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 3:17, NLT

To say that we were richly blessed by the choir, orchestra, and children last Sunday is quite the understatement. Each person played a tremendous part helping us all to enter the Christmas story through songs, music, and drama. In addition, the voices of the congregation filled the room with praise through familiar Christmas carols.   

Lately, I’ve been dwelling on God’s word to His people through the prophet Zephaniah. I believe that Zephaniah 3:17 is a Christmas carol in its own right. However, this is not a carol that we sing to God, but one that He sings over us. This carol speaks of Immanuel, God with us: “For the Lord your God is living among you.” He then sings that the Lord living among us is “a mighty savior.” This reminds us of the words spoken by the angel to the shepherds, “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord” (Luke 2:11, NIV). The Lord reveals His gladness and love for humanity by sending His Son through whom we are restored into proper relationship with the Father and given everlasting life. Zephaniah 3:17 serves as a great reminder that God is the original singer of Christmas carols. Our singing is in grateful response to God singing over us with His love.

We may not realize it, but we all have a song to sing. Singing is built into the fabric of creation. When Job finally hears from God, which is so longed for, God answers him with confronting questions, one of which goes like this: “Where were you … as the morning stars sang together, and all the angels shouted for joy?” (Job 38:4, 7, NIV). If singing is in the fabric of creation, then it’s no wonder that God’s people raise their voices to sing at Christmas, as we celebrate the Eternal Word of God, through whom all things were made, becoming flesh (John 1:1-3, 14).

The Christmas season reminds us that we’ve got a song of love, hope, peace, and joy to sing to the world. When Mary shares the news with her cousin Elizabeth that she would give birth to the Savior of the world, Elizabeth says to her, “You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said” (Luke 1:45, NLT). Mary responds by bursting out in song, ““Oh, how my soul praises the Lord. How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!” (Luke 1:46-47, NLT) When the angel announced to the shepherds that the Savior had been born in Bethlehem, suddenly the heavenly hosts appeared singing, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to all whom God favors” (Luke 2:14, NLT).

Yet, even with the vast collection of Christmas carols at our disposal sometimes we lose our song. Sometimes it is the busyness of the season that steals our song. Other times, it is the heaviness of loss experienced since the last Christmas. Many times, we don’t even know how we’ve lost our song. As the poets say, “There are songs I used to sing, but have since forgotten all the words.” Certainly, we can understand this experience at times. The great news of Zephaniah’s Christmas carol is that even when we forget the words and lose our song, we can trust that God never forgets His song. He rejoices over us with joyful songs.