The following message was recorded at Antioch Presbyterian Church, an historic and charter congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America, ministering to upstate South Carolina since 1843. Come and visit us at the crossroads of Greenville and Spartanburg counties. Experience our past and be a part of our future. For more information, visit AntiochPCF.com. I think it's It's fairly obvious why I chose Psalm 29 as an occasional text for this Lord's Day morning. The opening illustration confronted you when you drove up to the property. Indeed, three very large old-growth trees fell down in our front parking lot, doing just very little damage to the building. Thank God, if one of these other gigantic trees had fallen down in the same direction, we would have been in real trouble. here at Antioch, but nonetheless, this is something of a terrifying occurrence in the life of our church. It's a storm like none of us who've lived here for any period of time have experienced in this region. I've been here eight years, and I've talked to others who've been here for 20, 30, 40 years, even their whole lives, and they've said they've never seen anything quite like this. What lesson should we take from this occurrence? What can we reason out and puzzle out about what it is we've witnessed, what it is we're dealing with even now as a people living in upstate South Carolina, reflecting on especially the devastation to the North of us in Western North Carolina. This is a natural catastrophe. It doesn't take a meteorologist to figure that out, but as such, It's a didactic demonstration of God's power over man's well-being. It's a didactic demonstration. That is, it's a message from God about His power and sovereignty over not just us, but over all His created order. God is speaking to us in the storm. And now why can I say that with such confidence? I'm not a charismatic. I don't believe in continuing revelation in that sense. But God's word clarifies for us what it is we are to learn from such demonstrations of what we might call natural power or catastrophe. We see God's power in nature because it's his nature. It's what belongs to him, what he's created. A great terror to the godless, but a great comfort to his people, as we see in our psalm this morning. Wherever we find ourselves when the storm has passed, as we reflect upon such occurrences, we can take comfort that it's our God who is in control. The God of the scriptures, the God who manifested himself in not just the storm, but in Jesus Christ, who is very God of very God. Psalm 29, which we read here is obviously about God's power displayed in meteorological events, in a great storm, a thunderstorm, a lightning storm, a devastating natural catastrophe. But this psalm, which we wouldn't know unless we read the series of psalms in which it is located, stands at the center of a grouping of psalms that speak about God's place as king over all creation. And it clarifies the lesson of such demonstrations of divine power as a lesson about divine worship. the object of our worship, but also the event of worship, the action of Christian worship, we might say, that for which you and I were created and for which we were redeemed. So what I wanna show you this morning from Psalm 29 is that our almighty creator who rules over all is our life-giving redeemer whom we reverently adore. Our Almighty Creator, who rules over all, is our life-giving Redeemer, whom we reverently adore. We'll consider this under three headings. In the first two verses, the act of Christian worship, and then in verses three through the first half of verse 9, the God of Christian worship, and then the second half of verse 9 through 11, the exchange of Christian worship. Verse 9 properly belongs to that middle part about the voice of the Lord, but it's also a bridge to the ending part, which is why I've broken it up between those two headings in case you're wondering. But we begin with the act of Christian worship in verses one and two. Ascribe or give to the Lord, O sons of the mighty, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength, ascribe to the Lord the glory due to his name. Worship the Lord in holy array. A call to worship from the pen of King David, which we see from the superscription. And yet, to whom is this call to worship? to the sons of the mighty." Now that may be referring to rulers of this world, which David would have felt very keenly himself as one who was anointed king and called to serve as king in Israel over the people of this Lord, Yahweh, Jehovah, the Lord. but it also can refer and frequently refers to angelic beings, spiritual powers in heavenly places. And sometimes it's even used, sons of the mighty ones, to refer to the gods of the nations, those who puff themselves up against the God of Israel, the covenant God of his people. but all are called to bow themselves before the one true and living God. Now, we should take this as a call to worship for ourselves. In fact, we frequently use it as a call to worship in our services here. Why? Because of what it says here, worship the Lord in holy array, in the splendor or beauty of holiness. And that's uniquely the prerogative of God's people. We alone can claim to be clothed with the holiness of God, for he has taken a special interest in us for reasons inscrutable to our understanding, clothed in the obscurity of God's eternal decree, to which we have no access on our own, but which has been revealed to us in his word as his purpose with his people. And so this is a call to worship. And it's a call to a particular kind of worship, not a call to come and figure it out as you go, but a call with specifications to ascribe, to ascribe what? Glory and strength, the glory due to his name, to bow down and worship before him with humility and submission of heart. even clothed in His holiness and righteousness. What is an ascription of glory? What does it mean to ascribe to the Lord glory and strength? Well, in the first place, this is to give God something, not by way of addition, but by way of proclamation or even magnification. We take up a telescope rather than a stylus or an abacus. We don't shift things from us to God that he didn't have before, but we, as it were, take up a magnifying glass and give to God glory by magnifying his glory in the assembly of the righteous in our congregation. That's what worship does. That's what worship is. That's what we're being called to do. And this is in fact a Christian duty. It's one of the duties of the first commandment. And that is to bow before the one true and living God and to glorify him and to magnify his worth and praise. But it's also a duty of the third commandment. We think, well, the third commandment's about not saying the Lord God's name in vain. Yes, but the positive duty of that is to treat it reverently, to declare his worship with holiness. Again, we don't come into worship to satisfy our cravings or even to try to attract man to something that is exciting and fun. No, we come to handle the things of God with reverence and awe, to worship Him as He has laid out for us to worship Him. This week, if we were gonna have Sunday school, I was going to deal with worship in the new membership classes, so this would have really tied in nicely. But in lieu of Sunday school, let this be a lesson of our worship. It is for God, it's about God, and it's unto God, and it's holy, for our God is holy. And if you're here this morning, and you're coming into worship to satisfy some kind of craving on your own, to do something for yourself, primarily, then I call you to repent, and to put off that filth of pride and self-centeredness, and to put on instead the garments of holiness and service unto God, because that's what worship is about. Now, we'll see by the end of this psalm that there is something we receive from the God whom we worship. He's a life-giving redeemer. But in the first place, the call to worship is a call to humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and before his magnificence, his power, his supremacy. Now that power and supremacy is then illustrated in verses three through the first half of verse nine as we consider the God of Christian worship, who it is we're worshiping. We're worshiping an almighty creator, a fearful conqueror, one who reveals himself to his creation, who appears even in these familiar terms for us of a theophany, a manifestation of God in power, frequently in the Old Testament expressed in terms of a storm, and then supremely in the New Testament expressed in terms of Christ Jesus himself, who is God and man. He's an almighty creator. Look at what it says here in verses three through nine. The voice of the Lord is upon or over the waters. The God of glory thunders. The Lord is over many waters. It's impossible to read this and not to think of Genesis chapter one where the Spirit of God is hovering over the primordial waters in that opening scene of creation of all things. Indeed, this is evoking for us God as Almighty Creator. He is the one over the waters. And this Creator claims us as His creation. We belong to Him. That is the fundamental reality of the human condition and of all creation, is that we belong to this God. He created us. We are His. We're not our own, as another call to worship says in Psalm 100. He claims us. And His strength and His majesty, highlighted in verse 4, dovetails then into this picture of Him as a fearful conqueror. Look at verses five through nine with me. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars. Yes, the Lord breaks and pieces the cedars of Lebanon. He makes Lebanon skip like a calf and Syrian like a young wild ox. The voice of the Lord hues out flames of fire or perhaps lightning. The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness. The desert, the Lord, shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord makes the deer to calve and strips the forests bare. The same voice that spoke all things into creation, so too orders the works of providence. And these interventions into the created order, these disturbances, even these cataclysms and these catastrophes, It is the voice of Yahweh, the voice of Jehovah, the voice of the Lord of Israel and of His church. These are images of destruction that are given to us. And what they teach us is that there's no resisting Him. You see, even the cedars of Lebanon, a picture of the pride of man and of all those who oppose God and His Israel are shattered at the command of God. He makes the deer to give birth. And he also causes lightning to flash and to break apart stone. It's a great revelation of our God as fearful conqueror over the forces of nature. He has all prerogative to do as he does. And we've seen this, haven't we? This was no random storm that came up through the Gulf of Mexico, even into the Smoky Mountains. No, this was by God's work of providence. And it was God who has done it. And the devastation that's wrought should be a reminder to us that whatever we build, whatever we buy, whatever we do, God can lay it low at a command by the power of His voice. That's not to trivialize what has happened by no means. That's to lend gravity to it, to recognize the seriousness of what has happened, In this country, we are somewhat divorced and separated from the power of nature, aren't we? But all it takes is a few hours without electricity or a couple of days without water to really feel how vulnerable we are, how subject to the, quote, forces of nature, nay, the voice of the Lord, we are. This was not Mother Nature that did this, but Father God, as one commentator has put it. and we should bow ourselves therefore in humility before him, even with trembling and fear and awe before our God. Now, this natural phenomena that we've experienced, this storm in Psalm 29 that's described, I've used the word theophany. It's a manifestation of God in a way, and certainly on Sinai, God manifested himself in the storm on the mountaintop. He manifests himself in the cloud of rain. the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night in the Exodus and throughout the Old Testament at various key junctures and inflection points in the history of the people of Israel, God manifests himself in storms and in powerful demonstrations of his care for his people and interest in his people and leading of his people. But in the New Testament, He manifests himself differently to us. Not so much in a storm, but in one who commands the storm, even as we read from Mark chapter four. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, God, the Son, took to himself a human nature and became man and suffered the storms of this life that we all experience, but in so doing manifested the glory of God to us and the love of the Father to us. For it was the Father who sent this One, this manifestation of God into the world. John 1.14 says, The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of whom? The only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. And so just as the storm of Psalm 29 manifests to us the glory of God, and we see His glory, and thus leads us to give to Him, to ascribe to Him all glory due His name, so too Jesus Christ in a clearer fashion and in a redemptive fashion reveals to us the glory of God. John 2.11, the beginning of his signs, Jesus did in Cana of Galilee and did what manifested his glory and his disciples believed in him. As you behold Jesus Christ and what he's done recorded for us in the gospels, you're beholding the glory of God, which calls forth faith. and worship. John 11, four, but when Jesus heard this about Lazarus's death, he said, this sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it. Jesus Christ is very God of very God. And later on in that same chapter, he says to one of Lazarus's sisters, did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God? It is by faith that we apprehend this glory in Christ Jesus. It is by belief, by receiving and resting upon him alone and understanding that his works are the works of God in our midst. 1 Corinthians 2.8, the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age, none of the sons of the mighty today has understood. For if they had understood it, they would not have crucified whom? The Lord of glory. He whose voice thunders in the storm of Psalm 29 is He who was hung upon the tree to pay the penalty for our sins. Do you understand that this is Jesus? the Lord of glory. In 2 Corinthians 4, 6, for God who said light shall shine out of darkness is the one who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ, Christ Jesus, the risen Lord and Savior. Now one who saw His glory uniquely on the Mount of Transfiguration when, for a moment, Christ's glory broke through the veil of His humanity to a measure, in a degree, for a didactic purpose as a theophany. He says this in 2 Peter 3.18, at closing his letter, he says, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity, amen. And another one, John is the one who says, the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we saw his glory. This is the God of Christian worship. Nothing less than Jesus Christ himself. Do you believe this to be true? Or is Jesus just some teacher, some man who walked around Palestine 2,000 years ago? He's far more significant than that. And he accomplishes far more on our behalf and for the demonstration of God's glory than we can fully comprehend. And that leads us then to the exchange of Christian worship the end of verse nine to the end of the psalm. We've considered the act, we've considered the God, and now the exchange of Christian worship. This is where we bring it home, that God reveals not only his glory, but also his purpose for our good which is transacted even in Christian worship. Look at these verses with me. In his temple, probably more appropriate to render this in his palace or palace temple, everything says glory. The Lord sat as king at the flood. And we understand that as he sat enthroned at the flood. Yes, the Lord sits as king forever. The Lord will, as king, mind you, give strength to his people. The Lord will bless his people with peace. This is his purpose. This is how he marshals all his power and all of that glorious might of his is for the strength and peace of his people. And so we see an exchange of Christian worship. We say glory in his courts and he gives strength and peace to us. We talk about great exchanges in Christian theology, the great exchange of our guilt for His righteousness at the cross. And in Christian worship, we see a great exchange. Our praise, then, for His strength and everlasting peace. We give praises of reverent adoration to God our King, the judge of all the earth, who sits enthroned on a throne of judgment over creation in a palace temple of his own making and creation, just as he sat as king and judge at the flood. The phrase here, at the flood, is uniquely used here and in the account of Noah's flood. It's a universal kingship that the particular God of Israel has. He alone is God. We'll see this more fully fleshed out in the second book of the Psalms. But even here, breaking into book one of the Psalter, we see this universal dominion and claim that God makes over all creation. And these blessings then that he gives to his people, he gives not as judge, but as redeemer of his people, as a deliverer of his people, as a protector of his people, as their refuge and their strength. He gives strength and the refuge of peace. The judge of all the earth orders all things for our good. Now you might be asking, how can we say that when so many of his people are suffering, loss of vehicles, loss of homes, loss of conveniences, and even, yes, loss of life. I don't know how many people perished in this storm that passed up through here in Hurricane Helene, but I would hazard a guess that there were Christians, people beloved by God, who perished in that storm, who lost their lives and lost loved ones. So how can we say then that the God whose voice orders the storm and shatters the cedars and brings the trees down upon us even, is the God who gives strength and peace to his people? Because even in our deaths, beloved ones, God is good to his people. For we die not without a cause, or we die not without a cause, yeah, but we die in Christ Jesus unto everlasting peace. Death, then, as fearful as it is, is itself a gift to his people. Do you believe that? Are you prepared to face that, either in old age, on a sickbed, or perhaps in young age, in accidents? Boys and girls, you are here today, but we could be gone tomorrow. And even in your youth, do not waste these days of being confronted with the gospel. Don't waste them away, don't delay. Rather, lay hold of Christ Jesus by faith now such that you can have peace and assurance that you know where you're going when that dark day comes, either in a storm or in a sickness or some other cause. We've had some close calls, haven't we? We've had people in this room who had large trees fall on their homes. We've had loved ones who've gotten stuck on the road or even hit power lines driving around as part of emergency response. We've had some close calls. And I thank God that we have had no fatalities in this congregation. But we must be able to declare with full faith and confidence in the King of glory, that even though we die, we have peace in Him. I want to give one biblical illustration of this in the book of Acts. There was a young man who had demonstrated great peace in the midst of not a natural storm, but a human storm, a storm made by those who hate Christ and his church. Stephen, the first martyr of the church, recorded for us in Scripture in Acts chapter 7, declared a wonderful testimony about the King of glory. God, our Creator, and our Redeemer, the Redeemer of Israel, He who led His people out of Egypt, He who made good on His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and He who raised Christ Jesus, His Messiah from the dead. And the response that He elicited from the leaders in Jerusalem was one of scorn, hatred, and rank murder. In Acts 7 we read, now when they heard this, this testimony of Jesus Christ from the lips of Stephen, they were cut to the quick and they began gnashing their teeth at him. But being full of the Holy Spirit, Stephen gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God. and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, behold, I see the heavens opened up and the son of man standing at the right hand of God. But they cried out with a loud voice and covered their ears and rushed at him with one impulse. And when they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him. A storm of stones from a storm of men filled with rage. And the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul. They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. And having said this, he fell asleep. a picture of perfect peace, of confidence, of faith in Christ Jesus, who's the Lord of all our circumstances. Stephen understood that. And where do you think his peace and his strength as a martyr came from? It came from this glorious risen Savior, the glory of God himself, Jesus Christ. And dear one, when the storms of this world blow through and over us, perhaps crash into us, May you have this same strength and peace from the hand of God. God who is a fearful conqueror of all his and our enemies, who is judge of all the earth and yet king and deliverer and protector of his people. He will keep you. Nothing can snatch you out of his hand. And so Psalm 29 in all of its terrifying imagery is a great comfort to those who are united to Christ through faith and enjoy this sweet communion with God and this peace with Him. And I said it before you this morning as you reflect on the storm that blew through, as you consider the trees that were swaying back and forth so close to your home or even over your heads. Reflect on God, His power and His mercy. his goodness and his glory, the peace that he freely bestows upon his people in Christ and in Christ alone. Let's stand together for prayer. Oh Lord, our God, we confess to you that it is difficult for us to receive from you this teaching, that even in the destruction and in the difficulty and in the deprivation, yet you are God. But your sovereign control over all things is not a cause for scorn and gnashing of teeth and cursing, but rather is a cause for consolation and comfort and peace for your people. And we pray that you would give this peace to us, grant to us greater stores and measures of faith that we might truly rest upon Jesus Christ. And when we sleep the sleep of death and rest in our graves until the resurrection, we pray, Lord, that you would give to us peace in that moment of translation from life to death, in the separation of soul and body. Lord, we pray that you would give faith to our children and to our children's children, that you would continue to prosper and protect your church until Christ comes again, when he rides upon the clouds and descends with a shout. Oh Lord, we long for that day and we pray that you would stir up this yearning even more as we reflect upon the ravages of sin in this world. Oh Lord, we look to you as our refuge and our strength. And to you we say, glory. In Christ's name we pray, amen. Thank you for listening to this message from Antioch Presbyterian Church. For more information about Antioch, visit us at our website at antiochpca.com.