Perhaps you have heard the acronym which can help us remember the four principal parts of prayer. Acts, A-C-T-S, Adoration, Confession, Thankfulness, and Supplication. In our speech and in our thoughts, it can sometimes be easier to focus especially on thankfulness and supplications or requests, of bringing our requests before God, asking for His help, His hand. It is sometimes easier to thank God than to come before Him asking for forgiveness of sins. And adoration can fade into the background of thoughts and prayers. But the psalms are a great help to us. They give us the language not only of thankfulness and supplications, but also the language of confession and adoration. And this morning we have before us a psalm of absolute praise. directing our hearts and our minds to contemplate the name and the attributes of God with a particular focus on the power of our Lord. First, tonight, we will look at how our Lord of power is praised even by the angels above. Second, we will consider our Lord's powerful hand over creation. And third, we will see that this power is also praised by man below. So how does this text show us that the Lord is to be praised by even the angels, the angels above? Well, in verse 1 and 2, we have a stair-like step of building praise, building praise to God. And in that, there is a phrase, O you mighty ones, or literally, O you sons of gods. This is a unique phrase, or a rare phrase, rather. A phrase which only appears here and in Psalm 89 verse 6. Psalm 89 verse 6, for who in the heavens can be compared to the Lord? Who among the sons of the mighty can be likened to the Lord? Sons of the mighty there being the same as comes to us in Psalm 29. So while there is some debate over what this rare phrase means There is almost complete agreement that it is a reference to heavenly beings, to the angels. And these mighty ones, these angels, are to give glory to God. The glory do His name, as we see in verse 2 of Psalm 29. The glory do His name. The names of God are not like other names. Whenever we come across a divine name in the scriptures, each particular name has a meaning and a certain focus, a certain reminder to us of who God is. And since God is completely, for example, Savior, Jesus, He is completely Savior, For example, Christ, anointed. He is completely anointed. We can think of our catechism, Lord's Day 11, Lord's Day 12. Since God defines, He is the very definition of His names, His names are also titles. He is the Prince of Peace. He is the Son of Man. He is Christ. He is Jesus. He is Lord. Since his names are also titles, one of the reasons why his names may come to us together in a clump. We can think of 2 Corinthians 1, just for one example. The Apostle Paul gives his salutation and greeting, saying, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. So all the divine names have meaning. They are all titles and define who God is. And in Psalm 29, we have an extreme repetition of a singular name, which is used repeatedly and almost exclusively throughout the psalm, and that is Lord. Lord in all capitals in our Bibles, which is a particular name, Lord. Yahweh, for those who are familiar with that. The I Am. This name is the same as the name translated I Am in Exodus 3. We can turn to Exodus 3. A key turning point for this name to remind us of this covenant name. The name of the God who is sure to His word, who is sure to fulfill His promises. Exodus 3 beginning with verse 13, Moses at the burning bush, verse 13, Then Moses said to God, Indeed, When I come to the children of Israel and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you. And they say to me, what is his name? What shall I say to them? And God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, thus you shall say to the children of Israel, you shall say to the children of Israel, I am has sent me to you. This I AM is the same name as LORD in all capitals whenever we see that in our Bibles. The name of the covenant God who keeps promises. A name which Christ also clearly claims for Himself. We can think of the great I am statements throughout the Gospel of John. For those who are familiar, the seven or the eight I am statements of Christ. Specifically, we can turn to John 8, John 8 verse 57 through 59. Then the Jews said to him, him being Christ, you are not yet fifty years old and have you seen Abraham? And Jesus said to them, Most assuredly I say to you, Before Abraham was, I am. Then they took up stones to throw at him, but Christ hid himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them. Why do they cast stones upon hearing this name? Because Christ is claiming the name of Yahweh, the I Am declarative name. the covenant name. Christ is claiming to be divine. The Jews know that, and here do not believe. So they take up the stones to throw them at our Savior. So in short, Moses asks God how he knows the children of Israel, how he should deliver his name. God answers, I am who I am. When David, our psalmist in Psalm 29, gives us a name to focus on, repeating it 18 times in only 11 verses, he uses that covenant name. And when the Apostle John writes to us about the divinity of Christ, the I Am statements of our Savior are given throughout the Gospel. Christ is the I Am who saves the I Am who is the way, the truth, and the life. So in the light of this name, even the angels are to give glory and strength to the Lord. The thrust, the point of this passage, is to ascribe glory to our Lord. What I mean by that is this is not a giving in the sense of they give God something that he doesn't have. No, that is clearly not the case. It is a giving of acknowledgement. The angels acknowledge that Lord is the Mighty One and His name is all power and all strength. It may seem strange that David, who is a man, is almost commanding the angels here. to ascribe praise to God. Man is, after all, a little lower than the angels, as we are reminded in Psalm 8 in the book of Hebrews. However, the shape of this psalm is one that indicates that all who are not God are to worship God. And that includes both man below and angels above. So, in the course of painting this picture of absolute adoration which is due to God, David rightly speaks that even the angels who have not fallen are to give, to ascribe, to acknowledge the power and glory and strength of God. This power is then described in detail for us in the image of a moving storm. A moving storm from verses 3 through 9, which first gathers over the waters, the waters here being the Mediterranean Sea, the Mediterranean Sea which borders the western part of Jerusalem in some ways similar to how Lake Michigan borders the western part of western Michigan. Except, of course, the Mediterranean Sea is much larger. But the storm which gathers there, gathers in the sea, then enters into, as we look at this section, 3 through 9, in a broad scope, it then enters into the mountains of Lebanon, breaking the cedars of Lebanon. Lebanon which is north of even Dan, in many ways the northern border of the nation of Israel. And then more geography is given to us in verse 8, the wilderness of Kadesh, the wilderness which would be part of the desert which the Israelites wandered through after leaving the land of Egypt, the wilderness which is south of Jerusalem. And this storm maintains its power all the way By giving the northern border of Israel, of the whole nation, and the southern border, and describing the storm and its power in both locations, we have the picture of a storm which moves powerfully throughout the entire land of Israel. There is some evidence even that we think of associating scripture with With events in our lives, there's some evidence that early Christians would read this psalm to their children whenever there was a mighty thunderstorm, a reminder of who is in control, a reminder of the power of God's voice, and that it is indeed God's voice which commands the storm. God has command and control over the elements. The water, in verse 3, which we've already said, is here referring to the Mediterranean Sea, where the storms would often gather there and come across the land. Even today, geography is the same. And the phrase The name Lord is repeated, as we have said, but also the phrase the voice of the Lord is repeated throughout this episode of the storm. Again, repetition being used to emphasize this is the work of the Lord. This is a storm which is at the mercy of that voice. Now, thunder and lightning are used almost interchangeably throughout this storm. We should not blame David for that. We do the same thing ourselves in our own language. We can think of the phrase, thunderstruck, a metaphor meaning that it's like that person has been thunderstruck. Thunder doesn't strike, lightning strikes. But thunder and lightning are so closely associated that even today we sometimes use them interchangeably. And the voice of the Lord is used to refer to both. In verse 3, it is clear the voice of the Lord is put in parallel with the God of glory who thunders the thunder. And then as we move to verse 5, another parallel, the voice of the Lord breaks the cedars and the cedars splinter. This would, of course, be the actual lightning strike which splits the trees, the mighty trees. Now, Israel is surrounded by desert. We have many trees here in West Michigan, across the entire nation of the United States. But in Israel, there are not many mighty trees. There is a surrounding desert with hardly any tree. And then there are some less majestic trees. A palm tree is quite tall, but it is not sprawling. It doesn't have sprawling strength to it. An olive tree spreads out almost like a glorified shrub, but it is not very tall. There is one tree, however, which David would be familiar with, which the people of Israel would be familiar with, which is both tall and sprawling. The mighty tree referred to often throughout the Old Testament, the cedars of Lebanon. And the voice of the Lord is so powerful that even the most powerful tree can in no way stand before the Lord of the storm. And even the mountains are made to move. After describing the trees which splinter with the lightning, there is then a movement. Movement in verse 6. The them, in verse 6, we should associate forward. Them there is referring to Lebanon and Sirion. Sirion, which is another name for Mount Hermon. So now David is no longer talking about the trees but about the mountains, the mountain range of Lebanon and Sirion, Mount Hermon. So what is the them which is shaking like a skipping calf? It is the mountains. The mountains shake and are moved. Perhaps you have stood outside in a thunderstorm and you have felt the shaking that the boom of thunder can create. That is the image given here. And then not only is this powerful storm shaking the mountains, making them move like a dancing calf or a young wild ox, this power also continues down and shakes the wilderness. the desert of Kadesh. And after the description of this storm, a lengthy description of a storm, in verse 10, there is a reminder of God's unending power over creation by reference to a different storm, a specific storm in the past. the great storm, the flood of the days of Noah. And there is no doubt of this switch in verse 10. There are two things which clearly indicate David is now, after describing the storm, he now makes this switch. First, the very use of the word flood here. Again, Israel, a different geography than ours today. They have rainy seasons and non-rainy seasons. We can think of the storm which comes and destroys the house on the sand, which Christ describes in the New Testament. That's because there is this season of local flooding which the Israelites are familiar with. The River Jordan is a stream half of the year and a mighty river the other half of the year. But this flood, and it should not surprise us in a land familiar with floods that they would have more than one word for flood, this flood is a powerful flood. In the English, there is an old word, deluge, which means powerful, powerful flood. Perhaps some of you are familiar, some are not. If that word was still being used today, we could insert that word here, enthroned at the deluge. In fact, this word only appears throughout the whole Old Testament in this verse and in Genesis 6 through 11. The second reason we know this is a reference to the flood is a switch to the past tense. He sat enthroned. David remembers, the Israelites remember, and we today remember. God who sat enthroned at the flood, our Lord who is King forever. So now having considered power which is praised by the angels, power which is revealed in the storm, and also revealed in the great storm of the past, the worldwide storm of the past, We are also reminded, we are also told by our psalmist that this is a power to be praised by man. The great strength and glory of God is not only praised by angels above, but also man here below. Even more so, as we are a little lower than the angels. in his temple, everyone says, glory. This is in the light of not only God's power, but also other attributes of God, which the psalmist David has reminded of us. In verse 2, the beauty of his holiness. In verse 4, in the light of his majesty. And in verse 10, our eternal king. It is to this Lord, this covenant God, that we say glory. And it is done in the temple. A temple, the Old Testament type of the New Testament church. We are in God's Church now, this morning, right here. What a blessing. Not that it is impossible to say glory in our everyday lives, but it should not surprise us that here, and indeed throughout all of Scripture, we are told to say glory as a corporate people, everyone, everyone, in a particular place, in his temple, in his church. And then, as David begins to close this psalm, He reminds us that God will keep His promises. Indeed, a fitting final verse for a psalm which so focuses on the I AM covenant name of our God. He will give strength to His people. The same voice which commands the storm is also the voice which can still the storm. And this is the voice which calls the sheep. We read from John 10, for our assurance of pardon this morning, perhaps not the most traditional passage for that, but it is sure. When God's voice calls, His sheep hear. We can turn again to John 10. John 10 verse 14, I am the good shepherd and I know my sheep and am known by my own. And again, he lays down his life for the sheep. But only one way, there's only one flock, of this one shepherd, which hears this one voice, which is sure. So our covenant God keeps his promises. And Christ, the second person of the Trinity, clearly claims to be that covenant God. Christ has not only the power over the storm, but more importantly, he has the power over human hearts. And we look back at Psalm 29, he also gives strength, yes, to his people, to his sheep. He also blesses his people with peace. The peace which surpasses understanding from the Prince of Peace. Our Lord who sat enthroned at the great flood sat over a great judgment But he also spared Noah and his family and his creation by bringing two of, at least two of each kind. And the God who brings earthly storms which rage against both the just and the unjust, he is also our Lord who gives eternal peace and salvation through the death of that good shepherd. So may we be full of adoration in our thoughts, in our prayers, in our worship. For our God, who is also worshiped by angels, who commands all past, present, and future happenings, who not only commands His voice over the storm, but also over human hearts. So let us stand in awe. before the I Am and hear His voice. Amen. Let us pray. Lord, we are thankful that we can gather here in Your church, in Your temple. And we pray that we would adore Your name, praise Your name every day. that our life would be one lived in glory and service to you. In Jesus' name, the I am we pray, amen.