The Voice of the Lord

Let me ask you a question. As a Christian, have you ever felt vulnerable? Or threatened? Or anxious?

I suggest we might feel like this as Christians more often than we like to admit. It's also very understandable that we feel this way.

We hear about world events. The treatment of Christians in Iraq and Syria, for example.

We sense our culture turning on us. Under a guise of 'tolerance', Christians in the UK are put under pressure to keep their Christian views private. We know that we are in a minority and that we are not tolerated.

We feel the chaos of our lives. We face many anxieties that weigh us down at work, at home...
We feel powerless to control much of what happens to us – and we struggle to keep trusting God in our trials.

As Christians, we often feel vulnerable, threatened and anxious.

The question when we feel like that is this:

How can we actually process what's going on inside us?
What is the godly response when we feel this way?

Well, you'll be relieved to know that the godly response is not to put on the stiff British upper lip and 'Keep Calm and Carry On'!
No – praise God – he has given us the Psalms! Songs of the soul for every season of life.

God invites us to come to the Psalms as we are, with our emotional baggage, and to come away from them refreshed and revitalized, having met with him.

And this evening we're looking at Psalm 29: the Voice of the Lord. It's a place where vulnerable, threatened and anxious Christians can come for peace and strength.

The author of the Psalm is King David.

And in this Psalm, David takes us on a journey from worship in heaven (v.1-2) > storm on the earth (v.3-9) > king on the throne (v.10-11).

We'll find as we read this Psalm that although it looks quite scary, it is full of comfort for God's vulnerable and anxious people. So let's get into Psalm 29!

Point one: The Lord is great and deserves glory.

My first point is this: the Lord is great and deserves glory.
Verses 1-2. The Lord is great and deserves glory.

Let me read verses 1-2:

Ascribe to the LORD, O heavenly beings,ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;worship the LORD in the splendour of holiness. (v1-2)

Three quick questions on these verses.

Question one: Who's David talking to here?

Verse one says 'heavenly beings'. From the footnote, you can see this can also be translated as 'sons of God' or 'sons of might'. This probably means angels in heaven.

Question two: What's David commanding the angels to do?

He wants them ascribe glory and strength to God.

The word 'ascribe' is to assign a value/ quality to someone.

The word 'glory' means the full weight of honour, fame, praise and respect.

So David wants the angels to assign to God the full weight of respect which he deserves. Indeed the angels are commanded to 'worship' him, to bow down to him.

Question three: Why should the angels (and human beings also) relate to God in this way?

Verse two. Because of 'the glory due his name'

Why should we give God glory? To copy from the 1990s Loreal advertising – Because he's worth it!

If you're not a Christian here this evening, it's great to have you with us. I wonder what you make of this idea of worshipping God?

I became a Christian while I was at secondary school and I remember speaking about the Christian faith to a mate on the school bus.

And he just could not get his head around this idea of Christians worshipping God.

He said to me: "I don't like the idea of worship"

And he pulled a face, as if to worship God was demeaning for humans – the same thing as mindlessly bowing down to a statue.
And maybe you're thinking: "Why on earth should I worship God like it says in verses 1-2?"

Be patient! There's more of Psalm 29 to come!

That was my first point. The Lord is great and deserves glory.

Point two: The Lord is powerful and controls nature.

We now move from a scene of worship in heaven to a storm on earth.

My second point is this: The Lord is powerful and controls nature (v.3-9).

One of the beautiful aspects of the Psalms is the way some of them focus our minds on the wonders of nature, to then fix our minds on the Lord.

So in Psalm 8, we are invited to stay up late and do some star gazing and ponder the majesty of God.

In Psalm 19, we are invited to take a day out and observe the rising and the setting of the sun, which points our minds to the glory of God.

And in Psalm 29, we are invited up into a helicopter to watch the progress of an enormous thunderstorm, which leads us to marvel at God's power.

The events of the storm

So, ladies and gentlemen, get your seatbelts fastened tightly for a rough helicopter ride!

We're going to follow the progress of a storm!

Verse 3. The storm comes over from the Mediterranean Sea (waters = another word for 'sea')…

Verse 5.…to the forests and mountains of Lebanon…

Verse 6…. to Sirion (Mount Hermon) - on the modern day border with Syria – standing at over 2800 metres…

Verse 8…then finally down the River Jordan to the Southern desert of Kadesh.

But what amazes you while you're up in the helicopter is is the force and the violence of the storm.

Look again at v.3-9.

The voice of the LORD is over the waters;the God of glory thunders, (loud claps of thunder)the LORD, over many waters.The voice of the LORD is powerful;the voice of the LORD is full of majestyThe voice of the LORD breaks the cedars;the LORD breaks the cedars of Lebanon. (trees are battered to the ground by the wind, branches snap off)He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf,and Sirion like a young wild ox.(even the great forests and mountains of Lebanon seem move in the storm)The voice of the LORD flashes forth flames of fire. (lightning lights up the sky)The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness;the LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.(a big sandstorm rips through the desert)The voice of the LORD makes the deer give birth[c](possibly meaning that the storm shocks the deer into giving birth sooner – or, see the footnote, oak trees are vigorously shaken about in the wind)…and strips the forests bare,(huge swathes of forest are flattened to the ground)and in his temple all cry, "Glory!" (v3-9)

This is a storm on the scale of the 28th June 2012 in Newcastle, when the Tyne Bridge was struck by lightning.

This is an awesome and spectacular storm.

The meaning of the storm

But David's intention in Psalm 29 is not just to show the awesome power of nature (after all, to see that we could just stay at home and watch BBC Weather). David wants to point us to the one who stands behind the storm – the Lord.

David unashamedly says that this powerful storm in all in its might is the under the control of 'the voice of the Lord'. v.3, v.5, v.7, v.8, v.9.

Just as God created nature, so today he is active in sustaining nature – including thunderstorms.

But why does David use the particular picture of a thunderstorm to make his point about the Lord?

At the time David was writing, many people in Syria and Palestine worshipped Baal the so called 'storm-god'.

So, in describing this dramatic thunderstorm David is deliberately setting the Lord against Baal.

David is reminding God's people that the Lord is the very same God who triumphed against Baal on Mount Carmel in 1 Kings 18, our Old Testament reading.

The challenge on Mount Carmel was a head-to-head between the Lord and Baal. The goal was to see which of the two really controlled nature.

"Will the real God please stand up!"

And the real God stood up in style!

Baal, the supposed storm-god, could not send fire from heaven to burn an animal sacrifice, the Lord sent fire immediately from heaven to burn the animal.

And the people fell on their faces and said: "The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God."

Application of the storm

But what does this mean for us here today? After all I assume that none of us are closet Baal-worshippers – so what's the challenge for us?

The key question is this: who should get the glory? We all choose who/what to admire the most. What is it?

In some cultures around the world, nature is not just respected, but revered. There's a tendency to give the glory to 'Mother Nature' or to 'the gods of nature.'

In other cultures around the world – like British culture – we simply give the glory to ourselves as humans.

This Psalm teaches us a simple, but humbling lesson. The storms of nature remind us that the Lord is powerful and controls nature – so we need to assign the glory not to nature, not to ourselves, but to the Lord.

It is a mark of 21st century Western culture that human beings want to control nature and we even think they have a right to do so.

That's why we get so angry when outside things come in and mess up our plans.

I remember hearing news about the snow in London a couple of years ago…

There was outrage that 2 inches of snow should bring our capital city to a standstill. People were saying this couldn't happen again – and that we need to consider getting snow ploughs in from Russia! As humans, we don't like it when 'nature' gets big on us. We don't like it when nature invades our lives as humans, because it reminds us as humans that we are not god, because we cannot control nature. Pause.

As we read this Psalm, we are to feel what the writer is saying about the Lord – feel his power – feel how small we are – and to stop thinking of ourselves so highly.

Surely when we observe the Lord's awesome power over nature, we must recognise the immense folly of humanism.

We must not give the glory to man – and not to nature itself – but the Lord who is powerful and controls nature – and not just nature, but the whole of human history.

In v.3-9, David reminds us that the Lord is powerful and controls nature, so he deserves our respect and honour.
We should worship the Lord and say: "The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God." To him alone be the glory.

Point three: The Lord is king and blesses his people.

The helicopter ride is now over and it's now time to look at our final scene in Psalm 29: the King on his throne.

My final point is this: The Lord is king and blesses his people (v.10-11). The Lord is king and blesses his people.

Let me read verse 10.

The LORD sits enthroned over the flood;the LORD sits enthroned as king for ever. (v10)

It is interesting that such a powerful Psalm so full of movement ends with calm: the Lord sits on his throne.

In verse 10, the Hebrew word for 'flood' is the great flood in Genesis 6-7. The flood was the Lord's great act of judgement of the ancient world. The Lord was, is and will be the judge. The Lord is the King. For ever.

A good end to the Psalm, you might think!

The surprise is that Psalm 29 does not finish at v.10!

Because although God acts in judgement against his enemies, he also blesses his people.

Verse 11 – David prays:

May the LORD give strength to his people!May the LORD bless his people with peace! (v11)

This can also be translated:

The Lord will give strength to his people!
The Lord will bless his people with peace!

What does it actually mean for us today that the powerful Lord will bless his people with peace and strength?

It means everything! It's our lifeline as Christians!

Because as David did, we can turn to the powerful Lord as vulnerable and anxious Christians – to receive peace and strength.

How do we know these blessings are also for us as Christians?

These blessings of peace and strength come to us today through Jesus Christ. Indeed, the whole of Psalm 29 points to the birth of Jesus.

When Jesus was born, the angels praised God using very similar language to Psalm 29.

In Luke 2:14 they said:

Glory to God in the highest,and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!Glory to God in the highest, (that's worship in heaven, echoing Psalm 29:1)and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased! (that's peace on earth, echoing Psalm 29:11)

The good news for all of us is that through Jesus, we can have peace with the Lord.

If we trust in Jesus and his blood shed on the Cross, we are reconciled to God. We are no longer God's enemies. We are his children. We have peace with God.

But that's not the only peace God offers us – he offers us far more!

The Lord also offers us great peace in the chaos of life. When we feel vulnerable, threatened and anxious, we can turn to the Lord for peace.

In our New Testament reading this evening, we met another fierce storm – like the one in Psalm 29.

The boat was sinking, the disciples were fearing for their lives and Jesus was sleeping!

And (the disciples) woke him and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" 39 And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.He said to them, "Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?" And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?" (Mark 4:40-41)

Jesus is God. He has complete power over storms in nature – and over the storms of our lives too.

I wonder what concerns are weighing you down at the moment?

Maybe you've just arrived in Newcastle and you're worried about whether/ not you'll settle into the church family here and get through the transition OK.

Maybe you're about to leave Newcastle and you feel threatened by an uncertain future ahead of you.

Maybe you're worried about the state of your marriage… it's just really tough at the moment and you're struggling to keep working at it.

Maybe you feel threatened by the anti-Christian environment at work… it sometimes feels like you cannot bear one more week of bad treatment.

Maybe you worry about the state of the world. The rise of secularism. The rise of Islam. The mounting opposition against Christian. You wonder if you'll cope.

Maybe you just have this sense of vulnerability that plagues you as a Christian. You find it so easy to disobey God and so hard to trust him – and you feel really scared that you'll fall away.

Maybe there are hidden things in your hearts that no-one else know about – hidden fears – hidden pains – hidden worries – that you feel will never leave you.

Friends, the Lord has wonderful news for all of us.

Whatever our concerns, we can commit them to the Lord and he will bless us with his peace in our hearts.

Philippians 4:5b-7 says these precious words:

The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:5b-7)

Friends, I don't what worries and threats are pressing down upon you this evening, but can I make a suggestion?

When you get home, sit down and set aside time to lay these worries before the Lord, one at a time.

Because if we choose to bring our anxieties to the Lord, rather than holding onto them in our hearts, the promise is wonderful:

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus.
The Lord is king and blesses his people.

Conclusion

From Psalm 29, we have seen:
The Lord is great and deserves glory.
The Lord is powerful and controls nature.
The Lord is king and blesses his people.