...All the earth will be devoured by the fire of my jealousy.
Then I will purify the speech of all people, so that everyone can
worship the Lord together. " -Zephaniah 3:8-9
Never 'saw' this verse before this morning; coupling God's jealousy with the idea of purifying our speech. Jealousy for what? Stolen glory? A stolen creation? Beauty and Unity ransacked and pillaged? And purified speech? What would that be like? What happened to corrupt it? What did it sound like before it was corrupted? And what does purified speech sound like?
I think our language and heart have been hi-jacked by the enemy of our souls, more than we even realize. And the jealous love of our Maker is in current and on-going process of reclaiming us from the enemy of our souls; the one that is always hunting us down to devour and destroy us. God is in the process of restoring to us our true speech, our true language... the language of praise, a unifying language. When we praise our maker, we begin to right the world, right our hearts; the rudder of our soul-ship begins to creak and groan, steering us back to our Maker, the one who completes us, aligns us with our true North, our home-country.
He is restoring the world to our unified language, one where we will all understand one another once again, pre-Babel, our native tongue, the language of praise!
We hear Him sing to us, and we sing back. That is the heart of worship.
"Cheer up, Zion! Don't be afraid! For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs." - Zephaniah 3:16-17
For more thoughts on worship and our singing God see http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/jesus-sings
For your listening pleasure: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV2nCP2mz14
Never 'saw' this verse before this morning; coupling God's jealousy with the idea of purifying our speech. Jealousy for what? Stolen glory? A stolen creation? Beauty and Unity ransacked and pillaged? And purified speech? What would that be like? What happened to corrupt it? What did it sound like before it was corrupted? And what does purified speech sound like?
I think our language and heart have been hi-jacked by the enemy of our souls, more than we even realize. And the jealous love of our Maker is in current and on-going process of reclaiming us from the enemy of our souls; the one that is always hunting us down to devour and destroy us. God is in the process of restoring to us our true speech, our true language... the language of praise, a unifying language. When we praise our maker, we begin to right the world, right our hearts; the rudder of our soul-ship begins to creak and groan, steering us back to our Maker, the one who completes us, aligns us with our true North, our home-country.
He is restoring the world to our unified language, one where we will all understand one another once again, pre-Babel, our native tongue, the language of praise!
We hear Him sing to us, and we sing back. That is the heart of worship.
"Cheer up, Zion! Don't be afraid! For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs." - Zephaniah 3:16-17
For more thoughts on worship and our singing God see http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/jesus-sings
For your listening pleasure: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV2nCP2mz14
Heather, I read the book of Zephaniah every once in awhile.
ReplyDeleteI like your devotion it spoke to my heart.
Linda Theresa Peterson
Beautiful ponderings. I've been brought to the thought of how many times have I stopped the work God wanted to do in my life because of words that I have spoken.
ReplyDelete