Psalm 29
Notes
Transcript
Announcements
VBC
Kailee, Karissa, Steve
Prayer
Intro
When Isabelle was a baby, we went to pick blackberries at Sumner Middle school.
It’s a little over a mile from our house, and it was a nice day, there was a chance of rain later on, so we just decided to take her in the stroller.
We got to the school, the sky got a little darker and some clouds started rolling.
But as we kept picking berries, it got darker.
And darker.
Pretty soon, the wind picked up.
And we said, we better go.
We didn’t even make it out of the parking lot with our little baby when the wind was gusting. The sky was black. Rain was pelting.
We took cover under a tree and texted our community group.
Is anyone out there? Can someone come get us?
Spencer Doherty ended up heading the call as we folded up our stroller and rode home in the pelting rain.
It can be hard to remember storms when it’s 90 degrees outside.
What’s your storm story?
Maybe you watched a thunderstorm because you grew up in the midwest, or you went hiking and got caught in a storm, or maybe you’ve lived through a hurricane.
Maybe you’ve been out at Ocean Shores or Long Beach and seen a huge storm make landfall.
If you lived in Ancient Israel, you knew storms.
Israel’s western border was the shore of the Mediterranean sea.
They knew tropical storms. Thunder. Lightning.
Think of life before doppler radar’s and 10 day forecasts. Imagine the surprise, awe, and terror of hearing a thunder clap.
There was nothing more powerful, more beautiful, more terrible, more awe-inspiring, more majestic, more fearful, more amazing than a storm.
And if you lived in Ancient Israel, you knew God.
And Psalm 29 says, God is like a storm. He moves with unmatched force and power and majesty to be with his people, and like people shout in amazement at a lightning strike that lights up the sky, his people shout Glory in his presence.
Psalm 29 praises God as the king above the storm.
This morning we’re going to be caught up in the storm as we study this Psalm.
Like a storm this Psalm is on the move from heaven in verse 1 to earth in verse 11.
We’ll see glory in heaven in verses 1-2, the path of the storm in verses 3-9, and peace on earth in verses 10-11.
Glory in Heaven
Glory in Heaven
Before the storm makes it’s way to earth, we begin with a song of praise in heaven.
We are studying the Psalms this summer.
Taking them section by section each summer, we hope to be done sometime around the year 2037.
Isabelle starts Kindergarten in a couple weeks so we should hit Psalm 150 by the time she is working a part time job at Farrelli’s.
Psalms 26-28 are kind of a group.
Each highlight David crying out to God in distress.
David is afraid, desperate, in need, yet also confident and coming to God as the judge, his light and salvation, his rock.
And even though he’s on the verge of death, being attacked by enemies, yelling for God’s help, he also has confidence, hope, peace, and joy.
God answers David’s prayer.
And so Psalm 29 and 30 are joyful celebrations. God, you answered!
God you heard my voice, and you responded.
And Psalm 29 is saying here is what God is like…
The Psalm begins
1 Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
2 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.
In my study Bible there is a hyperlink connecting this verse with 1 Chron. 16:28.
28 Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength!
29 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
bring an offering and come before him!
Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness;
This passage and Psalm 29 are identical. So how does that help us?
Well earlier in 1 Chron. 16 it says
1 And they brought in the ark of God and set it inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before God.
So this song was sung as the ark was coming into Jerusalem.
If you remember, that was the setting for Psalm 24 as well. So we are still in this context of worshiping God as he comes to be with his people.
God has defeated his enemies. David is the king. And the people celebrate.
7 Then on that day David first appointed that thanksgiving be sung to the Lord by Asaph and his brothers.
Psalm 29 is found in 1 Chron. 16 which shows us this song was originally used to celebrate God coming to be with his people.
It gives us a flavor for this Psalm.
Verses 1 and 2 repeat the word Ascribe
To ascribe is to give something.
Ascribe is the same word for give. To give someone food or give a gift is to ascribe.
Giving something to someone that is owed to them.
To ascribe is to acknowledge.
If you did all the heavy lifting on a project at work, you would want to acknowledged for all you did.
That’s what this Psalm is saying - acknowledge God for who he is!
But who is ascribing or giving something to God in verse 1?
Heavenly beings
The Bible is clear that there is one true god, but there are many other lower case g gods.
This Psalm begins by calling out not to humans, but to angelic beings.
Before this storm song touches down on earth, it begins in the heavens by calling to spiritual forces and powers to give praise to God.
To ascribe to him glory
Acknowledge, o angels, that God has the ultimate power and weight and significance.
Ascribe him strength
Acknowledge, o heavenly beings, that YHWH is the mighty one.
Verse 2
Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name
God’s name is his character.
Because he is the God of all compassion, grace, patience, love, and faithfulness, give him glory.
To not acknowledge God as the glorious one is to withhold what is owed to him.
Worship the LORD - or literally, bow down to him in the splendor of holiness -
The word for splendor is ornament
God wears holiness like a crown.
This Psalm begins in the heavens and calls for all spiritual beings to ascribe or acknowledge that God is the glorious, strong, majestic, holy God.
Give him the praise that is due!
We had a family weekend at the beach and each year we do a talent show.
It’s mostly put on by my 12 year old niece.
Morgan and I tried to keep 2 balloons in the air for a minute outside and failed.
But at a talent show you give applause to the person who performs.
It’d be weird if my niece sings a song and then we give applause to someone else.
In the same way, this Psalm calls us to recognize God and God alone as the glorious one.
It would be weird, wrong, and misguided to give praise to any other spiritual being than him.
Verses 1 and 2 begin in the heavens and, like a storm, it moves towards land.
Path of the Storm
3 The voice of the Lord is over the waters;
the God of glory thunders,
the Lord, over many waters.
4 The voice of the Lord is powerful;
the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.
5 The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;
the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
6 He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf,
and Sirion like a young wild ox.
7 The voice of the Lord flashes forth 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 give birth
and strips the forests bare,
and in his temple all cry, “Glory!”
Path of the storm
God’s voice is described like a storm that sweeps from the west all the way to the temple where his people cry, Glory!
Picture yourself in Jerusalem watching a storm heading east from the mediterranean, making landfall north in the mountains of Lebanon, and then sweeping south from Sirion in the north to Kadesh in the south.
The phrase voice of the LORD is repeated 7 times in this section
There’s so much repetition in this Psalm.
You know how thunder gets louder as the storm moves closer, it’s like the repetition of this Psalm builds, boom, BOOM!
God is being compared to a storm.
He thunders, he is over the waters, he breaks cedars, flashes flames of fire or lightning, like a category 5 hurricane he strips the forests bare.
Do you think of God in this way?
I like to think of God as my buddy, but not like this.
But when God shows up in the Bible, he is often described as a storm.
In Exodus, God comes to Mt. Sinai in a thick cloud of darkness with thunder and lightning all around.
In Job, Job goes through terrible suffering and says I want to bring my case before God, and God shows up and speaks to him from a hurricane.
David sings in 2 Sam. 22 that God saved him from his enemies and came to his rescue like a monstrous storm.
Just listen to the storm in verses 3-9
Verse 3
Is over the waters
In Genesis 1, God’s Spirit hovered over the dark waters and then God’s voice thundered “Let there be light.” And there was light.
He is more powerful than darkness.
His voice is powerful and full of majesty.
With his voice, God made the universe. It’s powerful.
And majestic or beautiful. There is nothing more beautiful than when God speaks.
The voice of the LORD smashes trees
Just like a storm can knock out powerlines when trees fall down.
But the cedars of Lebanon were an image of human pride.
12 For the Lord of hosts has a day
against all that is proud and lofty,
against all that is lifted up—and it shall be brought low;
13 against all the cedars of Lebanon,
lofty and lifted up;
and against all the oaks of Bashan;
God brings down prideful people like a storm brings down even the strongest tree.
He makes Lebanon skip like a calf
Picture galloping gurdy…God is so strong he’s like a storm that makes the earth shake.
He flashes forth flames of fire
Picture lightning hitting a dried up tree and setting it on fire
In verse 8, the storm has made it’s way south to Kadesh, the southern border of Israel and the vibrations of thunder are felt even there.
And finally we come to the temple
And all cry Glory!
You know when a storm comes and you’re huddled in your living room and the thunder claps and it feels like it’s right outside and you yell, WHOA!
It’s almost like this involuntary response, in the same way, all people see God and hear his powerful voice and cannot help but shout, Glory!
This Psalm calls us to acknowledge God for the glory of his voice.
Like people who can’t help but cry out when a storm overwhelms them.
We live in a world that has been completely shaped by God’s voice
With God’s voice, he made the world. The sky, the fields, human beings.
Jesus is God’s voice, in a person, and he started a new creation through his death and resurrection.
God’s voice in Jesus reshaped the western world. Things that everyone can agree on, equality, compassion, freedom, progress - are all marks of the storm that Jesus started.
God’s voice has changed my life
I think back to a time in my life where God was really speaking to me.
It felt like a storm, and yet it was also incredibly quiet. I don’t think I heard him audibly. But I felt the force of the words.
And this Psalm reminds me to acknowledge the power of his voice and praise him for it.
The storm began with glory in heaven, it moved from the water to the temple, and now it brings peace on earth.
Peace on Earth
10 The Lord sits enthroned over the flood;
the Lord sits enthroned as king forever.
11 May the Lord give strength to his people!
May the Lord bless his people with peace!
The song began with glory in heaven, and ends with peace to those on earth.
The storm is over.
The wind has subsided. The thunder has ended. The lightning is gone.
And now we see YHWH seated or reigning as king.
And he’s reigning over the flood
The flood is a story about a storm.
The flood happened way back in Genesis 6 with Noah and the boat full of animals.
It was a hurricane of judgment against evil.
And a storm that does not destroy those who love God.
God saves Noah out of the water and brings him to dry land and through him begins a new creation.
Isn’t that our story too?
God saved Jesus out of the grave and brings him to dry land of resurrection and through him beings a new creation for those who trust in him.
God reigns as king over his people that he has saved from the flood.
The Psalm ends with a blessing
It says “May the LORD” but it essentially means God WILL give strength to his people.
There is no doubt that the Thunder God, the King above the storm, will give power to his people.
There is no question that the powerful voice of God will give bless his people with peace.
When else in the Bible has a song began with glory in the heavens and ended with peace on earth?
14 “Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
The most powerful, majestic, glorious storm ever unleashed on the earth was not a tropical storm, hurricane, or gale force wind, it was when God came from the heavens, and made his path to earth as a tiny baby.
The King above the storm thundered down and quietly entered our world as a human.
Our infinitely strong God is not some inhuman force like wind, thunder, or lightning, but a God of unimaginably strong love, compassion, and grace, who knows our weakness and frailty, and shocked the world by coming and dying and rising again as Jesus.
And the proper response is to be like a family huddling for shelter in a storm, who see lightning and hear thunder and yell out WHOA!
-The real Thunder God is not some third-rate Baal, but the Judge of the world and the Saviour of the church. By the voice of the storm Psalm 29 calls his people to recognize, praise, and obey him as such. - Michael Wilcock, The Message of Psalms 1-150.
Conclusion
What would it look like for you to recognize, praise, and obey him as such?
I’ll just give you a moment to ponder that.
I was praying this week, God help me to be amazed by you like this Psalm talks about, and God reminded me about communion.
Every week we share in the awe-inspiring reality that God became a human, and gave himself for us.
And each week we receive the body and blood of Christ as a reminder of his love.
There is no storm as powerful as God’s love for you and me.
There is no thunder and lightning display more beautiful than his love.
And so consider communion as a time to soak that in.
What would it look like to recognize, praise, and obey God as the king above the storm?
John Oxenham, imagining the hidden years of Jesus’ young life, has a young man tell a story of being out in the country side with Jesus, on their way home to Nazareth.
I saw a great black cloud sweeping in from the West and darkening all the sky … The thunder was clapping all about us … long before we began to climb the hill.
But the boy seemed actually to like it, for he began singing at the top of his voice … ‘It is the Glory of God that thundereth … Eloi! Eloi! Eloi!’ … With his arms thrown up towards the terrible black sky … he sang amid the thunder claps, and his voice was steady as a trumpet, and he knew no fear. - John Oxenham,
