I invite you to please turn tonight to Psalm 29, Psalm 29, found on page 585, Psalm 29, as we're pausing from both series today and we're considering tonight this wonderful Psalm 29. Let's give our attention to the Lord's Word, 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 is over 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 Sirion 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. And there we'll end the reading of God's word. Psalm 29 is such a fascinating psalm, a glorious psalm. Something that you read and it's just brilliance. It's awesome when you read it, describing the majesty and the glory of the Lord. It really is a psalm all about worship. It's calling us to worship. But it's calling us to understand who we are worshiping. Worshiping the Lord with a proper knowledge of Him. That's what this psalm is all about. And it's given to convict us, to drive us, to want to worship the Lord. And worship Him, as it's said, in the beauty of His holiness. Something we've not always appreciated or understood. The psalm itself is pure praise, you will notice. It's not really calling us, except for this call to worship the Lord. It's not calling us outside of that to do much of anything except worship and enjoy the God who has made all of this and upholds all of this. It's concern to overwhelm the worshiper. It's concern to move the worshiper. To consider the greatness of His God so that He will worship Him properly. That's important. We have a lot of discussion today about what it is to worship the Lord and how to worship Him properly. it's been an endless discussion and we have so many discussions. This is really the psalm that settles it. The psalm is describing something that David learned. Something that David learned in life that proper praise of God happens when the whole earth. I think of what we sung out from Psalm 8 and the majesty spreading out to all of the earth when the whole earth is bowed down, hushed and in silence before the sovereign and awesome majesty of the Lord not just the angels but all of the lower creation the whole earth trembles and bowing in silence before its maker is the imagery that we have in this psalm it's a beautiful poem using the imagery to describe everything that God has made in prostrate form before the Lord. You know what worship means, right, boys and girls? The word itself in the Old Testament, it means to bow down, to bow your heads and to acknowledge Him, to enjoy Him. And so it's really motivating proper worship. And that's what I want to look at with you tonight. You'll notice this. There's a call to worship here and then a great reason for worship that is put on display and how the people of God have a place for worship that is given to us. It's such a beautiful psalm. Notice in verse 1 that it begins with, 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. You'll notice that the ESV uses that old word, ascribe. It's a good word. It means, render to God what is due to Him. Give to God what is honorable, what belongs to Him. Speak of it. Assign it to Him. Ascribe to Him this honor and this privilege. Worthy is the Lord of all praise. We're not really told the circumstance of this psalm, but we can understand what David is reacting to by whom he addresses somewhat. You'll notice that he mentions the mighty ones or the heavenly beings. That's what our version says. Others say mighty ones, or a very wooden translation would be the sons of the gods. Ascribe to the Lord, O sons of the gods, glory and strength. David could be calling the angels to worship God, and many do take that position. But the flow of the psalm seems to be something that David looked out as king in the earth, and that's something that really bothered him looking at all of the leaders and all of the mighty men in the world, all of the kings of the earth who refused to give honor and glory to the Lord. It bothered him. It troubled him. Simple fact of the multitudes of the peoples have not stopped. All the kings and the rulers in the world and all the peoples under their care have rarely stopped and stopped and paid homage and assigned and given glory to the Lord for all of this. Ascribed glory for the magnificence of his creation his power that they enjoy and under the sun so david singles out these mighty ones you think of psalm 2 which says that the many nations and many kings and the mighty men of the earth have taken their counsel together against the lord and against his anointed they are not worshiping the lord so here here we have this thought that even israel itself struggled with this you'll remember all of the the sins of israel in the wilderness where they would they would not ascribe to the lord the proper honor and glory that was due to him in fact in their own worship services remember what they did with the golden calf remember what they were doing they were trading the glory of god for the things of this earth images and four-footed creatures and all these things you remember when um elijah went to mount carmel there were god's people worshiping the Baals. Worshiping Baal who was known as the God of the storm. The psalm is corrective of a very low conception of God. It's correcting it. It's meant to raise our thoughts out of the roof of who we've come before. Who this is. It's calling us to turn our eyes away from ourselves and hear what is being said to us. Come, ascribe to the Lord glory and honor. Ascribed to the Lord, glory and strength belongs to Him. All of it. Giving glory the sense of the proper respect we should have of Him, that our view should be framed of Him by taking delight that He is the Almighty One, that He is powerful. All powerful. And so, in verse 2, he gives this. Glory, worship the Lord, ascribe to Him, and give unto the Lord glory that is due to His name. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. This is a glorious call. It's a glorious summons for worship. It's what I read tonight. What the Lord Himself called you to do. Calling you into His presence to ascribe to the Lord and give Him glory. I want you to acknowledge this, says the Lord. I want you to realize all of your life not comes by your own strength or might, but to be deeply overwhelmed in heart of My infinite majesty. My irresistible power. my glorious sovereignty, the strength that I have, and how I am the keeper of Israel. We're going to look at that. So our understanding then of God affects really what we do, considering and acknowledging the Lord's holy transcendence and His glory. And you see what the psalmist is doing now. You see what David is doing. What did David experience? How do you raid people's low view of God? How do you deal with people who don't understand worship, who don't understand who this is, who don't appreciate Him for His majesty and His holiness? How do you deal with this great problem? How do you create in people a proper heart and disposition for worship? This is what the psalm is about to do. The first thing you would say is, there has to be the fear of the Lord. But see, that term has always troubled us because we've always thought of it in terms of servile fear of being greatly in fear of Him that He's going to strike us. That is not ultimately what the psalm, as you'll see, is calling. As a matter of fact, by the end of the psalm, His people are enjoying the presence of the Lord. It's a fear that is so in awe of Him and of reverencing Him, so taken by His majesty and power that this whole mindset has framed the way they approach Him. That's the beauty of this. He describes now something to help them. He describes something to help us. What would help us to have that kind of awesome reverential approach to God? What would make us come and worship and bow down before Him? What is it? Well, He describes it as an awful storm, doesn't He? you can appreciate what is now, you can appreciate, I guess, until you've really had some sense of a storm. I don't know if you've ever been in the midst of a terrible storm and felt how scary that can be. I mean, in some sense, these fires are like storms right now. One in Malibu rushing all the way to the ocean and utterly destroying everything in its path. I remember being caught in a storm in South Dakota with the family years ago. And I'm a California kid. I don't know what storms are. What are those weird twisty things, right? I don't know. So we're driving and all of a sudden, this storm engulfed us and I had never experienced the fear of a storm like that. The rain was so hard, it hitting the windshield, I couldn't see a thing. It was like a sheet of white. And we all were panicked. I remember how panicked we were. We started singing out Psalm 46. There's a reason to know these psalms like that. Well, this is what the psalm is doing. It describes this awful storm that comes down and it sweeps and just utterly blaze bare everything in its path. In verses 3-9, it describes this. The voice of the Lord is over the waters. The God of glory thunders. The Lord is over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. I want you to think about for a minute with me what this psalm is describing. It was something the Jews greatly feared. These awful storms would come up over the Mediterranean Sea. And deep black storms would come. And to the onlooker, it would look like a firestorm. We've just seen in the news these past months, and you know what the news does. I mean, they're just panicked. And everyone freaks out when these storms come and the hurricanes that pass through the land. If the full force of those storms went through, it would lay bare everything. And we've tasted that some in our history. The Lord usually calms the storm for us, doesn't He? But this is not saying anything was calm. This is the worst imaginable storm you could ever think of. Deep within the Mediterranean Sea, this storm begins to form and it raises up like a blanket of terror heading for the land. It comes on like hurricane fury. It sweeps down the entire strip of the land of Canaan, disappearing deep into the south. Everything left behind in the wake of the storm is utterly laid bare. So you see what the psalm is beginning to do. It's having us think a little bit about our view of God and describing Him with the imagery that the Psalms often do of being above the storm, of riding on the storm. The waters are hurled up in this firmament of the atmosphere and the Lord is viewed here as riding on the wings of the storm. He's over it all. Blackness and lightning and fire are under Him. Imagine this. This is Psalm 18. Then the earth shook and trembled. The foundations of the hills also quaked and were shaken. Because he was angry, smoke went up from his nostrils and devouring fire from his mouth. Coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also and he came down with darkness under his feet. And he rode upon a cherub and flew. He flew upon the wings of the wind. David is calling down for his Lord and his Lord comes to rescue him with that kind of fury. Seven times here in the psalm, the voice of the Lord is mentioned. You know how powerful the voice of the Lord is? Calling all of this into existence with His voice. Everyone who heard the voice of the Lord throughout history dropped and trembled to death. Everyone. Think of Isaiah. Think of him seeing just a glimpse of the glory and hearing even the angels crying out. You'll notice here, this storm comes. It shakes everything in its path. I suppose the closest thing we have that God has given us in nature to give us an idea of His voice is what? Thunder. Thunder. The powerful rolling thunder that, a monsoon-like thunder that, if you've never heard it, it shakes you. It scares you. You've never heard that kind of blast. This is Job 37. At this also, my heart trembles and leaps from its place. Hear attentively the thunder of His voice and the rumbling that comes from His mouth. He sends it forth unto the whole heaven, His lightning to the ends of the earth. After it, a voice roars. He thunders with His majestic voice. And He does not restrain them when the voice is heard. God thunders marvelously with His voice. He does great things which we cannot comprehend. The God of glory thunders, it says. The Lord is over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. So here comes the storm. Off in the distance, here comes this barreling storm onto the land. You hear the thunder and everyone is reporting, get out, get out now, get out. You'll notice in verses 5-7 the storm moves down to Lebanon. Lebanon the northern part of the border of the land so we picture this storm now breaking out onto the land and the first thing it confronts are the cedars of Lebanon and what happened to the cedars of Lebanon well if you go over to the to the Mediterranean you'll see these these massive cedars of Lebanon and they're about 130 feet tall the circumference of the trunks are about 45 feet you'll remember that Solomon built the temple out of these things. Ancient civilizations built the strength of their kingdoms out of these massive cedars of Lebanon. You'll notice verse 6 mentions here that he mentions Syrian, another name for Mount Hermon, sitting on the border of Lebanon and Syria is Mount Hermon. Its top reaches 9,000 feet. So imagine this massive mountain and these powerful cedars that cover the land and the Lord's storm, He's riding on the wings of the storm and He comes through and the Lord's voice splits the cedars of Lebanon to bits. Shatters them to bits. Splinters them out, His voice. They skip, you'll notice. Like a calf, they skip away at His terrible presence. Mount Surya and skips before him like a wild ox. The mountain gets up and runs. All of a sudden, this path is made and the Lord thunders through and the most formidable foe, the symbol of great strength and power, the cedars of Hermon are nothing. The cedars and Hermon are nothing before the majestic, holy presence of the Lord. The storm makes its way out into the desert verse 8 the voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh this is the holy desert the voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth it strips the forest bare so the imagery is he speaks and all of a sudden these pregnant animals drop and give birth the whole wilderness floor begins to shake everything in this path is undone. What has the psalm done? Hushed everyone. Everyone's talking. Everyone's busy. Now attention has been made. Been gotten. Have you considered the omnipotence of God? Have you considered His holy majesty? Have you considered His justice? God as the old translation said is terrible in His holiness David is using the storm to describe what God is like walled off in His glory He's dangerous who's considering that today? who thinks of this today? Calvin is right in his commentary on this that even though the beasts tremble Man's not moved. Man is not moved. What kind of voice is this? Even though he's using the voice of a storm, what is it really telling us about God? Well, Israel would have understood this. For the most scary experience ever of their existence happened where? Sinai. Mount Sinai. to play a little bit off this morning, it was Exodus 19. And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace and the whole mountain quaked. The imagery of Sinai is when the Lord came down on it, the greatest firestorm ever that had ever hit the land came upon them and then he spoke and remember what happened don't let him speak we can't endure what he's saying everyone should be fulfilling and fulfilling everything that god made them to be to enjoy Him, to glorify Him, to worship Him. But they're not. He splits the cedars of Lebanon into bits. What will become of those who don't bow to Him? And here's where the psalm now overwhelms us. It overwhelms us with joy. There's a little curious statement in the midst of all this. In His temple, everyone is saying what? Glory. Glory. I picture this oncoming storm. And what happens? Nobody's very concerned. The creation knows what's happening. The beasts of the field know what's happening. And His people know what's happening. And where are they headed? to the temple. To Jerusalem for repair. They run to the temple and as they see the majestic holiness of God, they run for shelter, not away from Him, but to Him. Saying glory. Majesty. He is awesome. Ascribe to Him the glory that is due to Him. render Him glory and honor, worship Him in the beauty of His holiness. They've seen His power and they've run to Him. This is an amazing moment in the psalm for He speaks distinctly here. What has He announced out of His temple? What has He told out of His temple? What has the Lord always said out of His temple to His people? There in the temple was announced His love, His shelter, His care, His protection from the storm of His wrath. It was always announced. This is what the temple was set up to do. Here in the temple, God had made a way to be sheltered from the storm. And all who are sovereignly drawn and loved by Him, they're utterly covered and protected from the storm. You read these great statements in the Psalms. Surely He will save you from the fowler's snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His feathers. Under His wings you will find refuge. His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. You will not fear the terror by night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. A thousand may fall at your side, 10,000 at your right hand, but it will not come near you. The optimism of the psalmist looking to what the Lord had promised His people ultimately in glory. Total shield, total protection. And you'll notice here that the psalm reminds us of that. The Lord sat enthroned where? At the flood. And as the flood rose up over the earth and judgment came, there were a people shielded in the ark. There were a people totally preserved by Him in the ark as his storm fell. And he sheltered and kept all of Noah and his family from that storm. Well, where does this voice come to us? Think of the voice that we've heard in light of this morning. Well, you can't preach this psalm and not think about exactly what Jesus did for the disciples. When one day they're out on a boat, And we read in Mark 4 that a great windstorm arose. And the waves beat that boat so that it was already feeling. And He's in the stern asleep on a pillow. And they are crying out in great fear. Lord, save us! Lord, help us! Teacher, don't you care that we're perishing? And the Lord comes out of His chamber, if you will. And He speaks with His voice. And from the voice of the Savior, the storm was calmed. Think about that. From the voice of the Savior, the storm was calmed. Then He arose, verse 9 of Mark 4, verse 39, and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Peace. Peace. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. His voice brought peace. In the wilderness, said John, we beheld His glory. The glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. The most beautiful mental imagery is given in this psalm that in the midst of the raging storm, God's people are completely sheltered under His sovereign care, unharmed by His judgments as they gather to worship Him and enjoy Him as we all say together, glory. And that's exactly what the psalm ends with, doesn't it? The Lord has blessed His people as they come to Zion and as they worship, a worshiping people as they have been saved and delivered and into the loving hands and care of the Lord. He has blessed them all with what? Peace. See it? The Lord, all His people. Right at the end of the psalm. So beautiful. May the Lord bless His people with peace. And that's what He's done for us. The very King who sat enthroned on the flood of Noah's day is the very King who would come down here and give His life for your salvation. Does that change how we look at worship? It's a similar theme to this morning. That this God who has rescued us and helped us now has given us a place to come. Not this temple or that temple, but what? To worship Him in spirit and in truth. And wherever we gather, it is this sort of awe of this God who has loved us this way that should drive our worship. A reverential awe where we bow down before Him, praising Him, saying, glory. You are worthy, O Lord. Ascribe to the Lord. Ascribe to the Lord, O you mighty ones. Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory that is due to His name. Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank You for giving us a psalm like this that corrects the terrible views that we often have of You. The low view. And lifts our hearts and lifts us up to show us Your magnificence and Your power. You are omnipotent. You reign over all. Your glory is set before us. We should see it everywhere. But thank You that You have given us a shelter in Your Son. Thank you that in Christ, his voice has calmed the storm and that we have peace. The Lord, all his people, he will comfort with peace. We praise you tonight for giving us peace on this day of rest. May we take it into this week and enjoy you the way that we should. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.