God Loves to Sing!

Click Here to Read or Listen to the One Year Bible Readings 

For the Lord your God is living among you.

    He is a mighty savior.

He will take delight in you with gladness.

    With his love, he will calm all your fears.

    He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.” Zephaniah 3:17

Most of what the prophet Zephaniah has said up to this point relates to God's judgment against His own people, Judah, and the pagan nations around them like Philistia, Moab, and Ammon. But then in chapter 3, the prophet tells of a "remnant" who God has set apart for himself who he would restore. This remnant will be "lowly" and "humble" and "trust in the name of the Lord". 3:12

In verse 3:17 we see the heart of God for His chosen people. First, we see that God comes to live among them. This is no small thing given the atrocities the people had committed by offering worship to pagan gods and refusing to turn back to Him after He corrected them. We know ultimately God came to dwell in our midst through sending his Son to become one of us. 

Next, it says that God is a "mighty Savior". He has the power to save. Though the other nations seemed powerful, they were nothing compared to an all powerful God. God allowed and used foreign nations to discipline his people, but nothing they did happened apart from God's sovereignty and plan. 

I love this, "He will take delight in you with gladness."  God not only accepted and had mercy on His people, but he "delighted" in them. Since I have two children, I know this sense of delighting over them. It is wonderful to think that God feels the same way when He looks at me and you, His children.  

"We often underestimate the joy God has in His people, and too often think God is annoyed or irritated with us." - Guzik

God will calm our fears with "His love". 1 John 4:18 says, "Perfect love cast out all fear!" We are usually anxious when we are trying to please someone who is not easily pleased. Or, we are afraid of angering someone in authority over us. Or, we are afraid to make a mistake which anger or disappoint someone. But perfect love, God's love, has nothing to do with punishment. Even when God disciplines us it is out of love. This is an aspect of God that is sorely missing in the world's view of God. As we seek to share Him with the world, His unconditional love for us is our gospel, which was fulfilled in His Son, Jesus. 

Finally, God actually delights in us so much, He sings over us! 

We don’t often think of God singing, but He does – and He sings over His people. This is how much joy and delight we give to the LORD – that He breaks into song! - Guzik 

“Think of the great Jehovah singing! Can you imagine it? Is it possible to conceive of the Deity breaking into a song: Father, Son and Holy Ghost together singing over the redeemed? God is so happy in the love which he bears to his people that he breaks the eternal silence, and sun and moon and stars with astonishment hear God chanting a hymn of joy.” (Spurgeon)

Take a moment to bask in these qualities of God's love, care, and delight in you. If you have things going on in your life that don't please Him, confess them to him, and then respond to the great love he has for you by loving others the way he loves you! 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Acts 22 - Paul Sees the Light

Image
6  “About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me.   7  I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me,  ‘Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?’  8  “‘Who are you, Lord?’ I asked.  “  ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth,  whom you are persecuting,’  he replied.   9  My companions saw the light,  but they did not understand the voice  of him who was speaking to me.  10  “‘What shall I do, Lord?’ I asked. “  ‘Get up,’  the Lord said,  ‘and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do. This is the famous story of the apostle Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus.  Paul was going there to persecute Jewish Christians and throw them into prison and he meets Jesus is a spectacular way.  Not only is he blinded by a briliant light, but he hears the Lord's voice audibly.  And the Lord asks him, "Lord, Lord why are you persecuting me!"  Paul thought he was serving the Lord, but he was persecuting him b
Read more

2 Timothy 4 - Fight the Good Fight! Finish the Race!

Click Here to Read or Listen to 2 Timothy 4 4 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. Paul gives a closing charge to Timothy. First of all, he is to preach the word. God's Word speaks to all situations and seasons. The Word of God will sometimes correct us. Our lives can get of out alignment with God's will as outlined in
Read more

Hebrews 6 - Have You Graduated From Elementary School of Faith Yet?

Click Here to Read or Listen to Hebrews 6 6 Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, 2 instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And God permitting, we will do so. The author once again picks up with the theme of moving on to Christian maturity.  He teaches them to move on from the "elementary" teachings about Christ. What does he mean by that?  He gives clues by citing repentance, faith, cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, and teaching on the judgment and resurrection from the dead. We might call these the basics of the Christian faith. If you read through the Apostle's Creed, which our church confesses in our 8am service, it contains many of these core doctrines.  Click here to see the Apostle's Creed Written Around “When we consider the
Read more