The LORD God in Our Midst

"The LORD your God in your midst, the Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing."

Zephaniah 3:17

After chapters describing fierce judgment, God brought light to people in darkness with His presence and promise.  Though they had forsaken God, He had not forsaken them or forgotten the covenant.  They had heaped many gods unto themselves, yet the Most High God in their midst would save them.  Saving is not just what God does but Who He is because He is a Saviour.

God's character is absolutely consistent with what He does.  Men do and say things people say are "out of character," and this is debatable.  What we say and what we do are actually good indicators of our character:  who we really are, not who we aspire to be.  Because God is love He loves completely; since the fruit of the Spirit is joy He rejoices over His people with gladness.  He comforts because He is a Comforter, and He delivers because He is a Deliverer.

How awesome it is that the God who dwelt in the midst of His people has sent the Holy Spirit to fill Christians with the light of His knowledge as it is written in 2 Corinthians 4:6-7:  "For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. ⁷ But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us."  What a treasure we have in God who treasures us to such a degree, to fill us earthen vessels with His power for His glory.

Knowing the LORD our God is in our hearts and in the midst of His people who gather in His name provides great consolation and comfort, for He saves, rejoices over us with gladness and quiets us with His love.  There is no reason for a follower of Jesus Christ to remain in fear, bitterness or trouble when our God is so present and powerful, but we are not always reasonable creatures.  We can be forgetful, swept up in emotions, our perspective distorted by our own limitations and past failures, walking by sight rather than faith in God.  For all those who are in Christ we have God as our heritage, the one who rejoices over us with singing.

The prophet saw afar off what God would accomplish through the Gospel in Micah 7:18-20:  "Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy. ¹⁹ He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. ²⁰ You will give truth to Jacob and mercy to Abraham, which You have sworn to our fathers from days of old."  In light of God pardoning our sins, having compassion on us and His truth, we can have a song in our hearts and lips perpetually, for His mercies fail not.