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Transcript

How to Read the Psalms Faithfully · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reform thinking. We are.
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We are just thrilled you could pull up a chair and join us for
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this deep dive into the source material today.
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We have a staggering text to look at, and we are going to
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look at it through the specific lens of Reformed theology.
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Keeping the Westminster Confession close at hand.
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The mission for a conversation today is to take a comprehensive
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look at Psalm 29. We are pulling insights from
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Mark D Futado's excellent work Interpreting the Psalms and
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Exegetical Handbook. We want to understand how to
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properly analyze biblical poetry, figure out how to move
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move from strictly exegeting the original text to actual
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exposition, and then apply these immense truths about God's
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sovereignty over creation to your daily life.
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OK, let's unpack this. We are looking at a passage of
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Scripture that that many people gloss over is just a nice,
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quaint poem about a thunderstorm.
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But when you look closely, this text provides A startlingly new
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way to view the world. It is a bold, aggressive
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theological statement about who is actually running the
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universe. It truly is.
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And to grasp the magnitude of that theological statement, we
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have to look at the methodology first.
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Before we draw those massive conclusions about sovereignty
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and creation, we must look at the precise Hebrew structure of
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the text. The architecture of a given
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passage often contains as much meaning as the vocabulary
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itself. When we approach biblical
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poetry, we're not looking at free verse.
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We are not looking at a stream of consciousness where the
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author just wrote down whatever came to mind.
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We're looking at highly structured, meticulously crafted
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literature. Furtado points out that the
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first step in getting oriented to Psalm 29 is recognizing its
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specific mathematical and grammatical symmetry.
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The text is divided into 3 distinct strophies or poetic
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stances. You have verses one through 2,
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verses 3 through 9, and verses 10 through 11.
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OK, I want to pause right there because looking at the math of
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this poem completely changed how I read it.
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When you sit down and actually count the words out in the
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original language, the symmetry is mind blowing.
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The opening section, verses 1 and 2 contains 16 Hebrew words,
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and out of those 16 words, four of them are the divine name
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Yahweh. Then if you skip all the way
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down to the closing section in verses 10 and 11, that section
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also contains precisely 16 Hebrew words, and again, four of
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those words are the divine name Yahweh.
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You have these perfectly matched bookends holding the entire poem
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together. But I have to ask because I
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think you listening might be wondering the same thing.
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Are we sure David did that on purpose, or is that just a
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coincidence of how the language worked out when he wrote it?
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That is a brilliant question to ask, and the answer is an
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emphatic yes. It is entirely on purpose.
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Ancient Hebrew poets were masters of structure.
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They didn't have rhyming words the way we do in English poetry.
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Instead they used structural symmetry, syllable counting,
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acrostics, and precise word counts to convey meaning.
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They constructed their poems like architects construct
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buildings. The 16 word bookends are load
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bearing walls, and the middle section proves this
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intentionality even further. In verses 3 through 9, you have
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a sevenfold repetition of the phrase the voice of the Lord. 7
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is the number representing completion or perfection in the
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Hebrew Bible. By using that phrase seven
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times, the author is mathematically declaring that
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God's voice is absolute, perfect, and completely
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sovereign. We also see grammatical shifts
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happening right alongside the math.
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The opening verses use the imperative mood, giving commands
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to an audience, while the rest of the song shifts into the
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indicative mood, simply stating facts about reality.
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I love that concept of the math acting as lude bearing walls.
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That brings us to another structural point the source
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material brings up. There is a distinct shift in the
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subject of the sentences toward the end, right?
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Yes, the subject shift is a massive clue to the meaning
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throughout that turbulent middle section.
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The grammatical subject of the sentences is the voice of the
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Lord. The voice breaks the Cedars.
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The voice strikes with flashes of lightning.
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The voice shakes the desert. But in verse 10 the subject
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shifts simply to the Lord Yahweh Himself.
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The 16 word bookends create a structural frame around all that
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chaotic storm imagery. In the middle, he gives the poem
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a feeling of divine order surrounding chaotic weather.
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The storm is wild, but it is contained within the structural
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boundaries set by the author, just as the physical storm is
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contained within the boundaries set by God.
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The literary structure mirrors the theological reality.
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Connecting this meticulous structure to the Reformed view
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of the verbal plenary inspiration of Scripture is
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vital here, but I think we need to define our terms for anyone
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listening who might not be familiar with that phrase.
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When we throw around terms like verbal plenary inspiration,
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someone listening might picture God possessing David like a
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zombie and forcing his hand to write 16 words here and 16 words
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there. How do we explain that concept
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accurately without making it sound like mechanical dictation?
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That is a crucial distinction to make.
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Verbal means the very words themselves are inspired, not
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just the general ideas. Plenary means all parts of the
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text are equally inspired. But to your point, it is not
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mechanical dictation. Think of it like this.
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God did not dictate the Psalms the way a boss dictates a letter
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to a secretary where the secretary's personality is
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totally irrelevant. Instead, God superintended the
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process organically. He used David's background as a
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shepherd, his vocabulary, his specific poetic genius, and his
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cultural context. Yet God guided that process so
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thoroughly that the final product, right down to the exact
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mathematical layout of 16 words for Yahweh's and the sevenfold
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repetition, is precisely what God intended to communicate.
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The Westminster Confession articulates this beautifully by
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stating that it pleased the Lord to commit His truth wholly into
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writing. The precision matters because it
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conveys His absolute order over chaos.
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That makes total sense. God uses the human author's
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skills to produce precisely the divine intended result.
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And Speaking of context, we also need to look at where Psalm 29
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sits in the larger book of Psalms.
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We are looking at the single text, but it doesn't exist in a
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vacuum. If you read the Psalm right
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before this Psalm 28, the psalmist is in a state of sheer
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panic. In the 1st 2 verses he is
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begging God not to be silent. He says if you remain silent, I
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will be like those who have gone down to the pit.
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The fear is that God is absent, quiet, distant.
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For the ancient believer, the pit meant death.
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God's silence equaled absolute despair.
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That surrounding context changes everything about how you hear
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Psalm 29. If you read Psalm 29 by itself,
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it is a magnificent poem. But if you read it immediately
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after Psalm 28, it becomes a thunderous, overwhelming answer
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to a desperate plea. The psalmist feared God's
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silence. But in Psalm 29, God is not
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quiet at all. His voice is heard seven times,
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shattering the silence, breaking massive trees, and shaking the
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wilderness. He is answering the cry with
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overwhelming force. And then following this massive
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display, Psalm 30 celebrates God actually answering that cry and
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saving the psalmist from the pit.
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You have a triad, the desperate plea for God to speak, the
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terrifying manifestation of His voice, and the subsequent praise
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for the salvation that His voice brought.
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OK, so with that crazy math and the emotional context in mind,
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let's actually look at the opening lines of the poem
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itself. We have established this
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overarching architecture, but now we have to ask who
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specifically David is summoning to speak in these opening
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verses? The heavenly summons in verses 1
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and 2 is a quatrain A4 line poetic unit calling for a
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specific audience to ascribe glory and strength to the Lord.
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The text says ascribe to the Lord Almighty ones.
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My brain immediately goes to human kings.
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Is David telling earthly kings and rulers to bow down?
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Who is he talking to here? It is a very natural assumption
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to think he is addressing earthly kings, especially since
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David himself was a king. However, the literal Hebrew
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phrase used for this audience is been a Lim, which translates to
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sons of gods. This takes us out of the earthly
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realm entirely. Furtado points us to cross
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references like Psalm 89, verse 6, which uses that identical
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phrase. In that context, it asks who
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among the heavenly beings the bene ellam is like the Lord.
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That cross reference makes it unequivocally clear that these
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are angels in the heavenly court, not human beings on
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earth. David is pulling the curtain
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back on heaven itself. He is giving you a glimpse into
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the unseen spiritual realm, showing the angelic host
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receiving a direct command. That drastically changes the
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scale of the poem. Right from the start, we aren't
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looking at an earthly throne room, we're looking at the
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control room of the universe. And these angels are commanded
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to ascribe 2 specific things to Yahweh, Glory and strength.
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Let's look at that first word, glory.
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What is the original word there? And what kind of glory are we
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talking about? Because glory is one of those
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words we use so often in church that it almost loses its weight.
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The Hebrew word there is cavad, and understanding it restores
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all the weight that word deserves.
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Literally, cavad means heaviness or weightiness.
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It signifies someone's substantial worth.
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What's fascinating here is the dual nature of this specific
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word. It is both visible and royal.
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It is not an abstract, invisible concept that you just feel in
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your heart. Think back to Moses on Mount
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Sinai in Exodus 33. Moses makes a bold request.
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He asked to see God's glory. He wants to see the Cavad, and
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God responds by passing by him in a visible physical
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manifestation, while Moses hides in the cleft of the rock.
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It was a tangible, visible reality.
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And we see that same concept carry over into the New
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Testament, right? It isn't just an Old Testament
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phenomenon. Precisely, the apostle John uses
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the exact same conceptual framework.
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In John chapter one, verse 14, he writes that the Word became
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flesh and made His dwelling among us, and we have seen His
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glory. The incarnation of Jesus Christ
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is the ultimate visible royal glory of God walking on earth.
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The angels in Psalm 29 are being commanded to recognize this
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specific type of visible royal weightiness.
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They're being called to look at the tangible manifestation of
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God's majesty. So they're commanded to ascribe
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this visible heavy glory, and they are also commanded to
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ascribe strength to the Lord. What is the nuance of the
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original word for strength here? The word is outs.
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This specific word signifies a royal might.
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It is not just physical strength like someone who can lift a
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heavy boulder. It is specifically the capacity
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to conquer forces of chaos. If you look at Psalm 74 and 68,
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that word owls is used when God is depicted as the divine king
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who vanquishes the chaotic monsters of the sea and brings
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salvation to his people. It is martial military might.
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Furthermore, the angels are told to worship the Lord in the
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splendor of His Holiness. The Hebrew phrase hydrotic
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kodesh. This points directly to the
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visible splendor the angels are about to witness in the
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impending storm. I think an analogy helps picture
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what is happening here. Think in a Royal Court in the
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ancient world. Imagine all the nobles, the
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dignitaries and the high-ranking officials milling about in the
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throne room. It's noisy.
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People are talking. Suddenly a herald steps forward
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and shouts for absolute silence. He commands everyone to stand at
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rigid attention because the king is about to enter the room.
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But the king isn't wearing his comfortable lounging robes.
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He is wearing his full, heavy military regalia.
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He is armed for battle. The angels in the Psalm are
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being told to brace themselves. They are bracing for a
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spectacular, terrifying display of God's martial might as he
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steps onto the balcony of heaven to command the weather.
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That analogy captures the mood perfectly.
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The tension is palpable. And having said that tense
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heavenly stage, the text rapidly shifts our focus to the earthly
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manifestation of this might we move into the second trophy
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versus 3 through 9. This section describes a
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massive, terrifying cyclonic rainstorm moving from West to
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east during the fall season, and the geography outline here is
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highly specific and deliberate. Let's track the path of this
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storm, because this is where the text gets incredibly vivid.
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Where does this massive weather system start?
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The storm originates out over the mighty waters which is the
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Mediterranean Sea. From there it moves eastward,
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making landfall and crossing the coastal mountains.
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As it crosses it breaks the massive Cedars of Lebanon.
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It then moves further inland over the anti Lebanon mountain
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range, specifically hitting a peak called Syrian which is
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Mount Hermon. The text says the storm hits
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with such concussive force that it makes the mountains skip like
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calves. Finally, the storm blows past
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the mountains and terminates in the desert of Kadesh, which is
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the Syrian step, stripping the forest bare as it dies out.
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The geographic progression is completely vivid.
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You can literally track it on a map.
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But let's look at that starting point, the mighty waters.
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The Hebrew phrase is mayim rabim.
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I know from reading the source material that this is more than
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just a map coordinate. What did the ocean represent to
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the ancient mind? Because today we think of the
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ocean as a place to go on vacation, sit on the beach and
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relax. To the ancient Near Eastern
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mind, the ocean was the absolute opposite of a vacation spot.
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The raging sea was the ultimate symbol of cosmic chaos, untamed
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destruction and death. It was the abyss.
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Look at Psalm 32 or Psalm 93. The mighty waters represent
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forces that threaten to overwhelm a well ordered life.
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They represent the unknown depths that swallow ships and
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end lives. When the text says the God of
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glory thunders over the mighty waters, it is stating that
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Yahweh exercises absolute dominion over the most
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terrifying chaotic elements in the universe.
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The storm starts by subjugating the symbol of ultimate chaos.
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And then it moves over land and hits the Cedars of Lebanon.
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For anyone listening, we need to explain what a cedar of Lebanon
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was to these people. We think of trees as things we
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cut down to make paper or build a deck, but a cedar of Lebanon
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was the skyscraper of the ancient Near East.
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These things grew up to 120 feet tall.
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Their trunks were massive. They were considered the most
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robust, indestructible objects in the natural world.
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Solomon used them to build the temple because they were so
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majestic and firm. So when the text says the voice
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of the Lord breaks the Cedars, and not just breaks them but
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snaps them into pieces, it is saying that the most immovable,
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permanent structures you can potably imagine are like fragile
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toothpicks under the weight of God's voice.
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That is precisely the image. And then it hits the mountains
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themselves. Mount Hermon is massive,
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towering over 9000 feet above sea level, the text says.
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The Thunder and lightning strike with such force that this
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massive geological formation appears to skip like a young
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calf. The sheer terrifying scale of
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this storm cannot be overstated. But wait a second.
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I am looking at a mental map of Israel right now.
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David is the king of Israel. His capital is Jerusalem.
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But this storm, it entirely bypasses Jerusalem.
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It bypasses Israel completely. It originates in the
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Mediterranean, hits Lebanon, hits the Syrian step.
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This is all up north. Why is David writing a hymn
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about whether in another country?
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Here's where it gets really interesting.
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I was reading through the notes on this and David is basically
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writing a theological diss track, isn't he?
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He is targeting a specific rival.
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He absolutely is. The inclusion of that specific
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geography is a brilliant theological strike against
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Canaanite religion. We are looking at an anti Bail
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polemic. The geography David describes
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traces a path right through Phoenicia.
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Phoenicia was the absolute heartland of Bail worship.
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Bail was worshipped primarily as the Storm God, the writer of the
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clouds who supposedly controlled the rain, the lightning and the
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fertility of the land. So David is tracking a massive
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thunderstorm right over the capital city of the God who
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supposedly controls thunderstorms.
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Yes, David traces this storm directly over Bao's home turf.
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The text specifically uses the name Syrian.
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The Deuteronomy chapter 3 verse 9 notes Syrian is the Sidonian
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or Phoenician name from Mount Hermon.
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David is deliberately using their local terminology.
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He is speaking their language. Furthermore, scholars point out
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that the text likely features an intentional alliteration using
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the Hebrew letters Beth, Ian, and Lamed, the letters that
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spell the name Bal. David is taking the poetic
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style, the geographic landmarks, and the imagery of a Canaanite
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hymn, and he is completely repurposing it to mock Bal.
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He's asserting that Yahweh, the God of Israel, is the one who
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actually controls the storm over Phoenicia.
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Baal is a myth. Yahweh is reality.
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So David basically stole Baal's sheet music, crossed out Baal's
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name, and recorded a cover version about Yahweh.
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That is incredible. It is an incredibly bold move.
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The message is undeniable. Yahweh controls the storm, even
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the storms in your territory. It immediately brings to mind
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Elijah's mockery of the prophets of Baal in First Kings chapter
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18 on Mount Carmel. The parallel to Elijah is
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perfect in that narrative. Israel has suffered a massive
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drought. The prophets of Baal, the
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supposed storm God, build an altar and scream for hours.
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They cut themselves. They dance around trying to get
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Baal to send fire and rain. But Baal is totally impotent.
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The text famously says that has no response.
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No one answered. No one paid attention.
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He cannot bring fire, and he certainly cannot bring the rain
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they desperately need to survive.
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Then Elijah steps up, praise his simple prayer to Yahweh, and
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Yahweh instantly sends fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice,
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which is rapidly followed by a massive deluge of rain.
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Psalm 29 is doing poetically what Elijah did historically.
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It is a public humiliation of a false deity.
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And looking at this through a Reformed lens, this completely
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highlights the Westminster Confessions teaching on God's
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absolute Providence. God's dominion extends over all
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creation, even the weather systems hanging over rival
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nations. The Reformed perspective insists
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that there are no rogue molecules in the universe.
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There are no chaotic storms operating outside His sovereign
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decree. If a massive cyclonic storm hits
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the Mediterranean, rolls over Lebanon, snaps the Cedars, and
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dies in the Syrian desert, it is because Yahweh specifically
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ordained its exact path, its duration, and its intensity.
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Ball has no jurisdiction because Ball does not exist.
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Yahweh's jurisdiction is total. That sovereign total decree
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brings us to the aftermath of the storm in the final strophy
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versus 10 and 11. The storm has passed, the winds
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have died down, and the text concludes with glorious
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affirmations about the Lord's reign over all things.
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Verse 10 states the Lord sits enthroned over the flood.
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The Lord is enthroned as king forever.
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The Hebrew word used for flood here is Mabel.
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This is a highly significant vocabulary choice we cannot
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gloss over. Why is that specific word so
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central? Does it refer back to the mighty
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waters from the beginning of the storm?
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It connects to the concept of chaotic waters, but it is far
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more specific. The word Mabel is used elsewhere
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in the entire Hebrew Bible only to describe one event, the Great
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Flood in Genesis chapters 6 through 9.
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It is a technical term for the deluge that wiped out the earth.
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It represents the chaotic, unformed waters of Genesis
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chapter one, verse 2, breaking loose and uncreating the world.
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For the psalmist to say that Yahweh sits enthroned over the
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marble is to prove that God has permanently vanquished the
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primordial forces that threaten a well ordered life.
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The thunderstorm we just witnessed in verses 3 through 9
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is fierce, but it is just a localized, temporary reminder of
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His universal, eternal kingship over all chaos.
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He sits on a throne positioned directly above the most
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destructive force the earth has ever known.
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That brings an incredible sense of stability after the chaos of
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the middle verses. The storm rages, but God is
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seated. He isn't pacing the floors of
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heaven worrying about the weather.
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He is enthroned. And notice the massive shift in
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the audience here. Verses one and two summon the
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angels in heaven to watch the storm and ascribe strength to
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God. But when we get to verse 11, the
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focus snaps directly down to humans living on earth.
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The text says the Lord gives strength to his people.
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The Lord blesses His people with peace.
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The word connection there is beautiful, the exact same word
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for strength. Those that the angels were
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commanded to ascribe to God when they saw the terrifying cedar
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snapping storm is now given directly to God's people.
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God possesses this infinite martial might, but he does not
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hoard it. He dispenses it to His people,
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and the ultimate blessing he grants is Shalom, which is
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translated as peace. Let's unpack Shalom for a
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second, because just like glory, peace is a word we overuse.
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We tend to think of peace as just the absence of conflict,
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like sitting in a quiet room with a cup of coffee.
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But Shalom means so much more than that, doesn't it?
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It means complete well-being, wholeness, prosperity, and human
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flourishing in every dimension physically, relationally, and
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spiritually. You have to think about what
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this meant for an ancient agrarian society.
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They depended entirely on the weather to survive.
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If it didn't rain, their crops died and their children starved.
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The terrifying fall rainstorm described in this Psalm was
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precisely what brought the Shalom of a good harvest.
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The scary, chaotic storm brought the life giving water necessary
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for survival. The instrument of terror was
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also the instrument of blessing. So what does this all mean for
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you? If you were listening to this on
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your commute or while you are working out, How does this
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ancient poem about a storm over Lebanon applied to your life
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today? It means the same omnipotence
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that snaps giant cedar trees like toothpicks.
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The same dominion that rules over the cosmic flood is the
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exact same might graciously handed to you to face your daily
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trials. The strength that commands the
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storm is the strength given to you to endure the diagnosis, the
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financial crisis, the broken relationship, or whatever storm
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you are currently facing. God is not distant from your
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chaos. He is enthroned above it, and He
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is dispensing His strength to you.
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Recognizing that reality requires us to take a deliberate
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step. We have to move from the text to
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life. Reading and exegeting the Hebrew
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text, tracking the math and analyzing the ancient geography
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is only the first step, and we must synthesize this into
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practical exposition. Mark D Futado provides a highly
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useful framework for applying the psalms.
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He breaks it down into what to believe, what to feel, and what
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to do. If we truly grasp Psalm 29, it
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should alter our beliefs, our emotions, and our actions.
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Let's walk through that framework, starting with belief.
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What must we believe based on this text?
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First, what must we believe? We must act as biblical theists,
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not naturalists or materialists. When a massive storm rolls in,
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the naturalist sees only raw data.
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They know the scientific realities, and those realities
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are staggering. A single lightning strike can be
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6 miles long. It burns at 50,000°F, which is
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hotter than the surface of the sun, and it carries anywhere
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from 100 million to 1 billion volts of electricity.
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They know that Thunder is simply a shockwave created by that
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rapidly heated air expanding explosively.
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All of that data is factually accurate.
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The math and the physics are real.
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Yet the biblical worldview states that while these
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scientific mechanisms are happening, this event is
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concurrently the voice of the Lord.
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The mechanism does not negate the maker.
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The physics are simply the tools in the hands of the King.
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That is a massive paradigm shift.
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We have been thoroughly conditioned by modern culture to
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strip the divine out of the physical world.
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If you want to know what the weather is doing, you pull up an
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app on your phone, look at the radar, and you see the green and
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red blobs moving across the screen.
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You think you fully understand what is happening because a
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meteorologist explained that a cold front is hitting a warm
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front. You think I know the science,
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therefore God isn't involved. But a biblical theist looks at
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that exact same radar, acknowledges the cold and warm
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fronts, and sees the sovereign hand of God choreographing those
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fronts. As Paul writes in Romans chapter
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one, verse 20, God's invisible qualities, his eternal might and
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divine nature are clearly seen and understood from what has
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been made. Creation is constantly preaching
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A sermon about the Creator. That is what we are called to
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believe. The world is not a cold, dead
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machine. It is a theater of God's glory.
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That leads directly to the second part of Futado's
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framework, where we call the Feel.
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The text aims to evoke a deep sense of awe.
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Think of the small child sitting in their living room when a
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massive thunderstorm hits. A huge clap of Thunder shakes
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the entire house. The windows rattle, the lights
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flicker. What does the child do?
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They run and grab their parents leg.
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That fear is a natural biological recognition of an
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overwhelming, uncontrollable force.
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Psalm 21 wants us to take that childhood awe, that realization
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of her own smallness, and direct it properly toward the Creator
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of the storm. It isn't just about being scared
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of the noise. It is about reverencing the one
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who makes the noise. It also intends to evoke
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anticipation. Anticipation for what?
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Anticipation for God to show up in the messy, chaotic realities
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of your daily life. Just as the ancient Israelites
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eagerly anticipated the terrifying fall rains because
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they knew those rains would bring life to their crops, we
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should anticipate God working through the chaotic storms of
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our lives to rub out our ultimate good.
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We wait for Him to bring Shalom out of the storm.
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That is a beautiful way to look at the trials we face.
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We believe He is sovereign, we feel awe at His might, and we
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anticipate His goodness. So what is the final step?
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What are we called to do? The action we are called to
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take, the what to do, is to actively worship the Sovereign
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Lord. If we connect this to the bigger
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picture, we see a stark contrast between ancient Baalism and
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modern materialism. In our modern context, you and I
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aren't tempted to carve a statue of bail out of wood and bow down
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to it in our backyard during a thunderstorm.
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That ancient temptation is gone, but we are highly tempted by a
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new idol, materialism. We are tempted to view the storm
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as a purely meteorological event, completely devoid of
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divine orchestration. Both of these errors, baalism
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and materialism, robbed God of His rightful glory.
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Ancient baalism attributed God's glory to a false idol.
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Modern materialism attributes God's glory to blind mechanistic
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chance. We must aggressively reject
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both. We are commanded to look at the
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physical world, recognize the sovereign hand behind it, and
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consciously ascribe the glory back to Yahweh.
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We must speak His praise. Grounding this fully and
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Reformed theology, we know that the ultimate display of God's
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might is not actually found in the weather.
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The thunderstorm is a signpost, but it is not the destination.
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The true display of God's might to conquer chaos is found in the
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person and work of Jesus Christ. If you want to see the force
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that guarantees your Shalom, you don't look at the sky, you look
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at the cross and the empty tomb. Look at Paul's words in
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Ephesians chapter 1, verses 18 through 21.
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He prays that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened to know
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His incomparably great power for us who believe.
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Paul says that might is the exact same mighty strength God
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exerted when He raised Christ from the dead and seated him at
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his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and
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authority. That connection to Christ's work
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is the absolute bedrock of our peace.
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In Reformed theology, we talked about the active and passive
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obedience of Christ. Christ lived a perfect life of
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righteousness. He perfectly obeyed the law that
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we broke. That is his active obedience,
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which is graciously imputed or credited to us.
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Then He died a substitutionary death on the cross.
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He willingly stood in our place, absorbing the chaotic wrath and
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judgment of God that we deserve for our sin.
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That is His passive obedience. And finally He was resurrected
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in total victory over death itself.
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That finished, complete work of Christ is the absolute guarantee
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of the peace mentioned in verse 11 of our Psalm.
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The strong of God's wrath hit Christ on the cross so that we
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can receive the Shalom of God's grace.
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Think about a time you felt incredibly small.
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Maybe you were standing on the edge of a Cliff, looking out at
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a raging massive ocean. Or maybe you were caught outside
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during a violent electrical storm, feeling the wind to try
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to knock you over. The sheer force of nature in
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those moments makes you acutely realize your own fragility.
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You realize you are dust. Frame that feeling not as a mere
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biological fear of nature, but as a proper theological
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recognition of your Creator's dominion.
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Let that feeling of smallness drive you to the cross, where
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the king of the storm, the one who sits and thrown over the
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flood, became a servant to secure your peace.
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The God who breaks the Cedars is the God who is broken for.
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You Wow. To summarize the progression of
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our discussion today, we have travelled quite a distance.
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We started by looking at the precise mathematical structure
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of an ancient Hebrew poem, noting the 16 word symmetry that
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brackets the chaos of the storm. We then listened to a heavenly
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summons pulling back the curtain on the unseen realm where angels
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are commanded to brace themselves for the visible heavy
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glory of God. We tracked A chaotic, terrifying
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cyclonic storm moving for the Mediterranean right over the
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heartland of Phoenicia. Functioning is a brilliant
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theological strike against the false Canaanite God Baal.
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We saw David essentially mock the idol by demonstrating
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Yahweh's absolute jurisdiction over the weather.
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Finally, we arrived at the quiet, unshakable assurance of
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God's sovereign peace given directly to believers on earth,
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guaranteed by the finished work of Christ.
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But before we finish, I want to leave you with a final thought
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to Mull over. We talked extensively about how
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the Benalim, the angels in the heavenly temple, cry glory when
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they witnessed the immense physical might of a thunderstorm
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snapping giant trees. But consider this.
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If physical weather causes the host of heaven to shout in
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absolute awe, what must be their reaction in the heavenly courts
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when they witnessed the quiet, unseen miracle of the human
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heart trusting in God's sovereign Providence during the
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chaotic storms of daily life? If lightning causes them to
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shout, what does a Sinner trusting in grace cause them to
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do? That is a staggering thought to
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dwell on as you go about your week.
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The quiet trust of a believer is a greater miracle than a
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thunderstorm. Thank you so much for joining us
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and letting us share this conversation with you.
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We always appreciate you making time to dig into the text with
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us here on Reformed Thinking. Until next time, keep looking at
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the text and keep looking to the King.