A young man named Alec Frydman recently went fishing for albacore off the coast of Washington State. This was his first attempt to be a commercial fisherman after taking a Coast Guard course at a community college. He headed out with a captain named Mick on a 43-foot wooden boat constructed in 1941.
Their fishing went well on the first day, but a storm blew up on the second. They put the boat on autopilot and headed back toward land. When waves began to crash over the sides of the boat, Alec reached for the radio and sent out a Mayday. Alec urged Mick to come outside, but the captain remained frozen in his seat. Then Alec fell overboard, into the ocean.
Bobbing to the surface, Alec saw the inflatable life raft in its canister, floating nearby. He yanked the rip cord, inflated it and climbed in. The wooden fishing boat rolled onto its side and then sank quickly. Alec never saw Captain Mick again.
Alec fell asleep When he awoke, the storm was still raging. He heard the waters “roar and foam He took inventory of his supplies and shot off two flares. But there was no one to rescue him, so he floated for days under dark, stormy skies. The sea was so great and his boat was so small.
“I prayed often,” he says, “always aloud. At first, pleas for rescue. Over and over, I asked God to save me — not my soul, but my physical self. After days of praying the same prayer, I tried offering God something in return. First, I apologized for every past transgression I could remember. Any injustice or sin I feared I may have committed, I tried to atone for, so God would listen to my prayers.”
Alec recalled the Ten Commandments and realized that he had failed to keep them. “I hadn’t honored the Sabbath in years,” he admits; “I had lied; I had coveted; I had stolen. Worst of all, I hadn’t honored my mother and father.” He asked God to forgive him for the way that he had treated his parents, ignoring their guidance and insisting that he could figure out everything on his own.
Alec came to the depressing conclusion that he was going to lose his life, and his parents were going to lose their son.
After five or six days of drifting, Alec saw a ship and launched a flare, but the ship kept going. By the end of the first week, he ran out of fresh water, and he accepted the fact that he was going to die. But instead of falling into despair, something amazing happened. Alec says, “A peace I hadn’t known to look for found me.”
The next morning, Alec woke up and saw a boat. It was close and coming closer. He lit his last flare and held onto it until it burnt his hand. He screamed and waved his hands, looking and sounding like a madman.
Then he heard a person say, “We see you. We’re coming. We see you.”
Alec was rescued after being lost at sea for 13 days. He had drifted about 150 miles.
God says,” I see You” Psalm 29
1. Life can Feel Like Open Water adrift, disoriented, and unsure which direction leads home.
• The ancient Hebrews feared the sea; it represented chaos, danger, and the unknown. So when Psalm 29 speaks of a God whose voice thunders over the waters, it’s deeply comforting.
• It tells us that even when we feel lost at sea, God is not. And God sees you.
• Psalm 29 is a storm psalm. It also seems to be speaking to us as a journey from Chaos to Calm
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2. The Storm Begins: “The Voice of the Lord Is Over the Waters”
• The psalm opens with a call to worship, but quickly shifts to a storm scene: Ascribe to the LORD, you heavenly beings, Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness.
• “The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders.”
• The seas chaos is great but Gods voice is greater than the roar of the seas.
• God sees you when we encounter Fear, grief, uncertainty,
3. The Storm that David writes about Intensifies: “The Voice of the Lord Breaks the Cedars”
• David describes lightning splitting trees, mountains shaking, and forests stripped bare.
• It’s dramatic, because sometimes life hits that hard. We encounter A negative diagnosi
• Betrayal, financial collapse, A sudden loss, A time of depression
• These moments seem like God does not see us. But assure you He does.
• The Giant cedars break like at the wedding of Cana but I see you He turns water into wine.
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4. Vs 9 “In His Temple All Cry, ‘Glory!’”why because God sees you.
• While the storm rages on earth, heaven is not panicking.
• Heaven is saying one word: “Glory.” I see you
• When you feel lost at sea, heaven sees the whole map.
• When you feel overwhelmed, heaven sees the outcome.
• When you feel like the storm will never end, heaven already sees the calm.
5. When life makes you feel like You’re Lost at Sea” I see You” says, the lord
• The storm is real. To The Lepers Jesus said, I see you.
• Remember God’s voice is louder than blindness Jesus says I see you and He opened the blind
• Remember God reigns over chaos. The woman whose life was chaos caught in the act of adultery ready to be stoned Jesus says, I see you Go sin no more
• Remember God speaks over the waters He speaks over the Cedars of Lebannon , He speaks over the Desert of Kadesh, He speaks over the flood
• Remember the one who speaks over the waters is the same One who speaks to you:
“Do not be afraid. I am with you.” If you want, I can help you: I see you
6. God see’s our chaos and He will give us calmness
• The woman at the well her life had to be chaotic embarrassed, loneliness, Jesus sees her and offers her living water. No longer avoiding people she runs to town sharing her story
• He sees our tears and brokenness The widow of Nain he turned her sorrow into Joy
• He sees your fears he sees our worth when we don’t, .
• The God who thunders over the waters is the same God who speaks to the waters of chaos and says I see you disciple and he tells the storm be still
• The One who breaks cedars is the same One who binds up the brokenhearted.
• The One who commands storms is the same One who whispers, “Peace, be still… I see you.”
