Posts Tagged: noisy joy
“QUIET LOVE”
Zephaniah is a book that is full of God’s fury and judgment, first and foremost with his own people, Judah. But other nations also come in for some pretty strong words. Apparently, God doesn’t put up with a lot of crap from anybody!
However, toward the end of this very stormy book, the skies clear and bright sunshine breaks through. 3:17 is one of the most beautiful, haunting, and difficult to translate verses in the whole of the Bible. Here is one attempt:
“The LORD your God is in your midst,
A victorious warrior.
He will exult over you with joy,
He will be quiet in His love,
He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.” (Zephaniah 3:17 New American Standard Bible, 1995)
While there are many intense debates as to precisely how this verse should be translated, there do seem to be certain key components. In a very non-poetic bulleted list, these components might look like this:
- God fights for us, in spite of all our messing up.
- God rejoices over us greatly.
- But God will also be quiet in his love—or perhaps, God will quiet us by his love.
In any case, there is both noisy joy and quiet love involved in God’s love for us. I once heard someone say, “You know you’re really in love with someone when you can enjoy being quiet with them.”
Often, we think of God’s silence as being a problem. But what if his silence is another expression of his love? What if God loves us (me, you, the entire human race) so much that he is reduced to silence?
Or, on the other hand, what if we are sometimes so in love with God that we are reduced to silence in his presence? Might that not be a sign of love? Indeed, might silence be a form of love?
The monks at Gethsemani Abbey, a Trappist Monastery near Bardstown, Kentucky, have a sign that says, “SILENCE IS SPOKEN HERE.” Yes! Maybe we need to get over our fear of silence. Maybe silence is one of the languages that divine love speaks.
DOWN TO EARTH BELIEVER
- DTEB, “Getting Christ and Ourselves Back in Focus” November 11, 2024“Col. 3:1 ¶ If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Col. 3:2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. Col. 3:3 For you have died, and your life is hidden […]
- “Search Me!” October 27, 2024“Psa. 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! 24 And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Psalm 139:23-24, English Standard Version) I am participating in a Bible study, and this is a prayer […]
- “Christian Speech” October 26, 2024“Eph. 4:29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” Foulkes, in his excellent commentary on the Book of Ephesians, writes the following, which I quote at some length: “29. Now the […]
- “God is in the Details” October 11, 2024“The devil is in the details.” (A general saying, often quoted by lawyers, reporters, and negotiators.) “God is in the details.” (Me, almost certainly not original.) “Luke 12:7 Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.” (Jesus) God does not micromanage, but God […]
- “Grandma’s Pump” October 8, 2024When I was a little critter, I would stay at my grandma’s house for a night or two sometimes. I liked this for a lot for many reasons. One thing I liked about staying with her was that Grandma’s house was much more technologically advanced than ours was. For one thing, she had indoor water—sort […]
- “Wearing the #14 Wrong-Side-Out” October 5, 2024Pete Rose, #14, is dead. Many of the old guys with whom I play softball watched him play and appreciated him greatly. I do as well. He was one of the greatest players who ever played the game. Yes, he admitted (eventually) to betting on baseball. But many of us still regard him as one […]
- “Passing Along the Love (and a Link)” October 4, 2024Several years ago, a friend of mine put me onto a daily meditation by Richard Rohr and friends. I don’t read them all the time, but I probably should. They are good! I thought that today’s writing was especially good, and I also figured that this would be a good way to post something. I […]
- “Witnessing Versus Being Witnesses” September 19, 2024“Acts 1:1 In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, Acts 1:2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. Acts 1:3 He presented himself alive to them after […]
- “A Bathroom Prayer for Hurting Hands” September 11, 2024A week ago Sunday, my hands were hurting so badly at church that I went to the bathroom to run hot water over my hands. Arthritis perhaps, or carpal tunnel, or general orneriness—I don’t know why my hands hurt, but they do. They have for years. So, while I was running hot water over my […]
- “Waiting and Seeking” September 10, 2024“Lam. 3:19 ¶ Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! Lam. 3:20 My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. Lam. 3:21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: Lam. 3:22 ¶ The steadfast love of the LORD […]
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