Where to Find Strength and Peace
Psalm 29; Remsen Bible Online, 04/05/2020
Introduction
Where do God’s people find peace? Where can you find the resources you need to build an inner resolve, a steadfast strength which is unshaken by the storms of life?
These are questions which are important, not only to us, but for God’s people throughout history. Of course, the short answer is that we find comfort, peace, and strength in God himself. But how helpful is that broad and general answer? If you think of God in the abstract, as some being who lives in a distant place of whom you know very little, then it probably isn’t helpful at all. But here again, the Psalms come to our aid. Because in the Psalms, God is thought of not as some abstract or ethereal sky-being, but as the God who wins battles, forms mountains, conquers foes, comforts the brokenhearted. He is pictured as light, a rock, a shepherd, the one who fashions stars with his fingers, and makes the earth his footstool. Concrete metaphor upon concrete metaphor, piled up to form our picture of just what this God is like.
As we look at Psalm 29 this morning, we will learn some terrifying truths about God. The focus of this Psalm is squarely upon God himself. 13 times we find the personal name of God, Yahweh, the LORD (all caps) in our English translation. Everything spoken herein refers to a specific God, not some vague God out there somewhere. David speaks of this God, the Great I Am, the God of the people of Israel. And we will also see that, rightly applied, these truths about Yahweh that may on one hand scare us can become the source of our strength and our peace. Read Psalm 29.
The Demands of Glory, v 1-2
The first thing that happens in this Psalm as a set of commands given in verses 1 & 2. Ascribe to the Lord, is repeated three times, and in the second half of verse 2 the verb changes to worship the Lord.
We should note who the recipients of this command are in verse 1. O heavenly beings. A literal rendering of the Hebrew would be O sons of God or O sons of might. This is most likely speaking of the angels, and who better to see and ascribe to God the greatness of his name than those who minister in his presence continually? What are they to say of him?
In verse one, they are to ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. The beginning of verse two repeats and expands part of that, Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name. I wonder if the idea of angels crying out and ascribing glory unto the Lord bring to mind anything you’ve read before?
Isaiah 6:1-3 reads, In the year that king Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. And above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.”
The seraphim, a particular order of angels, are seen in Isaiah’s vision as standing above the throne of God, and flying, crying out all the while, Holy, holy, holy! This threefold repetition of holiness draws our attention to this central fact about God: he is splendid, marvelous, and different from his creation. There is none who compares with him. Holiness speaks to who God is; what emanates out from such a splendid and holy being is the Hebrew word kavod. Glory. It literally means a weightiness. The whole earth, the Seraphim cry, is filled with the weightiness of Yahweh. This same glory is what the angels are commanded in Psalm 29 to ascribe to the LORD.
Have you ever been around someone who commands attention? Not in an annoying look at me type of way, but their simply being in the room draws eyes and ears to them. We speak of such a person as having presence. The being who has the ultimate presence is God himself. The glory, the weight, the value of his holy and powerful name do fill the earth in a real sense, the heavens declare the glory of God, and we are responsible as his creatures to see this. The role of angels is to praise him for it. But the praise should not be restricted to the heavenly beings.
If those who are perfect have reasons to glorify, to magnify, to stand in awe of such beauty and strength, how much more should we who are small, sinful, and earthly? As great as the contrast is between the angels and God, how much more the contrast between this sinner and God? Which could lead us to despair in verse two, worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. The idea here seems to be of coming to the LORD dressed in holy garments, much as the angels would come arrayed in the garments which God himself prepared, or the Levitical priests who would work in the vestments for which God himself had prepared the patterns.
This splendid, holy, and majestic God demands that we come before him clothed appropriately for his presence. Yet you and I are so marked by sin that the prophet Isaiah says, We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. (Isaiah 64:6). How can we come before God dressed like this?
The Power of His Voice, v 3-9
The first terrifying fact about God in this Psalm is that he demands that we approach him in the manner which he deserves. The reason that’s terrifying is that, because of sin, we can’t. We don’t come anywhere close to being splendid or holy enough to approach the living God. But maybe, just maybe, we could fool him. Is there any way we might be able to sneak in and put on a good performance such that he doesn’t notice our sin? Not once we encounter his powerful and revealing voice.
In verses 3-4 we read that, The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord over many waters. The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty. This is the God who speaks with authority over wind, water, and thunder-will you stand before him?
This is the God who hovered over the face of the deep in Genesis 1 and formed the earth. This is the God who split open the red sea so that the Isrealites could pass through, and then brought that same sea crashing down upon the Egyptian army. This is the Lord of the storm. I wonder if you remember the story from Matthew 8:23-27. This brief narrative picks up on our theme.
And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him.”
Who is he? He is the God of glory, the God whose voice thunders. He is the Lord, the Lord over many waters. He is the Lord whose voice is powerful. He is the Lord whose voice is majestic. There is nothing in all of creation which matches this power, this beauty, this terror, this majesty.
Continuing on in verses 5-8 we read, the voice of the LORD breaks the cedars; the LORD breaks the cedars of Lebanon. He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf, and Sirion like a young wild ox. The voice of the LORD flashes forth flames of fire. The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness; the LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
God’s voice can rip apart cedars. The cedars that grow in Lebanon are enormous trees, capable of reaching well over 100 feet in height and being very wide at the base. So when David says that the LORD breaks the cedars of Lebanon, he isn’t saying God’s voice gently ripples through the bushes. This is hurricane-like, tornado-like, destruction and desolation.
I carry mail for a living, and one of the things that I find most unnerving are those days when the wind is exceptionally gusty, say 40-50 mph, and I’m walking under trees in residential neighborhoods. My concern, even in genuinely high winds, is not that whole trees are going to start toppling on me. I’m worried about the occasional branch that could break off and fall. But that’s not what is happening here. The image is of God flattening mountainsides of massive and majestic evergreen trees. How? By the power of his voice. And this powerful presence of his voice is a powerful omnipresence: you cannot escape it. He speaks of Lebanon in the North, Sirion is another name for Mount Hermon at the very far northern tip of David’s kingdom. The wilderness of Kadesh, on the other hand, is in the very remotest southern edge. The whole of Israel is under the voice of Yahweh.
If we remember what verse 3 told us, that the God of glory thunders, then verse 7 is clarified, the voice of the LORD flashes forth flames of fire. Thunder, lightning, some of the most powerful forces in nature, flashing forth from his speech. In verse six where Lebanon is skipping like a wild calf and Sirion, or Hermon, is skipping like a young wild ox, we should not picture peaceful frolicking. Rather, we should imagine these herd animals, which are very spooky, taking off in fear when they hear the boom of thunder. The lightning terrifies them and they take off kicking and running for their lives.
Verse 9 carries forward this theme of terror: The voice of the LORD makes the deer give birth and strips the forests bare. The wildlife in the region enter into preterm labor, which may seem like an awful occurrence, except that all the forests have also been laid bare, so perhaps those fawns wouldn’t have had any cover for safety if they had survived birth.
The power of God’s voice is undoubtedly vivid in this imagery. What are we to do in response? Shudder? Cower in fear? In verse 9 we hear what those in his temple (likely the same angels addressed in verse 1) are crying out: Glory!
Glory. Beauty. Power. Majesty. He has told them to declare these things, and when they see him pour forth his voice, they have no choice but to proclaim what they see. Only a glorious God could exercise this level of power.
But again, this could leave us in despair. He has already demanded we approach in a holiness we do not have. Now we find out that his omnipotent voice will find us out, it will strip us bare and beat us down like so many toothpicks. How can we stand before him?
The Hope for God’s People, v 10-11
All this talk of God’s powerful voice, of his majestic glory, it leads in a clear direction: God sits enthroned over all. The LORD sits enthroned over the flood; the LORD sits enthroned as king forever. Who sits enthroned? The LORD, Yahweh. Even over the flood: Derek Kidner points out that this word for flood occurs only here and in Genesis chs 6-11, where God fully unleashed nature’s power for his purposes. Even in the most disastrous of all earthly circumstances, God sits on his throne. He is not fazed by any of it because he controls it all. Not one thing happens apart from the will of God, from beginning to end, from Hermon to Kadesh, the LORD sits enthroned forever.
And the Psalmist makes an interesting move here. He goes from rightly reveling in the power of God’s presence and voice, trembling with us before him, to taking comfort from this same God. May the LORD give strength to his people! May the LORD bless his people with peace! Again I will ask, how can God do this?
The ultimate answer is that he continues to do this through his voice, through his word. Most especially he does this through the Word made Flesh, the Voice who took Form. Jesus comes, and in the Gospels we see him demonstrate massive power over creation. He calms storms. He heals a man who had been a cripple for 38 years. He heals a man born blind. He turns water into wine. He prays over five barley loaves and two fish and they become sufficient food for 5,000 men, besides the women and the children. He speaks, and Lazarus walks forth from the tomb. Jesus’ voice is the Voice of the LORD, and he has power over all. And yet, with all of this power, he didn’t come and execute the judgement that we might expect as unclean sinners who approach God with unholy garments. We don’t receive the blasting furnace of God’s fierce words of wrath. Jesus came and was made a sacrifice for us.
He entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, with the crowds crying Hosanna! He went a few days later to a cross as they shouted crucify him! And instead of invoking his powerful voice, calling down angels or simply engulfing them in flames, he humbly took their scorn and on the cross he paid their debt. My debt. Your debt. Why did he do this? So that we who were once enemies of God could be made his friends. So that we who were clothed in our sin might instead be clothed in his righteousness. 2 Corinthians 5:21, For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. And Ephesians 1:3-4, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.
How do we stand before a holy God? Only in Christ. If your hope and trust are in Jesus Christ alone, not in who you are or in anything that you have done, God will take away your sin and cloth you in the splendor, the righteousness of Jesus himself. If you are in Christ, united to him by faith and clothed by his righteousness as a gift, God looks upon you as one holy and blameless. And it is in that circumstance, and that circumstance alone wherein we can take hope at the end of this Psalm. Because if we have been united to Jesus by faith, we are in fact part of the people of God. And the people of God can expect that he will in fact give them strength. He will in fact bless his people with peace. Because the God of glory and power, the God whom all creation ought to fear, is no longer against us: he is profoundly for us. For those in Christ, the voice of the Lord moves in power on your behalf. Not to do your bidding, but to work for your joy.
Conclusion
Where can God’s people find strength and peace? We find strength and peace knowing that in Jesus we have a relationship with the God who reigns. The God who sits enthroned over the flood, rules over my day with the kids. The God who sits enthroned forever, knows my financial needs. The God whose voice shakes mountains, speaks to me in his word. The God who has angels crying out day and night is glad when I add my feeble voice to theirs. Brothers and sisters, in view of this, let us join our voices with all those in his temple, where all cry: Glory!