Psalms To See Me Through: Psalm 29 The Lord Sits Enthroned Over The Flood

I have felt the tugging at my heart to continue with the Psalms to See Me Through series since I have not written one in while. I was embarrassed when I realized that it has been almost three years since I wrote on the last Psalm!

Well, we find ourselves once again in a new year. 2020 had its challenges, yet there was much to be thankful for in the face of a very difficult year. God proved Himself faithful on every occasion—every trying obstacle and hard place. He is so faithful. He is so good.

For much of 2020, my pastor preached on Psalm 29, specifically verse 10: “The Lord sits enthroned over the flood” (ESV). 2020 saw many floods for many people. I do not know anyone who was not in some way affected by the pandemic whether physically, financially, or who did not suffer a loss. I do not think it is an accident then when I looked to see what the next Psalm was in the series that it was this Psalm.

The ESV Bible titles this Psalm “Ascribe to the Lord Glory.” God should always be the first to give glory to. The NASB titles it “The Voice of the Lord in the Storm.” Both are worthy titles.

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 (vv. 1–2).

In this Psalm, David echoes the name of the LORD eighteen times and “the voice of the LORD” seven times. LORD, is the tetragrammaton, which we write Jehovah, Yehovah, Yehveh, Yeveh, Jhuh, Javah, etc. A name so holy that the Jews do not dare to utter it.

“Ascribe” in the Hebrew means to give. God is to be given glory at all times. Who is to give Him glory? The ESV translates heavenly being, the KJV translates mighty ones, the NASB renders it sons of the mighty. It may be speaking to either powerful nobles or mighty celestial beings. The phrase is used elsewhere to denote ‘heavenly beings’ or angels (cf. Genesis 6:2, 4; Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7; Psalms 82:6; 89:6). 

David is well aware that the powerful on the earth tend to forget God and, in their arrogance, give themselves all the credit for their accomplishments. A stern warning for those in power to remember the Name of the Lord and to give Him the glory for everything. Perhaps some kings of old can serve as our teacher:  

“The king began speaking and was saying, ‘Is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the honor of my majesty?’ While the word was still in the king’s mouth, a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is declared: sovereignty has been removed from you, and you will be driven away from mankind, and your dwelling place will be with the animals of the field. You will be given grass to eat like cattle, and seven periods of time will pass over you until you recognize that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whomever He wishes’” (Dan. 4:30-32 NASB).

We all would do good to remember the Lord our God; whatever success we have achieved, whatever crowns we have won, should be cast back at His feet in humility. Those who are in power in the earth or the heavens would do well to praise the God of Heaven, He will not share glory with anyone, “I am the Lord, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another…” (Is. 42:8 NASB).

His Voice; the Voice. How wonderful, powerful, awesome, and majestic is the voice of the Lord.

“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 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 forests bare, and in his temple all cry, ‘Glory!’” (vv. 3–9 ESV).

All creation cries Glory to Him. All who are in His temple, cry Glory! He deserves nothing less. His voice can be heard above all creation; over all rulers of the earth; over the animals. The earth and heavens shake at the sound of His voice; all creation is shaken. Each mention of His name illustrates the strength and glory of His voice. If the sound of His voice carries this much strength and authority, imagine the Words the Voice is speaking. They should leave us in awestruck wonder. The God of glory thunders. He thunders in the face of every trial, every hard road you travel, every attack you face. Does His voice thunder in your atmosphere or the voice of the trial? Does His voice thunder or does the voice of the sickness? Does the voice of Yahweh thunder in your ear or the financial trial? Do you tremble at the strength and glory of His voice or do you tremble at the circumstance?

“After it, a voice roars; He thunders with His majestic voice, And He does not restrain the lightning when His voice is heard. God thunders wondrously with His voice, doing great things which we do not comprehend” (Job 37:4-5 NASB).  

“The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord sits enthroned as king forever” (v.10)

David most likely had the flood of Noah in mind as this is the only place in the Old Testament other than in Genesis 6:9 where this Hebrew word for flood occurs. Yes, the flood was His divine judgment for the evil in the earth, yet He watched over it all and saved Noah, his family, and seven pairs of clean animals and a pair of every unclean. In a world-wide flood that wiped out everything, God was on His throne and He kept Noah and the animals and brought them all to safety. He hid them in the safety of the Ark during the worst storm and flood the world has ever experienced. He stopped the flood for Noah, and He will stop the flood for you. He is enthroned over the flood of sickness; He is enthroned over the flood of financial trouble; He is enthroned over every circumstance you face; He will not allow you to drown. He is Lord over it all. He is the King forever!

“May the Lord give strength to his people! May the Lord bless his people with peace!” (v. 11).

Do you feel weak? Weak in the face of the trial; weak in the face of sickness or financial trouble? Do you feel week standing in faith when it is all you have done…for what seems like forever? He will give strength to His people. The strength and authority that is in His voice He freely gives to His people. You have strength to stand. You have authority over the flood of trials that you face. He will bless you with peace. Though the power of God can be a terrifying storm for those who rebel against the Lord, God’s people can be confident and sure that His peace belongs to His children. Be confident that He will bless you and know that His strength comes to comfort you; the destructive storm is relegated for the enemy of your soul. 

 

To read all the Psalms in this series click here: Psalms To See Me Through

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God Was In Christ: The Doctrine Of The Incarnation V

I wrote to you in an earlier post that Christ did not begin to exist at His birth in Bethlehem. He has always existed; the Godhead Trinity are co-equal, co-eternal, one in essence, nature, power, action, and will; all uncreated, and all three are eternal without beginning. Jesus Himself told the Jews that “…Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am” {Jn. 8:58 NASB}, and He said in John 6:62, “What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before?” (NASB). Not only does Scripture affirm the pre-existence of Christ, but the earliest leaders of the church, from the Patristics to the Reformers, concluded that Scripture taught that Christ eternally existed with the Father (One of the greatest works being St. Athanasius’ On The Incarnation). His pre-existence is revealed throughout the Old and New Testaments, the prophets, and by Jesus Himself, which I will discuss all in later posts. Christ’s divine nature is the very same nature as the Father and the Holy Spirit. Christ, according to His divine nature is immutable, impassible, and neither lessened nor weakened by the incarnation.[1]

The pre-existence of Christ is essential to the Incarnation. If Christ pre-existed eternally with the Father, He was God. If He did not pre-exist, He could not have been God. If He is God, He is to be worshiped as God, and the attributes of God should be ascribed to Him. The complete teaching of Scripture about Jesus Christ is that He was fully human and fully divine. “Although the Word does not explicitly occur in Scripture, the church has used the term Incarnation to refer to the fact that Jesus was God in human flesh. The Incarnation was the act of God the Son whereby he took to himself a human nature.”[2] Scripture implies and assumes that Jesus was God. The nature of Christ’s pre-existence deals with the nature of His deity. If Jesus’ birth was His beginning, He was not God, and it negates any idea that He is the Word in the flesh. He simply could not be God incarnate if He did not pre-exist eternally with the Father. “The world was from the beginning, but the Word was in the beginning. The Word had a being before the world had a beginning. He that was in the beginning never began, and therefore was.”[3]

Another aspect of the nature of His pre-existence is that He is the Second Person of the Trinity. The implications of this are imperative to His pre-existence. Christ was not only human, but He also claimed to be equal with God; sharing the very same essence of the Father. Jesus prayed in John 17:5, “Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” This is a clear statement by Christ that He existed before the world. This means Jesus existed before His birth and was as God in nature and attributes.

 

There are several key events in Scripture that speak to the eternal Second Person of the Trinity. It is these events that solidify His pre-existence. We will examine these events in the next post with the appearances of Christ in the Old Testament.

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[1] Timothy Pawl, In Defense Of Conciliar Christology: A Philosophical Essay (Oxford: Oxford University Press., 2016), 16.

[2] Grudem, 543. 

[3] Leslie Church, ed., Matthew Henry’s Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1960), 1506.

 

Merry Christmas!

 

“For a Child will be born to us, a Son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace” {Is. 9:6 NASB}.

God Was In Christ: An Advent Reading Of Luke 24

 Day 24 Luke Chapter 24

We made it through all twenty-four chapters! Thank you for walking through Luke’s wonderful Gospel with me. I pray that these little devotions blessed you and helped to make your Advent season one of reflection and dedication to the Lord Jesus Christ.

“They said to one another, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?’” (v. 32 NASB).

 This is one of my favorite passages in all of Scripture. I pray this prayer every day: May my heart burn within me as you open the Scriptures to me. If I had a time machine, the road to Emmaus would be my first choice so that I could eavesdrop on the Lord’s conversation with these two disciples. 

This account is the first of three post-resurrection appearances Christ made in the New Testament. Two men are walking to Emmaus just a few days after the crucifixion of the Lord. Jesus came upon them, though they did not recognize Him through their sorrow. He came to comfort them in their grief. I love the rendering of the KJV, NKJV, and the ESV, which says that Jesus drew near to them.

Together, these three men walked, and they listened as He encouraged them that what the women reported was true. Yet another glimmer of hope that the injustice from just a few short days before could be made right. Jesus opened their spiritual eyes so they could understand all that the Scripture spoke about Christ—His sufferings, death, and resurrection. He began with the Old Testament—Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms. He was exactly who He claimed to be—the Christ, the Son of God, the promised Redeemer. No one was more worthy or qualified to explain the Scripture to them than the Prince of Peace—the very Word. His words were so full of power and life that their hearts burned within them; they were like a burning fire in them like many others who came before them who heard with joy the Words of the Lord:

My heart was hot within me, While I was musing the fire burned {Ps. 39:3 NASB}. 

“But if I say, ‘I will not remember Him Or speak anymore in His name,’ Then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire Shut up in my bones; And I am weary of holding it in, And I cannot endure it’” {Jer. 20:9 NASB}.

They tasted what John the Baptist declared about Jesus, that He would baptize with fire.

I cannot escape the language of drawing near. For that is just what God did in sending His Son. He drew near to us because we could not draw near to Him. He came to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. There was no way for us to draw close to Him because of our sin. But the Lord of Glory drew near and communed so that He could have a relationship with His fallen human creation. Jesus walked the road to Emmaus, and at their bidding, He broke bread with them. As soon as He blessed the bread and ate with them, their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him! He vanished before them, but they were witnesses to the Eleven that what the women proclaimed—that Jesus was indeed resurrected—and their hope was revived! 

In the quiet, cold night, Christ crept into the world unnoticed, except for a few lowly shepherds. While the world slept, the long-awaited promise—the Redeemer, Deliverer, and King of Glory drew near to the world that He loved so much, in a humble stable that holy night. 

He did for us what we could not do for ourselves; we now have the privilege of drawing near to Him:

“Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” {Heb. 10:22 NASB}.

 “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you” {Jam. 4:8 NASB}

 

 

 

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