[Avodah] counting

[Eli Turkel]

In a shiur I heard the question was raised how count the Jews are
counted several times in the desert to show how dear they are to G-d and
OTOH we have a prohibition to count Jews as we see that King David was
punished and we dont count people for a minyan

One can find technical differences but they don't really explain what is the
meaning of counting.
Any "real" explanations?

-- 
Eli Turkel