The LORD your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing." - Zephaniah 3v17
I was first introduced to this verse back in about 1985 at a Bible teaching seminar hosted by Terry Hall. Terry authored several helpful books about teaching Bible in creative ways without sacrificing sound doctrine and solid teaching.
He used this verse to teach us how to teach a memory verse in just a matter of minutes.
This whole verse is powerful. The Lord is your God. God is in your midst. He is the Mighty One. He will save. He will rejoice over you with love. He will comfort you with His love. Each of these would deserve its own entry in this list of reflections.
Out of all this marvellous truths two or three of them stick out today though. There are the ones at the end – God not only saves us, but he joys in loving us. He gives us a wonderful quietness in His love. And then, something I think is unique in scripture – ‘He will rejoice over you with singing.’
When I try to imagine this in my mind my thoughts fail me. It is far too wonderful to grasp. God expresses His joy over His people with singing. Did you get that? God’s love for us gives Him cause to sing!
We can only try to imagine this from our human understanding. Think about the things that make us sing. A lovely spring day, really good news, time with family and things like that are ‘happy times’ and being creatures of song happy times make us feel like singing.
There is something about our relationship with God that leads Him to sing. It makes me wonder what it sounds like when God sings. It ought to give us great comfort that when we think things are dark and gloomy our God is rejoicing over us in song when we are walking in fellowship with Him!
1 comment:
I had Terry Hall for a class on Bible Study Methods in Bible College. I'll never forget the first day of class. He quoted the first chapter of Proverbs, but he was almost half way thru before any of us realized that he was quoting scripture. He had such enthusiasm and a wonderfully creative mind.
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