1. Zephaniah 3:17 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

What relationship is pictured with the notion that the Lord will rejoice with gladness over his people?

Zephaniah 3:17 (ESV)

17 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 notice that the Lord will rejoice over you with gladness casts the relationship between the Lord and his people as like that between a bridegroom and his bride. The picture here is specifically that of a bridegroom delighting in his bride, a figure used elsewhere (Deuteronomy 30:9; Isaiah 62:4–5; Isaiah 65:19; Jeremiah 32:41). This is remarkable. The Lord would take delight in bringing ruin upon his people for their disobedience (see Deuteronomy 28:63), but he promises to again, literally, delight with joy over his people.1