My heart raced as the opposing team harassed our point guard while the clock ticked down the final seconds of the State Championship game. If they stole the ball, their deadeye, three-point shooter would surely tie the game. Finally, the clock reached zero and our point guard hurled the basketball skyward! The Remington High School Broncos won the 2001 Kansas State 2-A Basketball Championship.
Bramlage Coliseum erupted with Bronco fans cheering wildly while the cheerleaders cartwheeled across the gym floor and parents stormed the court. Normally stoic people turned into crazed, dancing fans as they celebrated the victory of their sons, grandsons, brothers and friends. Hundreds of people frolicked like children as they rushed to hug their sweaty sons, grandsons and friends like a wild jubilee. The sound still echoes in my ears 25 years later as my son, Caleb, and his championship teammates gather this weekend for the celebration RHS is giving in their honor.
I often think of those moments when I read Zephaniah 3:17:
“The Lord your God in your midst,
The Mighty One, will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.”
In the original Hebrew, there are three different words used in this passage that convey a deeper meaning:
- Śūś (שׂוּשׂ): Often translated as “rejoice” in the first half of the verse, this word carries the meaning of being bright, cheerful, or displaying outward mirth.
- Gīl (גִּיל): Used in the final phrase, the word for rejoice means “to spin around” under the influence of violent emotion, often interpreted as dancing, leaping, or twirling with intense glee.
- Śimchāh (שִׂמְחָה): A noun translated as “joy” or “gladness” (“He will rejoice over you with joy“). It refers to the internal state of pleasure and happiness.
Many years ago I was listening to Gary Wiens speak and he asked the audience this simple question: When you imagine God sitting in the heavens, is He sitting there with His arms crossed like He’s disappointed in your performance or do you imagine Him singing and dancing around wildly in celebration of you?
I was in my early 40’s at the time and I silently answered his question: He’s sitting there with his arms crossed in disappointment at my repeated failures, of course. I could make a list a mile long of all the promises I made to Him that I broke, how many times I had failed him in my life, how often I stumbled and fell. Surely, God never rejoiced over me.
Wait, what? You mean the Bible tells me that God actually rejoices over me to the extent He spins around wildly, dancing, leaping and twirling with intense glee?
I began to discover that, yes, there are many verses in the Bible about how much God loves His weak, broken, stumbling children with a love that is wild and furious.
Of all the passages of the Bible that change the way I view myself and God’s view of me, it is this passage in Zephaniah. As I began to hunt through the Bible, I discovered there are many more passages similar to the idea that God’s joy over us is indescribable and almost unbelievable.
Almost unbelievable.
I, like many people, have a default belief system that has been programmed into me over the years. My default had been that God was disappointed with me. Oh, sure, He sent Christ to be my savior but was probably sorry He did.
However, nothing could be further from the truth. It’s taken a while, but I’ve replaced those default, negative beliefs about how God sees me and am now in a place where I quickly replace my original defaults with a new belief system. If the Bible says He rejoices over me with dancing, leaping and singing, who am I to argue with that? And why would I want to?
Your God, the lover of your soul, is your biggest cheerleader. He knows you struggle, but he sees those small victories and rejoices over you like their state championships.
In the great game of life, He places you at the center of the court, drapes the victor’s net around your neck and hands you the first-place trophy.
All the while singing and dancing wildly over you.