Untitled Sermon (2)

Tailgating Service

September 10, 2017

For “Day of the Lord,” see p. 1668 in ESV Study Bible

Fear not

God is in your midst

God is a mighty one to save

God will rejoice over you with gladness

God will quiet you by his love

· The MT reads, “he is silent in his love,” but this makes no sense in light of the immediately preceding and following lines. Some take the Hiphil verb form as causative (see ) rather than intransitive and translate, “he causes [you] to be silent by his love,” that is, “he soothes [you] by his love.” The present translation follows the LXX and assumes an original reading יְחַדֵּשׁ (yékhaddesh, “he renews”) with ellipsis of the object (“you”).[1]

· The Hebrew phrase has been variously explained: “He will quiet you with His love”; “He will be silent in His love” (i.e., not bring up your past sins); “He will renew you in His love”; “He will renew your love for Him”; “His love for you will make everything new.” Perhaps it all means the same thing: A new and deeper relationship with God will bring peace and joy and make all things new.[2]

God will rejoice over you with singing

I. God’s presence is with you

The Lord your God is in your midst. . . (, ESV)

In the middle of their desperate situation (which they brought upon themselves), they needed to know that God was still there. He had not left them. They had turned their backs on him, but he was not going to give up on them.

Why is it important to know that God is with us?

Illustration: The game my dad would play in turning off the lights in the house and hiding. We always felt more courageous in looking for him when we had a sibling with us.

But God’s presence does more than just feel like we have a companion for life’s journey. That’s important. But when my brothers walked into those darkened rooms, there was nothing they could really do when my dad would reach out from under a bed, grabbed us by the ankle while roaring like a grizzly bear.

The huge difference is that God’s presence can truly calm us in moments of fear or doubt or uncertainty or loneliness because he has the power to act. He has the power to rescue. He can actually keep the hand from reaching out from under the bed and grabbing us!

Consider (The Message)

You who sit down in the High God’s presence,

spend the night in Shaddai’s shadow,

Say this: “God, you’re my refuge.

I trust in you and I’m safe!”

That’s right—he rescues you from hidden traps,

shields you from deadly hazards.

His huge outstretched arms protect you—

under them you’re perfectly safe;

his arms fend off all harm.

Fear nothing—not wild wolves in the night,

not flying arrows in the day,

Not disease that prowls through the darkness,

not disaster that erupts at high noon.

Even though others succumb all around,

drop like flies right and left,

no harm will even graze you.

You’ll stand untouched, watch it all from a distance,

watch the wicked turn into corpses.

Yes, because God’s your refuge,

the High God your very own home,

Evil can’t get close to you,

harm can’t get through the door.

He ordered his angels

to guard you wherever you go.

If you stumble, they’ll catch you;

their job is to keep you from falling.

You’ll walk unharmed among lions and snakes,

and kick young lions and serpents from the path.

“If you’ll hold on to me for dear life,” says God,

“I’ll get you out of any trouble.

I’ll give you the best of care

if you’ll only get to know and trust me.

Call me and I’ll answer, be at your side in bad times;

I’ll rescue you, then throw you a party.

I’ll give you a long life,

give you a long drink of salvation!”

Eugene H. Peterson, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2005), .

II. God’s power saves you

. . . a mighty one who will save . . . (, ESV)

A. Illustration: Movie Cliffhanger where Sylvester Stallone’s character is unable to hold on to _______

B.

III. God’s delight is upon you

. . . he will rejoice over you with gladness . . . (, ESV)

NLT: He will delight in you with gladness

Do you picture God like this?

I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul. (, ESV)

His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man, but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love. (, ESV)

IV. God’s love quiets you

. . . he will quiet you by his love. . . (, ESV)

A. Illustration: A mother’s quieting love.

B. Are you fretting this morning? Allow God’s love to quiet you. Are you worried this morning? Allow God’s love to quiet you. Are you restless or discouraged this morning? Allow God’s love to quiet you. Are you weighed down by burdens today? Allow God’s love to quiet you.

C. How? Be still. Meditate on the depth of his love for you. Try to fathom the unfathomable. God’s Holy Spirit will begin to testify and confirm with your spirit just how deeply you are loved today.

V. God’s singing surrounds you

. . . he will exult over you with loud singing. (, ESV)

i. “Think of the great Jehovah singing! Can you imagine it? Is it possible to conceive of the Deity breaking into a song: Father, Son and Holy Ghost together singing over the redeemed? God is so happy in the love which he bears to his people that he breaks the eternal silence, and sun and moon and stars with astonishment hear God chanting a hymn of joy.” (Spurgeon)

ii. “If God sings, shall not we sing? He did not sing when he made the world. No; he looked upon it, and simply said that it was good. The angels sang, the sons of God shouted for joy: creation was very wonderful to them, but it was not much to God, who could have made thousands of worlds by his mere will. Creation could not make him sing … When all was done, and the Lord saw what became of it in the salvation of his redeemed, then he rejoiced after a divine manner.” (Spurgeon)[3]

· “singing” (רִנָּה) – can mean sing (; ), loud cry, shout, glad, rejoice, joy

· “rejoice/exult” (גיל) – rejoice, greatly rejoice, delight, exult

· Could be translated “rejoice over you with joyful singing” (see NLT)

· Other passages that speak of the “motherhood of God” are , ; and . might also be included, and see also .[4]

Our God is a “singing” God. God the Father sings to the Jewish remnant entering the kingdom (v. 17). God the Son sang at the close of the Passover Feast, and then went to the garden to pray (). He also sang after His triumphant resurrection from the dead (; ). God the Spirit sings today through the hearts and lips of Christians who praise God in the Spirit ().[5]

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. )![6]

The word translated “mighty” is gibbôr, an adjective usually used as a noun, often translated “hero” or “warrior” as in 1:14. It is used most frequently with military activities to describe one “who has already distinguished himself by performing heroic deeds.”

Kenneth L. Barker, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, vol. 20, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 495–496.

The word translated “mighty” is gibbôr, an adjective usually used as a noun, often translated “hero” or “warrior” as in 1:14. It is used most frequently with military activities to describe one “who has already distinguished himself by performing heroic deeds.”

Kenneth L. Barker, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, vol. 20, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 495–496.

[1] Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible (Biblical Studies Press, 2005).

[2] Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Concerned, “Be” Commentary Series (Colorado Springs, CO: Chariot Victor, 1996).

[3] David Guzik, Zephaniah, David Guzik’s Commentaries on the Bible (Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik, 2001), .

[4] Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Concerned, “Be” Commentary Series (Colorado Springs, CO: Chariot Victor, 1996).

[5] Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Concerned, “Be” Commentary Series (Colorado Springs, CO: Chariot Victor, 1996), 137.

[6] http://www.desiringgod.org/messages/the-pleasure-of-god-in-the-good-of-his-people