“THE Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing.” (Zeph. 3:1717The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing. (Zephaniah 3:17).) Though these most gracious words relate to God’s ancient people Israel, and to what He will do for them in the coming day, we may apply their spirit to ourselves now.
The Lord is mighty to deliver from enemies; He is also mighty to take away pride, to turn the heart to Himself, and to give the grace to call upon His name. (See vss. 8, 9 and 11.) The stoutest of sinners He can and does turn to Himself, and in this His love we see His might as clearly as in the most terrible of His judgments. The Lord our God is mighty in grace, in pardoning mercy, in forgiving love, and each one of His people rejoices in this glorious truth, for by the might of the Lord he is brought to God.
“He will save.” On whichever of these three words we place the emphasis, how encouraging they are! Self has no part here. Human strength is nowhere here — the Lord will do the work. He will save. No one can withhold His arm; none can withstand, none can hinder the purpose of His grace. “He is mighty to save.” His salvation is strong like His arm. To His “so great salvation” nothing can be added, for it is perfect and complete: He will save.
Having perfectly saved His people, and beholding them so saved, our God rejoices over the subjects of His mercy. When He made this world, “God saw everything that He had made, and behold it was very good.” He rested in the beauty of His work, and this satisfaction of God in His creation gives a conception of His delight in His work of salvation. “He will rejoice over thee with joy.” The lost ones saved shall call forth the rejoicing of our God. The Son rejoices, the Spirit rejoices, the Father rejoices over the saved one. “He will rejoice over thee with joy” we may take as the word for ourselves while reading the fifteenth chapter of St. Luke’s gospel, for the individual sinner saved is the lost sheep found; the lost piece of silver found; the lost son found, over whom the ever-blessed God rejoices with joy.
Now as God rested from His work on the seventh day, and had His pleasure in the Sabbath, so “will He rest in His love” in the Sabbath of God. In His love He will bring His people into absolute blessing, not one good thing shall they lack, and when all shall be fulfilled which eye hath not seen nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived at any time, of the good and precious things which God hath prepared for them that love Him, our God will rest in His love. There will be nothing that they can need, nothing that God will need to add to their blessing. God Himself shall repose in His love, for His love will have wrought for His beloved sons and daughters all that He Himself has conceived.
Here on earth, where sin and suffering are found, God in His love is ever working. “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work,” said Jesus, when He healed the sick man on the Sabbath day. God now knows no Sabbath for Himself on earth, for sin prevails and misery abounds. But in His Sabbath He will rest in His love, and this Sabbath is the grand prospect of His people — a rest more sweet than that of paradise — more holy than the Sabbaths which Israel knew.