Thunderstruck
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Thunderstorms are incredible, fascinating, powerful events. Some of you love thunderstorms. You love to hear the roar of the thunder. You love listening to the sound of pouring rain or seeing lightning splitting across the sky.
For others, thunderstorms are terrifying events that you can’t wait to be over. They cause you discomfort or fear.
No matter what you think of storms, we can all agree that they demonstrate immense power.
Sometimes though, storms take on a different form. We refer to difficult or tragic circumstances in our lives as ‘storms.’ Though we may not like it, we often have a front row seat to witness those events.
One such ‘storm’ I am reminded of occurred during the War of 1812 in the summer of 1814. This war is sometimes referred to as the “Second Revolutionary War” because it was fought over promises that were not kept by the British. Humiliated by their defeat against what they considered to be an inferior nation, the British were determined not to repeat their same mistakes. Their armies raged over the Navy and lands of the United States, ultimately arriving in Washington D.C., where they burned the government buildings, including the White House and the Capitol. From there, the British set their sights on Baltimore, one of the largest population centers in the United States at the time, and its guardian, Ft. McHenry.
Knowing the fort would likely serve as a critical point in the battle against the British, Major George Armistead, the fort commander, had commissioned two American flags to be made. One was a ‘storm flag,’ to be flown in poor weather, and was 25 feet long and 17 feet wide. The other was a ‘garrison flag,’ boasting an impressive 42 feet in length and 30 feet in width. Armistad had wanted the flag to be so large that the British couldn’t miss it from a distance.
As the British had traveled to Baltimore, they had rounded up leading civilians along the way, taking them hostage and placing them on British warships. One of these civilians was a doctor by the name of William Beans. Many of Beans’ friends had petitioned a young Baltimore attorney and one John C. Skinner to petition for his release. They were successful, but as the British were about to launch their attack on the fort, all three men were detained and placed on the ship until the battle’s conclusion.
Early on the morning of September 12, 1814, the British began their relentless bombardment of the American fort. The three Americans aboard the British ship could only watch helplessly from a distance. The barrage would continue through the next day and into the following night. On the evening of the second day, the firing ceased, followed by a deafening silence. The three Americans stood on board the deck of the ship, straining to see if the American flag still stood, or if a British flag now flew in its place. When they had last seen the fort the night before, the storm flag still flew.
As they stood watching, one of the men took a letter out of his pocket and on the back of the envelope began to scribble a poem telling of his thoughts in the moment. His first line began:
O, say can you see, by the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s — at last nights gleaming?
As they looked, his question was soon answered. Not only did an American flag wave proudly atop the flag pole, but the fort had taken down the smaller storm flag and replaced it with the enormous garrison flag. The Americans had taken the worst the British could offer and still they emerged victorious. The three men were released from the ship, and three months later the British would sign a peace treaty signaling the end of the war.
But the young poet, a man by the name of Francis Scott Key, would continue to think about what he had witnessed. In his hotel room, he would complete the poem, penning four stanzas. We know it today as the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ or ‘our national anthem.’ Most of us know the first verse, but it is the fourth that so perfectly summarizes the events of that night:
O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
Between their lov’d home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with vict’ry and peace may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the power that hath made and preserv’d us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto - “In God is our trust,”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
As Francis Scott Key witnessed the ‘storm’ of the British assault, his mind was drawn to the ultimate Power that stood behind it all and granted a victory in the end, penning a powerful anthem to commemorate the occasion. This morning, I invite you to turn with me to Psalm 29, as we look at David, who under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, also penned a power anthem in the midst of a storm, ascribing glory, and honor, and praise to the One who sits enthroned above it all.
1 Ascribe to the Lord, O sons of the mighty, Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. 2 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due to His name; Worship the Lord in holy array. 3 The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; The God of glory thunders, The Lord is over many waters. 4 The voice of the Lord is powerful, The voice of the Lord is majestic. 5 The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; Yes, the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.
6 He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, And Sirion like a young wild ox. 7 The voice of the Lord hews out flames of fire. 8 The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness; The Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. 9 The voice of the Lord makes the deer to calve And strips the forests bare; And in His temple everything says, “Glory!” 10 The Lord sat as King at the flood; Yes, the Lord sits as King forever. 11 The Lord will give strength to His people; The Lord will bless His people with peace.
The thundering of God’s voice in our lives strikes us with …
I. Awe of His Nature Through Worship (vv. 1-4)
I. Awe of His Nature Through Worship (vv. 1-4)
A. Giving to the One who possesses everything
The KJV translates this first word give. But whenever we think of giving, we think of imparting to another what they do not already have.
God already possesses everything that we could give to Him. In other words, God is totally, perfectly self-sufficient and self-sustaining. If you could give God anything He didn’t already have, He wouldn’t be God.
Instead, a better translation is ascribe.
It means to attribute something to. It means to recognize the Source. It means to recognize the Author.
Who is supposed to attribute these works to God?
The sons of the mighty
This phrase refers to the angels. You’ll remember a similar phrase from Genesis 6 where angels are described as the sons of God.
There are two main takeaways:
Firstly, that the angels themselves are created beings. They themselves can only attribute their existence to the Almighty.
Secondly, that the angels themselves possess strength and power.
20 Bless the Lord, you His angels, Mighty in strength, who perform His word, Obeying the voice of His word!
David, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, calls upon the angels attribute the works of God to Him. In other words, to worship Him.
Now, you might be thinking, isn’t that the purpose of an angel? Isn’t heaven just a bunch of angels sitting on clouds with their harps playing music?
Worship of the angels
In Revelation 4, we gain a glimpse of what worship looks like in heaven:
8 And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.” 9 And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 11 “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.”
When is God being worshipped in heaven?
At all times! At all times He is being declared worthy of everything that is ascribed to Him. And it’s not a couple chords being played on a harp, it’s loud! Because as we read there in Revelation, it’s only because of God that everything you see and cannot see was created.
But not all the angels wanted to worship God. In the biblical account we are introduced to Lucifer, an angel created by God. He was an angel of light! In the Book of Ezekiel we read that he was crafted with all these precious gemstones, “full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.” He’s not some scary-looking red dude with horns. You wouldn’t follow him if he looked like that, but people follow him because he is beautiful.
What was his purpose?
To lead the heavenly choirs! He was God’s personal composer!
Can you imagine that job in heaven?
But at some point during Lucifer’s life, he began to question why the worship and praise didn’t stop with him. And pride entered his heart and he became a fallen angel, and the Book of Revelation tells us he took 1/3 of the heavenly host with him in his descent.
So David, looking at this incredible display of God’s power, tells even the mighty angels to attribute these works to their Creator.
Worship of human beings
If the sons of the mighty should praise God, how much more should the image-bearers of the Almighty sing His praises?
4 What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him? 5 Yet You have made him a little lower than God, And You crown him with glory and majesty!
David poses an excellent question! What is man?
When you draw it all the way back to the beginning, you’re just dust. God formed human beings out of the dust of the ground, but He gave you unique meaning and significance when He what? When He breathed His breath of life into you.
And not only did He breath life into you, He made you distinct from every other living thing because you bear His image.
So God took the dust that was a little lower than the angels, crafted and formed it into beings and crowned them with His image.
And not only that, but God thinks about you!
And if man is dust that God made in His image and brought to life with the unique purpose of caring for His creation, and that Creator God thinks about you and the special purpose that He created you for, then He is worthy of our worship indeed!
But how do we worship God?
B. Worshipping in holy array
Literally clothing yourselves in the beauty of holiness
Some approach this to mean some sort of specific clothes (e.g., like that of a priest) that are set apart for worship.
However, this verse is clearly referring to the state of the heart. When we worship God, we should do so with a pure state of mind.
There is no greater beauty. Your physical appearance when you worship God does not matter. Your physical appearance when you come to church does not matter. Your clothes don’t matter, your makeup doesn’t matter, how you style your hair doesn’t matter. What God seeks is not outward beauty, but the beauty of an inward heart completely devoted to Him.
How do we achieve this holiness?
8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,
Ethan, I thought we were talking about holiness, not righteousness.
Holiness vs. Righteousness
Holiness has the basic idea of being set apart. When we talk about God being holy, our minds are drawn back to that passage in Revelation where the angels cry out “Holy, Holy, Holy!” In other words, God You are holy, You are holier still, and You are holiest of all! There is none like You!
Righteousness has the basic idea of conforming to a standard. Paul says it is only through faith in Christ that we meet that standard.
So in order to clothe ourselves with the beautiful standard of holiness that God desires in worship, we must obtain righteousness which is found only through faith in Jesus Christ.
And we not only worship God in holiness, we worship Him in awe of who He is. Why?
C. The power of God’s voice
Because God speaks powerfully across His creation.
the voice of the Lord is mentioned seven times in this psalm. In the midst of a powerful storm, David sees illustrations of the powerful voice of God.
Just how powerful is a storm?
I did a little research this week and here is what I found:
In 2019, researchers discovered that on average, a thundercloud carries 1.3 gigavolts of electricity. That’s over 1 billion volts of electricity, which is approximately 10 million times more voltage than supplied by a typical outlet in North America.
Some clouds have been calculated to carry more than 2 gigawatts of power, making them more powerful than the world’s most powerful nuclear reactors.
If we were able to harness the energy produced in these clouds, it is enough to power the entirety of New York City for 26 minutes.
https://www.livescience.com/65055-thundercloud-voltage-mapped-with-muons.html
Of course, David couldn’t have known this. It wasn’t until 2019 that this was actually proven. But the more our technology advances, the more we come to realize the incredible might of the Creator of the universe.
The voice of the Lord is upon the waters … thunders
Have you ever been to the ocean or to a large waterfall? The waters crashing against the shore or onto a river down below create thunderous noise. David attributes the voice of God to the thundering of the waters.
4 “After it, a voice roars; He thunders with His majestic voice, And He does not restrain the lightnings when His voice is heard. 5 “God thunders with His voice wondrously, Doing great things which we cannot comprehend.
The voice of the Lord is powerful
I remember as a kid when it would storm we would open up all the windows in the house and listen to the rain outside. I remember a few times where the lightning would strike so close that the entire house would shake. It’s awesome. Every time we would hear thunder, we used to joke that God was up in heaven bowling strikes. It was a fun way for us as children to remember that God is behind even the mightiest of storms. David describes it as powerful.
The voice of the Lord is majestic
In other words, its grand or overpowering.
David seems to be attributing the voice of the Lord to thunder, maybe as he sits watching a storm over the Mediterranean Sea. In the midst of the storm, and in the midst of the storms of our lives, we remain thunderstruck that God is in complete control. In view of His nature, we worship Him in awe. This leads us to the next thing God’s voice strikes us with …
The thundering of God’s voice in our lives strikes us with …
II. Amazement at Our Dependence Upon Him (vv. 5-9a)
II. Amazement at Our Dependence Upon Him (vv. 5-9a)
A. The power to break down
The Cedars of Lebanon are used throughout Scripture to symbolize greatness or wealth.
A cedar tree can grow to heights of over 130 feet with trunk diameters over 30 feet.
In Ezekiel 31, they are used to illustrate the immense power of Assyria.
In the building of the 1st and 2nd temples, it was used as a statement of splendor and wealth.
While David is almost certainly speaking about a thunderstorm’s affect on trees, we can apply the symbolism seen throughout Scripture to show that the voice of God has the power to break down great empires and cripple economies.
The next phrase, He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, and Sirion like a young wild ox, shows that God’s power to move these great monuments is like child’s play.
After God answered Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, Daniel praised God saying:
20 Daniel said, “Let the name of God be blessed forever and ever, For wisdom and power belong to Him. 21 “It is He who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings; He gives wisdom to wise men And knowledge to men of understanding. 22 “It is He who reveals the profound and hidden things; He knows what is in the darkness, And the light dwells with Him.
As David sits watching the storm, he realizes it is God who establishes the mighty cedars and has the ability to remove them. As Daniel recognizes, it is God who establishes kings and nations and who removes them.
In the midst of a storm
The lightning splits apart the sky
The winds of the storm shake the trees, almost like they tremble at the mighty power being shown.
As David sits watching a tremendous storm, he is struck by the idea that God’s voice is like these incredible demonstrations of power, and even more! His voice carries out over the tumultuous waters. His voice uproots the trees, splits apart the clouds, and causes the forests to dance.
We can learn from David. Every single one of you has storms in your life. Every single one of you faces difficulties and challenges, but in the midst of it all David recognizes the sovereign hand of God. He sees in the midst of the storm an opportunity to worship, not because it is easy, but because God is above it all.
B. The power to build up
The voice of the Lord also brings about life
Even in the midst of the storm, life is still produced. In fact, it seems that the storm has an effect of producing life.
C. The power to strip bare and expose
The voice of the Lord strips everything else away
The primary way God speaks to us today is through His Word, the Bible. That’s not to say God can’t or doesn’t speak to us through personal revelation, people, or situations, but His Word stands as the ultimate Source from which we hear God’s voice. Like a lightning bolt that hits and tree and strips it down to its core, listen to what the Holy Spirit says through the author of Hebrews about God’s ability to expose us:
12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
This is why every time you venture into God’s Word, it seems to be reading you more than you are reading it. The voice of God through His Word strips away everything that we have used to cover up parts of ourselves until it gets to the very core of who we are.
A simple thunderstorm reminds us how dependent we are upon God. It is He who builds up and breaks down empires. It is He who moves entire forests. It is He who splits apart the sky with brilliant displays of lightning. It is He who creates life in the midst of the storms. Exposed to such tremendous power, how should we respond? We would expect our response to be eloquent, as we attempt to put to words the incredible work we have witnessed. Yet …
The thundering of God’s voice in our lives strikes us with …
III. Astonishment at Our Only Response (vv. 9b-11)
III. Astonishment at Our Only Response (vv. 9b-11)
A. One word, Glory!
Seven times we see David attribute the power of the storm to the voice of God
The voice of the Lord [thunders] upon the waters
The voice of the Lord is powerful
The voice of the Lord is majestic
The voice of the Lord breaks the [mighty] cedars
The voice of the Lord hews out flames of fire
The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness
The voice of the Lord makes the deer calve and strips the forest bare
And after this incredible display of the Almighty is witnessed, how does our voice respond?
We respond in the only fitting way we can muster. Glory!
David says everything in God’s temple says “Glory!” Temple here means more than the tabernacle, or the physical temple, or even the throne room of God. It applies to all these areas as well, but has the broader meaning of all of creation. It means the whole earth. It means the entirety of the universe.
I want to share with you a selection of passages from Scripture that speak of creation giving glory and praise to God:
1 The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.
11 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; Let the sea roar, and all it contains; 12 Let the field exult, and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy
26 Lift up your eyes on high And see who has created these stars, The One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, Not one of them is missing.
Glory is the nature of God being revealed. And all we can shout back in full view of the powerful display of God’s voice is “Glory!” We, your creation, see who You are!”
And who is this God who reveals Himself to us?
B. The King forever
He is the One enthroned over the flood.
He is enthroned over judgment. He is enthroned over the storms.
He is the King forever.
In the midst of all the terrors that a storm can bring, their is a tremendous calm when we meditate upon the fact that God is enthroned above it all, and His rule has never been and never will be challenged.
He is the One who gives strength to His people
If God is abundantly more powerful than even the mightiest of storms, then He also the One who is willing and able to uphold His people, to protect them, to strengthen them.
He is the One who grants His people peace
The security we are promised from this strong God results in a peace that surpasses all understanding. There is no need to fear or worry, for the hand of the Almighty holds them up.
Conclusion
Conclusion
We’ve had a lot of thunderstorms this summer. Many of them have resulted in damage and tragedies. Many of you are currently going through storms in your life. Next time you see a storm, or find yourself in the midst of one, remember that when the thunder roars and the lightning strikes and the rain pours down, you serve a God who sits enthroned above it all. You serve a God who continuously demonstrates His power and authority. And you serve a God who loves you, who will strengthen you, and who will grant you peace in the midst of that storm.
Will you please pray together this morning?