He Rejoices Over You

Victory leads to rejoicing. I can be quite competitive, so winning a game of dominoes leaves me riding high for an hour and a half. When I battle against a master, though, suddenly I don’t want to play anymore. We rejoice over the victories of our favorite sports teams. We rejoice when the good guys win in the movie. We rejoice at personal successes and good fortune. 

Spiritually, we rejoice when the music is just right, when the preaching is just convicting enough, and when we read our favorite passages of Scripture. But what is God doing? How does he respond to us? What type of Father is he? 

In the short prophetic book of Zephaniah, we get a glimpse of God’s attitude towards his people. Towards the end of the third and final chapter, Israel is promised this vision: “The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing” (3:17). God himself rejoices over us. And that joy is contagious.

The Unlikeliness of Joy

Before this verse, Zephaniah is filled with prophecies of terror against Judah, Judah’s enemies, and every other nation. The LORD will appear, and for many it will not be the triumphant arrival they expect. Instead, “a day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet blast and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the lofty battlements. I will bring distress on mankind” (1:15–17). This is all because of the sins of idolatry and complacency. These people don’t deserve joy. They deserve this ordained devastation, and so do we. 

I have so many idols in life. I worship the idol of success and achievement with academics and ministry. I bow to the idol of entertainment. I serve the idol of pixels I carry in my pocket. I’m sure I’m not the only one. 

We value many things above the Lord, and when we give more attention and worth to things pertaining to us instead of the One who made us, we find that they’re empty and we have offended God. The day of darkness is approaching because we cherish the creation rather than the Creator who is blessed forever (Rom. 1:25). 

Joy is unlikely and undeserved. Ever since the Garden of Eden, humanity has not been owed joy, which only comes as part of the Holy Spirit’s fruit (Gal. 5:22). We have sinned, yet Jesus made a way for us to receive joy.

The Exultation of Joy

In 1985, Sally Field won her second Oscar for her movie Places in the Heart. Her acceptance speech is iconic. She begins by describing her reaction to winning the first Oscar which was mostly a blur. Everything was so new and overwhelming that it was hard to be present in the moment. Winning one Oscar could have been an anomaly, but winning the second Oscar made Field exuberant. She looked at her acting peers, directors, and the fans watching at home and said, “The first time I didn’t feel it, but this time I feel it. And I can’t deny the fact that you like me. Right now, you like me!”

We all want to be liked and not merely tolerated. We do things to garner the attention of others. Through Christ, we can embrace the truth that God likes us. Right now, he likes us! To God, we are not that person who stays over way too long and doesn’t get the hint to leave. He wants us with him.

God is not distant, and he is not ambivalent concerning our salvation. He is “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9). He likes us and wants us with him, and he proved it through Jesus’s death and resurrection.

God does not receive us into eternal life coldly or with a slight nod of recognition. Instead, as Zephaniah declares, God “will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing” (3:17). God throws a party! He is ecstatic over repentant sinners who accept Jesus’s free gift of eternal life. He proverbially kills the fattened calf for us to feast upon in communal celebration (Luke 15:23–24). He wraps us in his arms and keeps us from being snatched away (John 10:28). He bids us to enter into the joy of our Master (Matt. 25:21). 

We may view God as remote or even stern towards us, including at salvation, falsely imagining him saying, “It’s about time you repented! You really did all that? Come on, I’ll let you get into heaven because I’ll just ignore those sins. You’re welcome.” But the God portrayed in Zephaniah 3:17 is opposed to that characterization. He not only forgives you; he rejoices over you. You are not reluctantly accepted into heaven. You’re lavishly embraced by his grace. His joy becomes your joy. 

The Delight of Joy

The darkness of the first chapters of Zephaniah lets the light of the promise of salvation blind us as if exiting a matinee at the movies. It is a great pendulum; the darker we understand our sin and deserved destruction, the farther we swing in exultation as the gospel becomes more glorious to us. His exultation and delight in you should automatically bring a smile to your face and result in reciprocal delight. 

He doesn’t tolerate you; he delights in you. So don’t just intellectually affirm him; rejoice in him. That’s a tough leap to make, and it’s one I missed for nine years. I believed the story of the gospel, but it wasn’t real to me as I went through my teenage years. I could not see God’s smile at my salvation until he opened my eyes to see his glory and the reality of joy. 

The Christian life can be tough, and we may not always feel happiness. But when trials come and sorrows sink us, remember God’s joy in you as he sees his Son’s righteousness and his Spirit’s presence in you. He wants you, he loves you, and he invites you into his everlasting joy. 

The only way we can enter into this joy, though, is through Jesus Christ who endured the cross “for the joy that was set before him” (Heb. 12:2). He humbled himself to the point of death on the cross, and it was all out of an overflowing joy in the Father’s glory. He was willing to die so that he could rejoice over those who trusted in him for salvation and sanctification. He saw his Father’s joy over us, and it filled him with a joy that is contagious. Catch his joy. Let his Spirit of joy overwhelm you. 

See God’s smile, hear him singing at the top of his lungs, feel his warmth and light as you draw near. Delight in him, for he rejoices over you.