Zeph 3:17   The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.

  

There are five things here that Zephaniah says about the Lord. (Before you read on, are you able to 'divide the word' to analyse it and more fully take in what is being said?) First he says that the Lord is with you. This is a word to believers. If you are a Christian, do you have that sense that the Lord is always with you? it is the truth whether you 'feel' it or not.

The second thing he says is that the Lord is ‘mighty to save' or ‘the Lord is big enough to deal with any and every problem or person who might confront us', so that He can save us from them. Is that how we see the Lord, is our trust in Him based on that belief, that His grace really and truly is sufficient for us every day?

 

The third thing he says is that the Lord will delight in us. Now I'm sure that many Christians aren't convinced about this, but it is true. As our heavenly Father He DOES delight in us. We focus on our failures and our weaknesses but He just delights in us being His children. If you struggle with that, think about how you think about your small children (or when they were small, or perhaps your grandchildren). If we delight in our children, how much more will the Lord delight in us?

 

The fourth thing he says is that the Lord will quiet us with His love or, if you like, His love will comfort and calm us when we get frightened or stressed with the world. When a little child falls over and hurts itself, its parent picks it up and hugs and comforts it, and calms it down until the sobbing stops. Love has done its work! That's what the Lord wants to do with us. Have you known that experience?

 

The final picture he gives us of the Lord is of Him singing over us. We sing when we are happy and the picture is of the Lord feeling really good about us and He expresses His joy about us being His children through singing. How wonderful is that! Let these pictures touch you. Thank Him for the truth of each one.