One of our church's distinctives is our approach to the Bible. It is something that we think should be very normal in churches, but unfortunately in our day is increasingly rare. And that is, we believe that The Bible, and the Bible being clearly taught and explained, and the Bible being helpfully applied, made relevant, is the way God speaks to us. It is the way God reveals himself to us. It is the way that God changes our lives. You don't need my take on the Bible. You need the Bible. My responsibility is really to try to explain it as clearly and helpfully as possible so that you leave here saying, God spoke to me. I understand what God says there. Our conviction is that a steady diet of that sort of teaching will change your life. Encountering God cannot leave those of us who encounter him the same. I've been teaching the Bible full-time for like a decade and a half and I still have yet to discover a passage that's boring or impractical. God's Word is rich with significance even when it's a passage that seems on the surface to say, Very little like what does that have to do with me? That passage doesn't really connect with me I have discovered over and over and over that even when I read the bible and my first impression is I'm, not sure that that has much to do with my life I have learned that every passage is rich with significance. I've actually learned by experience the truth of paul's words in second timothy three where he says that all scripture is god-breathed And that means that every part of scripture, every chapter of scripture, is profitable for teaching and reproving and correcting and instructing me. And scripture as a whole, Paul goes on to say, is sufficient for helping me live rightly before God. It equips me sufficiently for the life he's called me to live. I pray that that's what we experience even today as we read Psalm 29. This is the second message in a very brief four part series here at the end of winter on Psalms of creation. There are many Psalms that spotlight God as our creator. But here at the end of winter, we're just going to focus on four. And these four are particularly encouraging. They've been particularly encouraging to me throughout my life, and I want to share some of them with you. Pastor Darren, of course, from Trinity in Olmstead Falls, He preached and kicked off our series in an awesome way last weekend. On Sunday, he preached really an eye-opening message. I told him afterward, I said, I said, I just leave here this morning with a view of God that is bigger than I came in with. Thank you for wowing me with the glory of God. It was eye-opening, it was deeply encouraging as he showed how the God of creation is deeply caring and how that should comfort us. If you missed it, by the way, you should check it out at our website. You can go to our website and just click the sermons tab and track it. It'll be the one on the very top. But today I want to take the second step in the series in Psalm 29. And in my experience, Psalm 29 is one of those Psalms that people read and they're like, wow, that's interesting, but not sure that it has much to do with me. But it is a psalm that God has used personally in my life dozens of times to encourage me, to support me, especially when I'm weak, especially when I'm under stress. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna read it, I'm gonna try to summarize it briefly, and then I'm gonna show three ways that it applies to our lives. This psalm was written 3,000 years ago, that's why it starts A Psalm of David. It was written 3,000 years ago. And it is wonderfully relevant to us today. It is the Word of God. Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings. Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name. Worship the Lord for the splendor of holiness. I think that is referring to in regard to the splendor of holiness because he's so set apart from everything. Worship him accordingly. Verse 3. The voice of the Lord is over the waters. The God of glory thunders the Lord over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon. He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf. And Syrian, another name for Mount Sion, Syrian like a young wild ox. The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness. The Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth and strips the forest bare. And in his temple, all cry, glory. The Lord sits enthroned over the flood. The Lord sits enthroned as king forever. May the Lord give strength to his people. May the Lord bless his people with peace. I just want to briefly review what we what we read there so that we can we can summarize it simply summarize it and then apply it. The heart of the psalm is verses three to nine and that's where seven times David says, the voice of the Lord is like this. The voice of the Lord does this. Seven times he identifies the voice of the Lord. It's really the central idea in the song. The voice of the Lord, he describes it. And as he's describing seven times the voice of the Lord, he's describing this mighty thunderstorm that passes through Israel, apparently. The storm begins in the Mediterranean in v. 3. The sea, the waters, would have been the Mediterranean coming from the west. You would have seen a storm up in the north. And then that storm moves from over the sea and it comes over the country to the north of Israel, Lebanon. and it wreaks havoc on the mighty forests in Lebanon. And then it keeps proceeding southward, and it moves from the Mediterranean to Lebanon, down to the mountain that's at the northern tip of Israel. Zion, or Sirion in this poem. Mount Zion. It shakes Mount Zion. I mean, as the lightning crashes and you see the wind rushing through all of the foliage that's there at the base of the mountain, you say, wow, the mountain is shaking under the power of this thunderstorm. And then it moves from the sea to Lebanon to Zion. And then it moves into the wilderness or the deserts of Kadesh down into the south. You get this idea of this storm passing from west and up in the north, down through the south and toward the east in Israel. And verse 9 says, remarkably, everyone in God's temple is watching the storm blow through and saying, glory. Now David is speaking artistically, not literally, of the voice of the Lord. It's like we just sang, he speaks in all that's fair. We're not thinking that like every time we hear the wind blow past our window, God's trying to say something. He's not thinking that every time the thunder crashes, that's like the muffled voice of God that's literally trying to communicate something to us. No. He's speaking artistically He's saying exactly what the hymn writer said. He's behind everything that happens in his creation. He is king over every storm. And we must recognize that throughout scripture, storms picture God's judgment. In fact, throughout scripture, there are over 40 times that the judgment of an invading army executing God's prophetic word when He says your land is going to be decimated, an army is going to come through, over 40 times He says you're going to face a storm. A mighty storm. The earth's going to quake and the skies are going to go black. And He's artistically picturing the judgment of God falling on that nation the picture of a storm. It's a picturesque and artistic way of describing it. So what David is picturing here is the God of all nature reigning in victory as he executes judgment. That's why many people call this a nature song or many people get more specific and call it a victory psalm. because David is watching a storm go through Israel. That storm is representative of the fact that God's judgment falls and will fall on earth. And the way the psalm ends is such a profound contrast. You have a torrential thunderstorm. And the way the psalm ends is in the temple, people are like, that's awesome! And those people have peace. What a powerful contrast, the storm and peace in the middle of the storm. The way I would summarize what's going on in this psalm is this, God's mighty power to thunder judgment on earth is actually glorious and stabilizing for those inside his temple, even though it's terrifying for those outside. God's mighty power to thunder judgment on earth is actually glorious and stabilizing for those who are inside his temple, even though it's terrifying for those outside it. With this 3,000-year-old song, David communicates that safety from the storm of God's judgment is found in God's temple. I want to now apply this in three ways. The first way I think we should apply it is to say that the experience of unshakable peace begins when you acknowledge the mighty God behind every storm. The psalm teaches that the world is created by and governed by a God who is enthroned amidst angels. You see that in verse 1? Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, O angelic armies that are surrounding His presence. And it emphasizes this enthronement in verse 10 at the end when it says, he sits enthroned over all that happens in creation. He sits enthroned as king forever. You put those statements together and God is enthroned, the one true God of the universe, the one true God who created and governs everything that we can see. He is enthroned in the midst of angels. Do you acknowledge this? Do you believe this? This is the basic worldview of the Bible. It's the basic worldview of this psalm. But I think to many people, they read this, they hear me talking like this, and they're like, that is fantasy. That is like science fiction. You actually believe this? Yeah. It's the way God has revealed reality, and we do well to acknowledge it. You might ask, how do you know there's a God? I would just simply say, his creation shows inescapable proof of it. It's been said that you need to hold up your arm and say, which is more complicated, this watch or the wrist that it's on? This creation speaks powerful evidence of a designer, a maker, a creator. And we ourselves are the most complicated machines on the planet. Computers that are engineered by teams of the finest minds in the world cannot make anything like a human being learning, feeling, willing, functioning, administrating, We are people. And we are some of the most powerful evidences of a creator. You might ask, wait, wait, wait. Okay, so maybe there's a creator, but angels? Heavenly beings? Are you sure those are real? And I'd say the one true God who revealed himself in the word says cover to cover they are. But even more than that, We have reliable witnesses throughout time that testify that they encountered angels, reliable witnesses like Abraham and Sarah or like Daniel, like Mary, like John. You might ask, well, heaven, where's heaven? Well, according to scripture, heaven is not a physical place. It's not a place that's made up of like atoms and molecules. It's not built with like wood and steel. Heaven actually is a spiritual realm. It's where spiritual beings live, non-physical beings live. And it is like a different dimension that rules over this one. And there are occasions throughout scripture when God opens, as it were, the dimensional wall and lets someone in this dimension see that dimension, like Isaiah did when he saw the Lord. He was in the temple, and God, like, tore back that dimensional wall, and he could see the Lord high and lifted up with angels that looked like flickering torches around him. Or like Stephen, As he testifies to the fact that Jesus is the one everyone needs to submit to. And the religious Pharisees in his day hate him and they start to stone him. As a dying encouragement for Stephen, God pulls back that dimensional wall and as Stephen's dying, he sees Jesus standing on the throne. Wow. Heaven is real. You might say it's not physical, but it is real. We are not merely physical beings. And common sense, I think, would even share that. Our bodies are constantly undergoing cellular replenishing. Who is the real you if none of the cells in your body are actually the same as they were when you were five? Who is the real you? Hmm. Hmm. There's more to life than what is seen. According to this psalm and all of the Bible, what is going on in that heavenly throne room, what is going on in that spiritual dimension actually rules over everything that's going on in this earthly physical one. And I simply ask at the beginning, do you acknowledge this reality? Do you acknowledge that there is a creator God who is enthroned forever, who is ruling over everything that happens on earth? You cannot experience real peace in life unless you acknowledge reality. That's where it begins. That's where this psalm confronts us. Now I need to go one step farther, and this is going into even further uncomfortable territory, and say that this one true God, according to this psalm, is a God who executes judgment on earth. Verse 10 says he's king over the flood. The only other time in the Bible that that word, the flood, is used is actually in the worldwide flood of Genesis 6 through 9. in which God poured out his judgment on earth, saying, these people that I've created grieve me to the heart because they are rebels. And the flood is sort of like option one in history. God would be totally judged to just wipe the earth of sinners. He would be just to do that. There would be nothing wrong if God just said, I'm going to wipe sinners from off the earth. He has every right to do that. The rest of the Bible story from Genesis 9 on is what you might call option B, which is actually option A. God knew from the time he created the world that he was going to do this. But he shows the flood to say, that's the black backdrop against the diamond of my grace. I could wipe everyone off the face of the earth, but I am going to make a way to save people of every nation and tribe and language. The flood is the black backdrop of God's grace, the story of his grace throughout history. Here we're told that the God who sits as king forever executes judgment on earth, including reigning over that worst judgment that ever fell on earth, the worldwide flood. When God's judgment fell on every person except those eight who were in the ark, when His judgment fell on every person on earth, He was in complete control. That didn't catch Him by surprise. Things weren't running out of control. No, He is in control in every devastation that happens on earth. And that is true of a little thunderstorm that comes off of Lake Erie. It's true of international upheaval in Eastern Europe, and it will be true at the end of history when the Lord establishes Jesus as King of Kings on this planet and conquers every other national army. It is true now in the smallest and biggest ways. It will be true cosmically universally when Jesus returns. Wow, it is with this acknowledgement that you get on the path to peace, that there is a God who is enthroned forever in the presence of angels and he executes judgment on earth. You cannot find peace by trying to expunge from your mind that God ever judges people. you have to acknowledge it up front, that the God who created this world observes the world and he will hold the entire world accountable, including me. The God who sits as king and thrown forever among angels is a God of judgment. Second point, point of application. It is only in his temple, according to verse nine, in his temple, that you can be protected from God's mighty storm of judgment. Again, this is an artistic picture. You might read the psalm and cynically say, well, the temple was a pretty strong structure, and you could experience safety from a thunderstorm in the temple. But you could have been in another house, or you could have been underneath some rocks, some ledges, and you could have found protection. Yeah, you're thinking literally. David is communicating artistically. He is painting a very vivid picture that the only place of safety in the time of storm is in the temple. While the storm is passing across the nation Israel, the mountains are shaking, the trees are splitting with the lightning, the one place on earth that's untouched by devastation, the devastation of God's judgment, is in the temple. And in the temple, everyone is filled with joy and awe. That's the powerful picture that David is painting. He's teaching that the only place on earth where a person can live without the fear of God's judgment is in the temple. So we got to park here for a minute and think again about the temple. We've done this occasionally through the years. Think about the temple. That structure in Jerusalem, think about it. And this is gonna be really helpful as we conclude the service around the Lord's table, eating and drinking together, remembering the crucifixion of Jesus. The temple was a building in Jerusalem where priests would offer sacrifices to picture how rebellious people could be cleansed of their guilt and reconciled to God. Hebrews 8.5 says that that entire structure, both the tabernacle before it that was roving and the temple that was built and rebuilt a few times in Jerusalem, it was a copy of heavenly realities. It was a copy. It was like a small-scale model of what was going on in the other dimension that controls everything on earth. At the center of that small-scale model was a cubical room called the holiest place of all, or the Holy of Holies. And that room represented the throne room of God. Interestingly, there were statues of golden angels in that room over the throne of God. And around that room, outside that room, there was this massive, thick curtain some 40 feet tall that had angels embroidered on it. That was a small-scale model of the real thing in heaven. And the only way you could approach God was through a bloody sacrifice, saying, I'm a sinner. I can't earn anything in your presence, but you have commanded a sacrifice for my sin. Something must die as a result of my sin, either me or someone else. And it was a model, a picture, a copy of the reality. That reality was fulfilled when Jesus died in Jerusalem. I want to point that out in one passage. You're here in Psalm 29. Flip over just a minute to Matthew 27. The first book of the New Testament, about three quarters of the way through the Bible, Matthew, the gospel according to Matthew. And in Matthew 27 verse 45, Matthew reports this. Matthew 27, 45. Now from the sixth hour, there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the 9th hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Ali, Ali, lemme suboxone! That is, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Some of the bystanders there hearing it said, this man's calling for Elijah. And one of them at once ran and took a sponge. They filled it with sour wine. They put it on a reed. They gave it to him to drink. But others said, Wait, let's see whether Elijah really will come and save him. And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And behold, verse 51, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, showing that no man did that. And the earth shook and the rocks were split. And I'll end the reading there. Earthquake. rocks splitting, darkness for hours as Jesus is crucified and the temple curtain is split. What imagery? Do you see that the blackness of the day and the earthquake indicate the storm of God's judgment falling on Jesus as he's on the cross. Jesus is bearing the sins of the world and the storm comes over. And when Jesus ends his life, the temple curtain is ripped from top to bottom. It's God's way of saying, no more need for a model. The real thing's just happened. were done with that small scale model, that copy. It was a pattern that was picturing what was to come and the real things here. Jesus just absorbed the wrath of God, the judgment of God for everyone who'd run to him. He absorbed it all as he bore God's judgment there. And there's now no more need for a temple because Jesus is the one whom everyone needs to trust. You say, what does that have to do with Psalm 29? Let me tie it all together. Hebrews 8.5, that the temple was just a copy, and Matthew 27, showing that the storm of judgment comes over and we're done with that copy. These two passages explain that Jesus is now God's temple. Those who run in faith to Jesus are doing what David was picturing in Psalm 29. If David in Psalm 29 pictures the temple as the only place that's safe from a torrential storm, and the temple was just a copy that was pointing ahead to Jesus, then the only way that anyone can be safe from God's judgment is to run to Jesus. Do you personally hope to be protected from God's judgment? How can you personally hope to be protected from God's judgment when you deserve it? There is one way, and it is not by saying, I hope I've been a good enough person. That won't get you anywhere. That shelter won't hold up under the torrential storm. Jesus actually pictured this, didn't he, in Matthew chapter seven? When he said, if your life is built on Jesus, the storms are gonna come and your house is gonna hold. But if your house is built on anything other than Jesus, the storms are gonna come and your house is gonna crash and great is gonna be the demise How do you hope to stand up in the storm of judgment? There is one way. You need to admit that you do not have enough goodness and righteousness on your own. You need to admit that your sins actually deserve it, and your only hope is Jesus. He's the temple. He is the one who bore God's wrath in your place. Run to him. It's the only way you're safe from the storm of judgment. Third, All those who are in the temple have unshakably strong peace. In fact, we're the ones who can look at every storm and shout, glory. This is sobering. These last few verses of Psalm 29 actually describe what it's like to have peace in a world that's under judgment. For those of us who've been reconciled to the mighty creator God, Through faith in Jesus, the true temple, we don't fear any judgment. In fact, Tri County, we've done it numerous times over the last year. When we look at the anticipation of God's judgment, of justice coming, of vindication coming on earth, we long for that day. We long for it when justice finally comes. Revelation 19 ends. Jesus puts his feet back on this planet. He storms it on horseback white. Hallelujah. Heaven and Earth. Hallelujah. The King is finally returning. Hallelujah. Or as Psalm 29 puts it, as we see God's storm of judgment, we're shouting glory. How awesome. Look at those last two lines of Psalm 29. The Lord gives his people strength. The Lord blesses his people with peace. That is a line of Hebrew poetry and the first part of the line and the second part of the line mirror each other and actually interpret each other. You might Circle, or put a box around those last two words, strength and peace, and put a plus sign in between them. Because these two words mix into each other. The strength, you say, what kind of strength does this mighty God give to people? It's a peace kind of strength. It's an emotional, mental, inner stability kind of strength. And you say, what kind of peace does he give? Well, the word strong gets mixed into it. It is a strong kind of peace. It's an unshakable kind of peace. The sort of peace that God gives to his people is a strong, unshakable sort of peace. These two words are combined. They mix with each other. And here is how the psalm has been used by God so many times to be an encouragement in my life. Psalm 29 reminds me that I personally can experience the mighty power of God. He gives his people strength, power. I can actually experience that power no matter what kind of storm is going on in my life or in the world. Because God is the mighty God over the storm, and because I'm rightly related to him, I can have a strong kind of peace no matter what is swirling around. In just a minute, we're gonna sing mighty, mighty, mighty. Ascribing power to our God. Mighty, mighty, mighty. And at the end of that stanza we sing, grant that we your power may see. Mighty, mighty, mighty. God, help us to experience your power, your mighty power in the form of unshakable inner stability no matter what's going on today or tomorrow. May you, the mighty God, give me that kind of power in my inner person. This past week, I read the testimony of a Christian Ukrainian woman. Her name is Ekaterina. I shared it on Wednesday night, and then I sent out this testimony on Friday in our churchwide email. By the way, let me know if you'd like to be put on that list. I'd be glad to share it with you. Ekaterina serves as a translator in a Bible school that's just south of Kiev, and she wrote this. On February 23rd, I woke up around 5 a.m. to the sound of explosions. Thinking that someone was merely trying to scare us, I began to get ready for college. The first call from relatives, however, dispelled my naivety. A voice on the phone said, Russia's bombing airports and they're aiming at strategic objects. Ukraine's on fire. No one could believe it. Life turned upside down in an instant. She says, we fell asleep on February 22nd in the world and we woke up on the 23rd in a new reality that no one wanted. I'll not talk about what happened after that. You yourself know everything and I believe that you're following events with no less pain than we are here. The purpose of my letter is to ask you to pray and not to allow our pain to just become a part of your newsfeed over the next few days. I sincerely believe that a sovereign God has not lost control of the world. He has not become cruel to us. He has not turned into our enemy. I know that his plan is perfect and he does everything in such a way that his glory is above all. We're amazed how that same God's hand has stirred the entire world to pray. And she urges toward the end of her letter. She says pray for our country pray for the salvation of unbelievers here and She says pray for Christians She says many cease to be a light for Jesus many Christians cease to be a light for Jesus She says many Christians can hardly sleep. She says I've read statements by pastors and Christian leaders and I want to cry from the hatred and the aggression that they're communicating and And then Ekatherina asks, where are our beliefs? When did Christ depart from our hearts? Pray for those who are angry and for those who are in a panic. That's peace in the middle of a storm. If you are a Christian, if you're a person who has fled to Jesus for refuge, Do you have one legit excuse for fear or anxiety? Think about it. Do you have one legitimate excuse for giving in to anxiety? What can you be scared of? If Jesus has taken on himself the judgment of God in your place, then put everything into perspective. The worst case scenario for you is maybe a few years of tears. Worst case scenario gets relativized. Are you scared of false accusations? Are you scared of international upheavals? Are you scared of death? Can any of those things separate you from the rock-solid love of God that's been shown to you in Jesus? Can anything separate you from the mighty God? No. The mighty God gives you strength in the form of inner peace, no matter what storm is raging around you. And believer, you should remember Psalm 29 every time you hear thunder. Father, strengthen us through your Word, and I pray that this Word would encourage us continually throughout the year ahead. Encourage us right now. Speak to us, Lord, with our fears and our anxieties. Give your people strong peace. In Jesus' mighty name we pray. Amen. Amen.