God Delights in His People … with Singing
In today’s Bible reading* we see a very unusual picture of God. He delights in His people and even sings over them!
Many years ago, an almost six-year-old, curly-haired little girl walked in on me while I was reading John Piper’s The Pleasures of God. My daughter asked what I was reading. I told her it was a book about the things that makes God happy. She looked at the 328-page book in my hands and said, “There must be a lot of things that make God happy.”
She couldn’t have been more correct!
Amid the bleak picture God paints for His people, he concludes Zephaniah with these words about His faithful remnant among all of His people.
The LORD your God is among you, a warrior who saves.
He will rejoice over you with gladness.
He will be quiet in his love.
He will delight in you with singing.
Zephaniah 3:17 (CSB)
Did you catch that? Three times in this single verse, Zephaniah speaks of God’s pleasure. He rejoices with gladness. He delights with singing.
God delights in His people!
Application
Have you ever thought of God as Someone Who sings over His children? Zephaniah says He does.
What response does that evoke from you? Do you think that this picture is unbecoming of our cosmic Creator? Do you think this picture is a tender picture of an excited God Who celebrates His people? Perhaps somewhere in between?
Several years ago, some Christian artists created a project of setting Scripture to song. One of the songs was “He Will Rejoice” I have included the song from YouTube. If you’re reading this from an email I send to subscribers, please click this link to listen to Trevor Morgan as he sings Zephaniah 3:17. If you’re reading this on my website, just click the video below.
* Chapters covered in today’s reading:
Zephaniah 1
Zephaniah 2
Zephaniah 3