Now having sung to the Lord, let us turn our attention to the Word of God. Our psalm this morning is Psalm 29. I would ask you to turn there and read along with me as we consider the word of God this morning, particularly as God's word calls us to see and to seek God's glory even in the midst of judgment. Psalm 29, the inspired and the inerrant Word of God. Give your attention to it. A Psalm of David. 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 in the splendor of holiness. 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 Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon. He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf and Syrian like a young wild ox. The voice of the Lord flashes with 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 forests bare, and all in his temple 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. is a very appropriate psalm to consider and to examine in the midst of the current situation where all of our lives have been disrupted to significant degree as a result of COVID-19. Because this psalm sees David looking at pictures of God's judgment in creation and the way that God sits above creation in judgment sovereignly. And this psalm sees God's glory in judgment as well as calls God's people to seek God and God's blessing in the midst of judgment. And certainly a preview of God's judgment is what we are seeing in this global pandemic. This is, I think, very clearly the Lord firing warning shots. that we should consider our mortality, that we should consider that this life is not all there is. The judgment of God on the whole world will come one day. Certainly this does not mean the end of the world is here with COVID-19, but rather just as David looks at the terrible storms in nature here in the psalm and recognizes that the destruction that they can cause is a little picture just as Noah's flood was of the final judgment. So also it is good and right for us to look around and to see in disasters and in pandemics and in all of these things, little warnings from the Lord that wrath is coming and we must flee from it. And this psalm calls us to ascribe to the Lord glory in the midst of his judgment. and to find strength and peace in God himself and from God himself in the midst of this judgment. I suspect that strength and peace are what many of us feel that we need right now. Many of us are exasperated, tired, frustrated, distressed in any number of ways. We don't feel strong. We feel helpless. Helpless to control things around us in the way that we would like. And peace is something that eludes many of us. Our lives are not peaceful. And so this psalm is, I think, quite timely to us. To ascribe to the Lord glory in the midst of judgment, and to seek strength and peace from God, even through judgment. We're going to consider this psalm in two parts. In each part, we will consider the middle of the psalm, the judgment imagery that David describes as he is likely observing destructive storms in the land. But I want us first to see how verses 1 and 2 connect with that, that we are to see God's glory and strength in judgment. And second, connecting verses 10 and 11 with the judgment imagery, that you are to seek God's strength and peace in the midst of judgment. So first, the psalm calls you to see God's glory and strength, even in the midst of judgment. This is what David is calling the Christian to do in verses one and two, where he says, 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 in the splendor of holiness. To ascribe something to the Lord means to attribute it to him. You see in the scriptures many occasions, particularly in Paul's letters, where he will say things like, blessed be God. This language of giving blessing, attributing God's character to Him, calling to mind who God is, what He is like in specific ways, and then speaking that or thinking that in your mind back to God. And here, the emphasis in verses 1 and 2 is that we would ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. You see that there in verse 1, glory repeated in verse 2, this being an integral part of the worship of God, which is connected, the end of verse 2, worshiping the Lord in the splendor of holiness, probably there meaning the splendor of God's holiness. the heavenly beings here, lest you think this is not your job as an ordinary man or woman or child. This is not talking about the moon or the stars ascribing things to the Lord. This could possibly reference the angels along with David. David certainly is doing this. The Hebrew, you might see in a footnote there in your Bible, the Hebrew could be sons of God. And so David is calling all of God's people to ascribe to God glory and strength, that we might worship the Lord according to His holiness. What does it mean to ascribe to the Lord glory and strength? This is very nice sounding Christianese. What does it mean? How do you do that? How do you know if you're doing that? Well, to ascribe to the Lord glory, we'll consider that first, means considering God's majesty, glory being in a sense weightiness or importance, considering God as God, that He is above His creation. He is infinitely powerful. He is infinitely present everywhere. He is infinitely good. He has all life in Himself. He is of ultimate importance to every living being, Christian or non-Christian, on the whole earth. He is the Creator of all things. He is the Redeemer of His people through Jesus. He is the centerpiece of the Christian life. even on those days where we fail to make God the center of our thinking and our worship and our life. To ascribe to the Lord glory means to call to mind God's attributes, particularly those that belong to God as God, and to consider Him in that fashion. For example, in the midst of this current distress? Are you ascribing to God? Are you considering God as sovereign and good? These are character traits of the Lord which are intimately connected with His glory, and they are some of the first things that we forget when trial and distress come. And so, even in the midst of examples of God's judgment, And a cursory glance through the language of this psalm shows that judgment imagery is the context that David is calling us to do this in. The voice of the Lord is over the waters, verse 3. The God of glory thunders. The voice of the Lord, verse 5, breaks the cedars. He makes the land, verse 6. He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, Syrian like a wild ox. Verse 7, the voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire. The Lord shakes the wilderness. This is judgment kinds of imagery. David appears to be observing or recalling some very destructive storm or other event in nature. And he ascribes to the Lord glory by recognizing that God is the one who is sovereignly doing all of these things. Well, brothers and sisters, do you consider that it is God who has you in some level of lockdown right now? God is the one who has determined that this pandemic was going to occur. God is the one who determined how the governments at every level were going to respond to it. God is the one who determined how this was going to negatively affect your circumstances. God is the one who is doing this. Have you considered that? And God is not doing this out of any malice or hatred to you. God is doing this to draw you to himself. Are you ascribing to the Lord glory and strength in the midst of our current judgment, which is not a terrifying storm, but which is no less destructive? That is what the psalm calls you to do, to recognize that in the midst of your present distress, chaos in your home, chaos or disruption in your work, frustration that normal routine is not a thing, social isolation and loneliness, the Lord and His voice, brothers and sisters, is thundering. It is thundering in a warning of judgment. The Lord is metaphorically here breaking the cedars, shaking the wilderness, stripping the forests bare, that all in his temple, that is all of God's people, you and your family and all the church would cry out to the Lord, Verse 9, glory. God is the God of judgment and God is sovereign and glorified in that judgment. How often do you respond in self-centered ways where you only consider your own desires and frustrations? and difficulties. And you forget God. And you forget his sovereignty and you forget his strength and his glory. His glory, including his goodness. How often do you forget these things? I forget these things all the time, brothers and sisters. And I know that if I forget them every day, I know that you do too. And so we need to repent. We need to repent in our thinking. Our patterns of thinking are marred by sin and selfishness. And we forget the Lord. We forget that He is the one who is speaking in all these circumstances. But that is the truth. The truth is that God is acting. And God is acting to give previews of judgment. so that men and women and children everywhere might turn from the wrath to come and seek the Lord through his Son, Jesus, to find strength and peace through it." And that is where the psalm looks in its concluding verses. Again, after observing the judgment of the Lord in creation, not the final judgment, but a preview of it. And we know that David is seeing this judgment as a preview of final judgment because he references the flood in verse 10. Scripture makes very clear, both in the Genesis narrative itself and in the New Testament, as the New Testament looks back on the flood, as well as passages here within the Old Testament looking back at the flood, Scripture makes very clear that the flood, judgment of the world by water, where everyone except Noah and his family was destroyed for their sins, that that was a preview of the final judgment of the world, the end of the world as it were, judgment by fire where all who are outside of Christ will be destroyed just as in Noah's flood all who were outside the ark were destroyed. And through this judgment, through these little pictures of judgment in creation that remind us and that point towards final judgment. David in verse 10 and 11, he remembers that God is enthroned over the judgment as king. And then he asks the Lord for two things. May the Lord give strength to his people. And may the Lord bless his people with peace. And again, this is what we need as we see even a tiny picture of God's judgment. In this global pandemic and all of the suffering it has caused and all the distress it has caused, it's a miniscule teeny tiny drop in the bucket of God's wrath compared to what will be outpoured on the final day when the earth and the heavens will be set on fire and burn away. And even in this teeny tiny drop of God's judgment on his creation, How badly do we need strength and peace? How much more do we need strength and peace to make it through God's ultimate final judgment? And this request that David makes in the Psalm, God, of course, fulfills. God grants this request in the sending of his son, Jesus. that the full force of God's wrath and final judgment would break in in time and space and fall upon Jesus, the innocent Son of God, so that sinners like you and me could be brought in to God's temple by grace through faith in that same Jesus. that we might be brought into the ark, as it were, the ark of Christ Himself and His blood, atoning for all our sin. It is not an insignificant thing when after Christ's resurrection, He and His apostles come to people and say, peace to you. It's not a trivial thing that Christian worship opens with a pronouncement of benediction, or of salutation rather, of grace and peace to you from God the Father through Christ Jesus. You see, what the Lord has given to you in Christ Jesus is exactly these two things, strength and peace, and particularly strength and peace. through final judgment and through all of the temporary judgments leading up to it. Those cyclical judgments coming into the world until the day when Jesus returns. God gives you peace. We read in Ephesians earlier that he himself is our peace. Christ has opened up the way for sinners to have peace with God. That God is not angry with you anymore if you have faith in Christ. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 13 and 14 which we read earlier. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ for he himself is our peace. who has made us both one and broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances. And verse 16 there, that he might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, killing the hostility. God has answered your prayers and your even unspoken or unrealized desires for peace and for strength. God himself will be your strength to get through day by day, week by week, even in the midst of trial, even in the midst of God's voice thundering and shaking all the nations. Ultimately, God gives to you strength and peace to stand on that final day of judgment, knowing that God has saved you, that Jesus' blood covers you, that God does not treat you according to your sins. He does not treat you according to your sins now, and He will not treat you according to your sins on that final day. But He will give you strength to stand, the strength of Christ Himself and His Holy Spirit dwelling in you. And His grace and His mercy covers you. And you have been given peace with God by the blood of Christ shed for you. And so I ask you, are you remembering these things? Are you calling these things to mind as God's voice thunders in judgment in this current COVID-19 panic? The scripture says plainly that God sits enthroned over these things. He's king forever. God didn't take a day off or a month off or six weeks off. He's enthroned forever, the permanent king of the universe. And he is the king of all glory and strength. And he is doing these things, shepherding his people. He's doing all of these things in love that we might consider Jesus more closely. that we might cherish our salvation more dearly, that we might grow in our understanding of what it means that God has given to us peace in the cross of Christ. God's wrath fell upon Him so that we would be spared, so that you would go free. Do you believe these things? In the daily chaos and disruption of life right now, in the daily frustration, all of our unmet desires? Are you remembering that God has given to you peace and strength? You won't find any peace from looking at your circumstances. You certainly aren't going to find it by looking at the government. but you will find it as you look to God. Are you doing that? Are you looking to Jesus? There is only peace in Jesus. There is only lasting strength in Jesus. And as you do look to Christ, I encourage you to remember that all of this is God's power at work for you. We are weak. We are not to ascribe to ourselves strength. We ascribe to God's strength. It is not our strength that gets us through these days. It is God and his mighty saving power and his love by which he has made us his beloved children. God loves you in Christ. God is with you in Christ. God gives you strength and peace in Christ. This is the hope of the gospel, that though all the wilderness around you might shake as the voice of the Lord thunders, and as it thunders in judgment, even as it thunders in final judgment someday. You do not need to be afraid or distressed if you are a Christian because God has given to you peace in his son, Jesus. And so I encourage you to find ways this week in your thinking to consider God as mighty and glorious in your life. and not to try to find your strength in yourself or peace in your circumstances, but to find new ways to look to Jesus and in your mind and heart to calm yourself, calling to mind God's word that he gives you his strength and that Christ Jesus himself is your peace. This is our hope. And all of this God does for you freely of his own love and grace and mercy, which as we read earlier from Ephesians 3 are higher, wider, broader, and deeper than any of us can fathom. God loves each of you more than you know. And while we are all so tempted to think of all the things that frustrate us, let us go into this week seeking to try instead to consider all of the ways that God's abundant love give us peace and strength. Let us pray.