He Will Joy Over Thee With Singing

Zephaniah 3:17

“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.”

Early this year, I found myself sitting in front of the fire before the sun had risen.  My heart was heavy, so much so that I was numb.  All I could do was look into the flames; still and quiet before the Lord.  These are the times in the life of the child of God when the Holy Spirit hovers over us.  He is so close we can feel his breath.  He began to speak to my heart.  As I sat there, I felt His presence. Words began to flow into my spirit:

“Bruises of the heart are not noticed right away.  They are revealed by the occasional tear that escapes onto one’s cheek, or the endless sleepless nights, or the loss of joy in one’s countenance.

They eventually appear in many ways, however, finding a path to outward manifestation.  They are wounds that burrow deep into the recesses of  one’s soul.  They don’t demand attention but rather settle in for the long haul, taking bits and pieces of the soul, devouring the very life out of the one whom they afflict.

They are often the result of a ripping away of something we treasure, something we need to recognize as being too valued.  Something we have placed on a high pinnacle above all else; a platform reserved for someone else.

God will seek to test and prove our hearts.  We must desire to attain a pure heart devoted totally to Him.  We must place all others on the alter.  He will then return them to us one hundred fold once they are relinquished in His care, and given their proper place in the priority of our hearts.”

As I wrote what the Lord was saying, His presence was almost tangible.  There are times when we are submersed in our despair to the point that God is drawn to us and covers us with His Spirit.  He pulls us close under the shadow of His wing.  The Lord was speaking life to me that morning. He brought me to Himself and showed me that He was my All in All.  He took me by the hand and revealed my heart, broken and bruised, and set my feet like hinds feet on the path to healing.

Bruise means to crush; pound; break; shatter; to smite through.  Isaiah speaks of the Lord being bruised for us:

Isaiah 53:3-5  “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised and we esteemed him not.  Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.  But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed.”

There is nothing we walk through that our Lord has not gone before us.  Our finite minds are unable to fully understand what He endured for our redemption. Psalms 34:18 tells us He is near unto those who are of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.   Contrite means to be worn out; ground to pieces; having deep sorrow.  The physical pain Jesus experienced on the cross was excruciating beyond our ability to comprehend; however, the pain of rejection by the Father, whose face He had to turn away, was unfathomable (too deep to be measured).  The cross represents every affliction of body, soul and spirit ever known to mankind. It was all placed on the Lord as He hung there in anguish.  We must never forget the price that was paid for our redemption; what it cost so that we could come boldly to the throne of grace.

There are going to be times of deep sorrow in our lives.  Times when despair tries to overtake us and drag us into a pit.  We have an enemy whose expressed goal is to steal, kill and destroy every fiber of our being, everything we hold dear, the very essence of who we are in the earth.  God has given us the weapons to defeat the enemy, and defeat him we will because “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.”

Isaiah 51: 11  “Therefore, the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion, and everlasting joy shall be upon their head; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.”