In yesterday’s sermon I read from Psalm 32:7 and Zephaniah 3:17 that God surrounds us with His singing. He sings of His love and deliverance for us. This is a point that I’m sure I was taught at some point growing up but which didn’t have its full impact on my heart. It is quite stunning if you get what this is saying.
But what might it sound like to hear God singing? Pastor John Piper offers his thoughts in his sermon on Zephaniah 3:17. Here’s what he thinks.
“When I think of the voice of God singing, I hear the booming of Niagara Falls mingled with the trickle of a mossy mountain stream. I hear the blast of Mt. St. Helens mingled with a kitten’s purr. I hear the power of an East Coast hurricane and the barely audible puff of a night snow in the woods. And I hear the unimaginable roar of the sun 865,000 miles thick, one million three hundred thousand times bigger than the earth, and nothing but fire, 1, 000, 000 degrees centigrade, on the cooler surface of the corona. But I hear this unimaginable roar mingled with the tender, warm crackling of the living room logs on a cozy winter’s night. And when I hear this singing I stand dumbfounded, staggered, speechless that he is singing over me. He is rejoicing over my good with all his heart and with all his soul (cf. Jeremiah 32:41)!
Now think one more thought farther. God singing over us about His love for us is a HUGE difference from my last post about God being enraged at all the nations (Isaiah 34:2). How can both these things be true about God? The only way is the gospel. In the gospel, Christ’s suffering turns away God’s anger at the believer so that what remains in God is only joyful, delighting, loving, favor.
