You Sing Over Me? by Steve Keeler
Zephaniah 3:15-18
The LORD has taken away your punishment, He has turned back your enemy. The LORD, the King of Israel, is with you; never again will you fear any harm. On that day they will say to Jerusalem, “Do not fear, O Zion; do not let your hands hang limp. The LORD your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing. The sorrows for the appointed feasts I will remove from you; they are a burden and a reproach to you.”
“Is that really true?” “Did I read that correctly?” “Is that even possible?” “What wonderful promises!”
If you read the first chapter Zephaniah you would find that God’s people had disregarded Him to the point of rejection for centuries.
Then in our scripture it says; He will be in the midst of that sinful people, rejoicing over them, quieting them by His love, and singing songs over them.
He sang over them! Wow, did these people do something special? Did they become more religious or finally work hard enough to please God? Now, we know we can’t do enough to right even one wrong against God, let alone centuries worth of disobedience!
So, how does God sing over sinners, like me, like you? I don’t know about you but I sin everyday, I never want to but I do.
Just like Paul, I don’t do what I want and I do what I don’t want to do over and over. I am totally unworthy of any praise from God and I know that.
When we finally realize that we can work our way into God’s grace, we are finally at the point where we can enjoy the rich gospel promises of Jesus Christ.
When you finally realize you don't deserve God's mercy, that’s when you can see the wonder of the gift that He has for us.
It’s only at that moment when we see, it’s God's grace that has “taken away the judgments against us” by the death of His only son Jesus, Christ.
Our sin makes all us worthy of the wrath of God. But once in that love relationship with Jesus, the judgments we deserve have been taken away. All the sins of all our past all forgiven all at last. We, the Christ followers, have had an enormous weight removed from our shoulders.
What should be a swift sword of judgment has become a song of joy sung over us. Amazing Grace!!
Zephaniah shows us how the sinner becomes a recipient of God's exuberant rejoicing. God changes pride-filled sinners and makes them humble.
In chapter 3:9-10 says; "For then I will give to the peoples purified lips, that all of them may call on the name of the LORD, to serve Him shoulder to shoulder. From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia My worshipers, My dispersed ones, will bring My offerings."
These verses demonstrate how the Gentiles "peoples" in verse 9 and the Jews "dispersed ones" in verse 10 will be changed and all of them will call upon and worship God side by side together.
How does this happen? God must change the heart. He will make the proud, humble causing them to seek Him above all other gods.
He promises in 3:12 that "I will leave among you a humble and lowly people, and they will take refuge in the name of the LORD. " That’s still not enough to give us a singing Savior. Wrath still must be poured out for sin in order for God to remain just as He extends His heart changing mercy.
So what does God do? He sends His suffering, Servant King, Jesus, to take the wrath that we deserve, live a perfect life that we are incapable of living.
He then takes our sin upon Himself, and by His death frees us from the punishment of sin, granting to us His righteousness. All this is promised in the Bible.
This is how God gladly sings over sinners like you and me. He changes them, sends His Son to die for them.
He then overcomes death for them so that if they trust and abide in Jesus, they can be made righteous and saved from His just wrath, and receive the promise of His glorious presence forever.
Now, because of Jesus, these promises at the end of Zephaniah are ours. 1 Corinthians 1:20 tells us that ALL the promises of God find their yes in Jesus.
Now let me make it very clear. God will never be unhappy to admit us into His Heavenly Kingdom. It’s not as though Christ found a loophole in the law, did some fancy plea-bargaining, and squeaked us through the gates by getting around the Judge.
No way! God himself, the Judge, put Christ forward as our substitutionary sacrifice, and when we trust Him, God welcomes us with a great celebration.
Do you remember the parable of the prodical son? When we are still a long way off, He, God, runs to us to welcome us. He throws His arms around us and welcomes us home where we belong.
God puts a ring on our finger, kills the fatted calf, throws a party for the neighborhood. He raises a shout that shakes the ends of all creation. All heaven rejoices for a sinner has come home.
Therefore when we read of God's promised presence, His mighty saving arm, His overwhelming love, His promise to quiet His people with His love, and to sing over them, we read promises that are ours because we take refuge in Jesus.
So you see, we sinners, we have a God who loves us dearly and promises us much in Zephaniah 3:17. The first promise is a promise of His presence. His presence is promise of peace, of joy, of security, and of rest.
We are given a guarantee that He will send the Holy Spirit to dwell within us.
This Holy Spirit is the comforter Jesus spoke of the same Holy Spirit who prays for us, counsels us, strengthens us to fight sin, gives us gifts to serve within the body of Christ, and gives us the ability to comprehend His Holy Word.
We have another promise, the promise that He "will save."
He will save us from our sin, the same sin that keeps you separated from God and makes you worthy of wrath. God promises salvation coming from the only One mighty enough to save.
Another promise as we continue on in verse 17 is that "God will rejoice over you." This is the one that really gets me. I absolutely love the thought that God sings over me.
God is promised restoration that will bring Him to sing gladly over His people because He has changed them. Again, this is made possible in Christ. Since Jesus has come, we as His children have that same promise now and yet will experience it in an even greater fullness when we are ushered into His new creation.
So the future has broken into the now. He, God the Father, rejoices over us, sinners that we are, because we have trusted in His Son, not because we have done any good that might by worthy of any praise.
You see, God is not like some sports' fan who cheers when the player performs well and the next minute boos when he drops the pass or strikes out.
God has only goodness and mercy towards His children. He is rejoicing over His people because they have been reconciled to Him through His Son by faith.
So when your heart is raging with anger or your mind is swirling with condemnation or the stress is so thick you can almost cut through it, remember you have a God who calls you to experience the quieting power of His love and His song.
This is the same love that sent His Son to die for you and me; it’s the very same love that conquered sin. This is the same love that is working good for you everyday in everything. He sings a love song over you His precious child. I pray that our hurt, raging, stressed, guilt-ridden hearts find stillness in His song to us.
I don’t know about you but for me, it’s helpful to know that many times He quiets us with His singing, singing that drowns out all other competing noises of life that clamor for our attentions and do what they can do to distract us.
He is drowning out the noisy lies of the devil and quieting your raging heart with His beautiful songs of praise.
What is He singing? He sings songs of His truth. He sings His promises over us. He reminds us of His faithfulness, that as we abide in Him, He abides in use and keeps us in His love. He sings to remind us that as we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us.
Our glorious God sings over us in His love and reminds us constantly that He is for us and not against us.
I pray that this week, you reflect on how God has been singing over you recently, reminding you of His faithfulness even in the midst of your troubles and trials.
We serve a great God and amazingly enough, He really does rejoice over us.
Be still and know that the voice of God is singing over you right now if you have chosen to have His Son Jesus as Lord and Savior in your life.
If you are missing the song, wouldn’t love to have God sing over you. Come to Jesus today and all heaven will be singing over you.
Amen!
