God is as joyful today as he was before time. He didn’t create to increase his joy, but express it. His joy in himself – the community of Father, Son and Spirit – is perfect and needs no external boosts. Yet we bring him joy. God delights in us!
This is a massive truth-treasure, one we can’t fully understand. But the more we look at it, the more it draws us into his rest.
The Lord protects those he delights in. Zep 3:17 is one of the most tender truths in Scripture:
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.
What an amazing image of the Warrior-Saviour singing with delight over those he has rescued! The volume and euphonic beauty of his song must be beyond anything we have heard, or can imagine, perfectly expressing his heart, and pulsing with joy as he delights in his people.
It’s a truth that David loved to celebrate: he rescued me because he delighted in me (Ps 18: 19).
God’s delight in us is more than a happy feeling. It’s his deep pleasure in those he created, rescued and loves forever, a pleasure that’s charged with the protective power of the Mighty Warrior who saves.
We all face times when life feels like a gauntlet of difficulties. The fact that God delight in us doesn’t insulate us from life’s troubles, but it assures us of his unbroken love-song as we face them.
Whether his protective power is helping us out of a difficulty or through one, he is constantly rejoicing over us. His song celebrates our priceless value, what he has done for us, and the glorious plans he has for our future.
Some people imagine God to be a divine clockmaker who set the universe in motion, but now passively observes from a distance. Scripture shatters that idea.
God isn’t detached from our lives. He is present, involved, and rejoicing over us from close-up. Being aware that he is delighting in us gives us another wonderful reason to live at rest in him.
But it’s not just the awareness of this wonderful truth that deepens our experience of rest in the Lord. It’s our prayer response to that truth that settles us in God’s rest. Here are a couple of prayer response guides:
- Re-read Zep 3:17, then meditate (speak softly, thoughtfully to yourself) on the truth that the Lord is present with you, singing over you with joy. What truth(s) do you believe he might be celebrating about you in his song? Join the Lord in his celebration; rejoice in what he is singing about you.
- When God promised to restore exiled Israel, he used the image of a bridal couple: as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you. (Is 62:5). In the new covenant, this truth that God delights in us takes on enormous depth as Christ (the bridegroom) rejoices over us (his bride). Keep that image in mind, and thank him that he is, at this moment, in your current circumstance, rejoicing over you with a joy that is charged with his protective care.
Note: Don’t miss the expanded YouTube version of this post titled, Why God Sings Over You, with a few more prayer response guides at the end of the video. I’ll send the video link once it’s on the Prayer Life Wingspan channel.
