Joy Set to Music
When I am struggling, music matters more to me than almost anything else. My music of choice is instrumental hymns, and I am still amazed at how many words come back to me from memory, verse after verse, without missing a beat.
One Sunday back in my college days, long before vision loss ever entered my story, a friend sang Be Thou My Vision. I did not yet know how fitting that title would become. What I knew in that moment was joy. The look on her face while she sang turned that hymn into my favorite, and it has stayed there ever since.
An Old Song, New Harmony
A few days ago I found a recording online, four voices singing Be Thou My Vision in pure a cappella harmony. You can hear it here. This ancient Irish hymn already lived in my heart, and hearing it wrapped in four-part harmony took my breath away.
It made me think…if four human voices can stir that much joy in me, what does it sound like when God Himself sings?
He Will Exult Over You With Loud Singing
Zephaniah 3:17 puts it this way.
“The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”
The Lord rejoices over you with gladness. He quiets you with His love. Then He raises His voice and exults over you, loud enough that Scripture stops to describe it.
A friend’s joyful voice and countenance changed a hymn for me, and four blended voices filled my heart. Neither one compares to a God who sings over His own people with that kind of joy.
“God does not hum quietly in the background of your life. He exults.”
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Imagine the Harmony
Can you imagine the harmony in that? Not just one melody, but every part of who God is moving together at once, His gladness, His love, His exultation, all poured out over you in a single song.
I do not need perfect pitch or trained ears to recognize genuine joy anymore. I recognize it in a hymn, in a harmony I stumbled across this week, and in one verse tucked inside Zephaniah. Somewhere beyond what my ears can catch, the same God is exulting over me, and over you, with a song fuller and louder than I have words for.