Welcome to Day 56 of the “Manna for the Mind” devotional series! This series is about taking scripture passages (typically 1-3 verses) and building our understanding of their teachings through their context and connecting scripture. I believe that doing this helps us understand how to be the type of human that God created us to be.
Our focus scripture is Zephaniah 3:17. I’ll talk about the three “wills” found within this verse and do a word study into what they represent to our world today. This will be a short and sweet devotional, but it will be packed full of God’s word.
17 For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.
The three things our ever-present God does for us:
To delight is the Hebrew verb sus or sis (soos), which means to exult or rejoice. These words aren’t common in our everyday vocabulary, so let’s dig deeper into them. To exalt means to elevate, glorify, and raise in rank or power. To rejoice means to feel joy or great delight or to gladden. God lifts us up. He elevates us to a higher status in the world compared to the world. He finds joy and delight in us. The same people who often go against his ways and commit sinful actions, God loves us unconditionally. He does so with gladness? Gladness is the Hebrew noun simchah (sim-khaw’), which means joy, gladness, or mirth. God raises us up through his joy and gladness with us. When we read our Bible or listen to our Bible plans, he’s glad. God is delighted when we pray and talk to him about the highs and lows in our lives. When we stop and worship him through music, he’s joyous.
To calm is the Hebrew verb charash (khaw-rash’), which means to cut in, engrave, plow, or devise. In this verse, it’s used to mean to renew. God will renew our thoughts and calm those things that make us afraid or cause us anxiety. How does he do it? Through his love. God loves us so much that he doesn’t want us to live in that fearful or anxious mindset but in a mindset that encompasses the love that God loves us with. God doesn’t give us a spirit of fear but of power, love, and self-control. (2 Timothy 1:7)
To rejoice is the Hebrew verb gil (gheel), which means to rejoice with. We mentioned earlier that rejoicing means feeling joy or great delight in something. God rejoices over us with music. With joyous songs, I imagine God walking around through his day humming a joyful tune because he is pleased and happy with his children. God shares those joyful songs with us through not only music but also the songs of the birds, the hum of the traffic, and the laughter of the people around us.
I want to do something I haven’t done before in this series. I want you to not just read our focus scripture but repeat it and keep it close in your heart. I want you to remember what God will do for you as your loving and mighty Savior. This act of internalizing the scripture will empower and strengthen you.
“For the Lord your God is loving among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.” – Zephaniah 3:17
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