The God Who Sings

When something sounds to good to be true, it typically is. Likewise, when we read the pinnacle of Zephaniah's prophecy state that God will exult over his people with loud singing (Zephaniah 3:17), it fails to register because it just sounds too good to be true. More perplexing is that this promise comes after wave upon wave of indictments against the world throughout the rest of the book. But what this shows us is that the true reality of the love and salvation of God are not what we imagine them to be, but far beyond what we can imagine them to be.

Commentator O. Palmer Robertson calls Zephaniah 3:17 "the John 3:16 of the Old Testament." Somehow, in the midst of hopeless corruption and impending and certain judgment, there is just as certain of salvation. As we understand the God who sings over us and see how these things have been realized, we will learn to sing too.