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“If you’re able, please stand.” Reading Ps. 29. “Thanks be to God.”
“Worship” is a word we use a lot. But we don’t always use it carefully.
We say things like, “What time does worship start at church?” “10 o’clock.” And, “What time does it usually end?” “Around 10:30. Then we do announcements.”
Or, “I love worship music.” Music where Christians are worshipping God and made for other Christians to sing along and worship, too.
Or, “Do you guys do worship at your small group?” Worship is that spot between mingling and the discussion.
But then sometimes we outsmart ourselves. We realize that worship is a bigger term and includes the whole church service. It’s not just Sunday, but it’s every day of the week. It includes all that we do! And that’s all true.
So, then, let’s not call the first part of our worship gathering “worship.” Let’s call it “the singing.” And let’s not refer to the guy who leads the singing, “the worship leader.” Let’s call him, “the song leader.”
So you end up with an awkward reversal. Now the one part of our service that isn’t worship is the opening part. It’s not worship, it’s just singing. He’s not a worship leader, he’s just a song leader. Like the guy who has the guitar at camp who leads the camp songs.
So, we’ve stuck with the term “worship leader,” because he “leads the worship” at the start of our service. But we know all that happens on a Sunday morning is to be worship. Cornerstone Kids and the greeters and the safety team and the sermon and the encouragement that happens in conversations—all of this is to be part of our worship to God.
And when go to work in the morning or go home and care for our children today, all of that is to be worship, too.
We want all that we think, say, and do to be a way of ascribing to the LORD the glory due his name.
King David will help us think about worship in Psalm 29.
This sermon is part of our vision series, All for Him. Continuing our theme from the giving campaign. Three sermons:
All for Him Vision Series
This morning, worship. Next summer, our 5-week summer series will be on worship.
The sermon: (1) The worship of God (29:1–2), (2) The power of God (29:3–9), (3) the peace of God (29:10–11)
Prayer
King David calls us in these verses to worship the LORD—worship Yahweh!
Read Ps. 29:1-2.
He speaks to “heavenly beings”—angels—here called “sons of God” in the Hebrew.
Like the seraphim in Isaiah 6:2 (and 6:6), the “myriads of myriads” of angels in Revelation 5:11—all angelic “sons of God” worship the God who made you.
He calls them and us to “ascribe to the LORD glory and strength” (Ps 29:1).
This is nothing less than “the glory due his name”: Ps. 29:2, “Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name.”
Jerry Bridges refers to this verse as giving us “the essence of worship.”[1]
Worship involves many things, but to be true worship, all of them are dedicated to this sacred task of “ascribing to the LORD the glory due his name.”
“Ascribe” can mean “give,” give to God the glory due his name. But “ascribe” is helpful in this passage. It means saying that something is true of God.
You can hear that especially in verse 1: “Ascribe to the LORD, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.”
We can give “glory” to God, but we can’t give “strength” to God. But “ascribe” means saying something is true of God. It’s an attribute of God. We can say that, “Our Lord is strong, all-powerful.”
Part of worship is declaring things that are true of God. His attributes are always connected to true worship.
But what is “glory”? If we are to “ascribe glory,” what are we ascribing?
Here we can start with Lewis Caroll’s Through the Looking Glass. In Carroll’s book, Alice and Humpty Dumpty have a conversation that’s very frustrating for Alice. He asks her age and eventually speaks of birthday presents. One day a year is your birthday. So, 364 days a year are un-birthdays. Humpty then says,
‘That shows that there are three hundred and sixty-four days when you might get un-birthday presents—
‘Certainly,’ said Alice.
‘And only one for birthday presents, you know. There’s glory for you!’
‘I don’t know what you mean by “glory,”‘ Alice said.
Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. ‘Of course you don’t—till I tell you. I meant “there’s a nice knock-down argument for you!”‘
‘But “glory” doesn’t mean “a nice knock-down argument,”‘ Alice objected.
‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.’
‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’
‘The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master - - that’s all.’
Alice was too much puzzled to say anything, so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again. ‘They’ve a temper, some of them—particularly verbs, they’re the proudest—adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs—however, I can manage the whole of them! Impenetrability! That’s what I say!’
‘Would you tell me, please,’ said Alice ‘what that means?’[2]
Well, okay, so maybe we need a little more help.
The Hebrew word for “glory” is from a root that means “heavy.” Heavy things in the Old Testament are referred to as having “glory.”
But “heavy” can have that sense of “weighty” or “important.” The slang of our parents or grandparents captures that, “That’s heavy, man.” “Glory” is weighty in these ways.
When it’s speaking of God, “glory” is an attempt to describe something of God that’s indescribable.
When you’re talking about God, first of all, “glory” can speak to God’s very presence.
You see this in Exodus 40:35 when Moses’s tabernacle was built:
And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. (Exod 40:35)
And in 1 Kings when Solomon’s temple is built:
And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, a cloud filled the house of the LORD, 11 so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD. (1 Kgs 8:10–11)
And then “glory” can also refer to the “praise” of God. Like in Psalm 115:
Not to us, O LORD, not to us,
but to your name give glory,
for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness! (Ps 115:1)
Verse 2 of our psalm uses glory like this: “Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name.”
But Psalm 29 also has a third way to understand “glory.” When David says, “Ascribe to the LORD glory” (Ps 29:1), he’s speaking of an attribute of God, something God is.
Like in Romans 1:22–23. Speaking of people separated from God, Paul writes,
Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. (Rom 1:22–23)
John Murray explains that “glory” in this verse really means, “the sum” of God’s “perfections.”[3] He is the God of all glory!
The power of Psalm 29 is that it’s combining these ideas of “glory.” God is glorious (Ps 29:1), and his very presence is glory (Ps 29:9), and so we respond by giving him glory (Ps 29:2).
The worship of God means “ascribing to the LORD the glory due his name.”
The Psalm is doing this with words. Our words are a key way that we can worship God. We declare things that are true of him and that set him apart as greater and more glorious than anyone or anything else.
Our words are not the only way that we are to worship God, but they are an important way.
But now let’s turn to the middle portion of the Psalm.
The heart of the worship of this Psalm is centered on a specific attribute of God, the one mentioned in verse 1 (Ps 29:1): the power of God.
The Psalms are powerful inspirations for worship. They never simply tell us to worship God: “Praise him and mean it!” Every Psalm that calls us to worship God gives us a reason to worship God.
And King David in Psalm 29 calls us to worship God because of his unrivalled power. These verses give us the great WHY of worship—at least one aspect. God is the Omnipotent One. He is all powerful.
Read Ps. 29:3–9.
This is a fascinating passage. The refrain of “the voice of the LORD” is found 7 times! But God’s “voice” is not heard in audible words or normal speech. His “voice” is heard in a powerful storm sweeping across the lands just north of Israel.[4]
It starts “over the waters,” “over many waters” (Ps 29:3), the Mediterranean Sea.
It “thunders” and so “is powerful,” “full of majesty” (Ps 29:4). Now we can HEAR this terrifying storm.
And then it comes inland to Lebanon and “breaks the cedars,” “breaks the cedars” (note the repetition). Such cedars could grow to 100 feet with trunks six feet in diameter (Bullock). But God “breaks” them with his “voice”!
“Sirion” (Ps 29:6) is Mount Hermon (Deut 29:3) in the north, rising to just over 9,000 feet in elevation. But “the voice of the LORD” causes it to “skip...like a young wild ox.” Earthquakes and blizzards on the top of it.
Then we begin to SEE the lightning—“flashes forth flames of fire” (Ps 29:7).
Finally reaching “the wilderness of Kadesh” (Ps 29:8), to the north of Israel, in Syria.
All this is typical for weather patterns in that region (Allen Ross).
In the days of Israel, it was assumed that this region was under the domain of Baal, and so “the storm god was the god Baal” (Allen Ross, 1:653). But King David knows the reality:
To [King David] the psalmist It was not the voice of Baal causing the storm, but the voice of Yahweh, the God of Israel.
Allen Ross[5]
But then there’s one more “voice of the LORD” reference in Ps. 29:9.
Now we descend from the big and awesome displays of God’s power to a smaller detail. In this great storm of thunder and lightning, God even has his eye on “the deer.” In Ps. 29:9, we read that the storm has panicked this doe, so that she gives birth to a faun in the storm.
Truly,
The voice of the LORD is powerful;
the voice of the LORD is full of majesty. (Ps 29:4)
The final look in these verses takes us into “the temple” (Ps 29:9). We don’t know if it’s the temple on earth or the temple in heaven where God dwells. I think King David is imagining God’s heavenly dwelling place.
As all the “heavenly beings” (Ps 29:1) and saints who have died (Rev 20:4) behold his awesome power, we catch a glimpse of their reaction in God’s “temple”: “In his temple all cry, ‘Glory!’” (Ps 29:9c).
It’s a powerful moment. Not even a sentence, just that one word, “Glory!”
That can happen, where the more and more we become aware of God’s true glory, the fewer words we use. Ultimately, all we can say is, “Glory!”
But we know something about God’s temple King David didn’t know: God’s people are the temple of the Lord!
The apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians:
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. (1 Cor 3:16–17)
We are God’s temple, because we are God’d dwelling place. “God’s Spirit dwells in you,” the church, the people of God.
So, as we read this account of this awesome storm, as we contemplate God’s power displayed in nature, we have a part to play in fulfilling King David’s Psalm: “And in his temple, all cry, ‘Glory!’” (Ps 29:9). That’s us! We “all cry, ‘Glory!’”
The Psalm ends in an unexpected way. You might think verse 9 is the perfect ending. But God has more to say to us.
Read Ps 29:10–11.
David now considers God as King. Our God is “high and lifted up” (Isa 6:1; 52:13; 57:15). He “sits enthroned.”
First, David imagines God’s place in the middle of the most famous storm in the Bible, the flood of Noah. “The LORD sits enthroned over the flood.”
The only other places we this word for “flood” (mabbul) are in the book of Genesis to describe the flood of Noah (Gen 6:17–9:15; 9:28; 10:1, 32; 11:10). David is saying Yahweh “sat enthroned” over that “flood.” That flood was no natural event resulting from unusual weather patterns. It was “the voice of the LORD” bringing about a cataclysmic event with massive effects.
Yahweh who is God of Noah’s flood and of the storm is King. And there will be no end to his reign: “The LORD sits enthroned as king forever” (Ps 29:10b).
Now, we might think, that’s an even better way to end the Psalm! But there’s more.
Like in so many Psalms, we get a turn at the end. We’re basking in the transcendent glory and majesty and power of God. And then at the end, we get this change of direction.
Now we see that this God of transcendent glory is also a God of very personal and ever-present grace. We see his personal grace in Ps. 29:11.
The ESV turns verse 11 into a prayer. But in this case, it seems better to go the direction that almost all other translations have gone and see these as promises and statements of truth:
The LORD will give strength to His people;
The LORD will bless His people with peace. (NASB, Ps 29:11)
Yahweh will give us “strength” and “will bless” us “with peace.” Strength and peace!
That’s God’s amazing grace. We’re working to “ascribe to the LORD glory and strength” (Ps 29:2), and what does he do? He turns around and “will give strength” to us!
Our God is not only awesome in his strength, but “he will give strength to His people!”
That’s what it means to belong to God. He is all-powerful, and yet he gives himself to us. He gives strength to us!
And we need that, don’t we?
One of the ways he gives us strength is pictured in this Psalm. As we’re “ascribing to him glory and strength,” we come away with greater strength for the challenges before us. Worshiping God gives the strength of God.
But there’s still more! It also says, he will give us “peace” (shalom), too. Shalom is the last word in the Hebrew of this Psalm.
David began in the temple of the LORD in the splendor of God’s holiness and glory. And then he basked in the awesome display of power in the storm. But his last word to God’s people is the promise that “the LORD will bless his people with peace.”
It’s a powerful idea: “The voice of the LORD” is bringing storms of thunder and lightning and destruction.
But our reigning King of kings will bring us shalom.
Shalom is a broad word that means more than simply a calm feeling. It means our lives ordered according to his ways and marked by his goodness and favor. Ultimately, shalom means the whole creation renewed and remade so that all is right with the Creator. No more judgment or signs of the fall...
No more floods...No more devastating storms. No more cancer. No more assaults. No more Planned Parenthood. No more drug cartels. No more dictators. No more imprisonments and executions of Christians. No more sex trafficking. No more sin. No more death.
Instead it will be global shalom. All made right, forever.
We get pictures of this throughout the Bible to build our faith for today and for That Day.
The God of the Storm who gives peace to his people is pictured in a really powerful way in the ministry of Jesus.
Early in his ministry in Mark 4:
On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” 36 And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. 37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. 38 But he 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?” 39 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. 40 He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” 41 And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (Mark 4:35–41)
Jesus is the God of the Storm. He speaks with “the voice of the LORD.” His voice actually brought that storm in the Sea of Galilee. And then his “voice” commanded it, “Peace! Be still!”
That’s our Jesus. That’s our Christ. Total control of the forces of nature. And what does he give to his people? Shalom. Peace.
If you’re not a Christian, hear the invitation of Jesus, “Come to me and find peace. True peace. Eternal peace. Peace with God.”
Without Jesus, God is your enemy, not your friend. He is your Judge, not your Savior.
But with Jesus, God is your Friend, not your enemy. He is your Savior, not just a Judge.
That’s the first act of true worship: Believing in Jesus. Bowing before him as your King.
“All our worship for him.” We are called in this Psalm to join King David and “Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name.”
But this is not something we do only on Sundays! Our gathering here on Sundays is the high point of our worship, but our whole life is to be worship:
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. (Rom 12:1)
But Sundays is where we get to fulfull the cry of King David from Psalm 34:3:
Oh, magnify the LORD with me,
and let us exalt his name together! (Ps 34:3)
This is our CORPORATE WORSHIP, our time to “exalt his name together!” Lift up his name. Declare to ourselves and the world that he is great above all things!
We want all that we think, say, and do to be a way of ascribing to the LORD the glory due his name.
Prayer and closing song.
[1] Jerry Bridges, The Joy of Fearing God (Colorado Springs, CO: Water Brook, 1999), 235).
[2] Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass (1871 orig.; Forgotten Books, 2008), 66-67.
[3] John Murray, Epistle to the Romans, Vol 1 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1959), 42.
[4] Many commentators have picked up on the storm idea, but Allen Ross has a particularly strong description of how this functions in the passage. But see also Christopher Ash and C. Hassell Bullock on it. John Calvin on this writes, “He says not that the sun rises from day to day, and sheds abroad his life-giving beams, nor that the rain gently descends to fertilise the earth with its moisture; but he brings forward thunders, violent tempests, and such things as smite the hearts of men with dread by their violence. God, it is true, speaks in all his creatures, but here the prophet mentions those sounds which rouse us from our drowsiness, or rather our lethargy, by the loudness of their noise” (Commentary on Ps 29:3).
[5] Allen Ross, A Commentary on the Psalms (Kregel), 1:653.
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