What Makes God Sing?

Why Would God Sing?

The steadfast love that God has for us is not only seen in the gift he gave to us of his Son, by whom we are justified and are being sanctified, but also revealed in the passion in his heart, which is so intense he cannot help but break forth in joyful singing!¹ Zephaniah 3:17 tells us that “the Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”

After careful study of this verse, I’ve come up with my own paraphrase. It’s not a word-for-word translation but an expanded rendering of what I think the original author had in mind:

The Lord your God is with you all the time. He is a powerful and mighty warrior who saves you and fights on your behalf. When he thinks of you, he exults in festive pleasure and with great delight. At other times, when protests arise in your heart, he quiets you and reassures you of his deep and abiding affection. He celebrates who you are with joyful singing.

However you read this passage, the words are stunning. Its force is unmistakable. If ever there were a Scripture verse worth committing to memory, this is it. It has rightly been called the John 3:16 of the Old Testament.

Some people resist the urge to sing because it makes them feel vulnerable. It brings to the surface passions that they feel more comfortable keeping tucked away, out of sight. Many are determined at all costs to stay in control. Singing is thus a threat to their resolve to keep a grip on their feelings. There’s no denying that there is a vast difference between speaking and singing. It goes beyond the mere fact that some people are embarrassed to sing because they lack a melodious voice. Music has a peculiar power. It infuses words with a dynamic energy that speaking could never achieve.

The Steadfast Love of the Lord

Sam Storms

The Steadfast Love of the Lord explores Scripture to find a clear picture of what God’s steadfast, unfailing love looks like and how, through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, believers experience his affection.

In other words, singing enables the soul to express deeply felt emotions that mere speaking cannot. Singing channels our spiritual energy in a way that nothing else can. Singing evokes an intensity of mind and spirit. It opens the door to ideas, feelings, and affections that otherwise might have remained forever imprisoned in the depths of one’s heart. Singing gives focus and clarity to what words alone might only make fuzzy. It lifts our hearts to new heights of contemplation. It stirs our hope to unprecedented levels of expectancy and delight. Singing sensitizes. It softens the soul to hear God’s voice and quickens the will to obey.

I can only speak for myself, but when I’m happy I sing. When my joy increases, it cries for an outlet. So I sing. When I’m touched with a renewed sense of forgiveness, I sing. When God’s grace shines yet again on my darkened path, I sing. When I’m lonely and long for the intimacy of God’s presence, I sing. When I need respite from the chaos of a world run amok, I sing.

Nothing else can do for me what music does. It bathes otherwise arid ideas in refreshing waters. It empowers my wandering mind to concentrate with energetic intensity. It stirs my heart to tell the Lord just how much I love him, again and again and again, without the slightest tinge of repetitive boredom.

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All well and good, you say. But what’s the point? The point is this: God sings too!

Sure, he speaks. He tells us what to do. His voice fills the air. He declares and denounces and proclaims and whispers. But best of all, he sings.

Some may find this hard to swallow. But Adam heard God speak in Eden. Moses quaked at God’s voice on Sinai. Jesus and John the Baptist listened as the words echoed across the waters of the Jordan River, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17). And if God can speak, why can’t he sing? We know he loves music. More than eighty-five times in the Old Testament alone we are either commanded to sing praises to God or read about someone doing it to his delight.

I wonder what God’s voice is like when he breaks forth in song. What do you hear when you envision God singing? John Piper answered that question for himself. He wrote,

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, 1,300,000 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 logs in the living room on a cozy winter's night.²

Aside from the sound of the singing God, we might wonder what he sings and why. That’s easy. He sings of his steadfast love for you. Why? Because he loves you! Here is the crowning jewel of Zephaniah 3:17: that God loves you with such emotional vitality that he exults over you with “loud singing.”

“Loud singing” or “joyful singing” is the translation of a Hebrew word that appears on several occasions in the Old Testament. It means a “ringing cry” but should not be thought of as an inarticulate shriek or scream. When the choir of Jehoshaphat belted out a ringing cry, it was the substantive declaration, “Give thanks to the Lord, for his steadfast love endures forever” (2 Chron. 20:21). God’s people are exhorted to “tell of his deeds in songs of joy” (Ps. 107:22). This requires articulate utterance (see Pss. 105:43; 126:2; Isa. 12:6; 35:10).

God’s delight is in you. You make him glad. He is overjoyed with you.

What possibly could stir the mighty God of heaven and earth to sing? Not what but who—you! God’s delight is in you. You make him glad. He is overjoyed with you. You, his child, are the apple of his eye, the choicest among ten thousand.

There was a time when I struggled to believe and embrace the truth of God’s steadfast love. I worried about my sin and guilt, until I read the prophet’s declaration that “the Lord has taken away” his “judgments against” me (Zeph. 3:15). And when I fear that my enemies will do me in, I’m reminded yet again that God is “a mighty one who will save” (Zeph. 3:17). He fights on my behalf and vanquishes all who try to persuade me that I’m far too gone and that his love is at best a dream. Even when God feels distant and remote, Zephaniah assures God’s children that “God is in your midst” (Zeph. 3:17). The omnipresent God who fills the universe takes special delight in drawing near to us all when we are drowning in doubt.

Perhaps the greatest threat to feeling God’s affection is the lingering shame from our past and even our present sin. But there is good news! God promises to “gather the outcast” and to “change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth” (Zeph. 3:19).

That’s what this has been all about: hearing in your heart the heavenly aria of God’s unfathomable love for you. He doesn’t just say it. He doesn’t just write it. He doesn’t just tell others who in turn pass the word on to you. God sings to you lyrics like, “I love you, oh how I love you! My child, I love you with a love that is eternally steadfast!”

Notes:

Some have questioned the legitimacy of applying this text to Christians today. They contend that it is addressed to Israel, God’s old covenant people. But according to Ephesians 2:11–22 and Galatians 3:16 and 29, believing Gentiles are included among the seed of Abraham, equal heirs with believing Jews of all the promises made to the patriarchs. Some say this text is inapplicable because it refers to the future of God’s covenant people. That is true, but the principle of what it tells us concerning the character of God is timeless. God doesn’t only begin to love us in this way in the age to come—his love spans eternity past into eternity future. And though it is true that the text speaks of God’s people corporately, what is the corporate entity if not a collection of the many individuals who comprise it? What applies to the corporate body applies equally to every person who is a constituent part of it.
John Piper, The Pleasures of God: Meditations on God's Delight in Being God(Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 1991), 187.

This article is adapted from The Steadfast Love of the Lord: Experiencing the Life-Changing Power of God’s Unchanging Affection by Sam Storms.

Sam Storms (PhD, University of Texas at Dallas) is the founder and president of Enjoying God Ministries and serves on the council of the Gospel Coalition. Sam served as visiting associate professor of theology at Wheaton College and is a past president of the Evangelical Theological Society. He is the author or editor of 37 books and blogs regularly at SamStorms.org. Sam and his wife, Ann, are the parents of two daughters and grandparents of four.

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