Why Would God Sing?
The steadfast love that God has for us will not be solely seen within the present he gave to us of his Son, by whom we’re justified and are being sanctified, but additionally revealed within the ardour in his coronary heart, which is so intense he can not assist however break forth in joyful singing!1 Zephaniah 3:17 tells us that “the Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he’ll rejoice over you with gladness; he’ll quiet you by his love; he’ll exult over you with loud singing.”
After cautious research of this verse, I’ve provide you with my very own paraphrase. It’s not a word-for-word translation however an expanded rendering of what I believe the unique writer had in thoughts:
The Lord your God is with you on a regular basis. He’s a strong and mighty warrior who saves you and fights in your behalf. When he thinks of you, he exults in festive pleasure and with nice delight. At different instances, when protests come up in your coronary heart, he quiets you and reassures you of his deep and abiding affection. He celebrates who you’re with joyful singing.
Nonetheless you learn this passage, the phrases are gorgeous. Its drive is unmistakable. If ever there have been a Scripture verse price committing to reminiscence, that is it. It has rightly been known as the John 3:16 of the Outdated Testomony.
Some folks resist the urge to sing as a result of it makes them really feel weak. It brings to the floor passions that they really feel extra snug protecting tucked away, out of sight. Many are decided in any respect prices to remain in management. Singing is thus a menace to their resolve to maintain a grip on their emotions. There’s no denying that there’s a huge distinction between talking and singing. It goes past the mere incontrovertible fact that some persons are embarrassed to sing as a result of they lack a melodious voice. Music has a peculiar energy. It infuses phrases with a dynamic vitality that talking may by no means obtain.
The Steadfast Love of the Lord explores Scripture to discover a clear image of what God’s steadfast, unfailing love seems to be like and the way, via the ministry of the Holy Spirit, believers expertise his affection.
In different phrases, singing allows the soul to specific deeply felt feelings that mere talking can not. Singing channels our non secular vitality in a means that nothing else can. Singing evokes an depth of thoughts and spirit. It opens the door to concepts, emotions, and affections that in any other case may need remained without end imprisoned within the depths of 1’s coronary heart. Singing offers focus and readability to what phrases alone would possibly solely make fuzzy. It lifts our hearts to new heights of contemplation. It stirs our hope to unprecedented ranges of expectancy and delight. Singing sensitizes. It softens the soul to listen to God’s voice and quickens the need to obey.
I can solely converse for myself, however once I’m completely happy I sing. When my pleasure will increase, it cries for an outlet. So I sing. Once I’m touched with a renewed sense of forgiveness, I sing. When God’s grace shines but once more on my darkened path, I sing. Once I’m lonely and lengthy for the intimacy of God’s presence, I sing. Once I want respite from the chaos of a world run amok, I sing.
Nothing else can do for me what music does. It bathes in any other case arid concepts in refreshing waters. It empowers my wandering thoughts to pay attention with energetic depth. It stirs my coronary heart to inform the Lord simply how a lot I really like him, time and again and once more, with out the slightest tinge of repetitive boredom.
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All properly and good, you say. However what’s the purpose? The purpose is that this: God sings too!
Positive, he speaks. He tells us what to do. His voice fills the air. He declares and denounces and proclaims and whispers. However better of all, he sings.
Some might discover this tough to swallow. However Adam heard God converse in Eden. Moses quaked at God’s voice on Sinai. Jesus and John the Baptist listened because the phrases echoed throughout the waters of the Jordan River, “That is my beloved Son, with whom I’m properly happy” (Matt. 3:17). And if God can converse, why can’t he sing? We all know he loves music. Greater than eighty-five instances within the Outdated Testomony alone we’re both commanded to sing praises to God or examine somebody doing it to his delight.
I’m wondering what God’s voice is like when he breaks forth in music. What do you hear once you envision God singing? John Piper answered that query for himself. He wrote,
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 ability of an East Coast hurricane and the hardly audible puff of an evening snow within the woods. And I hear the unimaginable roar of the solar, 865,000 miles thick, 1,300,000 instances larger than the earth, and nothing however fireplace, 1,000,000 levels centigrade on the cooler floor of the corona. However I hear this unimaginable roar mingled with the tender, heat crackling of logs in the lounge on a comfortable winter’s evening.2
Other than the sound of the singing God, we’d surprise what he sings and why. That’s straightforward. He sings of his steadfast love for you. Why? As a result of he loves you! Right here is the crowning jewel of Zephaniah 3:17: that God loves you with such emotional vitality that he exults over you with “loud singing.”
“Loud singing” or “joyful singing” is the interpretation of a Hebrew phrase that seems on a number of events within the Outdated Testomony. It means a “ringing cry” however shouldn’t be considered an inarticulate shriek or scream. When the choir of Jehoshaphat belted out a ringing cry, it was the substantive declaration, “Give due to the Lord, for his steadfast love endures without end” (2 Chron. 20:21). God’s persons are exhorted to “inform of his deeds in songs of pleasure” (Ps. 107:22). This requires articulate utterance (see Pss. 105:43; 126:2; Isa. 12:6; 35:10).
God’s delight is in you. You make him glad. He’s overjoyed with you.
What presumably may stir the mighty God of heaven and earth to sing? Not what however who—you! God’s delight is in you. You make him glad. He’s overjoyed with you. You, his baby, are the apple of his eye, the choicest amongst ten thousand.
There was a time once I struggled to imagine and embrace the reality of God’s steadfast love. I apprehensive about my sin and guilt, till I learn the prophet’s declaration that “the Lord has taken away” his “judgments in opposition to” me (Zeph. 3:15). And once I worry that my enemies will do me in, I’m reminded but once more that God is “a mighty one who will save” (Zeph. 3:17). He fights on my behalf and vanquishes all who attempt to persuade me that I’m far too gone and that his love is at finest a dream. Even when God feels distant and distant, Zephaniah assures God’s youngsters that “God is in your midst” (Zeph. 3:17). The omnipresent God who fills the universe takes particular enjoyment of drawing close to to us all once we are drowning unsure.
Maybe the best menace to feeling God’s affection is the lingering disgrace from our previous and even our current sin. However there’s excellent news! God guarantees to “collect the outcast” and to “change their disgrace into reward and renown in all of the earth” (Zeph. 3:19).
That’s what this has been all about: listening to in your coronary heart the heavenly aria of God’s unfathomable love for you. He doesn’t simply say it. He doesn’t simply write it. He doesn’t simply inform others who in flip go the phrase on to you. God sings to you lyrics like, “I really like you, oh how I really like you! My baby, I really like you with a love that’s eternally steadfast!”
Notes:
- Some have questioned the legitimacy of making use of this textual content to Christians right this moment. They contend that it’s addressed to Israel, God’s outdated covenant folks. However in response to Ephesians 2:11–22 and Galatians 3:16 and 29, believing Gentiles are included among the many seed of Abraham, equal heirs with believing Jews of all the guarantees made to the patriarchs. Some say this textual content is inapplicable as a result of it refers to the way forward for God’s covenant folks. That’s true, however the precept of what it tells us regarding the character of God is timeless. God doesn’t solely start to like us on this means within the age to come back—his love spans eternity previous into eternity future. And although it’s true that the textual content speaks of God’s folks corporately, what’s the company entity if not a group of the various people who comprise it? What applies to the company physique applies equally to each one that is a constituent a part of it.
- John Piper, The Pleasures of God: Meditations on God’s Enjoyment of Being God(Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 1991), 187.
This text is tailored from The Steadfast Love of the Lord: Experiencing the Life-Changing Power of God’s Unchanging Affection by Sam Storms.
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