We hear a lot about a God of love, or a God of justice, but a singing God. Are you sure that’s even in the Bible?
Zephaniah 3:17 — For the LORD your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.”
Our God rejoices over us with joyful songs. Think on that for a moment. This feels so very different than a legal declaration of being for us, or satisfying the wrath of God through an acceptable sacrifice.
No, we have a serenading God. He is our lover, serenading us as He smiles, just because He is thinking about us.
For me, this is a real mind bender. I don’t feel worthy of this kind of desperate love. But it doesn’t matter what I think.
It only matters what my lover thinks. And He rejoices over me with song.
This causes me to think hard about why.
Why would my God look at me and gleefully sing songs about me?
What is it in me that makes Him burst forth in song?
The answers are surprising and encouraging.
I am creative, just like Him.
I am loving, just like Him.
I am tall, just like Him (sorry, I cannot imagine a short God, but maybe that’s me making Him in my own image).
I look to make a difference in this world.
God loves me, because He so clearly sees reflections of Himself in the best parts of me.
Though some days I see nothing but darkness and frustration, not with my serenading God. He sees the best in me.
And in you too. If you quiet yourself, you might just hear the voice of God, laughing and singing and rejoicing over the greatness He sees in you.
What emotions does the idea of God serenading you produce?
This post is part of the Five Minute Friday link-up. For more information, click here.
I, too, feel so undeserving of His love and His song (mainly because I in myself am unworthy) but He has made me worthy. For that alone I not only will delight in the song He sings over me but I will also sing praises back to him.
PS I vision God as tall, also.
Jim, you know me. I have to throw a joke in, even if it’s a bad one. I completely agree with you. Our God is speaking every day, all the time. It’s so easy to miss Him, to have our own inadequacies shout over His voice.
Amy, I hear you. I feel unworthy too. There is a difference that comes when I begin to understand that God has the right to declare who I am, more than even I do. I too respond with a heart of thanksgiving
That is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO true! It really is easier to focus on ourselves than to focus on HIM.
Great post. One of my favorite lines from a Shaun Groves song is “crickets sing silent hymns over all of us.” When I truly listened to that verse, it blew my mind. I love the thought of that!
Shaun Groves is an amazing songwriter, although the crickets around here are not so quiet. Nonetheless, what a wonderful thought.
I wonder if we spend so much time making sure we aren’t narcissistic that we miss this wonderful truth: we are the pinnacle of God’s creation
haha…had to laugh at tall remark! Great post, Chris
Thanks, Eileen. This is the fun of Five Minute Friday. I might have normally edited that comment out. But those aren’t the rules for this link up. And in retrospect, I am glad I left it, because it reflects how I really think about things. Serious and funny, both in the same stream of consciousness.
Found you on Lisa-Jo’s FMF… I love this post. I don’t think I’ve ever read that scripture, but HE is so awesome, isn’t He? I never imagined Him singing over me. In my mind, it’s always been ME singing for HIM! Thanks for sharing your heart… love it!
i do it all the time.
Boni, I am glad you found me, and enjoyed the post. The idea in this verse has always captured me. God singing over us feels backwards, and yet He does. I can’t help but feel lighter and happier at the very thought of the Creator of the universe singing. Over. Me.
That’s really one of my favorite verses from the Old Testament and I had forgotten where it was. how can God be so tender and loving that he sings a song over us. But that is what it says.
Great post mate; really inspiring and amazing. Yes, like you, I really struggle to come to terms with the fact that God loves me like this. Trully amazing. Thanks for posting! 🙂
Indeed Kathleen. I first heard this verse in a song. I almost thought it was unbiblical, until I read the Bible again
His love amazes me