STORMS (Given on February 3 – Sunday Evening Service)
A Psalm of David. Psalms 29:1-11 (From the New Living Translation)
1. Honor the Lord, you heavenly beings; honor the Lord for his glory and strength.
2. Honor the Lord for the glory of his name. Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.
3. The voice of the Lord echoes above the sea. The God of glory thunders. The Lord thunders over the mighty sea.
4. The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is majestic.
5. The voice of the Lord splits the mighty cedars; the Lord shatters the cedars of Lebanon.
6. He makes Lebanon's mountains skip like a calf; he makes Mount Hermon leap like a young wild ox.
7. The voice of the Lord strikes with bolts of lightning.
8. The voice of the Lord makes the barren wilderness quake; the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
9. The voice of the Lord twists mighty oaks and strips the forests bare. In his Temple, everyone shouts, “Glory!"
10. The Lord rules over the floodwaters. The Lord reigns as king forever.
11. The Lord gives his people strength. The Lord blesses them with peace.
1) God is at the heart of Psalm twenty-nine.
a) This short psalm only has eleven verses, but it has twenty-five references to God.
b) If there is one main theme of this Psalm it would be the Sovereignty of God.
2) When David wrote this, I can imagine him in the desert, watching over a flock of sheep when a thunderstorm comes up.
a) We've all been in thunderstorms.
b) When we know we're safe from lightning and can watch the storm it can be very exciting.
3) At any given moment, there are about 2,000 thunderstorms going on around the world.
a) The typical thunderstorm is 15 miles in diameter and lasts an average of 30 minutes.
b) Many people believe the shorter they last & the farther away they are, the better.
i) There used to be a lot of beliefs and traditions about storms.
c) I was raised as a Catholic and when storms came my Mom used to sprinkle the house with "holy water" at the first sign of thunder or lightning. I don’t know if that was protection, but it got us wet.
d) In the past almost every farm home or even homes in town would have storm cellars where they would go when the weather looked bad. You don't see many storm cellars these days.
4) Back to Psalm 29.
5) David is sitting the storm out, maybe under a tree, or in a cave.
a) While he watches the lightning and hears the thunder he writes this Psalm about the Glory of God over all His creation.
b) With every clap of thunder he probably said, "That's My God!"
6) Look at verses 1-2, we see the call to all the angels in heaven to Worship God.
a) "Honor the LORD, you heavenly beings; honor the LORD for his glory and strength. 2 Honor the LORD for the glory of his name. Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness."
b) This is a call to all the angelic hosts to Praise God for the things He has done, what He is doing and
what He is going to do.
7) The 2nd part of verse 2 says, "Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness."
i) It's like Psalm 96:9: "Oh, worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness! Tremble before Him, all the earth."
ii) If we are to worship God in His holiness, we should be holy.
iii) Reference: I Peter 1:16: "Be holy, for am holy!"
b) Micah 4:5, "For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever."
i) Jesus said to "ask in His Name" and if we asked anything in His Name, He would do it. (John 14:13-15)
ii) There is more to it than just asking "in His Name'.
iii) When we ask in His Name we are also expected to ask in the character of His Name.
iv) What does that mean?
v) It means this, our Provider Jesus is Holy.
vi) In order for Him to bless us and answer our prayers we should ask Him in the holiness of character,
which means to ask without sin in our life.
vii) That means to ask forgiveness of sins before asking for anything else.
8) Next: David hears the thunder and says it is the Voice of the Lord.
a) The phrase "the Voice of the Lord" is used 7 times so we could say that Psalm 29 is the Psalm of the 7 Thunders of God.
9) Verse 3: "The voice of the LORD echoes above the sea. The God of glory thunders. The LORD thunders over the mighty sea."
a) In the King James Version, instead of using the word "sea", it says "waters".
i) In the Bible, "waters" are symbolic of the world's nations.
(1) Ref: Rev. 17:15, "And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues."
b) So it's saying that the Voice of God & the Glory of God is sovereign over the nations of the earth.
10) Verse 4, "The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is majestic."
a) God, the King of all kings, spoke creation into being with just the Words of His Mouth.
i) That's not only power, that's majestic power!
11) Now David talks more about the powerful Voice of God.
a) Verse 5, "The voice of the Lord splits the mighty cedars; the Lord shatters the cedars of Lebanon."
b) A cedar tree is one the strongest trees in creation.
c) When Solomon built the temple he included cedar trees. (1 Kings 5 & 6)
d) The walls & ceiling were covered with panels of cedar and the panels were carved with flowers and gourds.
e) In the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant sat, the walls & ceiling were planks of cedar
overlaid with gold.
I) What a sight that must have been.
j) Can you imagine what it must have smelled like inside the Temple?
12) But there is another use of cedar.
a) Cedar was used in some of the rituals they did in the Old Testament
1) In the Bible, cedar is a type, or symbol, of the Cross.
ii) So looking at verse 5 "The voice of the Lord splits the mighty cedars; the Lord shatters the cedars of Lebanon."
iii) If cedar represents the cross, and the cross represents the death of Jesus, the Voice of God shatters the cedars or cross.
iv) That speaks of the resurrection of Jesus.
v) In other words, the Sovereign Power of God is greater than the power of death.
13) Verse 6, "He makes Lebanon's mountains skip like a calf; he makes Mount Hermon leap like a young wild ox."
a) When God speaks, mountains move.
b) In Matthew 21:21 Jesus said this: "Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree but also if you say to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' it will be done. 22 And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive."
c) In Romans 12:3 "God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith."
d) If we would just use the faith that God has given us we would see more of God working in our lives.
e) When we use the measure that God has already given us and don't doubt in our minds, we move God.
f) Then God moves the mountains in our lives!
14) Verse 7, "The voice of the Lord strikes with bolts of lightning."
a) Have you ever had lightning strike close to you?
b) When I was first Born-Again I had so much inside me to ask God that I had trouble sleeping some nights.
i) There were times that I would lay in bed with scriptures going through my mind or just thinking about Jesus.
ii) One night in particular I believe I actually heard the Voice of God.
iii) It was in the summer and the night was very calm.
iv) I was awake in bed thinking about something, I don't remember what it was but I asked God to just give me a sign. Something like this, "Please God, give me a sign so I would know what to do."
v) All of a sudden, I heard one of the loudest claps of thunder I have ever heard. In reality, lightning had just struck something not very far away.
vi) But the moment I heard this big BANG! I almost jumped out of bed but instead, I started crawling into the blankets as if I could hide.
vii) Then I heard the still small Voice of God say, "Is that sign enough?"
viii) That's a true story and I'll never forget it.
15) Verses 8-9, "The voice of the Lord makes the barren wilderness quake; the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord twists mighty oaks and strips the forests bare. In his Temple, everyone shouts, "Glory!"
a) The Voice of God can cause the earth to quake and shake.
b) The trees are stripped bare of foliage and all that's left standing in the forests are bare limbs to give testimony to the sovereign power of God.
c) The last part of verse 9 says, "In his Temple, everyone shouts, "Glory!"
d) To me this means that all of creation, including the angels in the heavenly Temple, are all witnessing the Power of God as He shakes the earth.
e) They see the mountains skip around like newborn calves
f) They hear the Voice of God as it blows through the forests, stripping the trees of their leaves.
g) They watch all this happening until it comes to the point where they can't hold back and they all begin to shout, "GLORY!"
h) In the opening verses it was a call to the angels to worship God but when they see His power, His
majestic sovereignty over all He has created they don't need a call to worship.
i) They do it out of reverence.
16) Verse 10, "The Lord rules over the floodwaters."
a) The floodwaters represent the troubles the devil tries to bring into our lives.
b) But: Isaiah 59:19 (KJV) "So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in, like a flood the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him."
17) The last part of verse 10 is our battle cry, "The Lord reigns as king forever!"
18) Verse 11, "The Lord gives his people strength. The Lord blesses them with peace."
a) Paul had this to say, in 2 Corinthians 12:10 (KJV)
"Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong."
b) Everyone of us can attest to the fact that when we have gone through trials and come to the point that we think we can't go on any longer.
c) It's when we reach our deepest points in life that it seems there is something, or someone, that picks us up and assures us that everything is going to be alright.
d) Once you have experienced that you know it's not the end of trials but, Praise God, you also know the next one is going to be easier because you have a loving Father in God, a devoted Brother in Jesus, and a Supernatural Helper in the Holy Spirit, to help you.
19) And that leads us up to the last part of verse 11.
20) "The Lord blesses them with peace"
a) God provides peace in the middle of the storms.
21) But you may say that Psalm 29 is from the Old Testament. What is there for us today? In the New Testament, God’s voice was heard every time Jesus opened His Mouth to speak.
Mark 4: 37-41
37 And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship so that it was now full.
38 And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?
39 And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
40 And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?
41 And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?
22) CONCLUSION:
The storms we experience in life may come in many forms.
a) It could be a real storm such as a tornado, a hurricane, flooding, or lightning and thunder.
b) But it could also be the loss of a spouse and the dreadful thought of living a life alone.
c) It could be a diagnosis from a doctor of a life-threatening illness.
d) It could be an empty bank account when rent or mortgage is due.
e) Whatever the storm may be, think of Jesus walking on the water coming towards you to remind you to keep your eyes ON Him and your faith IN Him while He commands the storm, “Quiet, be still!”
