The Voice of the Lord
Download MP3Well, good morning. It's good to see you all. We are gonna be in Psalm 29 this morning. Psalm 29. A few months back, when we were looking at the preaching calendar, we had planned to take this week off from our series, looking at the lives of the prophet Elijah and the prophet Elisha, in 1st and second kings.
Jeffrey Heine:But, we're actually going to focus on a significant part of their story. We're going to look at the backdrop to the lives of Elijah and Elijah in Psalm 29. It's in your worship guide. It's also in the worship guide, the digital one on our website. You can find it there.
Jeffrey Heine:During the pandemic, there have been many things that I've missed. One thing that I've missed is going to live entertainment, to concerts, to movies, to the theater. Jess and I, when we first got married, had a line item in our budget for concert tickets. And a few weeks before everything started shutting down, our family got to go to New York city. And we went and saw the the lion king on broadway.
Jeffrey Heine:And if you've seen it before, you know that it's unbelievable. It seems like everything in the theater is moving, and it's part of the show. Have you ever been to a play at a community theater, Broadway, or the West End? And during the intermission, you could see the stagehands setting up the backdrop. You see parts of the stage moving around, setting up for the second act of the play.
Jeffrey Heine:There isn't much space on those stages, so each piece of the background is significant. Each part is vital to tell the story. Well consider this sermon an intermission in the story of Elijah and Elijah. During this intermission, we will take a closer look at the backdrop of the stories that we have heard. And to help us look at the backdrop is a king in Israel, not Ahab that we've been reading about, A different king.
Jeffrey Heine:One who lived a 100 years before Elijah and Elijah, and that's King David. So let's look at his poem of praise, Psalm number 29. And let us listen carefully, for this is God's word. Ascribe to the Lord, o sons of the gods. Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
Jeffrey Heine: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.
Jeffrey Heine: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.
Jeffrey Heine: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 oaks to whirl and strips the forests bare. And in his temple, all cry, glory.
Jeffrey Heine:The Lord sits enthroned over the flood. The Lord sits enthroned as king forever. May the Lord give strength to his people, and may the Lord bless his people with peace. This is the word of the Lord. Amen.
Jeffrey Heine:Let's pray. God, we thank you for your word, and we ask that by your spirit, you would draw near to us and that you would help us to draw near to you. Lord, would you open our hearts and our minds to hear your truth? Give us the strength to respond with all that we are, to all that you are. We pray these things in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Jeffrey Heine:Amen. There's an inherent drive in every human person to worship. And by worship, I I'm meaning this innate, drive to offer gratitude, to fear, and to hope. For 1000 of years, cultures and traditions have arisen and tried to to pursue and live out these drives to fear, gratitude, and hope. The bible is full of references of how cultures have tried to express these drives to worship.
Jeffrey Heine:And over the past few weeks, we have looked at the life of Elijah in the old testament books of 1st and second Kings. And in 2nd Kings alone, there are over 60 references to various pagan gods and goddesses. The most famous is Baal, which we most commonly say, pronounce as Baal. In the regions of Canaan, Baal was the most popular pagan deity. And you'll recall recall from a few weeks ago, the time when the prophet Elijah took on Baal's prophets.
Jeffrey Heine:The mythology said that Baal was the son of the pagan god, El. And Baal was known as the god of the storm, the god of thunder and lightning. Many cultures had gods and goddesses who were over storms, who oversaw rain and drought, windstorms and lightning. If you've ever been caught in a terrible storm, a tornado or a hurricane, you know the deep fear and the terrible awe that weather can solicit. And then there's the lack of rain.
Jeffrey Heine:Drought and subsequent famine can be just as arresting and terrifying. In ancient Mesopotamia, the part of the world where many of the Bible stories occur, they regularly experience terrible droughts, sometimes for months, even years, without rain. That is how the belief in these weather gods came about, The showdown between the prophets of Baal and the prophets of Yahweh happened during one of those droughts. The people were beholden to these unseen forces of rain and sun. Too little rain and the people would starve.
Jeffrey Heine:Too much rain and they would drown. Someone had to be in charge of these forces. The gods over the weather must be kept happy. And that's how these pagan rituals began. In 1 and 2nd Kings, there are 17 different pagan gods and goddesses who are explicitly referenced.
Jeffrey Heine:There was Adriamelech, the sun god, because not only must the rain be just right, the sun had to shine just enough. Not too hot or the crops would die. Not too little or it would not grow. So they named the god of the sun, Adrimelech. Then there was Ashtoreth.
Jeffrey Heine:Ashtoreth watched over fertility for both humans and livestock. But, of course, not everyone could agree. Not every group, tribe, or culture could agree which god was over what, so there were extra gods who might be battling it out together. So another sun god, Rimmon, might require some more sacrifices too. And at the same time, not too far off in another part of the ancient world, the Greeks were writing their own stories of Poseidon, the god of the sea.
Jeffrey Heine:Zeus was in charge of the sky. It was Artemis, not Ashtoreth, who was overseeing the birth of the woodland creatures. In time, as cultures spread, and they moved, and changed, so would these stories of the gods and the goddesses. Baal becomes Zeus, Artemis becomes Diana, Poseidon becomes Neptune. For 1000 of years, humanity has displayed a deep and abiding drive to worship, to fear, to gratitude, to hope.
Jeffrey Heine:The strive is so strong that it must be expressed even if the culture has to look to the skies and make up a deity. And still other cultures would turn inward, look to themselves as the deity, themselves as the object of worship. King David, who was brought from the fields as a shepherd to the throne of Israel, was familiar with these old stories. Stories of pagan gods and goddesses. And this is why he begins Psalm 29, a poem of worship, in a very unique way.
Jeffrey Heine:He actually starts off by speaking to these false gods and goddesses. He starts off by addressing the sons of the gods. There are a couple different ways that this has been translated and understood over the centuries, but the Hebrew word for word translation is sons of the gods. Your bible might say heavenly beings, or it might say mighty ones. I interpret this phrase to be a reference to all the supposed heavenly deities that the surrounding culture would have worshiped.
Jeffrey Heine:All those false gods and goddesses. The phrase was often used to describe this group of pagan deities that people worshiped instead of Yahweh. And I think in this poem of praise, David is calling out all these supposed gods and goddesses. He's calling them to ascribe to the one true God Yahweh the glory due only to his name. David is commanding all of heaven to bow down before Yahweh, the only true God.
Jeffrey Heine:You'll notice in your Bibles and in your worship guides of the passage the word lord with all capital letters. That's distinct from the other times where you see it capital l and the rest lower case. Capital l o r d represents the Hebrew name Yahweh that would have been written with the letters y h w h. David is being very precise here. And, throughout this poem, he is talking about the one true God of of Israel, Yahweh.
Jeffrey Heine:And everything and everyone in all of creation, even the made up deities are being called to ascribe glory to God alone. There are 2 words that are very important for us to understand here ascribe and glory. So, what does it mean to ascribe? Often, the English translation is the word give, but that's not always helpful. It's not always helpful because we aren't giving something to God that he would otherwise lack.
Jeffrey Heine:It's not that we have glory, and if we don't give it to him, he will be missing glory. Perhaps a better way to understand it is, to ascribe means to recognize and acknowledge. To recognize and acknowledge God's glory. And glory can be summarized as the full weight of God's greatness. It's the sum of his character and his power.
Jeffrey Heine:King David is saying, in all of creation, all of heaven and earth, everyone must give supreme and ultimate recognition to God's greatness. David calls everyone, especially in this psalm, these made up gods and goddesses to bow down before Yahweh and worship him, to fear him, to give gratitude and thanks to him, to put your hope in him. Give this ultimate worship in the majestic splendor of God's holiness. Imagine the people of Israel singing this psalm. Imagine them singing it as they traveled to worship Yahweh in Jerusalem.
Jeffrey Heine:And along the way, they would sing it. And the townspeople, hearing from a distance, coming closer in, they're singing songs to these false gods to bow down. These false gods that these other people would have been worshiping. And the people of Israel are saying, to all these false gods, bow down before the glory of the one true God. David is saying that Yahweh is not like any other gods or goddesses.
Jeffrey Heine:Yahweh is not like the statues and the idols crafted by hands. Yahweh is not like Zeus or Baal. All of creation must bow before Yahweh, the Lord. Fear him alone. Be thankful to him alone.
Jeffrey Heine:Hope in Him alone. He's saying there is no other god besides Yahweh, which, as you'll remember, is the central message of Elijah the prophet. The psalm continues. David moves our attention from the heights of the heavenlies to the earth. And he begins to repeat a phrase over and over again.
Jeffrey Heine:And it's this, the voice of the Lord. Seven times David will start a stanza with the words, the voice of the Lord. The voice of Yahweh. It signifies the power and the authority of the Lord. Think back to another poem at the very beginning of the Bible in Genesis chapter 1, the creation poem.
Jeffrey Heine:In that poem, all that is seen and unseen comes into being because of the voice of the Lord. He speaks, and it comes into existence. The voice of God is the expression of His ultimate and supreme power, and that is what merits our ultimate and supreme worship. Look at verse 3. The voice of the Lord is over the waters, the God of glory thunders, the Lord over many waters.
Jeffrey Heine:The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. David is declaring that it is Yahweh's voice that thunders over the water. It's not Baal or Poseidon, those pagan gods of the storm and the sea. It is Yahweh.
Jeffrey Heine:And it is his voice alone that thunders over the water. The power of God displayed. David continues, 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.
Jeffrey Heine:The cedar trees in the region were known for their majesty. They were symbols of immovable strength. Have you ever stood among the giant redwoods in California? That's what David is describing. These massive trees of great strength, David says, they tremble and break apart at the voice of Yahweh.
Jeffrey Heine:The great mountains of Lebanon and Syria skip and dance. They shake like a young calf at the voice of Yahweh. Verse 6, if you're following along in the King James version, has one of my favorite translations. It reads, the Lord makes Sirion like a unicorn. If you're looking for more unicorn verses in the Bible, check out numbers 2322, which reads in the King James, God brought them out of Egypt.
Jeffrey Heine:He hath, as it were, the strength of a unicorn. That's why I have a doctorate, folks. To know the unicorn verses. Moving on. The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire.
Jeffrey Heine:The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness. The Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. David has moved our attention from the far north of Lebanon all the way down to the south of Kadesh. He's demonstrating the expanse of the Lord's power, shaking the wilderness, flames of fire, where different gods and goddesses throughout that land were known for one power. They they were the God over the flame.
Jeffrey Heine:They were the God, over the lightning. God over the waters. David is saying he is God over all of it. Yahweh alone, his voice covers it all. The voice of the Lord makes the oaks whirl.
Jeffrey Heine:Some of your translations might say, the deer give birth. If you wanna talk about how you can get those 2 different translations from the Hebrew, the nerds can meet back here afterwards. I'll we can talk about it. It has to do with vowels, and, but we can talk about it later. But the voice of the lord makes the oaks whirl and strips the forests bare, and in his temple all cry glory.
Jeffrey Heine:It is the Lord who brings the wind, strips the forest bare. Not these false gods and goddesses. It is the one true God. David closes his song of praise saying, the Lord sits enthroned over the flood. The first reference to flood since Noah in the old testament.
Jeffrey Heine:The Lord sits enthroned as king forever. May the Lord give strength to his people. May the Lord bless his people with peace. The temporary King David declares that Yahweh is sitting enthroned as king forever. The Lord is not going anywhere.
Jeffrey Heine:He will never lose His throne and His power will never diminish. So that sounds great, you say. This is interesting. It's like a classics 101 class. But you might be saying to yourself, I don't worship pagan gods.
Jeffrey Heine:And what difference does this make for me today sitting in a parking deck? Well, it's probably true. You probably don't worship Zeus or Athena or Diana. But I want to ask you honestly, and for you to answer honestly in your own hearts and minds. Who gets your worship?
Jeffrey Heine:Who receives your fear, your gratitude, your hope? It might not be the gods and goddesses of the ancient world, but does the Lord God receive your true worship? The backdrop to Elijah and Elijah was mass confusion. People were in chaos. Is that familiar to anyone?
Jeffrey Heine:Any confusion this week? Any chaos this week in our world, our country, your classrooms, or offices, workplaces, homes, friendships, family, Any chaos or confusion there? The people in Elijah and Elisha's time were people in the chaos of misplaced fear, misplaced gratitude, misplaced hope. It is misdirected worship. So what about us?
Jeffrey Heine:Who gets your fear? What sets you trembling? What brings you low? Your failures? Your reputation?
Jeffrey Heine:Your bank account? What causes you to wake up in the middle of the night and not get back to peaceful rest? What sends you spiraling to be short with your friends or family, or to raise your voice with a person you love? What do you really fear? Because what you fear tells what really has power in your life.
Jeffrey Heine:Who receives your gratitude? Where does your thankfulness go? Often, when we don't direct our gratitude outward, it ends up going inward to ourselves. And we are the reason that things are going well in our life. It's our own hard work that deserves the credit.
Jeffrey Heine:But here's a helpful test. Do you regularly feel unappreciated? Do you note every time someone doesn't say thank you? Does that take up a big part of your thinking? Then I would encourage you to check your gratitude to the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:Because it is nearly impossible to express gratitude to the Lord when we are consumed by the ingratitude of others, or we are focused on gratitude toward ourselves. So where do you put your hope? Because either we hope or we give in to hopelessness. Where is your hope? When you feel the ache over how things are now and you long for change, what do you believe can and will make things change?
Jeffrey Heine:Is it your skill, your plans, The election? The economy? The culture? What's ever going to bring justice that we need? What will bring mercy?
Jeffrey Heine:What will bring peace? King David ends Psalm 29 saying that the Lord will give strength to his people. The Lord will bless his people with peace. But how? Through the King that is on his throne forever.
Jeffrey Heine:Through the voice of the Lord that speaks his peace and strength over his beloved. Yahweh brings his holy peace, his shalom, to his people. And we need that strength. You need that strength. And we need that peace.
Jeffrey Heine:You need that peace. And it comes from Christ, the eternal king. The voice of the Lord is Christ himself. And the king is Christ who is seated on the eternal throne. We read in the new testament letter to the Hebrews, it begins with these words, Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, like Elijah and Elijah.
Jeffrey Heine:But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, Jesus, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom he also created the world. It is Jesus who is the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of his nature. And Jesus upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making a purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. He took his throne.
Jeffrey Heine:Our promise, David reminds us in Psalm 29, is that this eternal King blesses his people with strength and peace. That is how we endure and persevere through the chaos of life, through the strength and peace of our King Jesus. That is our hope, our eternal hope. And we need that hope. Because just like the backdrop for Elijah and Elijah, we too live in a chaos of misdirected worship.
Jeffrey Heine:We are tempted and pulled to lives that worship the wrong things. But what all the prophets like Elijah and Elijah were pointing to, the one God who is due our wholehearted worship, who deserves our eternal hope, our supreme gratitude, our holy fear, those prophets were pointing to Jesus. The drive in all of us to offer our gratitude, our fear, our hope, the drive that dreamed up 100 of gods and goddesses throughout the centuries, that drive has a place where worship is truly due. And in all of this, the call to each one of us today is to ascribe, to recognize, and acknowledge the glory, the greatness and graciousness of God Father, Son, and Spirit. Let's go to him in prayer.
Jeffrey Heine:Lord, by your spirit, would you open the eyes of our hearts and minds that we would behold the glory of Jesus, that we would look upon the radiance of the glory of God that shines in the face of Jesus Christ our king. With a holy fear, an earnest gratitude, and an eternal hope, may we acknowledge and recognize that Jesus, right now you are upholding the universe by the word of your power. You're holding us together even when we feel like we're falling apart. Lord by your spirit would you give us a confidence, a confidence in your strength and the peace found in Christ. We pray these things in his name.
Jeffrey Heine:Amen.
