Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why do people sing? That's a question that I was dealing with as I was preparing this text. Why do people sing? It's so natural, it's such a part of who we are that we don't perhaps give it a second thought, but it is, I think, an interesting question. I mean, as Buddy the Elf says, singing is like talking, you just move your voice up and down. Why don't we just say everything? Why do we have to put things to melody? I was curious, so I looked up this week, if there's any culture that has been discovered that doesn't have singing, and according to my brief Google search, apparently there has yet to be a culture found that doesn't practice some sort of singing, putting words to tunes. And yet if you were to ask, you know, if you were to get a hundred people and ask, you know, why do you sing? What is the purpose of singing? You would probably get a hundred different answers. That's in part because singing is so ubiquitous. We do it for so many different occasions in our life. We had a belated birthday party for Violet yesterday, and we sing happy birthday. We sing for celebrations. We sing when we're overjoyed about something. We sing, if you ever have been to a baseball game, you sing during the seventh inning stretch. You're right, take me out to the ball game. We sing when we gather together. We're rallying for a common cause. And we sing because it's just a natural artistic expression. You maybe have gone to the opera or you've gone to see a concert where someone has a beautiful voice and they sing for you. Again, it's one way, in one sense it's hard to answer because it is such a natural expression of humanity to sing. It's such a natural part of us. And yet I would argue that in some respects, that singing has fallen on hard times in the Western culture, which is ironic because now more than ever, we're inundated with music. You can pull out your phone and listen to music whenever you want. But I think by and large, we have lost the ability to sing. More and more people don't know how to sing, how to compose, how to read music, things like that. And tragically, the church, I think, has succumbed to that. There's less of an understanding of what singing is, less of a desire to sing. We often in churches want people to perform for us, to sing songs. Maybe we'll sing, but our voices are deafened often by the musical accompaniment. But again, begging the question, why? Why do we sing? What's the point of singing? Why do we do it? Why is it so ubiquitous in life? Well, we come to a text this evening that's about singing. Maybe you heard the command, the call that God gives. He tells us, shout, sing, exult, right? And then as we read in Philippians, that call from the apostle Paul, rejoice all the time. So not only as humans, but as Christians, we should be asking the question, why do we sing? What's the point of singing? Why is singing such a central part to our Christian faith? That's the question I want us to consider. Why, not just as people, but why as Christians do we sing? And I want us to answer that in this text from Zephaniah this evening. Why do we sing? The first answer to that question is, well, we'll ask another question to get at it. Why do we sing? The first question we should ask is why should we sing? Why should we sing, which we see the answer to in verses 14 and 15. I mean, as we hear this passage, it does sound like so many of the other passages of scripture that we come to where we are told very clearly, you need to sing. I mean, you can't get more than a psalm as we even use psalms so often in our calls to worship, right? This command, sing, make a joyful noise, make a shout to the Lord. And we could very easily say that as Christians, we are a singing people. And yet more than just the fact that this is just ingrained into our Christian experience, I think I want to hone in on that fact. This is an imperative for us. God commands us to sing, which is interesting. I mean, frankly, for some of us, maybe we wish God didn't command us to sing because we're not the best at it. We can't carry a tune as well as others. But interesting, God gives this imperative. Sing, make a loud noise. Again, in verse 14, sing aloud, O daughter of Zion. Shout, O Israel. Rejoice and exult with all your heart. And even more than just making a noise, right? Within you, from the depths of who you are, make this joyful noise, God says. Again, it's not just this passage. The Psalms are full of calls to worship. We read in Philippians the call to rejoice. I mean, even Paul in Ephesians will say, what does it look like to be a Christian? What is the mark of a Christian community? He says, you need to be addressing one another in Psalms and in hymns and in spiritual songs. We see here three particular expressions of this, three things that the people of Israel are called to be doing here in this text. We are told, or they are told to rejoice, right? To make a noise of joy, an expression of their joy in the Lord. You're told that it has to be loud, right? God says not just sing, but shout, you know, sing very, very loudly so everyone can hear you. And then this third word, which we find in scripture often, but we don't typically use it in our everyday speech, this command to exult, exult with all your heart. And that word exult is, I think, a helpful translation of that. You could say it's a victory shout. An exultation is a shout of success or victory or accomplishment. You know, this is the noise probably many people are hearing on their TVs right now, depending on who's up in the Super Bowl. You know, this was the sound that you heard if you watched that great game one of the World Series where Freddie Freeman hit that walk-off grand slam. You know, the natural expression of joy and excitement was just that screaming, that hugging one another, that joyful noise in Dodger Stadium. It was truly a joyful noise that evening. But again, the command is here, right? We sing because God tells us very clearly you need to be singing. But specifically in this text, why are these believers called to make such a noise to God? And again, we are given not just three types of singing, but three reasons why the people are, or three reasons that people should be singing. We're told that one, you need to make a joyful noise because all of your enemies have been removed from you. They've all been taken away, your enemies are gone. Secondly, not only are your enemies taken away, but God says your judgment also has been taken away. And then thirdly, above all, or maybe because of these things, finally, God says your king, God, the king of Israel now is dwelling in your midst. Now, to understand what exactly is being described, what the people would have understood with this announcement, these three reasons, well, we know that Zephaniah was writing these words during the reign of King Josiah. And in some ways, the reign of King Josiah was somewhat of a high point, right? It was kind of the glory days, or at least one of them, of the nation of Israel. I mean, you probably know very well History of the kings of Israel was a very checkered history. The refrain was either they were like David, they did well, or they followed after Rehoboam or Jeroboam. They did evil, they sinned against God, and they led the people astray. And here we know Josiah, by and large, was one of the good kings. If we have those two categories, he was one of the good guys. He did some great things, he reformed some of the sins and some of the waywardness the nation of Israel, he restored true worship amongst the people. And for many people, this was this joyful work, or this work to be rejoicing in that God had accomplished. Imagine looking around at the kingdom and it's going to hell, right? It's getting worse and worse. Sin and idolatry is rampant. And finally, through this righteous king, God accomplishes his purposes of restoring worship, of removing foreign enemies, of taking away judgment in the form of restoring worship and restoring the sacrificial system. The people could, they could go back to worship, they could go back to being with God and with his people, and we too. I mean, it's not just in this one particular period historically that we have these reasons, But even today, when we see these same things as Christians, our response is to make a joyful noise. When we look around and we pray and God brings about the eradication or at least the suppression of wickedness in our time, we rejoice, we give thanks. When we look around and we see the kingdom of God advancing despite all enemies, when Satan is conquered, when the forces that oppress Christianity are subdued, we rejoice, we give thanks to God. In short, we sing because we are recounting, we are remembering, we are acknowledging what God is doing in our midst, that the natural expression is to sing to him. I mean, we could say it very simply, you know, God calls them to sing. I mean, more than just the temporal situation, I mean, one of the reasons we are called to sing as Christians throughout this age is because this is what we are made for, right? This is the ultimate end of all things. I mean, what's the picture that we have throughout the prophets, throughout the book of Revelation of what the eternal state will look like? So often it's, God's people surrounding God's throne, singing to him, making a joyful noise, singing a new song to God and to the Lamb. Again, this passage reminds us not just because we're rehearsing for heaven, not just because that's where we're going, but now in our midst, in every season, God is saying, look around you, look at the specific reasons that you have to sing. I mean, all of us can look at a particular time, a particular thing that God did, and we rejoice. We are simply astonished. We can do nothing but praise God for His faithfulness to us. And yet, while that is certainly true, while God is faithful in every generation, while there's always reason to sing to him, there is perhaps a question looming in the minds of the people. Again, or I should say, not again, but as we come to this passage, it comes at the end of a longer narrative, a longer revelation of what God is doing, what God's going to do. There's a question looming. What is God going to do in the future? Will we in the future have reasons to sing? I mean, even in this text, there's something that maybe the people would have heard and maybe scratched their heads a little bit. Notice what God says at the end of verse 15. The King of Israel, the Lord is in your midst. You shall never again fear evil. There's never gonna be anything in your life that you need to be afraid of. We read that now, looking back thousands of years later, we know, at least in some sense, that's not the full story. If you know your Old Testament again, Josiah was great, this was a great period in the history of Israel, In many respects, this was really the beginning of the end for the nation of Israel. This was the last good king of the southern kingdom. I mean, this is the beginning of the decline. After this, the people will go from bad to worse, to exile. They'll be cast out of the land. They will have, in many earthly respects, a lot of things that they will be afraid of, a lot of things to fear. So we wanna consider our second question this evening. Certainly, we have lots of reasons, a lot of motivation to sing, but secondly, this evening, we wanna ask, why is it hard to sing? Why is it often hard for us to sing? I'm actually gonna skip a couple verses. Yes, again, this is a chiasm. I'm gonna go back to the middle as we conclude, but as we skip to verse 18 here, We see that this book concludes with this beautiful language, this beautiful list of promises of what God's going to do for his people, but we see there's a little bit of a tension here. We read through all these promises, I will gather you, at that time I will deal with your oppressors, at that time I will bring you in, I will restore the fortunes of my people before your eyes. This great theme, the theme of these last four verses really, or three, is the theme of reversal, right? Everything's gonna be turned around. Everything's gonna be brought back to be made right, to its correct purpose. And yet, for as good as this sounds, as beautiful as these promises are, I mean, what is God saying here to these people? He's saying, I'm going to gather you. Why? Because you are going to be scattered, right? going to be rejoicing in the festival in verse 18 because for a period of time, you're gonna be away from the temple. You're not gonna be able to celebrate and follow the church calendar. You're not gonna be able to go to the temple for the sacrifices. Says that I will deal with your oppressors. What does that mean? You're going to be oppressed. You're gonna be sent away into foreign lands. And what is God telling them? In short, it's, you are going to go into exile. That's what God's declaring. I mean, he's saying, yes, there's gonna be a better outcome, but in the short term, you are going to be exiled. I mean, imagine hearing this God in the beginning, in verse 14, in the beginning of our passage says, sing, rejoice, make a joyful noise for all the good that I've done for you. and then seemingly in the same breath, also, by the way, you're going to go into exile. Things are going to get very hard for you in just a few years. I mean, as we hear these words, this text does remind us or does teach us something, not only about their situation, but about our own, and that is that I think often we think about why it's hard to sing, the things in our life that make it difficult to rejoice in God, I think sometimes we think that if God just got rid of my external problems, then I could sing to him, then I could be happy. But this text reminds us in a very clear way, as we consider the history of the nation of Israel, that it's not just the problems out there that God needs to deal with. Certainly, Israel had enemies that needed defeating. Certainly, they had issues going on that only God could help them with. But at the core of the Old Testament, the core issue that we see time and time again is not with the outward circumstances, but with the heart of God's people, right? That they're constantly being drawn away, they're constantly being tempted to go after other gods, to put their trust in other things. I mean, that's why the exile happened. It wasn't just God arbitrarily pronouncing judgment. It was the people going wayward once again, more and more. And God finally says, okay, I'm gonna give you over to those desires. I'm gonna give you over to those foreign gods that you crave after so much. You can go live in the nations that you want to worship with. In one sense, it might seem harsh, right? God is in one sense saying, I'm giving these words to you now because things are going to get really bad. But in another way, it's God's graciousness to them, right? I know things are going to get worse and frankly, it's gonna be your own doing, but before that happens, hear this, cling to this, hold on to this, hold on to what is true. I mean, so often when we sing songs, it's not just because we're happy, because we're overjoyed. Sometimes we sing because we need to sing those words, or in other words, it's often the times we most need to sing when it is hardest to sing. It's very easy to sing when you're gathered with the congregation in the courts of Jerusalem, but it's very hard to sing the same psalms when you're in Babylon. You'll recall Psalm 137, the song written from the exile, the people say, you know, how can we sing these beautiful songs of Zion in the midst of these foreign people? It just doesn't make sense. It doesn't match our reality. I think one way to answer that question, why do we sing? Specifically as Christians, why do we sing? It's in part because scripture, just like our passage, it actually gives us the words that we so often need and so often are lacking. We sing because singing is what forms us as the people of God. We're formed by the songs of Zion that we sing in a foreign land. I mean, how many times have you read through the Psalms and you hear David say something and it doesn't quite match your reality? You don't feel the way David feels. You're not as overjoyed as David feels. Well, you need to sing that song because you don't feel that way. God has given you those words. Or how many times have you read a psalm and you identify exactly with what the psalmist is going through? Well, you need to sing those words, that both of those realities are true at different times, but again, God's word are the words that we need to sing. They're the truths that we need to identify with. The words of scripture remind us who we are, what we've been given, when externally it doesn't feel that way. Well, specifically, as we come to this passage this evening, what are those truths? What are those words that we sing? We've already read some of them, but as we hone in on the central point of this prophecy, of this, really, the song at the end of Zephaniah's prophecy, I want us to see lastly this evening, again, why do we sing? Well, lastly, the reason we sing is because we have a God who sings. We have a God who sings. You see here, as we jump back to verse 16, there's this reference. God says, on that day, it shall be said to Jerusalem, fear not, O Zion, let not your hands grow weak. Well, we wanna ask, okay, well, it sounds like great news. What is that day? Is that something we ought to be looking for? In the broader context of the book of Zephaniah, the day here that is being referred to, you probably know, is the day, right? That last and final day, the day of the Lord is the typical phrase that we hear in the prophets. I mean, this is the end of history that Zephaniah is talking about. On that last and final day, it'll be said, fear not, O Zion, let not your hands grow weak. In other words, God is saying, no matter how bad things get, and they will get bad, he's saying a day is coming, a final, ultimate day will be here when all of these realities will be reversed, all of these problems that you face will be conquered. You will, in that day, truly have no more reason to be afraid. Yet again, there's maybe this question, this tension here. God is saying, already in verses 14 and 15, I brought about your deliverance, I've protected you, I've brought you to this place. In the future, I'm going to deliver you, I'm going to remove all your enemies. Maybe the people are wondering, okay, now is God just giving us this song to sing? Is that all we have now, is a song to hold us over? And yet even as we consider that future reality, that idea of the day of the Lord, we know now, we're looking back on these words, and we know that that day is a complex. It is more than just a future reality. And this is the day that we've already heard proclaimed, the day that we've believed in, the day of the Lord when Christ came, when Christ really accomplished all of these things. I mean, notice, you know, as God says, you know, He's talking about, well, as we go to verse 17, right, the Lord your God, we are told, is in your midst, a mighty one who will save. I mean, that's the promise of the Old Testament. God will be in your midst and He will save you. And yet again, we know that's not a future reality. That has happened for us. That has been accomplished. right, a mighty one who will save, or in other words, a mighty savior will come to you. And what is the word that we hear as the New Testament begins, that the angel comes to Joseph? And what does he say, right? You will have a son, or Mary will conceive and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, right? Joshua, the very same root here, that word for God, or that word for salvation. Why? Because he will save his people, from their sins. We're told in this text what God is gonna do, and that is to deal with our greatest problem, the problem of sin, the problem of death, which God deals with in the coming in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And again, with a harp on it, but again, to answer that question, why do we sing? Well, in part, we sing because we're looking back on what God has done. We are looking forward to what God will do. But primarily, we sing because God has accomplished all that is necessary for us. We sing because if it were up to us, if it were just up to our own efforts, we would fail. And here we see, even then, even thousands of years before the coming, or hundreds of years before the coming of Christ, God is promising to accomplish the work of salvation. As wonderful as we conclude this evening, how does Zephaniah summarize God's actions towards his people? What is the language that he uses to summarize what God is doing in their midst? Well, not surprisingly, he uses the language of singing. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you by his love. He will exult over you with loud singing. You know, those same words, those same charges that we are called to do, to rejoice, to exalt. Surprisingly, we're told that God does those very things over us, not in a worship way, right? That God's not worshiping us as we worship him, but God is singing over us. He's making a joyful noise towards his people. And brothers and sisters, you know, we can sing, we can hear this as good news because of the coming of Jesus Christ. And so I just wanna, as we close this evening, meditate on these three ways in which God sings over us. It says that he will rejoice over you. In other words, God delights in you, which if you're a person hearing this in this time, as you're considering your own sinfulness, as you're considering the direction of the nation of Israel, as you're considering the history of the nation, You know, maybe you wonder, can God rejoice over me? Well, in Christ, yes, God rejoices over you as he takes away your sin, as he sees you as righteous in Christ. He sees you as a beloved son and daughter, or son or daughter. He goes on to say, not only does he rejoice in you, he quiets you by his love. That is an interesting phrase. It's kind of this idea of muttering over somebody, of shushing them. I think the best picture I could come up with is a lullaby. Many of you have dealt with crying little ones, holding them in your arms, trying to get them to sleep. What do you do? Naturally, you don't even think about it. You sing to them, you make noises. to them. You let them know that you are with them. That is what God is saying he does for us. He quiets us with his lullaby, his shushing to us. Finally, he exalts over you. Do you believe that God exalts over you, that God shouts a victory cry over you? I mean, your life may not feel like a success, like something worth of a victory cry, but again, in Christ, God has brought about your victory. God has accomplished what is lacking in you. God is working out your salvation and is bringing about his own purposes. God can look at you and see, right, as Romans 8 says that, for those who love God, that he's working all things for good for those who love him and who are called according to his purposes. So we can trust that God exalts over us with, you know, not hymns and haws and kind of whispers, but with loud singing, God rejoices over his people. And that, brothers and sisters, is why we can at all times, in all places, sing and make a joyful noise to our Heavenly Father. Amen, let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we do give you thanks once again for these precious promises, Lord, these words of comfort that you, as our heavenly Father, sing over us. Lord, you delight in us, you love us. God, you have called us as your own. You have set your electing love on each and every one of your people. Lord, help us to be comforted by that truth. Help us, Lord, to, in all situations, find a reason, as we are commanded, to rejoice in you at all times. We do pray in Jesus' name, amen.