He Will Exult Over You With Loud Singing

O my dear friends, keep in mind these glorious words from the Lord, our God, who sits enthroned in the heavens... Can you believe that he really said this? That it is really true? I can't... it's so surreal... so lovely, so entirely beyond me to understand how an all-powerful, sovereign God could say this to a wretched sinner like me... It is so beautiful, and what joy can be found in the fact that it is true!

Isaiah 30:18-26

 "¹⁸Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you,
   and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.
For the LORD is a God of justice;
    blessed are all those who wait for him.
 ¹⁹For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. ²⁰And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher.²¹ And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it," when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. ²²Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images. You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, "Be gone!"
 ²³And he will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and bread, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. In that day your livestock will graze in large pastures, ²⁴and the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. ²⁵And on every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. ²⁶Moreover, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when the LORD binds up the brokenness of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow."

Imagine this! When we have the strength to say to the unclean things, our gods, our idols - "Be gone!" And imagine when they really truly will be gone! What a burden will be lifted from us when we see that we are delivered from our temptations!  This is, indeed, a wonderful thing.  And, though our God strikes us... though he breaks us... though he inflicts wounds on us that sting and ache and make us cry out in pain... Bear in mind, dearest reader, that he is our healer... The Lord binds up our brokenness, just the same as he caused it.  He is our Rod, and he is our Healer.  How entirely awesome this is!

And the fact that we will see our Teacher... and that we will know the way in which to walk.  Nothing will be confused... it will be clear.  How I long for that day!

And... this is something else that daddy showed us the other night, that is so incredibly comforting and awing to think about.

Zephaniah 3:17

^"17The 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."

That God... the same one who wrote down the events of history... who made this earth and all the things therein, who is powerful and might... That this same God is in our midst constantly... And not only that, but he will save us.  And! Not only that... but imagine this.... he rejoices over us with gladness.  The tumult of our souls and our hearts caused by the fallen state of our depraved world will be quieted by his love.  His love is so great that it will quiet our fears, our anxieties, our anger... it will quiet us, and we will be at peace.  And not only this! But he will exult over you with loud singing.  Can you imagine that? God exulting over us with loud singing? Over us?  We are proud, indeed, to be the children of God.

And it is so comforting.  Our Father loves us, he cares for us... He really truly does! And not in a wishy washy sort of way... In a very masculine way, and yet tenderly.  His love is strong, and even the strongest men out there who are his children, must admit that even they find comfort and everlasting solace in his embrace. :)