Skip to main content

Crooning

            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.” (Zephaniah 3:17)

First, this was written about the remnant of Israel. To some extent, it may be said that this is true of us as individuals because it is true of us as a part of the remnant of Israel. In other words, I believe it does apply to us, and to me, but not as if we are (or I am) something special. God didn’t choose Israel because it was great or good.

At the same time, this is one of those verses I struggle to apply to myself. Of course, God is the Mighty Warrior who saves. That’s His job. He could no more not do that than I could give up breathing by force of will. I’m cool with that. But… take great delight? In His love…rejoice over me with singing? I can see God crooning a paternal love song to Jesus, but to me? And the answer is, “Yes, to me, and to you.” Just because the answer is “Yes,” doesn’t mean I live that positive the way that I should. Just because the answer is “Yes,” doesn’t mean we’ll be allowed to live however we like.

But, this passage is the dream – not for God to tolerate, or accept, or enjoy, or even to take delight in, but to take great delight in. This is similar to what was said a week ago about lovingkindness. It’s not just bread and water, it’s let’s pull out the best food.

And He rejoices with singing. I enjoy singing, and some of the songs I enjoy singing most are songs that express my love for and appreciation of God. Could it be that God loves to belt out or croon in baritone to bass range about me? Perhaps you’d prefer Him as a tenor – that’s up to you – but just think about it and rejoice in the God who rejoices over you.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Way, The Truth, and The Life

              Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me . (John 14:6)           If “I am the gate of the sheep…I am the good shepherd” from chapter 10 is a double whammy, this verse is a triple whammy. And its first victim is the notion that any other so-called god was acceptable or the same as Jesus. He, and He alone is the way, the truth, and the life, and the only way to get to the Father. There is no other Savior, or Redeemer, according to Jesus. Now, to be fair, other religions will claim that their religion or god(s) are the only way. That is the nature of gods and of religions. If this and that are equally good and agree on what’s necessary, then this and that are the same thing, so there’s no need to from the other to one. If that’s the case, then why speak against the other or promote the one? There’s a song I’ve been listening to i...
Post a Comment
Read more