Singing has great significance to God so much so He sings over us! I don’t know about you but that puts a smile on my face. Being a mom of three, singing over my babies in the stillness of the night is one of my fondest memories. Probably two of my favorite songs to sing over them was, “Jesus, there’s just something about their name” and “Oh the blood of Jesus”. What else to they need but the name of Jesus and the covering of His blood. Those were precious moments.
Looking at Zephaniah 3:17, what a beautiful image this scripture paints! In reading this scripture I began to wonder why singing was so important to God. We have the spoken word that can move mountains. But singing….??? Let’s examine some truths from Zephaniah317. The first truth that jumps out at me is when God sings over us He does so in Joy! In the Hebrew translation, “he will rejoice over you in singing” can be translated as “he rejoices over you with a shout of joy! WOW! Talk about your biggest cheerleader! He rejoices over you not quietly but with a shout! Now that should make you do a little giggle just to let you know how special you are to Him. There is so much in this particular verse just to remind us that He see’s us,more importantly He loves us!
To get the full picture we need to take a broader look at this chapter . We see in this chapter that the people of Jerusalem sing praises to God and ends with God singing praises over His people. When you rejoice, He rejoices! He expresses joy when His people praise Him!
So why is God so joyful? If we look at this passage of Zephaniah it speaks to the future time when God ended His judgement upon Israel. Israel is entering a time of safety,rest and blessing because all of the enemies have been destroyed (check out verses 8,15 & 19). Here Zephaniah is speaking of the future millennial Kingdom when Jesus the Messiah will reign with His people in Jerusalem (Is. 9:7; Rev. 20:1-6). Oh what rejoicing there shall be!
So what else causes God to rejoice? Let’s look at Luke 15:10. In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” It’s not really clear if God himself rejoiced. It certainly is hard to imagine that He isn’t doing a Holy Ghost jig whenever one has a repented heart. Nonetheless, there is great rejoicing!! What an image of God our father cradling us during our time of need. How often have we needed to simply crawl in His lap needing His comfort, healing for our wounds, to still us, soothing us with truth and just to love us.
So perhaps in your time of intimate worship with God, a new song comes out of your mouth, consider the influence of the author of your faith and the song He has sung over you. There is a song waiting to be birthed out of you! Take the time to crawl into your Father’s lap and allow him you sing a song over you.
Have you had an experience of God rejoicing over you? I want to hear from you. Sharing your experience will be an encouragement to someone else. We will continue in this study of the value of Song to the believer! Watch for upcoming blogs!