Sunday Sermon

"Over Many Waters"
[Psalm 29:1-11]
January 7, 2007 Second Reformed Church

Have you ever been caught in a thunderstorm? Or have you at least seen a thunderstorm -- even through a window? I have been out in them and sat through them, and I must admit, I don't like thunderstorms. I find them frightening. Thunderstorms are powerful and dangerous.

King David, the author of the Psalm that was just read, was originally a shepherd. He was someone who knew the hardships of living in the open air and caring for animals. Surely, he had experienced being out in thunderstorms with his sheep.

Psalm 29 is a song about thunderstorms -- where they come from, and how we ought to react to them. David tells us that anyone who has experienced a thunderstorm knows that God exists, he knows that God is worthy of all glory, he knows that God is powerful, he knows that God is sovereign, and he knows that God is the One Who gives strength and peace to His people.

If you've experienced a thunderstorm, you know there is a God.

The Name that David uses, which is translated "Lord" in our text, is the Name, YHWH. This is the High and Holy and Personal Name of God that God gave to Moses when God spoke to him through the burning bush. God called out to Moses, telling him, "I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob" (Exodus 3:6b). But that was not enough for Moses, for when God gave Moses the command to tell Pharaoh to set Israel free, Moses questioned Who God was, what Name he should use, that the people would know God and believe that Moses was sent by Him. And God said, "I am who I am." And "Tell this to the people of Israel, 'I am has sent me to you'" (Exodus 3:14). Tell the people that God is Being, God is Essence, God is the Is, and they will know and believe.

Paul tells us that God has set nature, even the thunderstorms, to make His existence clear, "For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse" (Romans 1:19-20).

David's very use of the Name, YHWH, which is the Hebrew acrostic of "I am Who I am," shows us that he knows and is telling the readers and singers of this Psalm, that God is the God of Being, Who is known simply and obviously, by the existence of the creation -- even in a thunderstorm.

If you've experienced a thunderstorm, you know that God is worthy of all glory.

In the first two verses of the Psalm, David tells us that since we know that God exists by experiencing a thunderstorm -- or any part of nature -- since we know that the thunderstorm is a creation of God, then God is worthy to be honored and praised and glorified. The Being Who brought all of this into existence, is great and worthy of praise. This God must be great and worthy, and we know that simply by seeing what He has created and seeing God's goodness reflected back on Him by the creation.

In Psalm 148, the Psalmist writes, "Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights! Praise him all his angels; praise him, all his hosts! Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars! Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the Lord! For he commanded and they were created. And he established them forever and ever; he gave a decree, and it shall not pass away. Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all deeps, fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling his word! Mountains and hills, fruits trees and all cedars! Beats and all livestock, creeping things and flying birds!" (Psalm 148:1-10).

The creation, both animate and inanimate objects, reflect back God's Glory back to Him in praise and glory. So He is worthy, and we know that we ought to praise and glorify Him as well -- since we know that He is and everything that is came into existence by Him -- which leads us to our next point:

If you've experienced a thunderstorm, you know that God is powerful.

David tells us to picture ourselves looking out over the Mediterranean Sea or the Sea of Galilee -- we are in Israel. And we see, off in the distance, on the waters, the beginnings of a great thunderstorm. It comes by the Voice of YHWH -- it is the Voice of the God Who IS, speaking in peals of thunders, booming over the waters. His Voice is powerful; His Voice is full of majesty. Boom! Boom! Boom! As the storm moves across the waters.

The thunderstorm comes on land in Lebanon: Boom! And then we hear the cracking of one of the mighty cedars of Lebanon -- those great and ancient trees, tall and mighty, sought after by the whole earth for building materials -- and YHWH speaks -- and the cedars break. The crack and splinter and crash to the floor of the forest -- they are no match for the Voice of God.

The storm continues to move, and as it does, Lebanon and Sirion -- the very nations -- their land and everything in them, moves, jumps, spins, skips about like a calf or a young, wild oxen. The Voice of YHWH has reduced the might of creation to young creatures at play.

And then -- crack -- the Voice of YHWH bursts forth with fire -- lightening hits the cedars and the ground. Explosions are all around us. Fires burn, lighting up the sky. And the "booms" and the "cracks" and the fire and the movement of the earth makes it look like the wilderness, the desert, the very earth itself is writhing in fear of the power of the Voice of God.

At the Voice of God in the thunderstorm, the deer goes into labor and gives birth, as the forests all around her are stripped bear. What should the response of the people of God be? How should they react to seeing that this God is so powerful?

This is the God Who always was and always is and always will be. In Genesis, we remember that He had but to speak -- His Voice created heaven and earth and all of the creatures that are, the sun and the moon and the stars, and you and me. This is He through Who "all things were made..., and without him was not anything made that was made" (John 1:3).

To see and know this Power of God, causes us to come into the temple, into the sanctuary of our God, and cry out, "Glory!" When Isaiah met the God in the temple, he "saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 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!' And the foundations shook at the voice of him who called and the house filled with smoke" (Isaiah 6:1b-4).

It is a terrifying thing to be in a thunderstorm; it is more terrifying to be in the presence of our Holy God. But the right response in both cases is to turn to Him and cry out, "Glory!" "Holy, holy, holy!" Praise and glory belong to Him, for He is awe-ful and awe-some -- and powerful. In fact, He is all-powerful and sovereign.

If you've experienced a thunderstorm, you know that God is sovereign.

David tells us that YHWH is King; He is the Sovereign. He rules over the earth with Absolute Authority. This is the God Who sits enthroned above the flood. And yes, we ought to think, not only of floods in general, but of that flood. David's contemporaries would have immediately remembered how the Sovereign God said, "For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth will die" (Genesis 6:17). The God of the thunderstorm is the same God Who caused it to rain for forty days and forty nights, and the water covered the entire planet and everything on the planet drown, except for Noah and his sons and their wives and the animals God had told them to save. And they remained on the ark for about a year, until the waters subsided and the earth was dry, and they could repopulate the earth. This is the Sovereign God Who does as He pleases, as Nebuchadnezzer confessed, "his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and no one can stay his hand or say to him, 'What have you done?'" (Daniel 4:34b-35).

Yet the fear and awe and respect and honor and glory that we give to God in the thunderstorm -- and always -- is not given for fear of punishment -- not for those who have received His Salvation.

If you've experienced a thunderstorm, you know that God is the One Who gives strength and peace to His people.

Mark tells us that Jesus and the disciples got into a boat "And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But [Jesus] was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, 'Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?' And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, 'Peace! Be still!' And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, 'Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?' And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, 'Who is this, that even the wind and sea obey him?'" (Mark 4:35-41).

Who is He? Paul tell us this about Him -- about Jesus, "May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son [Jesus], in who we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins" (Colossians 1:11-14).

And also, "And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:7).

Who is the God Who speaks the thunderstorm, and is deserving of glory, and is sovereign, and gives strength and peace to His people? This God, YHWH, is Jesus. Let us see His Work in the creation and in our lives, and rejoice and glorify Him. And if we are afraid, let us to turn to Him and glorify Him and ask Him for His promised strength and peace. And let us also turn to Psalm 29, remembering Who our God and Savior is, and let "all in his temple cry out, 'Glory!'"

Let us pray:
Almighty God, our Savior, YHWH, King Jesus, we thank You for David's Psalm. We thank You for making Yourself known through all of creation, including the thunderstorm. We ask in all that we experience, that we would turn to You to glorify You and rest in You, trusting You for Your strength and peace to accomplish everything that is good and pleasing in Your Sight. In Jesus' Name, Amen.