'Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice
with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem.... 17. He will rejoice
over thee with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee
with singing.'--ZEPHANIAH iii. 14, 17.
What a wonderful rush of exuberant gladness there is in these words! The
swift, short clauses, the triple invocation in the former verse, the
triple promise in the latter, the heaped together synonyms, all help the
impression. The very words seem to dance with joy. But more remarkable
than this is the parallelism between the two verses. Zion is called to
rejoice in God because God rejoices in her. She is to shout for joy and
sing because God's joy too has a voice, and breaks out into singing. For
every throb of joy in man's heart, there is a wave of gladness in God's.
The notes of our praise are at once the echoes and the occasions of His.
We are to be glad because He is glad: He is glad because we are so. We
sing for joy, and He joys over us with singing because we do.