The Singing Savior
I was recently invited to an engagement party of a woman member and her fiancé. The father of the bride-to-be, the head of the home, whispered in my ears at the start of the gathering, “I was wondering if you could say something, maybe offer some remarks to the new couple. Dip into your vast reservoir of ministry thoughts.” And so, with him ignorant of the depth of my reservoir, and with me not so much enjoying my meal as sweating it out, wondering what I’d say, I made remarks similar to the ones below here.
When I think about marriage, a lot comes to mind, but two significant realities come to the fore: weightiness and joyfulness. No one should ever enter into marriage lightly. As the Song of Solomon says repeatedly, “Do not awaken love before its time” (Song of Solomon 2:7; 3:5; 8:4). It’s right to wait, and wise not to approach marriage in a casual or cavalier attitude. The head of the home mentioned above is highly respected, a humble and wise man whose presence commands respect, and a man whose children have shown time and again that his word carries much weight in their lives. If it were just his word, however, his influence would reach his family alone. However, his life has shown a reliance on the Word of God, our Father in Heaven. This man’s life could be summarized by Paul’s words, “Imitate me, as I imitate the Lord” (1 Corinthians 11:1). If this man’s influence carried so much weight in the hearts of his family, how much weight should our Father’s Word move our hearts as we think about marriage?
Weightiness is important in marriage, but so is joyfulness. My mind recalls the first song of joy on earth. With one less rib, when he came to, Adam beheld his new bride and exclaimed in praise to his Creator, “This at last! Bone of my bone! Flesh of my flesh!” He was truly joyful at the sight of his helpmeet, the one suitable for him, and his helpmate, a true companion, a gift of intimacy from his God. But we lower our heads when he exalted himself above his wife and his God. We shudder to read that the one who praised God for his wife now throws his wife under the bus: “The woman you gave me, God—she did this! Both she and you, God, are at fault. Certainly not I!”
Let’s go back to Adam’s Pre-Fall rapture of praise. Where did he get that joy from? Have you thought about that? Have you wondered? Was it man-made? Self-manufactured? Did he not have an example, or at the very least, a source, for this heightened joy? Certainly, the praise that so easily poured out of his own heart was learned from his Father in heaven. Joy didn’t start with Adam. Remember God’s words through the prophet Zephaniah, and marvel, especially in light of her generations of joylessness, her centuries of iniquities. The LORD God said, “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” (Zephaniah 3:17). When you remember that God is eternal, you realize that for all eternity God has been rejoicing over his Church, the Bride of Christ. His shouts of joy drown out our own feeble ejaculations of praise. We can’t hear ourselves over the divine joy ringing pleasantly in our ears!
Is this not the heart of Jesus, our Groom? It was for the joy set before him that Christ endured the cross and despised the shame (Hebrews 12:2). Rather than throwing the Bride under the bus, he carried our semi-truckload of sin upon his shoulders to the cross, bore the weight of divine hatred for sin, paid the penalty for all the Bride’s sin, died the death we deserve, and rose from the dead for our justification. By his Spirit, he now washes us with the water of his Word, cleanses us, clothes us with garments of salvation, decks us with jewels of joy, and leads us in worship, the sonorous sounds of our Savior filling our ears with the good news of his love and faithfulness, always and forever, just as marriage was intended. Can you hear the voice of your singing Savior?
Rev. Dr. Michael Mock is the Pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Fresno, CA and an ACBC-certified Biblical Counselor. He’s the author of Hey, Dad, Why Do We…?: Kids Ask the Greatest Questions, Old Testament Introduction and Workbook, New Testament Introduction and Workbook, and Comfort from Corinthians: A Devotional Walkthrough of 2nd Corinthians for Sinful and Struggling Saints.
