Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Zephaniah 3:14-20
The Sing Of The Redeemed (Zephaniah 3:14).
‘Sing, O daughter of Zion, shout, O Israel,
Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem,
YHWH has taken away your judgments,
He has cast out your enemy.
The King of Israel, even YHWH, is in the midst of you.
You will not fear evil any more.'
The final glorious triumph of God is here depicted. He has become King of all His people. He has delivered fully. No evil will ever trouble His people again. This can only refer to the eternal state, the everlasting kingdom (Ezekiel 27:24; Daniel 7:14; Daniel 7:27). This is the eschatological vision of the prophets. The ‘daughter' of Zion includes all who have responded to God through His word going forth from Zion, who are the new and faithful Israel, having become part of the house of Jacob (compare Isaiah 2:2; Isaiah 56:7; Zechariah 8:23; John 10:16; Ephesians 2:19, compare 12; Galatians 3:29; Galatians 6:16; Romans 11:17; James 1:1).
‘In that day it will be said to Jerusalem,
“Do not be afraid, O Zion,
Do not let your hands be fearful.
YHWH your God is among you,
A mighty one who saves.
He will rejoice over you with joy,
He will be silent in his love,
He will joy over you with singing.” '
This would, of course, partly be fulfilled in His church, the new Israel. But it is Revelation 21-22 which brings out the full meaning of these words. In their lives lived in heavenly places, in the Jerusalem that is above (Galatians 4:26; Hebrews 12:22), and then in the new heavenly Jerusalem, which replaced the old after the death of Christ brought the old under a curse (Hebrews 12:22; Revelation 21:1; Galatians 4:26 see also Daniel 9:26), there will be no need for fear. God will openly dwell among them as the great Protector and Deliverer, mighty in deliverance, and His love will be on them, He will rejoice over them, He will enjoy with them the silence of a lover who is so content that he does not speak, He will sing with joy over them.
“I will gather those who have been afflicted from the congregation,
Who were from you. The burden on it was a reproach.'
Those who have been afflicted (see Zephaniah 3:12) are to be ‘gathered' by God ‘from the congregation, those who were from Zion', (that is from the congregation of all Israel). These afflicted ones are those who will have been purified by their afflictions. They will be gathered by God as His true people.
‘The burden on it was a reproach.' ‘It' is feminine and probably therefore looks back to ‘love' which is a feminine noun. This is probably referring to the fact that Israel's sin was a burden on God's love, which brought reproach on the majority of Israel, that is on those whom affliction did not bring to repentance.
“Behold at that time I will deal with all those who afflict you,
And I will save her who is lame, and gather her who was driven away.
And I will make them a praise and a name,
Whose shame has been in all the land (or earth).”
But those who cause the affliction of God's true people will be dealt with by God, while the lame and the outcast will be saved by God. They have been a shame throughout the land, but they will be made ‘a praise and a name', that is will be made someone important and praiseworthy because they are those whom God has delivered. The deliberate contrast is that the so called worthies will be brought low and brought to judgment, while the weak and the shameful who repent will be exalted (as Jesus regularly taught - e.g. Matthew 21:31; Luke 13:30; Luke 14:11).
Note the reference to the lame. It was to the lame and the blind that Jesus manifested His power (Isaiah 35:5; Matthew 11:5; Matthew 21:14).
“At that time I will bring you in,
And at that time I will gather you,
For I will make you a name and a praise among all the peoples of the earth,
When I change your fortune before your eyes.”
Zephaniah finishes with the promise of restoration of the people of Israel, which will make them a witness to all the world of God's power and goodness, for their fortunes will be reversed. This restoration has a near, a middle and a far view. The literal restoration to the land is the near view, which will take place after the exile, the gathering of those who responded in belief to the name of Christ is the middle view, but the final restoration comes when Gods people share glory with Him in the new heaven and the new earth.
So the message of Zephaniah is one of judgment that is coming, both in the near future and the far future, and of how God will use it to call out a people for Himself who will be purified through the afflictions they endure, and who in the end will rejoice in His presence.