Book of Psalms - Psa. 29, vv. 1-11

we're gonna go on ahead and get started because we got a lot of ground to cover and I'm gonna

I'm gonna be switching with Ben jamming next next week. He takes over the Sunday school and Katie and I actually won't be here because we're going on a trip and we'll we'll get back just in time to pick up the kids from church next

Sunday, so We'll be missing but we will be in Psalm 29

Psalm 29 This is a psalm of David The psalm we're not really sure when it was written

But we know it was written by David as a song of praise to God I'm gonna start with a question and the question is

How do we worship God? Work in fact we might even just bring it in a little closer, and then

I'll be able to see the screen better oh Now you can really hear me How do we worship

God? And spirit and in truth

We're gonna be seeing and the spirit and truth together in this psalm and What it should what it should result in?

How it should look in our worship, so it says a Psalm of David given to the

Lord. Oh ye mighty given to the Lord glory and strength Now Charles Spurgeon points out that while man can give nothing to the increase of value towards the

Lord He can and should ascribe the highest value to his ownership in other words.

There's nothing you can do to Increase value to God He's already got the highest value and so when it says to give to him

It's not like you're giving something that he didn't have before Instead what you're doing is you're ascribing something he already has to him

You're recognizing that he he has value so the start of this psalm

Which is a psalm of praise gives us instruction on how to praise God We should start with the mindset of Ascribing great value to him

Come on in Matty grace You look beautiful We're in Psalm 29.

Oh You're gonna go okay so We should start with a mindset of ascribing great value to the

Lord When we value something or someone We usually put our efforts and our attention toward them

Proper praise of God should and only can start with valuing

God Now here it says Given to the

Lord. Oh ye mighty given to the Lord glory and strength The mighty also known as the leaders of the land who are typically rich and powerful are called to ascribe abundance and might

To the Lord that word glory. It's a word meaning abundance

And so and the word for strength means might so when when the

When The people are told to give unto the Lord it's specifically talking to people who are mighty

Which are usually or typically people who are rich and powerful this doesn't mean only the rich and powerful should praise the

Lord, but there's Something interesting about the fact that it brings out the mighty because what it says for the mighty to give

Essentially abundance and might so the very thing that they are known by The mighty are known by their riches and their power

The very thing that they're known by is the thing they're supposed to ascribe to God It's the very thing that defines their position in life.

It should be credited to their maker Deuteronomy 818 tells us remember your God for it is he that gives you the power to create wealth

So even just the ability to Have riches and abundance it comes from God Romans 13 one says let every soul be subject unto the higher powers for there is no power

But of God the powers that be are are ordained of God so someone who is rich and powerful can only be so because of God and So whether they believe in God or not is irrelevant

He is the one that gives man the ability to create profit and he is the one that gives man whatever power he has on earth and So this entire

Psalm starts off with an instruction for us to one value the

Lord but to Recognize that any value we have comes from the

Lord verse 2 Give unto the

Lord the glory due unto his name the word glory here is kavod

Which means honor Glorious abundance

When we recognize that there is no value higher than God and that our value is derived from him

It should result in us honoring him Worship the

Lord in the beauty of holiness That my question when we started was how do we worship

God? This right here is a perfect answer the way you worship

God is in the beauty of holiness What does that mean

It brings to mind the the song Obedience is the very best way to show that you believe

Doing exactly what the Lord commands doing it happily Action is the key do it immediately

Joy, you will receive Obedience is the very best way to show that you believe our kids loved that when they were little then they go

B -e -d -i -e -n -c -e Obedience is the very best way to show that you believe for those of you

I'm sitting at home and listening. I'm I apologize for the Poor singing abilities, but you get the point

That the beautiness the beauty of holiness comes from your obedience to God's Word So next we're going to see

How all of that comes about right if we're supposed to value God hey guys

Didn't expect y 'all to be here you feeling better a little bit Good So we're in Psalm 29 and we're just about to Get into verse 3

Quick recap for those of you just walked in This is a psalm about praising

God and it starts with valuing God Recognizing that our value comes from God and that should result in us honoring him

By obeying him So verse 3 the voice of the

Lord is upon the waters the God of glory Thundereth the

Lord is upon many waters now if you read Spurgeon's commentary on this It's kind of cool how he starts it.

He says that this song should be should be read during a storm just to really bring the feeling of the psalm about Because he describes the voice of the

Lord in stormy terminology Thunder in many waters

I've been on a few cruises and While I was on the boat a couple of times.

I've sailed through some storms And I like to go outside During the storm right before they lock you in before they they start

Telling you you can't go outside because it's too rough and stuff because I like to see it and They do that for safety reasons, of course, but when you go out there

There there's all like this feeling of helplessness almost and I I only get just a little glimpse of it because they're not giant storms.

We've gone through pop However has been Through some crazy giant storms and he tells the story of him being on his small little sailboat with his family during a squall like the kind that you know kill people and He talks about how he looks up and with each wave you're guessing well, this is the one that's gonna kill us and I can't imagine the feeling of helplessness there

But also the noise because when you're out on a cruise ship, you're truly still in the city it feels like but When it's storming at night

It's a little less loud on the cruise ship Not much, but a little less and if it's a truly loud storm, you can hear the

Thunder and the rain and the rain Hitting the water, but you also see the the waves and the waves themselves make noise

And so you have noise below and you have noise above and it's all -encompassing it completely surrounds but at the same time there's almost this

Strange stillness of a lack of noise because you're way out in the ocean, you know and So it's it's something that is supposed to at least with the way

David writes this song it should remind us of the voice of God It says here

The voice of the Lord is upon the waters notice the Plurality of waters there.

It's not it's not singular. It's because there's water above and there's water beneath the

God of glory thundereth I Want you to notice there that it's not that his voice thunders

It's not that there's any It's not that the storm thunders it is that God himself

Thunders the the God of glory not necessarily his glory thundering

It's God himself thundering The word thunder means to thunder to make the sound of thunder or to rage

This Is described by the sound That makes this the storm so terrifying

Like when you think of a storm and how scary the storm is when the kids get scared and they come running into your room

Because it's storming outside. It's the thunder right? It's that's the thing that makes it truly terrifying.

Is that sound? It's the rumble in your belly, you know the sound that makes you jump

And What it causes you to do is recognize that power is present in a storm you you go

Wow, that's a powerful storm. You can hear the sound of the storm But that's what thunder really is because it's really just the announcement of power if you think about it

It's a result of something else what's the thunder the result of The lightning right and we're going to talk about the lightning here in just a second

But no one is able to adequately describe the power of God But God himself

Just why I think it says here the God of glory thundereth

And Therefore our God of glory thunders the

Lord is Upon many waters now notice We started off the voice of the

Lord is upon many waters or is upon the waters The God of glory thundereth and then the

Lord is upon many waters It's an important distinction to recognize because while his voice alone can control it all

He himself takes charge and bestows his presence upon the chaos This is the

God that doesn't rule from afar but inserts himself into the chaos to control it from within Obviously Jesus came to earth to bring order to the chaos and set right the fallen world

The voice of the Lord verse 4 the voice of the Lord is powerful The voice of the

Lord is full of majesty When you watch a storm what seems to be the pinnacle of power lightning the lightning strike like when you're driving we've driven home to Mahalia we got about a 35 minute drive from here and we've had a few times when we were on our way home and the storm was brewing and lightning

You can see it in the distance. It's just like Magnificent, right? Like you just see the lightning all over sometimes.

It's one of my favorite things to watch and it's both beautiful and terrifying

One might say it's majestic The God of glory thunders and his voice is full of power and majesty

So, how do we hear his voice? Well, he thunders but I mean like how do we actually hear the voice of God?

It should remind us of the thunder Okay reading of his word

Hebrews 1 God who at sundry times and diverse manners spake in time past Under the fathers by the prophets hath in these last days

Spoken to us by his son whom he hath appointed heir of all things by whom also he made the world's

Who being the brightness? It's interesting brightness of his glory Interesting phraseology there when you're thinking that lightning is akin to the

Word of God And the express image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power

When he had by himself purged our sins sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high

So we hear the voice of God through Jesus who is by the word by the way the word made flesh and Because we do not have

Jesus in the flesh We have his words in Scripture. And of course, we also have his spirit which helps us to interpret these words for us

We hear God's word through his word through through the scripture And We're supposed to test the spirits, right?

We're not supposed to just go. Okay. I heard a voice. I Heard a voice which means that's God. We had a

Bible study on Wednesday night with some of the teenagers and Had Sam and Landon and Zeke and we have been starting into a study that Maddie had requested in Ezekiel and then we get these three guys and I go

We're not doing Ezekiel today. So we we just started we threw an audible and we said let's talk about how do we know if we're actually hearing from God or from something else and Gave them what we call the litmus test, which is

God's God's voice always points to God's Word and It always points to God's glory.

It doesn't give glory to man or anything else God gets the glory.

And so if anything or anyone else gets the glory, it's probably not of God and so That's our litmus test

But the way we hear the voice of God which thunders and lightnings It's through his word and through the interpretation of that word by his

Holy Spirit Therein by the way lies power and beauty for us to experience verse 5 the voice of the

Lord breaketh the cedars breaketh

Strength and splendor applied if you think about it like when you break something There's power behind the breaking

This word breaketh means to violently crush Have you ever seen lightning hit a tree?

it's Pretty wild like it's awesome. Yeah, it cracks in two right this thing that would take man great strength and ingenuity

To fell right like we either we either you know chop away with much strength or we use a lot of ingenuity and Brainpower to create tools that will help us zip through but even if you ever try to To a chainsaw tree.

It's much easier than chopping a tree, but it's not all together easy either. I Helped one of my buddies clear like Two three acres of land in a single day.

It was not just me and him We had a whole team of people and we were just cutting like crazy.

I think there were like 20 of us out there and It was just cedars which ironically that's what we're talking about here

They're very hard little trees and very difficult to cut down now the chainsaw made it a lot easier

But you had to stay focused so you wouldn't you know hurt yourself, but also we were exhausted by the end of the day but for the

Lord Crack like it's nothing like as if we were to take a twig in our hands and just you know

Done, that's how easy it is for the Lord to fell these mighty cedars a lot of power there

Highschool I Sat on the edge of my bed

Watching this typhoon out my window where trees Big around like this go flying through the yard

That's wild I was off the house below ours Buses in one bus out the other side in the next bus and seven buses later you find a little piece of tile goodness

Storm There's a wonderful description And of great power not not just from lightning strikes, but also from the water that can carry those

Those trees away, right? The wind holy moly think about that, how are you alive pop?

Yeah, it's truly a miracle I mean pop has lived through every natural disaster movie known to man,

I think Save maybe deep impact or Armageddon, you know, like so let's hope you can survive those two.

Oh Goodness We did we 2012 Fun movie though, wasn't it?

So How about this if you haven't seen a lightning strike hit a tree

You may have at least seen a tree that has been struck by lightning Right, and it's pretty unmistakable

It's as if there was a sign that was hung and said lightning was here right, like it's

It is an unmistakable sign that a tree has been struck right so to the powerful

Word of God Which is quick and powerful and sharper than any two -edged sword

Piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow It is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

It is Unmistakable when we say a life Touched by the

Word of God It is forever changed and if we didn't see the word

Strike in the hearts in the heart of a person at its

Genesis if you will It doesn't really matter because we can see the effects of that word and we can know that lightning was present

There the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon And it's not just his voice notice it said the voice of the

Lord breaketh the cedars yay The Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon This is very important because again, we're seeing it's not just the voice of God which could picture his word.

It's also God himself like a mixture of God's Word and his spirit is present

His Holy Spirit makes that word active and powerful in the life of a

Christian verse 6 He maketh them also to skip like a calf

Lebanon and Syrian like a young unicorn. I wish Abby were in here for that part right there a unicorn in Scripture Wow, if you look it up It literally says we don't know what this is

But Essentially there's Speculation that it's a an extinct version of a cattle or something.

I Don't know since we don't know we're just gonna picture a unicorn It makes it pretty fun.

But here's the point of this verse because it almost seems kind of weird like all right He maketh also to skip like a calf what is it talking about what's gonna skip like a calf

He maketh them also to skip like a calf Yes Yes, he's talking about the cedars of Lebanon But what mom just said what pop just said both apply.

Let me show you why So It's a picture of trees

Skipping like calves. It's kind of strange But then Lebanon and Syrian mountains

Like a young unicorn so you picture a unicorn jumping around kind of like mom pictured deer

You know or calves or cattle Jumping around It's strange terminology

But what it is is it's showing? immovable objects Inate objects a tree a mountain things that don't typically move.

They are steadfast Prancing with life It's not only an unfathomable power.

It's a joyous result so we too Were immovable and dead in our transgressions

But he quickened us and raised us up to walk in newness of life Think about that if someone raised a dead body up out of the grave and you were standing there.

I Think you'd be a little bit freaked out It'd be kind of a terrible power, you know, like frightening

Imagine when Jesus raised Lazarus Lazarus out of the out of grave Lazarus come forth, you know and out comes zombie

Lazarus You know here he comes Everybody would be pretty weirded out.

Like I think you'd be a little uneasy like what in the world just happened

But at the same time it'd be like he's alive Yeah Whoa?

Yeah, whoa, you know like it's terrifying and it's amazing at the same time That's the kind of power that God's Word has on the human life.

It's it's a terrifying Lee awesome and beautiful power the voice of the

Lord verse 7 the voice of the Lord divided the flames of fire

The voice of the Lord shake it the wilderness The Lord shake it the wilderness of Kadesh.

There it is again the voice of the Lord the voice of the Lord and the Lord It's a mixing of the

Word and the Spirit here it's his presence it's his Word in Conjunction there's power, but guess what?

It's always gonna be that way There has to be the conjunction of the Word and the

Spirit How do we know Jesus told the Pharisees use you search the Scriptures? What are the

Scriptures God's Word for in them you think you have eternal life? But they are they which speak of me see apart from Jesus the

Word has zero power apart from the the Spirit of God It has nothing it is nothing.

That's why before you were saved. It's kind of like a boring thing. Don't read it was like Okay.

Well, this is an interesting story You might like it for the story. My grandfather was that way he told us one time

Is Pop's dad he told me one time. I love the Bible. It's a great story

But he described it as a story, you know, I don't know if it ever became living and active in Grancer's life

I hope it did pop was I think really ministering to Grancer while he was on his deathbed

So I like to think maybe something got through He used to say

You know Noah, this is my grandfather At least before it before he was saved if he was saved

He'd say Noah was the worst Naval captain of all times because he was a naval captain and I'd say why he'd say he managed to hit the one

Rock sticking up out of the entire world the water Always thought that was funny

But Yeah Great question

The voice of the Lord divided the flames of fire. Well, what is lightning?

It's electrical charge. It's essentially and it's an in a sense of flame It's a flash and it is so Incredibly hot like when when lightning strikes it can heat the air around it to temperatures significantly hotter than the surface of the

Sun It reaches temperatures up to 50 ,000 degrees

Fahrenheit and as the now scorching air

That is touched by the lightning as it encounters the cool air around it

And the air that is not yet touched by lightning the rapid cooling produces a sound wave which we know is thunder

And it is this interaction between the scorching hot lightning charged air and the air around it that produce that announces the power of lightning

And think about that for a second scorching hot air touched by the lightning

Interacting with the air that is not yet touched by the lightning and that announces the power of God No wonder when we are touched by the power of the

Word of God and by the Spirit with which we are quickened Our hearts aflame we are urged to share what we have learned and proclaim the gospel

Which is the power of God unto salvation? We are called to be like James and John Who for their fiery zeal were named the sons of thunder and Luke chapter 24 we see

Jesus appear to the two disciples But their eyes were holding where they knew him not

What did he do? You know remember what he did as they're walking on the road to Emmaus? These two disciples they don't recognize

Jesus. This is after he's been crucified and he's risen and This man appears and they don't recognize him as Jesus.

What's that man do with them? He he talks a little bit with them asks what's going on?

They tell him have you not heard and then he begins to just unpack

Scripture to them and show them how everything they've experienced was foretold by God's Word So what is this this is the

Word of God being spoken by the person of God to the disciples

Yeah by the Living Word, right the Word the written Word of God Spoken by the

Living Word of God. That's a great way to put it and then he vanishes and do you remember what those disciples said and They said one to another did not our hearts burn

Within us While he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures

It's the lightning at work Then he later appears to the whole group.

This is in verse 45 of Luke chapter 24 And it says in verse 45 then opened he their understanding that they might understand the scriptures and Then if you skip on down to verse 48

It says and ye are witnesses of these things and behold I send my the promise of my father

What's that the Holy Spirit? I?

Send the promise of my father upon you. That's not just the voice But the

Lord himself in spirit saying I'm gonna send the comforter the the Holy Spirit Now What's gonna happen when they receive the

Holy Spirit? He tells them but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high and On the day of Pentecost when that happens and they are endued with power.

What's the sign of that power flame? above their heads What is the result?

Verse 52 in Luke chapter 24 and they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy skipping trees and dancing mountains that's the result of the

Miraculous and terrifyingly awesome power of God through his word and through his spirit verse 53

Says and we're continually in the temple Praising and blessing

God. Amen to enter the temple. You had to be purified

Which means you had to be holy To remain in the temple continually was to remain in a state of holiness

What does true worship look like it looks like the beauty of holiness? Looks like obedience now let us to be continually in the temple continually sanctified a

Sanctified Christian is like the 50 ,000 degree hot air because God's Word has touched his life

When we become sanctified and we go into the world around us there is this mark of the lightning of God's powerful word

We should look and sound different And it should shake the world around us

It's the Lord that does it Verse 9 the voice of the Lord make it the hinds to calve.

What does that mean? Hinds are deer

You'll remember we've seen the hind terminology in a previous song It's a type of deer and when this deer runs

Its front feet and its back feet hit in the identical spot and David tells the

Lord make me as the hinds feet in other words like where you go. I want to go exactly where you go you say where to walk

I walk there and So we have here the voice of the Lord make it the hinds to calve.

This is like It's part of the terminology that's like powerful and great like the voice of God It's almost like a picture of the deer

Like being terrified but also giving birth So like it's it's as if this terrible

Awesome power of God brings life Dance and twirl and travail.

Yeah even uses a word like twist So the voice of the

Lord make it the hinds to calve It brings life and then it says did you want to say something?

To be born. Yep. The next part of the verse 9 says in discovereth the forests

Which means it strips the thicket bare So not only does it bring life it also exposes truth

So what like how is the power of God's Word manifest?

it is manifest in that it brings life and it exposes truth and In his temple doth everyone speak of his glory

What happens when lightning strikes you jump and you look for the lightning, right? Doesn't that happen?

Like you're just driving along and crack you hear the thunder. Maybe you see a flash out of the corner of your eye

What do you do you look over there? the voice of the Lord attracts attention so when it brings life and Exposes truth

Attention will follow it absolutely will Verse 10 the

Lord sitteth upon the flood. Yea the Lord sitteth King forever Chaos comes and brings a flood.

I imagine the typhoon pop was describing like lightning and thunder and rain and cracking of wood and wind and then the water carrying trees away in the wind carrying trees away and when a flood comes

It's devastating have you ever seen like a video of Like a typhoon or a tidal wave hitting like everything just gets

Carried away trees Buildings cars it just it's as if they're paper just it just takes them

That's a very terrifying thing and yet The Lord sits upon it

He brings order to it Isaiah 41 10 says fear thou not for I am with thee be not dismayed for I am thy

God I will strengthen thee. Yea, I will help thee. Yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness

See we are upheld by the Lord's obedience By Jesus's obedience to the

Father that's what upholds us now we can take that example of Jesus and Read his word

Connect with his spirit and we can we can have it in effect on the world around us through our obedience to him verse 11

The Lord will give strength unto his people The Lord will bless his people with peace

Value God For your value is derived from him Worship him with godly obedience

Submit to the Word of God as his spirit interprets it to you Like a lightning bolt striking a tree there will be an unmistakable mark left behind on your life the fire of God's Word as displayed through your life

Will rumble and shake the seemingly immovable institutions of the world Chaos May indeed ensue when the attention goes on the exposed truth

The enemy will crash upon us like a flood But God is our might and our strength and he rules the storm

He thunders in the face of his enemies and his people have peace I want to Finish today's study.

Well, we got through it quick. That was not bad with a Quote, I'm literally just gonna read

Spurgeon's commentary on verse 11 here power was displayed in the hurricane whose course this psalm so grandly pictures and Now in the cool calm after the storm the power is promised to the strength of the

Chosen He who wings the unerring bolt will give to his redeemed the wings of eagles

He who shakes the earth with his voice will terrify the enemies of his Saints and give his children peace

Why are we weak when we have divine strength to flee to? Why are we troubled when the

Lord's own peace is ours? Jesus the mighty God is our peace.

What a blessing. Is this today? What a blessing it is or what a blessing it will be to us in that day of the

Lord Which will be in darkness and not light to the ungodly

Dear reader it is not is not this a noble psalm to be sung in stormy weather

Can you sing amid the thunder Will you be able to sing when the last thunders are let loose and Jesus judges quick and dead if you are a believer

The last verse is your heritage and surely that will set you singing. I Think that's pretty cool

So that's Psalm 29 Yes, glad we got through it any comments.

Yes Yeah Thank you, well, thanks, well it was it was fun to to read and The Lord did a lot of it kind of last minute because I was also a lot in in Tradeway stuff this week.

I Pondered it a lot this week and it was one of those weeks where you go What am

I supposed to get out of this? Until later in the week and it was like that's what you're supposed to get out of this

Here it is Yes, ma 'am Mm -hmm

Get the trees falling and stuff Mm -hmm

That's cool Mm -hmm

Yeah, it's true, yeah the probably the most important half

You know Cuz faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God you need that peace

That's good. Anything else? All right, let's pray pop.

Do you mind dismissing us? You're having the father Lord. We just thank you for your word power the world for the shapes makes our lives

Bring light to our life Separates the light of our lives David his willingness to dive into your word and learn share with others

Thank you as we head on into our service today Touch our hearts.