behind the psalm of David. These titles technically speaking are the first verse of the psalm but we don't normally put them as verse one because of course they're not that part's obviously not meant to be sung so they're there as a title so it's a psalm of David we're not certain when it was written well to be precise we have no idea whatsoever when it was written Possibly, judging by the content, after a battle where the Lord perhaps used thunder and lightning to aid David or remembrance of an occasion like that. Possibly the Lord prompted David to consider God's power and to compare with man's power because of some situation like that. Or it may be simply the Lord simply inspired David and brought these things to his mind without any context whatsoever other than this is who I am. However, whatever the reason is, one thing that Psalm 29 does do is help us to find a true perspective on our day-to-day living. People regularly say, they use the words, I'm proud of this, I'm proud of that, and they'll accept the adulation of crowds, accept all the glory for their achievements for themselves. but they don't want to give glory to God. There are some, of course, who do. There are some people who we know who are Christians, who are well known, who will give the glory to God and point to God and indeed devote their life to that. Not as many as we would like. But this psalm also points to God through a storm, and though the storms may rage round about us, he is pointing to God. This is the God of power, the God whom we worship. Indeed, the God who we should worship if you don't already. So we have a theme for this psalm. The theme is my hope in Jesus, because this psalm, like all of the Old Testament, points to our Savior. And we'll have three headings. Give our all to God, the power of God, and the Lord's blessing. So point one, give all. Give our all to God, verses one and two. Give unto the Lord, O you mighty ones. Give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due His name. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Give. Before we come to the word give, is it not common that people will make requests of God? And by I say people, I mean people generally, whether they believe in God or not. A request is often made to God with little or no regard to the will of God. And then it's not answered in the way that it's demanded. The request is made, not if it's in accordance with your will. It's just made. And then, of course, they don't get the answer that they want. And the outcome is only one that's expected or wanted, which is the one that's demanded. I remember watching one of these comedy programs once, a sitcom from the 1970s, and the old man, and it knocks over his son's expensive vase. And in the sitcom, I remember what... I wasn't a Christian when I watched this, by the way, but I remember it vividly. And of course in the sitcom, he rather blasphemes, he cries out to God and shouts out, come on God, put the thing back together. Well, it doesn't get just immediately put back together because God doesn't actually behave like a maybe Poppins and do things like that in some kind of magical way. And then of course immediately, as soon as it doesn't happen straight away, he shakes his fist and says, you're no good. Of course he wasn't asking in accordance with God, well he was using God like some kind of magical trick artist to suddenly do just what he wanted. So of course he doesn't get what he wants so he immediately blames God. Well then they deny the existence of God because of course they don't get what they want. God's soon forgotten if the outcome is not what is desired. Because there was no root in the demand, no humility, and certainly no submission to God. But here we have the contrast, give unto the Lord, give unto the Lord, give unto the Lord, three times in these two verses. Not an attitude of, well, I just want what I can get from you, but I will give. But what is being given? Give unto the Lord all you mighty ones. Well, before we get to what has been given, note who is giving, the mighty ones. See the powerful people on earth. Those with the power, they tend to rely upon themselves. They have their millions or their billions, they have their influence, they have their premiership, their presidency, or their kingship, or their queenship, and how many of them, they don't give unto the Lord. But here it's saying, you who are mighty, give to God. Give unto the Lord glory. So in other words, they give glory to His name. They're not looking to themselves to say, well, look how rich I have become. I have done so well. No, what they're saying is, God has enabled me to be mighty and I give glory to Him. celebrating His perfect nature and being, the only true God. None other is put before Him, forsaking all other gods, including the God of self. Give unto the Lord glory and strength. It's not that God is somehow lacking strength and needs to be passed some strength from us to Him. It's talking about that acknowledgement that God is the God of strength. We are weak and we need His strength. And how do we get the strength? How do we get the help from God? By trusting in Jesus Christ. And He is the one who then gives us strength. Give unto the Lord, O you mighty ones, give unto the Lord glory and strength. But if the mighty ones who are to do that, the ones who have all this power need to give this to God, need to acknowledge the strength of God, then surely it follows that those of us who aren't mighty should do the same. I'm not mighty. I'm not a king. I'm not a president. I'm not rich. I'm not powerful, I can't walk into the town hall and they don't suddenly back off and say, oh, I better watch out, he's here. I would walk in there and they would think, who's that scruff, get him out. Well, hopefully they wouldn't quite think that, but you take my meaning. So if the mighty need to ascribe strength to the Lord, and even more so, surely we do. I'm saying we, because I'm making maybe the rash assumption, maybe there is a millionaire or some powerful person in the midst. But assuming that's not the case, then it's also for us. Give to the Lord the glory due His name. The name of God is given that depicts His nature, who He is. You go through the Old Testament, you've got all these different names given to God. They're all depicting a part of the nature of God, seeing who He is. Give unto the Lord the glory due His name. He is due glory. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. or can also be translated of the sanctuary, that is the place where God is. Only God has this beauty. We, if we are trusting in Christ, have a reflection of it. The elect angels are reflecting of it. The cherubim and the seraphim who are the ones who are going around the throne of God continually. They are reflecting the glory of God. They're reflecting this beauty of holiness, of holiness, of perfection where there is no sin. Because we claim nothing of ourselves. We are sinners. We would be in rags, filthy rags before God. That's what we are before Him. But when we're trusting in Christ, then we are changed. We are washed in His blood. We are made clean. And then we are as white as snow. Why? Because we are great? No, because Jesus Christ is great. That's how we have our holiness in Christ. And when we come to worship the Lord in beauty of holiness, we seek also to reflect it. because our hope is upon Jesus Christ. As the hymn writer says, my hope is built in nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. No merit of my own, I claim, but wholly lean on Jesus' name, which is why we give unto the Lord. We give glory to him. It is his strength we acknowledge. We give glory to his name. to his being. Why? Because we're trusting in his son and thus we're able to give glory to him. Only God deserves the glory because it is only God who can lift us up and save us. Which is why we have to repent and trust in Christ for our salvation. So that we can give to God. Give Him our worship. Give Him our love. Why? Because He draws us to Himself and we then turn to Him. So turn to Him and trust in Christ. Because my hope is in Jesus. I trust and hope and pray, yours is too. Because when we are given to him, we are given to the one who has power. We are given to the one who's the God of the universe, which leads us to our second point, the power of God, verses three to 10. And here we have spelled out who it is that we're dealing with. You know, people talk about the power of nature. We have this massive storm, and then you talk about we've had flooding here recently, and they talk about the power of nature. But properly speaking, there is no such thing. It's not as they mean it. It is the power of God working through what we refer to as nature. Nature has no power by itself any more than we have power by ourselves. We and all of the universe are the clay and God is the potter. And the sooner we acknowledge that, the better. Now note here, it says the voice of the Lord. It says the voice of the Lord in verse three, four, five, seven, eight, and nine. So we can safely say the voice of the Lord is a key element. As given to the Lord as the stress of the first two verses, the voice of the Lord is the stress here. Remember, in the beginning God spoke and it was. Nothing, of course, also was made without Jesus. Look at the beginning of the Gospel of John. The voice of the Lord. He spoke and from nothing came everything that we have. How did Christ quell the storm? With a word. That word which, remember, in Genesis was upon the waters, the Spirit hovered upon the waters, and then there was the voice speaking, bringing things into being. Well, our Lord also spoke and He quelled the storm. Christ healed and raised the dead. with a word, well sometimes he didn't even use a word, but often it was with a word. He called Lazarus out of the grave. He called him out. The voice of the Lord with a word. Verse five, the voice of the Lord breaks the cedars, yes, the splinters of the cedars of the Lebanon. These cedars, they are heavy trees, they are solid trees. They look unbreakable. And the voice of the Lord can just smash them asunder, turn them into so much dust, as it were. Verses 6-9, even the animals are under His powers. He makes reference to them. The sparrow that falls, God knows. The wild ox, all under His control, everything. Thus the most powerful and wide animals, the most powerful and strongest of trees, all of these things are under the hand of God. And then you've got all these general references and then suddenly in verse 10 you're hit with the specific. The Lord sat enthroned at the flood. The Lord sits as king forever. The flood. Go back to Genesis, you've got a worldwide flood. Covers the entire earth, not a local flood. The Lord sat enthroned at the flood. He was enthroned and in power at the flood when he commanded the waters to rise and cover the entire earth. He had the power to destroy on a worldwide scale. And then he had the power to change things and then we have the rainbow to give us the promise that it would never happen again. That's the proper meaning of the rainbow and how it should be used, not twisted. The flood came, of course, because of man's sin, because it was so bad. God punishing the people of earth. But the problem is, the problem of sin hasn't gone away, didn't disappear. Which is why we need Christ, which is why we need the blood. Remember the flood, making reference to, well, Christ, of course, the ark of God is a picture of Christ, that way of rescue. Because you see, here we're getting towards the true perspective of life that should affect our day-to-day living. Every day should be affected by this. We are dealing with the God of the whole earth, the God of power, the God that holds everything together. So believer, be comforted. Whatever ails you is under the power of God. Nothing is outside of His power. Whether it is a cross that we spoke about this morning that you're having to bear for the sake of Christ, whether it is ailments, whether it's depressions, whether it's struggles with sin, whether it's, well, whatever you want to put in there. Be comforted. This is the God that we have who has all this power. We might be in a situation where we are under the caution of people who have power, who might be very self-reliant, who might be trying to take advantage of us. They might even get away with it in the earthly sense. They might mistreat us. But God is the true power. Not even that happens outside of His control. But maybe you don't acknowledge God. Maybe you're not trusting in Him. Maybe you don't understand that the very fact that you are breathing right now and can even hear what is being preached is because God's given you the breath of life. The ability to hear is from God. you have no power to rebel against God, not really. You might think you do, you might think oh well but I can just do what I want but actually you can't because even when you do what you're commanded not to that is still not outside of God's power. It's kind of mind-blowing when you think about it that there is nothing outside of his power. And then when the end comes, of course, and you're going to stand before God either because you die and then you stand before God or because you're here when the Lord comes again and then you stand before God. What are you going to plead? There's only one thing that you can plead. and be saved and that is Jesus Christ and his righteousness because you see if you try and plead anything else God won't hear it you will be condemned but if you're able to plead Christ well actually the truth is you won't in one sense have a chance to plead Christ because Christ will be there before you saying no that one is mine because you'll be under Him. And Jesus Christ has the power to save you. The one who had the power to bring the flood and destroy the whole earth is the one who had the power to put Noah and his family in the ark, who had the power to go to the cross and to die and to be raised from the dead, ascended into heaven, and He can and will save you when you trust in Him. So whatever you're going through, trust in Christ. As the hymn writer says, in every wild and stormy gale, my anchor holds and will not fail. Is your anchor Jesus Christ? If it is, then praise the Lord, because then, like me, you can say, my hope is in Jesus. And then we will find, when we're trusting in Christ, that the Lord does bless us, which is our third point, the Lord's blessing, verse 11. How does the Lord bless us? Well, first of all, we have seen, of course, how God has forgiven the glory. We have seen something of the power of God, because God is so much higher than His creation. Well, sometimes it can almost overwhelm us. but He's a merciful God. He's a gracious God, and He gives to His people. Forget this health, wealth, and prosperity nonsense. You're not going to get rich or powerful, or not likely to, certainly not the promise that you've been given, but you have been given something here, something of vital importance. The Lord will give strength to His people. That's the first part, strength. Strength to support His people during the dreadful tempest that you might be going through. Hard times are not without the Lord's help and strength for those who are trusting in Him. God is with us through our troubles. Our troubles often don't go away. but God is with us through them. I mean, there are times the Lord will take troubles away, and we probably can. Those of us who are trusting in Christ can think of things, of troubles that we've had in the past that we no longer have, because the Lord took them away. And sometimes He took them away in ways we don't expect. But there are other troubles that oftentimes stay. Troubles might be an illness which stays. doesn't go away, but the Lord is with us. It might be some people struggle with depressions that stay for a long time. But if you're trusting in Jesus Christ, you are His and He's with you. He will never leave nor forsake you. We must see our weakness to be able to seek His strength. If we don't see that we are weak and we need Him, then we will never seek the strength that He can give. The Lord will give strength to His people, a strength that will keep us until we get to glory, a strength that will draw us close to Him. Even though it may be through hard times, I mean, we go to places like the Middle East, and you go to places like North Korea, these Christians there have a hard time, but the Lord gives them the strength and keeps them, and He'll keep them to glory. The Lord will give strength to His people. The Lord will bless His people with peace. Even though the tempest may be raging round about us, we'll still have that peace from God. And often we have to go through these troubled times to learn what it is to have the peace of God. even during them we can have peace with our heart within our hearts knowing that God is in control look at the power of God that we just looked at look at this one who's in all this control we can have peace to think yes God is the one who is in control and often the Lord mercy will come out of troubles time and into a period of peace. Sometimes it's through the troubles that we then see, yes, the Lord will often give us a great relief. The Lord will not take us through what He cannot take us through. In other words, there's nothing, no trouble in our lives that the Lord gives to a believer that the Lord is not able to keep the believer and secure the believer and help the believer. It might be well beyond my understanding. It might be beyond your understanding, but the Lord knows. If you have your Bibles, you're led to turn with me to the book of James in chapter one. We'll read a couple of verses from there. James chapter one, verses two to four. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. Now, is that not counterintuitive, if anything was counterintuitive? Count it all joy when you fall into various trials. But it's not joy at the trials. It's joy because you know that the Lord is using it for your good. Knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience, but let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. Why do you lack nothing? Because you become satisfied in Christ with what the Lord has given you. That's why you lack nothing. Not because you have everything the world has to give. but because you understand that you have all that you need from God. So the person in places like Iran, the Christian who's languishing in the prison of North Korea and these concentration camps that they have, and they're languishing for the Lord, as in they're in there going through all this trouble. They are still able to be comforted and have what they need because they have God. Now, that's easy to say standing here in a pulpit when after the service, God willing, we'll go back into the mansion, be able to have a cup of tea and relax. But it is true because God gives grace when it is needed. We don't need the grace of that situation because we're not in it. But if we were to be in it, then the Lord will give us the grace. Do you know that grace, that mercy, that peace? I've said before in this sermon, my hope is in Jesus. Is your hope in Jesus? Do you know that peace that surpasses all understanding? That peace that even in the midst of the darkest times, is that almost like a little glimmer that says, yes, but I know my Lord. Sometimes it can be dim. But if you're trusting in Christ, while to us it is dim, but from God's view, you are firmly held in the full light of the countenance of your Savior. Just because, believer, you don't always see it clearly, doesn't mean it's not there. And thank the Lord for that. But do you see what you're missing if you don't know Christ as your Savior? Do you see that you don't have the strength of God? Do you see that you don't have that peace that surpasses all understanding? The peace that's there even in the midst of the flood? When you're resting as it were in that ark, closed in with no outside light, and yet, Noah was still saved, even though he couldn't see daylight. He was still saved. There's what you're missing. There's what you need. Trust in Christ for salvation. Repent of your sins and follow Him. And then you'll be able to say, my hope is in Jesus. In conclusion then, where do you stand before God? You know, as a human race, we're apt to try to stand on our own two feet, reject giving of all to God, refute the power of God, and refuse God's blessing of heaven and preference for what? For self-reliance that fails, we get it wrong because we're sinners. We will fall, we will not get it right. We refuse God for what? Independence. We can't even take a breath and breathe without the power of God enabling us. So, independence is a delusion. We might think we can do what we want, but if we can't even breathe without the permission of God, then where is this so-called independence? It is a lie. And what are we giving all of this for? For hell. believing in the caricature that it's a place of fun when it's a place of God's presence but a presence of His wrath eternally. So why is that so great? Why is that so wonderful? Why is it so wonderful to give up, to reject God and to get that in its stead? Surely it is better As the hymn writer says, on Christ the solid rock I stand, on all other ground is sinking sand. Repent of your sins, turn to Christ, who paid the price for us on the cross in our place. Trust in him for salvation and be born again. Then you may also say with me and with those here who believe, my hope is in Jesus. the solid rock where we are secure.