The Joy of the Lord: God's Delight in You Is Your Strength

This wonderful verse in Zephaniah 3: 17 offers an insight into the love and joy of God. 

‘He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.’

When studying translation, the first instance of ‘rejoice’ is Strong’s H5937, meaning ‘to jump for joy, i.e. exult:--be joyful, rejoice, triumph. ‘Gladness’ is H9057, meaning ‘blithesomeness or glee:-- exceeding(-ly), gladness, joy(-fulness), mirth, pleasure, rejoice’. The second instance of rejoice is H1523, meaning ‘to spin round (under the influence of any violent emotion), usually rejoice:--be glad, joy, be joyful, rejoice’.

This verse is telling us that God jumps for joy, exults, rejoices, is gleeful, triumphs, and spins around for joy over us. His joy is not dispassionate or intellectual, or in any way dignified. The happiness we bring him evokes an impassioned dance, while singing and shouting for joy. 

To stern reformists, the idea that God might be pleased with us, blessed by us, and full of joy because of us is hard to take, and the notion of him spinning, jumping and shouting for joy about his children is unimaginable. Their god is stern, mirthless, and dour, but thankfully, that miserable entity is not the God of the Bible. 

It is brain-bustingly wonderful to know that we can bless God so deeply. Every mystical believer I know, in my faith and others, are frequently full of joy, because their lives are filled with love.

Take this poem by the 14th Century Sufi Mystic, Hafiz of Shiraz.

A One Story House

I am glad that my Master lived
In a one-story
House

When I began to traverse
The early stages of
Love.

For when he would speak
Of the wonders and beauty of creation,

When he began to reveal
The magnificent realities of God

I could not control my happiness
And would commence
An ecstatic dance

That most always resulted in a
Tremendous encore –

A dive, head first,
Out of his
Window.

Hafiz,
The Friend was very kind to you
During those early years

And you only broke your big nose
Seventeen times!


The experience of joy is familiar to every person who revels in the company of God. The Lord is joyful, and when we are alive to our union with him, we are joyful too. 

The Lord takes great joy in rewarding us

The Lord loves to reward us! Matthew 10: 42,

‘And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.’

The gratitude of God flows easily, and if he will reward us for the tiniest acts of service, how richly will he reward us on Judgement Day, when every expression of kindness will be revealed? 1 Corinthians 4:5,

‘Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.’

Judgement Day is often spoken of in fearful tones, but I no longer see it that way.  in terms of sin I believe it will be an era of reconciliation, including with each other, and in terms of praise and rewards it will be more abundant than the combined flow of all the rivers in the world. God is steadfast in rewarding us, but this is not about balancing the books. In his bestowing of rewards, God is pouring out blessing from a blessed heart.

Heavy, condemning theology such as Calvinism teaches us to despise ourselves as a fundament of faith, polluting our hearts and blinding us to the core truth of all existence – that God, in whose image we are made, is good. When we learn to accept ourselves, just as God accepts us, and see ourselves with loving eyes, we are able to perceive God’s true nature and revel in his abundant love. 

The joy of the Lord is our strength

In the book of Nehemiah, the Israelites had been in exile for around 70 years and were finally returning to Jerusalem. There was much to grieve over as well as to be grateful for, but Nehemiah delivers this key message in Chapter 8, verse 10:

“This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

The way I relate to this personally is that whenever I tune in to the union I (and you) have with God, I feel the strength of his love. I spent much of my life undoing religious harm so I could properly perceive him with clear eyes and was delighted to discover that his incredible companionship is tangible. 

Mystical believers lean heavily on the experience of the divine, and that experience is deeper and more extraordinary than I could ever have anticipated as a child growing up in a reformed, conservative church. I was taught more about how to react when God doesn’t answer prayer than when he does. I was told that we all go through ‘wilderness periods’ or similarly named experiences of ‘spiritual dryness’, but rarely if ever encouraged to expect tangible intimacy with the Lord. 

Over the course of several decades, I untied the religious knots my soul was bound in and found my way to a promised land of spiritual intimacy. Not because I’d done anything to earn it, and not because I gained something I had previously lacked, but because every dogmatic burden I dropped left me freer to enjoy the union with God that had been there all along.   

Life is hard, but whatever we go through, that deep resource of the goodness of God is always present. The love, joy, and peace of God can be experienced and drawn upon, strengthening us as we pass through even the hardest of challenges. Psalm 23:4,

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

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For anyone wanting to read my personal journey of faith, How to Know God is available on all regional Amazon sites. For those interested in the topic of judgement (ours and God’s, including the Day of Judgement) “Who Am I To Judge?“ is also available in Kindle format. Both books were written under the pseudonym James Bewley.