David, dressed in an ephod (a priestly like robe or tunic), leaped about vigorously in his dancing; his wife later accused him of being shamelessly uncovered (Some say she falsely accused David as her pride made her feel that David was dressed and worshiped in a manner improper for someone of his rank). Far from being graceful, David's wife thought him a humiliating fool; and, she expressed her disgust of David's dance plainly to him. Now, I am not advocating that we don't take care to be well covered in our praise of dancing. However, when someone is inappropriately covered in there dance of praise, I have seen mature saints just throw a covering over the person praising God so that they might continue praising without being immodest. And, the main thing that I am trying to get at here, is that God's emphasis was not on how stylish David could dance, (as it appears it was probably pretty outlandish by modern liturgical standards). It appears God's pleasure was in David forgetting himself and expressing his love and honor of God.

Just imagine if someone gave you One Hundred Million US Dollars tax-free; how happy would you be? Would you leap up and down shouting for joy not worrying about how silly you looked at that moment. Well, to those of us that have received eternal life in Christ Jesus, our salvation means more to us than any amount of money - that is why we dance.

Yes, some saints might even look humorous to other people in their dance unto God. But, we must remember that we are not dancing to please or entertain as did the daughter of Herodias (Mark 6:22) when she asked for John the Baptist's head to be chopped off and given to her on a tray.

Dancing in praise unto God was firmly established in the Old Testament, and is still available for us to participate in today. It seems that Jesus accepts dancing as a given in at least two parabolic references to dancing (see Luke 15:25 and Luke 7:32).

As mentioned earlier, dancing in a manner that is erotic does not bring glory to God. You may be wondering if it is necessary for me to expound upon the fact that erotic dancing is not appropriate for Christians. Well, let me tell you some years ago while visiting at a friend's church they featured this woman that did some of what I would call Praise Dancing. Her very rehearsed, very stylish (by the worlds standards) routine included twirling around in a very skimpy skirt that appeared to raise up waist high every time she did the twirling move. She would twirl around raising her dress up, kick her leg straight up in the air and other such immodest behavior. At another church, I saw an attractive group of young ladies perform something that looked like a Hawaiian Hula dance. At yet another church ceremony, I was appalled to see a man and woman dressed in extremely tight fitting, revealing clothing perform something that could best be described as a sort of romantic love dance.

Every single instance I could find of people truly dancing to God's glory appears to me to express the contrary of what I see displayed in the exotic-erotic behavior exemplified in much of the Praise Dancing that I have seen.

Although, certain movements in praising God are neither good nor bad of themselves, I personally know of church people studying and teaching the exact dance rituals associated with pagan worship and the warding off of evil spirits. They do this in the name of being open to culture. We cannot worship God in the holy dance on Sunday and teach pagan dance rituals on Monday - "what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?" (2 Corinthians 6:16). This I believe to be one of the next uses of Praise Dancing - the introduction of pagan dance rituals and practices into the church services of God's people.
 

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