2 Samuel 6:16

‘ And it was so, as the ark of YHWH came into the city of David, that Michal the daughter of Saul looked out at the window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before YHWH, and she despised him in her heart.'

But amidst all the rejoicing there was one dissentient heart, the heart of Saul's daughter, Michal. She had been brought up as the daughter of a king who laid great stress on his royal status, and when she saw her husband David, to whom she may well have felt somewhat bitter because he had taken her away from Paltiel, leaping and dancing like any common Canaanite worshipper before the Ark of YHWH she despised him in her heart. This was not what she was used to, nor how she saw kingship. In her eyes kings kept themselves aloof, and certainly did not participate in Canaanite dances.

Note the emphasis on ‘as the Ark of YHWH came into the city of David'. For David this was the climax of all that he had done related to Jerusalem. It was the moment when YHWH was entering it and taking possession. We can almost hear the cries, ‘Lift up your heads, O you gates, and be lifted up you everlasting doors, and the King of Glory will come in' (Psalms 24:7). And it was at such a moment that Michal could think of nothing else than David's dancing. It is a deliberate anticlimax.