Zephaniah 3:17 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

The Lord, your God, is in your midst,

a warrior who gives victory;

he will rejoice over you with gladness,

he will renew you[a] in his love;

he will exult over you with loud singing

Zephaniah 317 has long been one of my favorite verses of Hebrew Bible.

I don't remember the first time I read Zephaniah 3:17. I did read through the entire Bible when I was 17 years old, so it was probably then, and at that point in my life I was a King James Version only guy so I assume the first time I read this passage I read it like this,

“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.”

It didn’t impact me then, but it would later.

The first time I preached a sermon based on Zephaniah 3:17 was May 26, 1991, it was the 445 sermon I ever preached.

The sermon, entitled A God who Sings, came shortly after I was re-introduced to the verse and was blown away by it.

In the early 1990’s I was using the New International Version of the Bible and was simply overwhelmed as I read the words.

“The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.”

I was smitten by second part of the verse:

“He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.”

The line, rejoice over you with singing, painted a very specific picture for me.

In 1991, I was a parent of young children, Luke was 9 and Caleb was 5. Part of the routine was spending time with them as they were getting ready for bed.

Often, I would sit on the side of their bed, stroking their heads, telling them stories, and singing them songs. I have a ridiculous singing voice but they didn’t mind it then. Later they would ask me to just be quiet and drive as the rest of the family had sing-a-longs in the car, when as itty bits, they liked (and giggled at) my singing.

Often, after they were asleep I would linger, just staring at them, and quietly singing over them.

And that is what I envisioned when I read Zeph. 3:17

God, like a loving parent watches over us, and holds us tight, and sings lullabies over us.

It took me to a whole new level of understanding the nature of God,

God’s Love for me,

God’s Kindness to me,

The Joy God takes in me being me,

God’s Graciousness toward me.

And that is how I have understood this passage for years, three decades, until just a few weeks ago.

As you may or may not know, I plan my yearly sermon schedule and get it in the hands of Brad, Marilyn, Mary and Linda well before the year begins. They already have my 2020 preaching schedule.

I set up my sermons so that I am in the gospels from the new year to Easter and then I use the lectionary from Easter to Advent.

A few weeks ago, Brad or Mary, can’t remember which one, emailed me to say I didn’t have a sermon listed for September 29. And sure enough, I had neglected to list September 29 in my 2019 schedule.

And rather than look up the prescribed passage in the lectionary I simply decided to go with Zeph. 3:17. It is an old standby for me and I love it so much and I haven’t worked with it in awhile so I thought it would be fun.

But as I started working with the verse, I was greatly surprised by the rendering of the words (well, one word) in the New Revised Standard Version.

“The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”

“Exult over you with loud singing” is very different, in my opinion, from “he will rejoice over you with singing”

That word “loud” completely changes the meaning for me.

God is no longer looking over the child’s bed singing lullabies to the beloved. All of a sudden, God is loud and unruly, singing to us at the top of God’s lungs.

I was confused. Why translate it thusly? I am not great at Hebrew but I did a little work and came to the verb the writer uses in Zeph. 3:17, ranan.

Elsewhere in the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible, ranan is translated as “ringing cry, sing loudly, to shout, to sing super joyfully.”

To be loud

Where I grew up, in a Midwest small town, high school graduation ceremonies were big events. They were always held in the school gym. The gym was packed. It was always hot, sweat through your shirt hot. High school graduations were kind of solemn affairs, with lots of decorum and restrained behavior, with prayers, Choirs, a community speaker (often a preacher). When it came time to hand out diplomas, The audience was encouraged (multiple times) to refrain from applause until all the students received their diplomas. A few families would whoop and holler when their kids names were called, but generally, people were mid-western polite.

I have had the privilege of attending two or three graduation ceremonies every year since I moved here and generally they are not quaint quiet reserved ceremonies. There is sometimes non-stop whooping and hollering and singing and dancing in the aisles. The sense of celebration is profound and a bit exhaustive.

Ranan- a ringing shout of celebration.

Both are valid expressions of celebration!

Here is the thing- Parents sweetly sing lullabies to their kids at bedtime and parents also shout and scream encouragement at their kids’ gymnastic meets.

My introduction to the word and idea of ranan has helped me understand God as parent and guardian in more profound way.

God as a loving parent, who rejoices over God’s children, shushing them with sweet lullabies.

God, as a loving parent, cheers us on loudly as We journey on in this life.

Music fills the air as God sings over us, to us, and with us.

In the joys of life, God celebrates with us, like the parent who has held her breath while her child played his piece at the piano recital, and exhales in celebration when the last note is played and then hums the tune all the way home in the car.

In the heartaches of life, God comes alongside, as a parent who leaves the stands and rushes to the track to help their child who has fallen and sprained an ankle. Helping her up and putting an arm around her they slowly move to the finish line while ‘chariots of Fire’ blasts out over the loudspeaker.

In the journey of life, God is by our side, just as a parent who sits down with his son and sings out Queen’s “we are the champions” as his son opens his “you are accepted letter’ for his first choice university.

In the frustrations, God is like the parent who after his daughter misspells the last word of the spelling bee, takes her for ice cream and plays all the Taylor Swift songs on the retro-jukebox. Or the mom who embraces her son after he is cut from the basketball team and reminds to him how Michael was cut as a freshmen as well. She can’t help herself as she quietly sings, “I get knocked down but I get up again,’ and before long he is singing it too.

God, like a parent, is unbelievably loud as her child has broken away from the pack and she moves down the pitch toward the open goal. Only one word in this song, gggoooaaal!

God sings over you, in loving comfort or in exhilarating encouragement. Know that wherever you are, whatever you are doing, however it is going, God is present, singing over you just what you need to hear!

Amen.