WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:13.720 God, we come to you with expectancy, knowing that because of what your Son has accomplished 00:00:13.720 --> 00:00:19.580 on the cross on our behalf, we have the Spirit as a guarantee. 00:00:19.579 --> 00:00:32.060 We can approach your throne of grace with confidence, knowing that we will find grace and receive 00:00:32.060 --> 00:00:34.420 mercy to help us in our time of need. 00:00:37.759 --> 00:00:46.079 So we now turn to your Word so that we may be informed and transformed by your Word, so 00:00:46.079 --> 00:00:50.879 that our prayers may be according to your will, they may be stirred up by your Word. 00:00:52.619 --> 00:00:54.159 So help us speak to us. 00:00:54.780 --> 00:00:55.859 In Jesus' name we pray. 00:00:56.159 --> 00:00:56.599 Amen. 00:00:58.060 --> 00:00:59.920 So we're in Psalm 29. 00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:02.259 It's a Psalm of David. 00:01:02.879 --> 00:01:03.799 Psalm 29. 00:01:09.079 --> 00:01:15.039 It's a very song-like psalm with a lot of repeated lines, refrains. 00:01:15.040 --> 00:01:17.400 So I will read it out loud, verses 1 to 11. 00:01:19.240 --> 00:01:22.000 Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings. 00:01:22.360 --> 00:01:25.020 Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. 00:01:25.940 --> 00:01:28.719 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name. 00:01:29.420 --> 00:01:32.020 Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. 00:01:33.100 --> 00:01:35.680 The voice of the Lord is over the waters. 00:01:36.180 --> 00:01:38.120 The God of glory thunders. 00:01:38.700 --> 00:01:40.460 The Lord over many waters. 00:01:41.040 --> 00:01:43.219 The voice of the Lord is powerful. 00:01:43.219 --> 00:01:45.959 The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. 00:01:46.739 --> 00:01:49.239 The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars. 00:01:49.579 --> 00:01:51.640 The Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon. 00:01:52.640 --> 00:01:55.280 He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf. 00:01:55.700 --> 00:01:58.299 And Syrian like a young wild ox. 00:01:58.959 --> 00:02:02.640 The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire. 00:02:03.299 --> 00:02:05.579 The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness. 00:02:05.579 --> 00:02:08.659 The Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. 00:02:09.099 --> 00:02:13.120 The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth. 00:02:13.259 --> 00:02:14.740 And strips the forest bare. 00:02:15.199 --> 00:02:17.919 And in His temple all cry, glory. 00:02:17.919 --> 00:02:22.559 The Lord sits enthroned over the flood. 00:02:22.559 --> 00:02:25.959 The Lord sits enthroned as king forever. 00:02:26.339 --> 00:02:28.560 May the Lord give strength to His people. 00:02:28.879 --> 00:02:31.899 May the Lord bless His people with peace. 00:02:31.900 --> 00:02:37.760 So this psalm is basically teaching us about the power of the voice of the Lord. 00:02:37.980 --> 00:02:41.099 Invites praise to Him and inspires our peace. 00:02:41.219 --> 00:02:46.939 So it talks about how it calls the angels, but also obviously by implication human beings, 00:02:47.300 --> 00:02:49.140 to praise them for strength. 00:02:49.599 --> 00:02:51.879 You see the word strength in the beginning and the end. 00:02:51.879 --> 00:03:02.939 And He employs a series of imageries, as you see, throughout the psalm to evoke a sense of the power of the voice of the Lord. 00:03:04.240 --> 00:03:09.379 And it's parallel in a lot of ways to Exodus 15, which is the song of Moses, 00:03:09.479 --> 00:03:12.639 where He praises God for overthrowing the Egyptians in the Red Sea. 00:03:13.960 --> 00:03:20.759 And so He compares the Lord's voice as kind of like the war cry over in the battle, 00:03:20.759 --> 00:03:21.979 like the voice of the Lord. 00:03:22.419 --> 00:03:29.319 And He compares it to the crashing thunder in a storm that strikes fear into even the bravest heart, 00:03:29.719 --> 00:03:33.780 like an inextinguishable fire, wildfire that spreads through the forest. 00:03:34.819 --> 00:03:38.159 An earthquake that makes even the plains tremble. 00:03:38.759 --> 00:03:44.579 A voice so powerful that it shatters the cedars, which is kind of, for these guys culturally, 00:03:45.180 --> 00:03:47.340 that's the image of something that's unbreakable, cedar. 00:03:47.340 --> 00:03:52.939 And it makes the Lebanon, the mountains of Lebanon, which is their image of durability and stability, 00:03:53.340 --> 00:03:54.700 skip like a calf. 00:03:55.319 --> 00:03:56.960 So that's how powerful it is. 00:03:57.159 --> 00:04:01.539 And then when you think of the Lord this way, the power of the voice of the Lord this way, 00:04:01.560 --> 00:04:02.620 we can't help but praise Him. 00:04:03.159 --> 00:04:07.400 And then that, in turn, concludes in verse 11, when He talks about how He says, 00:04:07.599 --> 00:04:09.280 May the Lord give strength to His people. 00:04:09.659 --> 00:04:11.920 May the Lord bless His people with peace. 00:04:11.919 --> 00:04:17.740 And the reason why it inspires peace is because when we are praising Him 00:04:17.740 --> 00:04:20.240 and recognizing how powerful the voice of the Lord is, 00:04:20.399 --> 00:04:22.839 we could have peace that transcends our circumstances, 00:04:23.019 --> 00:04:25.899 as we remember how great He is, how powerful He is. 00:04:26.120 --> 00:04:29.839 So I'm going to read it one more time, meditatively, 00:04:29.959 --> 00:04:34.279 and I'd like you guys to think about these answers to these questions. 00:04:34.419 --> 00:04:36.740 What are the things that worry you today? 00:04:36.740 --> 00:04:41.100 What are the things that instill fear in you today? 00:04:41.980 --> 00:04:46.920 What circumstances seem insurmountable to you today? 00:04:47.259 --> 00:04:51.240 And then listen to this powerful song, 00:04:52.199 --> 00:04:55.960 how the power of the Lord invites praise and inspires peace.