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You can turn with me in your
Bibles to Psalm 29. Psalm 29. I'll read the entire Psalm and
then we'll pray. So Psalm 29, a Psalm of David.
Give unto the Lord, O you mighty ones, give unto the Lord glory
and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory
due to his name. Worship the Lord in the beauty
of holiness. The voice of the Lord is over
the waters. The God of glory thunders. The Lord is over many
waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful.
The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The voice of the
Lord breaks the cedars. Yes, the Lord splinters the cedars
of Lebanon. He makes them also skip like
a calf, Lebanon and Syrian like a young wild ox. The voice of
the Lord divides the flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shakes
the wilderness. The Lord shakes the wilderness
of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth and
strips the forest bear. And in his temple, everyone says
glory. The Lord sat enthroned at the
flood and the Lord sits as king forever. The Lord will give strength
to his people and the Lord will bless his people with peace.
Amen. Well, let's pray. Our Father in heaven, when we
read a psalm like this, we are immediately struck with the wonder
and the power of the great Yahweh of Israel. So, Lord, I pray this
evening, as we look at this passage, Lord, I pray that you would be
pleased to bless us and impress upon us the power and sovereignty
that you have as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, as we have
just sung. Lord, I pray that you would encourage our hearts
by this psalm, that it would be a means for edification of
your people here, and that it would be a means to strengthen
us as we face a world of chaos and confusion, to know that our
God is in the heavens, and he does whatever he pleases, that
he is sovereign over all things. So, Lord, we pray your blessing,
upon us now, and we pray this in the name of our Savior, your
Son, the Lord Jesus. Amen. Well, as I just said, when we
read through this Psalm, It's very obvious and very apparent
here. We see the power and the majesty
of God, of Yahweh, the Lord. His power, it's very clear. We
have the voice of Yahweh, the voice of the Lord, repeated seven
times here in this psalm. This psalm has often been called
the psalm of the seven thunders. And when we read this psalm,
we see that what it actually is, there's a storm that's happening. A storm in nature. David is observing
the power of God in a storm. So this storm originates off
the coast land in the Mediterranean Sea. It originates there. It
comes in the north of Israel, the land of Lebanon. And then
it heads south through the land of Israel and into the wilderness
in Kadesh, which is to the south of the land of Israel. So we
see this storm going through there. David here, as he hears
the thunder, you know, peeling off the mountains and stuff,
we can just imagine him in this. And every time, you know, another
line, the voice of the Lord, this power that he's observing
here. And he's attributing it all to
Yahweh of Israel, to the Lord. And it's always that God is over
this storm here. So the psalm is about a storm
that's happening in nature, but it's not limited to the outward
natural phenomenon of this storm that's happening here. But rather,
David is doing something a whole lot more in this psalm here. And what he's doing, he's writing
a polemic. A polemic is an attack against
the Canaanite god Baal. So as we go through this, we'll
see how he's attacking Baal. So for us to understand what's
going on, we need to kind of understand a little bit of Baal
and who he was said to be. So Baal was the Canaanite god. Now there were many Baals. We
find that through the Old Testament. There was a lot of Baals, but
there was one supreme Baal that they worshipped, that the Canaanites
worshipped, the one supreme Baal. And this is an attack on that
supreme god Baal here. And Baal was the Canaanite weather
god. So there's pictures of him that
they've uncovered of him with a lightning bolt in his hand.
He was known to be the god of... He controlled the rain, and he
was also the storm god as well. So he was responsible for the
rain. So when it rained, Baal was happy.
When it was stormy, that meant Baal was angry, and he would
cause this storm, thunder, and the lightning that was going
on there. So that was who Baal was. According to the Canaanites,
there was a dualism between Yahweh of Israel and Baal. They were
equals, we could say, and they were jockeying for position.
They were trying to see who was going to gain the upper hand
in here. So according to their, what's
the word, understanding mythology, if you want to use that word,
Baal had overthrown the El, the supreme god, Baal had overthrown
that God, now he was strongest God of all, and Yahweh of Israel
was beneath him. And again, so there's jockeying
for position here. And we see that in the Old Testament, we
see that come to a head in Kings with Ahab. Jezebel, Jezebel was
from Phoenicia or Tyre, and that was sort of the hub of Baal worship
in Phoenicia. So Ahab brings Jezebel in, and
with Jezebel comes Baal worship. So she brings it in. She had
hundreds, 450 plus priests for Baal that she personally, they
said they ate at her table, so she was responsible for them.
Baal worship was brought into Israel in that way. So we see
this come to a head, This, well, we understand Baal is, there
is no equals. That's what the point of the
psalm is. It's not Yahweh and Baal, but we see this very evidence
very clearly in the book of Kings with Elijah on Mount Carmel.
So Elijah brings all the priests of Baal. He says, okay, we're
going to solve this once and for all. If you think that Baal
and Yahweh are equal, let's come together here and let's end this
once and for all. Elijah says, how long will you
falter between two opinions? If Yahweh is God, follow him.
But if Baal, follow him. So then we know the story, we
know how it ends. They build the altar. They each
build an altar. The priests of Baal build an
altar. Elijah builds an altar to Yahweh. The priests of Baal, they spend
all day dancing on the altar, cutting themselves, doing these
things. Nothing happens. The goal was which God was gonna consume
the sacrifice and accept the sacrifice. We understand then,
or we see, remember the story, Elijah, dumps water on this altar,
you know, tons of water, and then Yahweh sends fire from heaven,
consumes the altar. Very, very clear that Yahweh
is God and Baal is not. Yahweh is the true and living
God, Baal is not. So, David is doing the same thing
in this psalm here. He's saying, you know, you Canaanites,
you think that, you know, you think that Yahweh and Baal are
equal, But he's saying, no, no, not at all. And how we know that
is, and he's going to show here, that Yahweh is sovereign, and
he's going to explain that by pointing out that Yahweh is the
creator. And that's the difference. Yahweh is creator, and there's
none like him at all. There is no other, there can
only be one creator. There can only be one infinite,
self-existent being. And that is Yahweh of Israel. So, you know, the Baal, Baal,
if we want to ascribe, you know, if we want to say he's a being,
he's a created being. Whether, you know, who Baal is,
that's not for the, you know, the current sermon, who he actually
is. But either way, Baal, if Baal
is a spiritual being that the nations are worshipping, he's
a created being. Yahweh is the creator. So that's
how, so having that background in our mind, then let's come
to the psalm. So first we see It breaks down here, we have
the call to acknowledge the sovereignty of Yahweh in verses 1 and 2,
and then we have the demonstration of that sovereignty in verses
3 through 9, and then the blessings of belonging to the people of
Yahweh, or the blessing of belonging to Yahweh, so in verses 10 to
11. So then first the call to acknowledge
the sovereignty of Yahweh. He begins out, so who is he addressing
here? So we look in verse one, he says,
give unto the Lord, O you mighty ones. Now, perhaps in your margin
it will give you a different note there, but literally it
says, give unto the Lord, O you sons of the gods. And again,
that's a reference to heavenly beings. Some translations, I
think NIV translated as heavenly beings or spiritual beings. These
are heavenly beings, he's calling on them You know that they inhabit
the the spiritual realm and he's so he's a calling on them to
to acknowledge the sovereign sovereignty of Yahweh So these
are these are angelic beings or there and not only not only
good angelic beings You know the the angels as we refer to
them as angels and all that fall within that that category but
there's but also the evil ones and and we see that in In in
the scriptures very very often that the the sons of God are
evil Spiritual beings in and these beings have a lot of control
over the nations that the Bible is very clear on that as well
that Satan and and and his his his hierarchy of demons have
a lot of control over the nations and over the over the kings of
of the nations, so You know, so he's he's referring then to
these to these, you know, the the gods of the nations the small
g gods of the nations that he's referring to here then. So he's
calling on them to, you know, this call is going out to this
angelic host here to ascribe to God glory. And we could say,
you know, that the call is going out to Baal himself, you know,
Baal, you ascribe the glory to God. Don't take credit for these
things that, you know, God is creator, God is doing these things,
God is over the storm. You're not, you're not, Baal.
You know, you need to ascribe the glory to God. The God who's the creator. God
gives the rain. God rains on the just and the
unjust. You know, the Bible tells us
that. So it's Yahweh of Israel here. So, you know, he says,
but then again, this is of course obviously not just going to go
out then to, you know, the heavenly beings, the angelic realm. but those who would worship those
gods as well, the gods of the nations. I think if we can understand
that in our minds, often we think of the people worshipping just
figments of their imagination, but I think the Bible is very
clear that they're worshipping spiritual beings. How much interaction
they have with them is outside the limits of this, but to understand
that the devil is behind all of this idol worship that we
have there so when we realize this then we have we have um
we have then then then it's calling on not only not only the the
gods but the people as well you know give the glory to god ascribe
god with this glory yahweh is that he's the creator there's
there's none like him we're gonna he's gonna make that very clear
In in this psalm here. There's there's there's no other
there's no other god like Yahweh He's he is he's far above all
these things. Yahweh is the creator. All of
these gods are created beings They are they are they're they're
spiritual beings that are created. They depend on Yahweh for their
very existence They are far inferior to Yahweh. They have more in
common with us than they do with with Yahweh because Yahweh is
is self-existent infinite and eternal so so so so the call
goes out to them and then it says give the glory of Strength
to him. So so, you know the glory and
the strength that only Yahweh has the Power to do such things. So the this this raging storm
that's happening So so so acknowledge the his power acknowledge his
might over the created order again Such a clear theme throughout
all of the scriptures there the Israelites under taking such
comfort in the fact that we read that in Psalm 31 35 as well there
that at the outset that that Yahweh is Yahweh is He's above
all the gods, he says, Psalm 135, for I know that the Lord
is great. Our Lord is above, so our Lord is above all gods.
The Lord, whatever the Lord pleases, he does in heaven and in earth,
in the seas and in all the deep places. And then it goes on,
he talks about the lightning and the rain and et cetera there. So the Israelites, it was such
a comfort for them, the faithful Israelites, then the prophets,
then Moses, the ones that wrote here, it was such a comfort for
them to understand that their god, Yahweh, was creator. The
other gods of the nations were creatures. So what a blessing
it was to be the people of Yahweh, the people of the creator himself,
the one who has absolute sovereignty. So give the Lord glory and strength
due to him, that he is over creation. Give the glory due his name.
So what does that mean? The Lord, as He has revealed
Himself, I call Him Yahweh, some people say Jehovah, I think we're
all familiar with that. But Yahweh, or how He revealed
Himself to Moses, as I Am. So God calls Himself I Am. Now if I said to you, I Am, you
would look at me and you would wonder, What? You're what? Because we're finite creatures,
and we have to always qualify our existence somehow, because
it's finite, it's always changing, so I have to say, I am hungry,
or I am tired, or whatever it may be. But Yahweh just says,
I am. And he leaves it there. I am. Because the Lord, we say the
Lord is pure being. He's just infinite. There's no way to qualify God. He just simply, He is. And that's
the glory that we need to give to God. His name tells us a lot
about who He is as God, that He is infinite, He's eternal,
and He's self-existent. He is uncreated. There was never a time when God
wasn't. God always just, He just is. And so Yahweh is Creator. We glorify Him because of who
He is. We give glory due to His name,
Creator. None like Him. In the book of
Isaiah, we often find that God calls Himself Yahweh, the Holy
One of Israel. I am the Lord, your Holy One,
the Creator. of Israel, your king. So what
a comfort that was to the Israelites. Now again, in the book of Isaiah,
the Israelites are being chastised for rejecting God, rejecting
the creator of the universe who had chosen them to be his own
special people. And they had rejected him and
chose to go after other gods, other created beings, rather
than the creator himself. And so this holy one, that's
the That's what we have to understand
when God tells us that he is I am, his name is I am, and that
he's infinite, he's eternal, he's self-existent. We call it
the holiness of God, that he is other, he is completely other.
There is no one like him, like our God. He is in his own category. Can I use that word? Okay, but
there's, there's no, there's no other, there's no other God.
It's not, I, I often use the, you know, the analogy of a, of
a ladder, the ladder of being. We think, you know, rocks are
down at the bottom, and then we have plants and animals, and
then we're, we're somewhere on there, and then maybe you have
angels, and then God's at the top. Well, it's not like that. The,
the, the, the ladder goes up to whatever you want to put at
the top, but whatever's at the top is still a created being. God
is not on that ladder of being. He is, because, because he is
completely other. So, so that is, that, and that's
what David goes on to say here. the psalm then so so so give
the lord the glory due to his name and then he says worship
the lord in the beauty of holiness there so so so beauty now worship
the lord in the beauty of holiness this is not a state that we need
to be in we need to be in a state of of of the beauty of holiness
as we worship god that's not what he's saying rather this
this is this is um attributed to god the beauty of holiness
so beauty here means not so much as we think of of of beauty in
our language, but more of a splendor or majesty. So worship the Lord
in the majesty of His holiness, this unsurpassable dignity, maybe
we could say, and the beauty of this, of being set apart,
of being completely holy, completely other. You know, so this is,
again, as I said, this is such a comforting reminder. It was
a reminder, a comforting reminder to the Israelites. They always
reminded themselves of that, that our God is holy. He is other. There is none like him. Moses
says, Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you,
glorious in holiness, fearful in praises? doing wonders. Now
this comes right after the Red Sea passage, where they've just
come through the Red Sea. God had part of the waters, Israel
went through on dry ground, Egypt went in, God closed up the waters
and destroyed them. An incredible feat of showing
God's sovereignty over nature, showing that He is, in fact,
the Creator. So then Moses breaks out in this song and says that.
Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, glorious
in holiness? And then Moses' reminder, to
the people again in Deuteronomy chapter 3, verse 24. What God
is there in heaven or on earth who can do anything like your
works and your mighty deeds? So what a blessing that was for
the people of Israel that their God was creator. Deuteronomy
33, 29. Happy are you, O Israel, Moses speaking again, happy are
you, O Israel, who is like you, a people saved by the Lord, the
shield of your help and the sword of your majesty, your enemies
shall submit to you and you shall tread down their high places."
So what a comfort, what a comfort that was to the people of Israel. And of course, us as the New
Covenant believers in the book of 1 Peter chapter 2, the next
passages that I hope to preach through, we saw that, we read
it this morning, I didn't preach on it, but just how Peter clearly,
clearly ascribes to to the New Covenant believers, the church,
that we are this holy nation, this special people, uses all
this Old Covenant language to describe the church here. In
2 Peter 2, verse 5, he calls them a holy priesthood, so we
see that's a very clear reference to the Old Testament. And then
in verse 9, again, you are a chosen generation, explicit Old Testament
language, a chosen nation, we see that very clearly. How God
chose Israel for his own special people a royal priesthood a holy
nation his own special people So so it's a comfort that we
can have as the people of as the people of God To know that
our God the God that we worship the God who has rescued us from
darkness Into marvelous light is is the creator he is there
is he's unrivaled in his majesty and in his sovereignty So so
now David David David's observing the storm again. Remember this
the storm is going through David is observing the storm as it's
passing through the country, the power that it's showing here,
and then he calls out to men and angels to acknowledge the
sovereignty of God and to worship Him. Spurgeon says it the best
here. Spurgeon says, the call to worship
in these two verses chimes in with a loud, pealing thunder,
which is the church bell of the universe ringing kings and angels
and all the sons of earth to their devotions. So only a Spurgeon
can say it in such a beautiful way. But the church bell, this
thunder, the church bell of the universe ringing kings and angels
and all the sons of the earth to their devotions. So that is
the call to acknowledge the sovereignty of God. And now we come to then
the demonstration of this sovereignty. So we see here that this is where
we have all the voice of the Lord, the voice of the Lord,
seven times repeated here. And again, so So as I said at
the beginning, we can kind of imagine that as the thunder,
each boom of thunder. Again, David writes another line. It's sort of coinciding with
another thunderclap from the storm as it passes through. Now the interesting thing is
the Hebrew word for thunder and the Hebrew word for voice is
exactly the same word there. So it's interesting. So we see
this here. that the voice of the Lord is
over the waters, the God of glory thunders here. So David's saying
this is not this thundering, this is not Baal you're hearing,
this is Yahweh of Israel, this is our God. He's the one thundering
in this storm. So he says here that the voice
of the Lord, in verse 3, the voice of the Lord is over the
waters. So, you know, of course, you know, the storm originated
over the waters of the Mediterranean Sea, and as the thunder, you
know, boomed over the sea, we saw that's Yahweh displaying
His power there. But there's so much, there's
more going on here. In the Bible, the Old Testament,
well, the New Testament as well, very clear, that this is a reference
to God as Creator again, that God being over the waters, referencing
Him and showing that He is, in fact, Creator. You can turn to
Genesis 1, verse 1 for a minute, to see where we get that from
and how that theme is played out through the rest of Scripture.
So, Genesis 1, verse 1, In the beginning God created the heavens
and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness
was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering
over the face of the waters. Then God said, let there be light,
and there was light. And God saw the light, that it
was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. God
called the light day, and the darkness he called night, so
the evening and morning were the first day. Then God said,
let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let
it divide the waters from the waters. Thus God made the firmament,
and divided the waters which were under the firmament from
the waters which were above the firmament, and it was so. So
that's where we get the concept, God over the waters, is a reference
back to the creation account, where we have this chaotic, watery
abyss prior to creation. What did that look like exactly?
We don't know, but the Bible describes it in these terms.
A chaotic, watery abyss, and the Spirit of God hovering over
these things, ready to create, ready to bring order from this
watery chaos there. So it's a very clear reference
to His to his sovereignty and his control, that he is creator. The Lord is over many waters.
And then look at verse 4, the voice of the Lord is powerful
and the voice of the Lord is full. of majesty. So again, going
back to creation there, you know, it was the voice of the Lord
that brought creation into existence. You know, God said, God said,
let there be light, and there was light. God said, you know,
let there be, let there be affirmament, and there was. All these things.
It was the voice of the Lord that was full of power and full
of majesty that brought creation into existence. So now, but the
voice of the Lord being so powerful and being so full of majesty. I think we have a very tangible
experience of this that we can read of with the Israelites in
the Old Testament in Exodus chapter 19 and 20 at Mount Sinai. And how the voice of the Lord
there, the power and the majesty that was in the voice of the
Lord. So if you turn to Exodus 19 in
verse 16, Then it came to pass on the third
day in the morning that there were thunderings and lightnings
and a thick cloud on the mountain, and the sound of the trumpet
was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled.
And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with
God, and they stood at the foot of the mountains. Now Mount Sinai
was completely in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in
a fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke
of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. And when the blast of the trumpet
sounded long, it became louder and louder. Moses spoke, and
God answered him by voice. Then the Lord came down upon
Mount Sinai on the top of the mountain, and the Lord called
Moses up to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up." Now flip
to chapter 20, Exodus 20, verse 18. Now all the people witnessed
the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet,
and the mountains smoking. And when the people saw it, they
trembled and stood afar off. Then they said to Moses, you
speak with us and we will hear, but let not God speak with us
lest we die. So we see just such a, it was
really that close encounter with the voice of the Lord. It was
a terrifying experience for the people of Israel. The Lord came
down on Mount Sinai in all his glory and they saw the lightnings
and they heard the thunderings. They heard the voice of the Lord
there in this theophany. And it was the majesty there
that the people trembled and they were terrified. You know,
so they they learned full well that day the Israelites did that
the voice of the Lord is majestic So then let's let's move on then
in the psalm now to to verse 5 the voice of the Lord breaks
the cedars Yes, the Lord splinters the cedars of Lebanon So now
so now David tracks the storm as it moves from over the over
the Mediterranean into the land of Lebanon, which was north of
the land of Israel. So this is, Lebanon is synonymous
with Tyre, Phoenicia. It's all that same area there,
Lebanon. So Lebanon was the land of the
great cedar trees. David and Solomon, they both
brought cedars from this area to build their houses, and Solomon,
obviously, to build the temple. So we remember David, David worked
with Hiram, the king of Tyre, the king of Phoenicia, to bring
these cedars over. But this was Baal's territory.
This was the hub of Baal worship. Baal was said to live on Mount
Hermon. And again, now Mount Hermon,
another name that we find for Mount Hermon in the Bible is
Sirion. And that's what we have in verse
6 here. So in verse 6 is a reference to Sirion. Sirion is Mount Hermon. And Hermon was Baal's house,
where Baal lived. He was said to live on Mount
Hermon. And in Judges 3, it's actually
called Mount Baal, Hermon. So it's a very clear reference
to that. So Baal was said to live there. So now the storm
of Yahweh and his display of his power, it moves into Baal's
territory. The power of Yahweh, the creator,
comes in there. And then the Lord demonstrates
his power and his sovereignty over this area that was supposedly
Baal's territory by splintering these cedars. you know, just
destroying them, breaking the cedars, splintering the cedars
of Lebanon. So it's, you know, it's God coming
very, very clearly, you know, and showing, Baal, you know,
you have no authority here, you have no power. I created these
cedars and I can destroy them if I want to. You know, there's, again, in
the Canaanite Mythology, Baal wanted to have a house built
out of these cedars. And among the gods, they were talking and
Baal wanted someone to go get cedars to build himself a house,
which is interesting, the parallels that we have here to the use
of the cedars and God making himself a house out of these
cedars. But again, so that's what the Canaanites taught and
they believed. Well, here comes Yahweh and Yahweh destroys these
cedars, splinters the cedars, our Bible says here. And then
we see what happens to Baal. As Baal, as a storm moves in,
this power of Yahweh comes into his land. Well, what does it
say here? So it's in verse 6 then. He makes them to skip like a
calf, Lebanon and Syria, like a young wild ox. So the cedars,
they're sent skipping off like a calf as they're splintered,
as the wind blows them and tears them apart, they're splintered
and their branches are thrown about by the wind of this storm.
It's like they're skipping like a calf. Now, the skipping like
a calf is not a calf skipping through a meadow having fun.
This is a terrified calf as it flees when it's scared. So the
cedars are breaking apart and fleeing like they're scared,
and then even the very mountains are trembling and shaking as
the thunder peels off the mountains. It's as if David personifies
them. They're shaking, they're fleeing,
they're running scared. a wild ox here. Again, like I
said, they're not having fun skipping. That's not what he's
referencing here. They're running in terror from
the power of the Lord when the Lord displays his glory. You
can turn to Psalm 114 for a minute. We see the same thing in Psalm
114. Start in verse 1. When Israel went out of Egypt,
and the house of Jacob from a people of strange language, Judah became
his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion. the sea saw it and
fled. Jordan turned back. The mountains
skipped like rams, the little hills like lambs. What ails you,
O sea, that you fled? O Jordan, that you turned back?
O mountains, that you skipped like rams? O little hills like
lambs? Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the
presence of the God of Jacob, who turned the rock into a pool
of water and the flint into a fountain Waters. So again, we see the
the mountains the creation They're being personified as as fleeing
back as and and and trembling as Yahweh displays his power
Over over the created order as as as as the creator, you know
So these mountains are these mountains here, you know, or
they're they're skipping off in in terror They're shaking in
terror as as this as Yahweh comes in and again remember this is
you know this as a this polemic against against Baal What's David
trying to show here? He's showing very clearly Baal
is no match for the Lord. Even when he's in his own abode
on Mount Hermon, on his own turf, he can't defend himself against
the power of the Lord. When Yahweh moves into Baal's
territory, Baal is sent running in fear. And again, this is a
warning to those who worship Baal as well. You know, that
this thundering that's happening here, this is not the voice of
an angry Baal. You know, this is the voice of Almighty God,
of Yahweh, of Israel, and this voice has sent Baal running for
the hills in terror. You know, because this God is
no ordinary God. He's not like one of the gods
of the nations. Rather, He is Creator, so worship
Him. Ascribe glory to Him. He's the
Creator. And then he goes on in this last
little couplet here, the voice of the Lord divides the flames
of fire, in verse 7. So, again, an interesting word
to translate, the word divides there. You might see in your
margin it says stirs up or literally hues out. So it's the idea of
cutting is the verb there. So, you know, this is probably
a reference to the lightning sort of, you know, cutting through
the dark clouds in this storm. Again, it's all part of this,
you know, this storm that's raging over the so-called home of Baal
in Lebanon and on the Mount Hermon, you know, and the fires of Yahweh's
cutting through over this false god, Baal, this god who claims
to have power over the weather, you know, but in reality he's
sent running when God shows up to demonstrate his power. So
that concludes that little section, then we move on to, as the As
the storm moves south, passes through Israel, moves south,
and it goes into the wilderness of Kadesh in verses 8 and 9. So the voice of the Lord shakes
the wilderness. The Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. So again, we have the same effect
here. When the power of God moves in,
You know, nature itself, the wilderness itself, it shakes,
it trembles at the voice of the Lord. David personifies nature as just
trembling and shaking when Yahweh displays the majesty of His voice
and the power of His voice. And again, in this section, there's
a lot more parallels, but I didn't bring them all out, but two ancient
Ugaritic texts. that talk about and discuss Baal. There's a lot more parallels
in here that David is using, but this is one that's quite striking.
The Ugaritic texts ascribe to Baal, praising Baal, and they
say, at his holy voice, the whole earth quaked. So David, again,
is saying here, no, not so fast. This same storm that just sent
Baal running in terror in Lebanon, this is the same storm that is
causing the wilderness to shake here in the South. It's Yahweh
who's all-powerful and to whom all the earth should quake in
fear of His great power and His great holiness. And then verse
9, the voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth and strips
the forest bare. This is a very difficult verse,
again, to translate. You know depending what what
version your Bible might say the voice of the Lord twists
the oaks and strips the forest bare So you might think how in
the world do you go from from making the deer give birth to
twisting the oaks? so there's a there's a the the
word for oaks and the words for For female deer those we use
them. They translates as deer here are very similar there.
They're in in the Hebrew there you have vowel pointing underneath
the consonants So the difference is pretty much restricted to
the vowel pointing, which was not in the original. So that
was up to Masoretic scribes, you know, after Christ came,
who added these vowel pointing so we would know how to pronounce
words and what they mean. So there's a very close similarity
there. So that, you know, so oaks or
female deer could be one or the other, but then we have the verb
of translated in the King James as giving birth, or to cause,
to give birth, or in the NIV, you know, rendered as twist when
it comes to, you know, in regards to the oaks. So the verb means
to writhe, to twist, to writhe, and often it's associated with
labor pains in the Bible. When a woman is, you know, is
in travail, You know she and she's writhing in in labor pains.
It's writhing is that's the verb used there so that is um, so
that's why you know a lot of a lot of you know translations
will will translate it as it causes the The voice the Lord
makes the deer give birth or causes them to to give birth
Because of that that verb is attributed to to labor pains
and But again, the verb has, it really has anything to do
with whirling, twisting, writhing sort of motion there. So it could
be, as we find in the King James, that the voice of the Lord makes
the deer give birth, that the voice of the Lord, you know,
it's terrifying and the deer, you know, they go into premature
labor and drop their young, you know, prematurely because they're
just, you know, they're so scared that it could very well Could
very well be that but I think the the way the NIV and some
other translations have it is Is better that the voice of the
Lord, you know twists the Oaks and I think You know, obviously
that goes with with the context. Well, it goes just as well as
the deer giving birth But when we see the next line there that
the it strips the forest bear so it's kind of it would make
sense it would go with that that that you know, the the Oaks are
are twisting up and they're and they're falling and the forests
are being stripped bare. So I think it fits that, but
there's something else that I think is a more powerful argument for
this translation, the way the NIV renders it as twisting the
oaks. And that is, you know, that the
word that's translated as oak is also referred to as a terebinth
tree in other places in the Bible. So the same, very same word.
masculine and plural differences, all the differences, but it translated
as terebinth trees. So, terebinth trees, they're
referenced often in the Old Testament. These were tall trees, they grew
very broad as well, very big trees, and they lived very long. They grew to be very old trees,
but they grew just as a single tree. So, if you look at pictures
of them, it's bare, and then there's just one massive tree
there. So, these trees were used as landmarks. We see that in
the Old Testament, we see how Abraham journeyed as far as the
terebinth tree at Mora. That was as far as he went. So,
the terebinth tree was the landmark there. The terebinth at Zionaim
marked the boundary of the tribe of Asher when they were allotting
out the land. Asher gets, you know, this section of the land
from the Jordan up to the terebinth tree at the Zayinayim. So they
were landmarks. But there's something a lot more
here, and that is that they were places where the Canaanites worshipped
Baal under the terebinth tree. We see that very clearly. They
became a shrine. Maybe that's not the right word,
but they became places where Baal was worshipped. under these
under these terebinth trees. We actually see we see Abraham
offering a sacrifice to Yahweh when he just enters into the
land of Canaan that he went to the terebinth tree to offer a
sacrifice to Yahweh because that was what he would have known
prior to him being called out of Ur of the Chaldees by the
Lord that a terebinth tree was a place where you offered a sacrifice
to your God. And we see that actually very clearly. You can
turn it to Hosea chapter 4 where we see that mentioned explicitly. Hosea 4, verse 13. Well, we can start
in verse 12. My people have asked counsel
from their wooden idols, and their staff informs them. For
the spirit of harlotry has caused them to stray, and they have
played the harlot against their God. They offer sacrifices on
the mountaintops, and burn incense on the hills under oaks, poplars,
and terebinths, because their shade is good. Therefore, your
daughters commit harlotry, and your brides commit adultery."
So very, very clear there that they have offered, you know,
they use this terebinth tree as a place to offer sacrifices
and to worship Baal. So that's why, you know, I believe
that this is the, you know, that's the correct translation of what
the NIV has, that causing the oaks to twist to be ripped apart. So this storm, as it moves through
Israel and comes into the wilderness, it's taking these terabith trees,
these old trees that have been there for hundreds of years,
that have been growing there, and twisting them up and stripping
them bare there. But it's not, again, David's
not just standing in awe at the storm as it rips trees out and
twists these trees up. But rather, again, he's showing
God's sovereignty over Baal. The places where Baal was worshipped
from his people, they're ripped apart and they're stripped bare. Again, a clear declaration of
the sovereignty of Yahweh, of Israel, our Lord. And then the
last line in verse 9, and in his temple everyone says glory. I love this line in this psalm
here. In my mind I picture as the storm
runs through Israel, I picture everyone in Jerusalem, the Temple
Mount, the Temple of God, they're in Jerusalem, they've observed
this storm as it's come, as it's wreaked havoc in Baal's territory,
it's passed through. through them into the wilderness
here. So first it's the abode of Baal
has been shaken, but then now it comes into the wilderness
and these places of worship, of Baal worship, they're twisted
apart, they're ripped from their moorings and stripped bare. And
so there the people are standing in awe of this and all they have
is this collective glory for their God. It's amazing as they
witness the power of their God, the God who has chosen them to
be their special people. Everyone in the temple says glory.
Sometimes I wonder, was it a shout of glory or was it just an awe-struck
whisper of glory? I don't know, but it's just,
it's amazing that as their God, their God is the creator, the
true and living God. So then we come, Now then, to
the blessings of belonging to the people of God in verse 10.
So again, we have a very clear reminder of the sovereignty of
God. Obviously, as this storm passed through the land of Israel,
the same power would have been felt there. They would have trembled at the
power of Yahweh in this storm as it comes by. But again, this
reminder here that even at the time, even at the flood, the
great flood, I think this is a reference in verse 10, a reference
to Noah's flood, that the Lord sat and throne at the flood.
So, when the most disastrous thing In terms of natural disasters,
the great flood, you know, the disaster ensued and the world
is being dramatically destroyed and returning to this watery
abyss that it was at creation. You know, God was in complete
control of the whole thing and God was sitting enthroned at
the flood. And this is such a good reminder
for us as the people of God. This is our God, this God that
is powerful, this God that sends Baal running in fear. This is
our God. And in a time of disaster like
this, that reminder that our God sat enthroned at the flood,
that God is in Control and God never never relinquishes that
control I mean we can obviously we can we can ascribe this to
natural disasters that you know, they seem to happen More and
more often these days these these natural disasters flooding fires,
whatever it may be, but this reminder Yes, God is in control
God God never relinquishes that control God the Lord the Lord
sits sits as king forever, so He's king of the universe. He's
king over all creation. So yes, we can take comfort for
the natural disasters in that term, but how much more of a
reminder and a comfort is this for us as we weather the storms
of life? Not the physical thunder and
the lightnings, but the trials and the difficulties that we
all endure. those storms as they come our
way. What a blessing it is to know that our God is sovereign
over all things. The Lord is sitting, sat enthroned
at the flood, calmly in control of all things as the world was
completely turned upside down and chaotic and de-created, we
could almost say. Yahweh was in control over it
all. He had not lost control in any
way. So what a blessing for that. Now, you know, we can see in
verse 11 here then, the Lord will give strength to his people,
and the Lord will bless his people with peace. So, now notice in
the psalm here, you know, the damage that the storm does, and
that David lists here, it's in the north in Lebanon, and then
it's in Kadesh in the south, But the storm obviously passed
through the land of Israel, but he doesn't mention the damage
that's done to these things, or done to the land of Israel
and to the people in there. Now, that doesn't mean that bad
things, I say quote-unquote bad things because we may interpret
them to be bad, that they don't happen to the people of God and
that we won't suffer. I'm not saying that at all. We
can't take that away from this psalm. in any way, but the storm
obviously would have buffeted the land of Israel as it went
through the land as well. There would have been damage,
but David here, he doesn't give any negative effects concerning
the land of Israel as it went through, and why is that? And I think the clearest answer
to that is that we know that all things work together for
good to those who love God and to those who are the called according
to his purpose. So, you know, even as this storm
has come through and displayed Yahweh's power, yet as it's,
you know, as we, for David, he does not interpret bad effects
happening to the land of Israel because, again, these things
are working out for good for God's people. You know again,
that's a that's important to under to understand this this
reality here that you know When God is in control that all things
work out together for us these storms that that come we can
have that peace that Surpasses all understanding we can be like
those, you know in the temple saying saying glory as as all
this as all this this this happens And we witness these things in
our in our lives So the Lord will give strength to his people
and the Lord will bless his people with peace. So this is something
that is unique to the people of God. The people in Lebanon,
the people in the wilderness in Kadesh, they would have been
trembling in terror, with no peace, as they witnessed the
storm come through. They ascribe this all happening
to Baal, and they're terrified of this. They're terrified of
this There's no peace there. Baal demanded that they give
their children as sacrifices, that they sacrifice their children
on his altars to appease his wrath. There was no peace to
be found in Baal worship, and there's no peace to be found
for those who are not the people of God. But for the people of
God, we have that strength and that peace to be had when we
understand and we know We trust in the fact that our God is creator. Our God is sovereign over all
things. He's rival to none and that He has created all things
and remains always in control over all those things. So we
can take that comfort from this in terms of the storms of life
that come our way. The Lord sat enthroned over the
flood. The Lord sits as king forever.
You know that's um, but but but the point of the psalm being
being this polemic against david How you know, what does that
what does that have to do with with with the here? And uh, sorry,
did I say the plumbing against david polemic against baal? What
does that have to do with the with the the here and now, you
know, we we can say well well, um You know, I I get it, you know
god is sovereign God is creator and and yeah, we can take we
can take you know Comfort in that but you know, there's there's
no there's no bail worship today What does that have to what does
that have to do with with anything? Well, I think I think we need
to understand what the Bible teaches us very clearly that
we are in a battle right now and this battle is not a battle
of Flesh and blood but it's a it's a spiritual battle against the
forces of darkness, which is which is the the devil so whether
bail whether bail worship was ultimately devil were either
at the end of the day it was ultimately devil worship, whether
Baal is a spiritual creature or not. For us today, we know
that we are in a battle against these forces of darkness. Principalities,
powers, and rulers of the darkness of this age, and spiritual hosts
of wickedness in the heavenly places. That's how Paul describes
it in Ephesians chapter 6. We are at war with this kingdom
of darkness. And I think sometimes in our
post-enlightenment world, we forget these things. We might
say, oh yeah, we're in a battle with the devil. The devil's real,
and we're in a battle because he wants me to sin, and that's
kind of the battle. But I think we need to realize that there's
a lot more going on. As I said, in our post-Enlightenment
world, the Enlightenment tried to remove all of the supernatural,
take it completely out, and that unless you could touch it and
feel it and grasp it, it wasn't real. Well, the church obviously
retained God, but I think we lost a lot of the spiritual aspects
of the Bible and the reality of the power of Satan and his
power over this world. You know, when we understand
that, I think it explains a lot when it comes to the state of
the world that we find ourselves in, especially now in the last
several years. You know, we find ourselves in
much like the psalmist says in Psalm 2, a situation like that,
that the nations are raging and people are plotting a vain thing.
The kings of the earth set themselves together or set themselves and
the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against
His anointed, saying, let us break their bonds in pieces and
cast away their cords from us." So we see that now. It seems
collectively the nations of the world have come together and
they're against the Lord, they're against His Christ. And to understand
how the Bible teaches us and shows us that Satan is behind
these rebellions like this, because Satan uses the kingdoms of the
earth, which are in his power, which the Bible says very clearly,
and Satan says to the Lord Jesus at the temptation that all these
nations are in his power, in his control. So Satan uses that,
he uses that to try and hinder the Church of Christ, and the
advance of the Church, to try to attack the people of God,
and kill the people of God or, you know, hinder them, persecute
them in any way. And ultimately, it's to hinder
the advancement of the gospel or of the advancement of the
kingdom of Christ that Christ is building in this world, you
know, which comes through the proclamation of the gospel through
his people. So, this, you know, the persecution and when we see
it coming together on such a I think as Brother John prayed this morning,
it's the governments of the world that are at this point are the
problem and the cause of so much of this persecution. And this
explains, you know, so understanding the demonic aspect and Satan's
control behind this helps us to understand the state of the
world. But then we have a psalm like this that helps us to, you
know, it greatly encourages us you know, that our God is sovereign. He sits in the heavens and he
laughs at this, the psalmist in Psalm 2 tells us. He laughs
and holds them in derision as they come together and they're
against the Lord, they're against his Christ. God is in the heaven
and he laughs at it. He holds them in derision. So,
you know, we need to understand this demonic influence over the
world, which is, you know, which is the goal is to hinder the
gospel proclamation and the spread of the church, the advance of
the kingdom of Christ. But this should not lead us to
despair in any way. I think, you know, oftentimes
when we start to question these things, we start to look into
these things and we see what's all going on, we can very quickly
be led into a despair that, like, how can this be happening? You
know, but we really should not be We should not despair, but
we should be greatly encouraged that our God is above all powers. He's victorious. We don't need
to panic or be anxious over the state of this world now. Now,
that doesn't mean fatalism, where we just don't care, whatever.
It's okay if you feel it's your calling to stand up against these
things and take action against these evils, whatever it may
be. That's fine. That's okay, but we don't we don't want to
to panic and I think um, we let's uh, let's turn to isaiah chapter
8 for a minute Where isaiah Or the lord says to isaiah the same
thing in isaiah 8 verse 11 for the lord spoke thus to me with
a strong hand and instructed me that I should not walk in
the way of this people saying Do not say a conspiracy concerning
all that this people call a conspiracy, nor be afraid of their threats,
nor be troubled." Now he's speaking of the Assyrian armies, you know,
about to invade the land. So he's saying, don't be a conspiracy
and panic and be afraid of their threats or be troubled. The Lord
of hosts, Him you shall hallow. Let Him be your fear and let
Him be your dread. So when we fear Yahweh, when
we fear Him in the right way, then we understand. his sovereignty,
that he is in control of all of this, of overall things, all
the gods of the nations, all the powers that be, that Paul
lists in Ephesians 6 there. So we understand that, and then
when we set our minds on these things, then we have, as the
psalmist says in Psalm 29, the Lord gives strength to his people,
the Lord blesses his people with peace. So what a joy, what a
comfort we can have knowing that our God is sovereign, our God
is in control of these things, and we have that peace that surpasses
all understanding. We've seen how He's over Baal
and sent Baal running in fear, so He is over whatever is going
on in this world today. God is in control of that. Now,
one warning that I would like to give is I was thinking about
this You know, I was thinking there's another storm, an impending
storm from God coming, and that's the storm of the wrath of God
this time. It's not a weather storm, but
it is God coming in reality, coming to take vengeance on those
who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of
our Lord Jesus Christ, to quote Paul in 2 Thessalonians 1. So
that storm coming of the wrath of God, in that storm, there's
safety, and peace given to the people of God. And that safety
and peace, of course, comes from the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ, whereby that storm will pass them by, and they will
be safe and secure. So if you're not a believer,
you find yourselves now in an evil and anti-God world, and
the nations, the kings of the earth, collectively coming together,
plotting against our God, against His people, against His Christ.
And maybe you even realize how evil that is and you're bothered
by the evil that's there. But if you have not repented
and you have not come to Christ, you are on the same side as them. You need to understand that.
You're either for Christ or you're against him. So you're under
the same judgment of God as we saw in Baal there. God sent him
running and this power the sovereignty and now the judgment that will
come upon all those at the end of the age. You're on the same
side if you have not come to Christ. So, you know, again,
then the call is to repent, to believe and to come to Christ
for your salvation, for this peace, this strength and this
peace that the Lord gives to his people, the one that you
can have that you can have now, in the here and now, knowing
that our God is in control. These things are, you don't need
to worry, you don't need to panic, you don't need to fret about
all that's going on in the world now, but also this peace that
we know that our future, our inheritance is secure because
of this peace that the Lord blesses his people with. So let us now
close then in a word of prayer. Our Father in heaven, how we
rejoice in the fact that you are sovereign, that you are holy,
and that there is none like you, O Lord. What a comfort that is
to know that, that you are not one among many jockeying for
position of who will be the king eternal, but you lord our king
eternal from you you always were and you always will be you are
the alpha and the omega the beginning and the end and lord you have
called us your people and we can call you our father and our
god lord what a what a blessing that is what a what a a joy that
is to know that and lord i pray that that this psalm would have
been a means of great encouragement for your people here to know
that that you that you are in control of all things, and that
you are over all the powers of darkness that there may be, Lord,
that you are God of all things, and that you are King of kings,
Lord of lords, and Lord, we thank you that your word tells us so
clearly in the book of Revelations that you win this battle that
we are in now, Lord, that you are victorious, that the devil
and all his host is cast into that lake of fire for all of
eternity and your people are gathered with you in the new
heaven and new earth to be in the presence of the lamb for
all of eternity lord how we rejoice in that and how that keeps us
going in the midst of a of a dangerous and crooked and perverse and
evil world that we live in lord so i thank you For this passage
of scripture, I pray that it would be a means of encouragement
for your people here. And I pray, Lord, that it would be a means
for any here who have not come to the Savior, that it would
be a means that they would come running to the Savior to find
that peace and that safety that only you can afford for the storm
of the wrath of God that is coming. against the devil and against
all those who are part of the kingdom of darkness. So Lord,
I pray now that you would be with us in the rest of this,
in this upcoming week, and all that you have called us to do,
that we would be lights in the midst of this crooked and perverse
generation. I pray that we would seek to bring glory to your name
in all that we do, and that we would seek to advance the kingdom
of Christ on this earth here. So Lord, we pray your blessing
now on us as we go, and we pray this in Christ's name. Amen.
Well, you can stand and we'll sing in closing number 564. 564, you can stand and we'll
sing that together, please. ♪ You only do it wondrous works
♪ ♪ In glory and excel ♪ ♪ You only do it wondrous works ♪ ♪
In glory and excel ♪ ♪ Blessed be His glorious name to all eternity
♪ ♪ The whole earth and its glory fill the lips of all that hear it hear ♪ The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.
The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Amen. You can be seated for a time
of meditation.
