Zephaniah 3:17 The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing."
Notice as you examine our text we are studying, that God has clearly positive emotions about those who love Him. He loves them with great delight. He is just like an earthly parent rejoicing over his precious child. We do not always sing a song of joy over our children, but God goes all the way and rejoices over us with singing.Calvin wrote, "He will rejoice over thee with gladness. This must be referred to the gratuitous love of God, by which he embraces and cherishes his Church, as a husband his wife whom he most tenderly loves. Such feelings, we know, belong not to God; but this mode of speaking, which often occurs in Scripture, is thus to be understood by us; for as God cannot otherwise show his favor towards us and the greatness of his love, he compares himself to a husband, and us to a wife. He means in short--that God is most highly pleased when he can show himself kind to his Church." This is a picture of God we need to carry with us at all times to be able to rejoice in the Lord always. He is always rejoicing over us, and we need to be always rejoicing over Him. This is what love is all about. When you love someone you always rejoice over them. I have loved my wife now for 67 years and I have spent a great deal of my time rejoicing over her, and often it is with singing. The following is one of many songs I have written about her.
A LOVE POEM TO A MUCH LOVED WIFE
Glorious stars that dot the night,
How wonderful you are.
But I will shout with all my might,
“There’s a greater wonder by far.!”
It is the wonder of my love
For the wife God gave to me.
For nothing in the heavens above
Are as awesome as is she.
She lightens up my every night.
She gives warmth to me in bed.
She feeds my soul with her beauty bright,
And she makes sure my bodies’ fed.
She meets my need for a best friend,
And makes me glad to know,
Her love for me will never end,
But will ever grow and grow.
There’s so much to be thankful for,
When you find the ideal wife,
For you will love her more and more
Throughout your earthly life.
And when this life is ended,
And we join the saints above,
All that sin broke will be mended,
And we’ll know eternal love.
So the wonder of the starry night
Has nothing to compare
With this wonder, of which I write,
The glorious love we share.
Calvin goes on to write, "God indeed represents himself here as a husband, who burns with the greatest love towards his wife; and this does not seem, as we have said, to be suitable to his glory; but whatever tends to this end--to convince us of God's ineffable love towards us, so that we may rest in it, and being weaned as it were from the world, may seek this one thing only, that he may confer on us his favor--whatever tends to this, doubtless illustrates the glory of God, and derogates nothing from his nature. We at the same time see that God, as it were, humbles himself; for if it be asked whether these things are suitable to the nature of God, we must say, that nothing is more alien to it. It may then appear by no means congruous, that God should be described by us as a husband who burns with love to his wife: but we hence more fully learn, as I have already said, how great is God's favor towards us, who thus humbles himself for our sake, and in a manner transforms himself, while he puts on the character of another. Let every one of us come home also to himself, and acknowledge how deep is the root of unbelief; for God cannot provide for our good and correct this evil, to which we are all subject, without departing as it were from himself, that he might come nigher to us." Calvin is saying that God humbles Himself in playing the role of a mere human man in love with his wife. He sings with joy in His love for her.
Unfortunately, we do not have the lyrics that God sings over us, but I am sure we will hear them in heaven, for God will be singing on some level for all eternity because of the vast number of people who have chosen to love Him forever. Because love is forever, joy will be forever as well, for joy and love are partners in celebration. God will rejoice in us when we rejoice in Him. O. Palmer Robertson comments, “Delight, joy, and singing on God’s part underscore the mutuality of emotional experience felt by God and the redeemed” Heaven and earth ring with joy and singing because God and the redeemed love one another. To miss out on this concert of joy is the greatest mistake man can make. Fall in love with God as He has fallen in love with you, and you will jon an everlasting concert of love and joy. If you think this is a goal worth achieving, let us read on about God's love and joyful singing. Also we need to keep in mind that Jesus and the Holy Spirit join in this song of love and joy. They are the trio of the Trinity singing over us. Each of the other persons of the Trinity join the Father in rejoicing over us. We will not pursue this now but you can easily find Bible verses revealing the joy of Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
The first thing I conclude from this text is this: We serve a happy God. God rebukes us as does any loving father, but he delights in us more, like any loving parent. He is happy to have us as His child. God dwells in joy. 1 Chronicles 16:27 — The New International Version (NIV) 27 "Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and joy are in his dwelling place." Psalm 16:11 "Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore." God dwells in an environment of joy, because He is a God of everlasting joy. When we grasp this reality we can have the extreme positive perspective of the prophet. Habakkuk was going through tough times. He said, “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior” (Habakkuk 3:17-18 NIV). Here was a man who could obey the command to be joyful always because he knew his God was a God of never ceasing joy. Children can do many things in disobedience to their parents, but mom and dad go on loving them and seek to teach them the better way to go. God has to rebuke His straying children, but He goes on loving them and singing over them for He longs to lead them to the life of joy they can share with Him. F. B. Meyers wrote these words about the Lord singing over us, "It is much to hear a lark sing, as if its throat must be torn by the torrent of melody; more to hear a child sing as it comes down a woodland path in spring, chequered with sunlight falling on blue hyacinths and yellow primroses; more still to hear an angel sing, as the lone messenger of God breaks into melody to cheer himself on some distant journey from the Home of Song; more still to have heard our Saviour sing in the days of His earthly ministry, when He joined His disciples in the Jewish Hallel: but what will it not be when the great God Himself breaks into song, to celebrate an accomplished work, an emancipated world, a redeemed race, a Bride won for His Son!" God enjoys loving His children just as most parents do, but His joy is special because He sees them not just as children, but as His Bride. "As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so your God will rejoice over you." Isa 62:5 God loves the church as His bride, and He sings over her now and will be singing over her forever.
John Piper reflects on this image of God singing and he wrote, "Can you imagine what it would be like if you could hear God singing? Remember that it was merely a spoken word that brought the universe into existence. What would happen if God lifted up his voice and not only spoke but sang?...When I think of the voice of God singing, I hear the booming of Niagara Falls mingled with the trickle of a mossy mountain stream. I hear the blast of Mt. St. Helens mingled with a kitten's purr. I hear the power of an East Coast hurricane and the barely audible puff of a night snow in the woods. And I hear the unimaginable roar of the sun 865,000 miles thick, one million three hundred thousand times bigger than the earth, and nothing but fire, 1,000,000 degrees centigrade, on the cooler surface of the corona. But I hear this unimaginable roar mingled with the tender, warm crackling of the living room logs on a cozy winter's night. And when I hear this singing I stand dumbfounded, staggered, speechless that he is singing over me. He is rejoicing over my good with all His heart and with all His soul (cf. Jeremiah 32:41)! (Zephaniah 3:17 - The Pleasure of God in the Good of His People)" Look at the context of this verse in the preceding verses,
"14 Sing, Daughter Zion;
shout aloud, Israel!
Be glad and rejoice with all your heart,
Daughter Jerusalem!
15 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.
16 On that day
they will say to Jerusalem,
“Do not fear, Zion;
do not let your hands hang limp.
17 The Lord your God is with you,
the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
but will rejoice over you with singing.”
We are to be joyful and full of rejoicing and gladness because God is rejoicing and singing over us. God and His people are to be in a perpetual mood of joy and rejoicing. Gladness is to overcome all sadness, for no sadness can ever wipe out the joy we have in our singing Savior who loves us always. Sadness is real for everyone, for even Jesus wept in sadness, but it is temperal, and momentary. Gladness is perpetual and eternal, for with God we will be singing for all eternity with hearts filled with everlasting joy.
The pastor of Bethel Chapel Church wrote, "Few of us probably think about God as being very happy, but you may be shocked to learn that the Bible uses words referring to happiness over 2,700 times. Here are some examples.
Paul talks about “…the glorious gospel of the blessed [which literally means “happy”] God, with which I have been entrusted” (1 Timothy 1:11); “…the Creator, who is blessed [happy] forever. Amen.” (Romans 1:25); Paul referred to Jesus as, “… the blessed [happy] and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords” (1 Timothy 6:15). Peter says the same thing about God: “Blessed [happy] be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3). Even in the Old Testament, we find that God is a happy God. “… In Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever” (Psalm 16:11). “… You give them to drink of the river of Your delights” (Psalm 36:8)." We need to get this image in our minds, for we love and serve a happy God, and it is His will that we also be a happy people. It is a sinful state of mind to be unhappy for a long period of time. Happiness is to dominate the Christian mind, and we are to rejoice in the Lord always. God is a happy God and He wants you to be happy, too! “[Happy] is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose trust is the Lord” (Jeremiah 17:7). “O taste and see that the Lord is good; how [happy] is the man who takes refuge in Him!” (Psalm 34:8).
"Not a burden we bear,
Not a sorrow we share,
But our toil He doth richly repay;
Not a grief or a loss,
Not a frown or a cross,
But is blest if we trust and obey.
Trust and obey,
For there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus,
But to trust and obey."
(John Henry Sammis, Daniel Brink Towner)
Matt Perman shares these texts about the happiness of God. " For example, God says in Jeremiah 32:41: "I will rejoice in doing them good." Jesus said in John 15:11, "These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you." And Paul writes in 1 Timothy 1:11 of "the glorious gospel of the blessed God." Blessed means happy. So Paul is saying: "the glorious gospel of the happy God." John Piper wrote, ""It is good news that God is gloriously happy. No one would want to spend eternity with an unhappy God. If God is unhappy then the goal of the gospel is not a happy goal, and that means it would be no gospel at all. But, in fact, Jesus invites us to spend eternity with a happy God when he says, ‘Enter into the joy of your master' (Matthew 25:23). Jesus lived and died that his joy-God's joy-might be in us and our joy might be full (John 15:11; 17:13). Therefore the gospel is ‘the gospel of the glory of the happy God.'" Why is singing an important part of worship? It is because singing is entering into the way God rejoices. By means of song we join God in expressing joy and happiness. Joy and happiness need to be expressed, and singing is the key to doing this. Look at what the Bible says about our singing.
1 Corinthians 14:15 "What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also. I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also." Ephesians 5:19 "speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; singing, and making melody in your heart to the Lord;" Colossians 3:16 "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord." James 5:13 "Is any among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praises." Singing is joining God in being happy. He is happy with us, and we are happy with Him.That is joy in worship. F. B. Meyer wrote, " It is much to hear a lark sing, as if its throat must be torn by the torrent of melody; more to hear a child sing as it comes down a woodland path in spring, chequered with sunlight falling on blue hyacinths and yellow primroses; more still to hear an angel sing, as the lone messenger of God breaks into melody to cheer himself on some distant journey from the Home of Song; more still to have heard our Saviour sing in the days of His earthly ministry, when He joined His disciples in the Jewish Hallel: but what will it not be when the great God Himself breaks into song, to celebrate an accomplished work, an emancipated world, a redeemed race, a Bride won for His Son!"
Psalm 144:15 "Happy are the people whose God is the LORD!" Why is that the case? It is because God is such a happy God, and He loves His people like a godly man who loves his wife, and if you are a part of His people, you are loved with joy, and need to be filled with joyous love for the happy God who loves you. Spurgeon wrote, "His love gives Him joy. He even finds a theme for song in His beloved. This is exceedingly wonderful. When God wrought creation He did not sing, but simply said, “It is very good.” But when He came to redemption, then the sacred Trinity felt a joy to be expressed in song. Think of it and be astonished! Jehovah Jesus sings a marriage song over His chosen bride. She is to Him His love, His joy, His rest, His song. O Lord Jesus, by thine immeasurable love to us, teach us to love thee, to rejoice in thee, and to sing unto thee our Life-psalm."
