READ: Zeph. 3:9–11: ‘… call on the name of the LORD … shoulder to shoulder … not be put to shame … no longer be haughty …’
Even in His judgment the LORD is gracious. Through judgment, purification, and separation He desires to bring about salvation, so that among a portion of His people there may be repentance. He desires to preserve a remnant that has been refined to serve Him wholeheartedly. He Himself accomplishes this by giving His people pure lips (v. 9). He changes their lips by sanctifying and purifying His church. From a pure heart come pure lips as well, for the mouth is full of what fills the heart. This is the work of the LORD: Jer. 24:7; 31:33; 32:39; 2 Tim. 2:22.
“Pure” points above all to reconciliation in Christ. Only by His blood and Spirit is purity possible. Everyone needs this, even prophets. At his calling Isaiah had to confess (Isa. 6:5): ‘Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.’ In order to make unclean lips pure again, the Lord Christ will therefore pour out His Holy Spirit. Thus His people are given new hearts. And so this believing remnant will once again call upon the name of the LORD in the unity of the true faith: they will serve Him shoulder to shoulder.
This also includes people from the other nations who are brought to faith, for verse 9 speaks of “peoples.” All this takes place with and after Pentecost, when the Lord builds His church upon the foundation of the prophets and apostles, of which He Himself is the Chief Cornerstone. Then there is forgiveness for all rebellion against the LORD. Then branches are cut off from the proud, who continue to boast in their ancestry, their church community, or their leaders, while rejecting Christ.
Verse 11b declares that for such proud people there is no longer any place in the church: ‘You shall no longer be haughty in My holy mountain.’ When showing humility then people no longer trust in outward things such as tradition or numbers, and will not say as in Jer. 7:4: ‘The temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD are these.’ With true humility, in which one expects everything from the Lord, human pride has no place, but only dependence and obedience.
Do you recognize the work of the Holy Spirit in the church?
Sing: Ps. 87:3,4