausted from the battle to celebrate. That's when their women need to step in and step lively!