Hear His Voice in the Thunder

0:00 Let me pray as we come to the Lord now in this sermon. So Father in heaven, we want to hear from you this morning. We don't need to hear from some guy from Minnesota, some mere human voice. We need to hear from you in your word. And so would you be pleased by the power of your spirit as we have sung to be among us. Open our eyes. Warm our hearts. And I pray that you would raise in our souls the expectation and the anticipation and the perspective that we would have on the power of your voice as we've heard from Psalm 29. So meet us now in Jesus' name. Amen.

0:52 I wonder when you hear that phrase, the voice, what comes to your mind? Some of it might be a nickname. I mean, a lot of singers who were called the voice because they were so spectacular. So Whitney Houston, somebody may think of Whitney Houston. I think of Steve Perry from Journey. others might think of frank sinatra maybe an older generation i don't know if anybody here we're so far from the south probably nobody here thought of sandy patty anyone ever heard the name sandy patty okay all right in nashville they'd know the name sandy patty these are various artists among others who were called the voice but i bet the more of you when you heard the phrase the voice thought of a reality TV show than probably a particular singer. Some of you may know this started off as The Voice of Holland in the Netherlands in 2010. That's a while ago now.

1:58 And it was so popular, so well done. I think it was seven or eight months later, The Voice debuted in the United States, and it's now been through 28 seasons. And I would guess that many have seen a clip or a little bit of the voice, if not way too much of the voice. But memorable as these voices are, my hope for us this morning, as we turn to Psalm 29, is that we would encounter the voice that makes Whitney Houston and Steve Perry and Blake Shelton and Snoop Dogg seem tiny and trivial. my prayer this morning is that you might hear the voice of God in a fresh and deeper way and I understand there's a focus this year at table rock on moving forward being in God's word daily to build some habits of living on the lifeline of his word for the strength for the peace of your soul. And I hope that Psalm 29, the reason I picked it, is I hope that God would be pleased to help us tremble at his word, that we'd be newly amazed at the access that we have to his thunderous voice. In Isaiah chapter 66 verse 2, God says, Thus saith the Lord, this is the one to whom I will look, he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.

3:42 That's not just enemies trembling. That's his friends, those who are safe with him, who marvel, who are in awe, who tremble with a joy at his voice. and that's what I want to pray that God would be pleased to do. I want to tremble with fear and great joy at the voice of God, and I want you to join me. And perhaps as we read Psalm 29, you heard that the voice of the Lord refrain. That comes over and over again, seven times, that dominates the heart of Psalm 29. And the picture in verses three to nine is just a tiny glimpse of God's power and his glory. It's a great storm that's rising over the Mediterranean Sea, and it comes east over the land of Israel. It begins in the north. That's the mention of Lebanon. That's north of Israel. It comes from the Mediterranean. It's coming east, goes over Israel and Lebanon, sweeps down across the ground, moves south, then mentions Kadesh, which is in the south. Apparently, this is still true today. I'm trying to look this up.

4:56 Which direction do thunderstorms move in Israel? Still true today. They typically come from the sea and they move, this way for you guys, move east, come north, often go north to south, and they go west to east as they come across Israel. I want you to know up front here where we're going in Psalm 29 as we seek to freshly appreciate the gift that we have in the voice of the Lord. We're first going to look at the power of his voice. That's the middle section. That's verses three to nine. The heart and the main part of the Psalm, the power of his voice. Second, we're going to see the praise of his friends in response to his voice. And there's a call to worship in verses 1 and 2. And then there's the praise of his friends in verse 9. And so if we're going with number 2, the praise of his friends.

5:50 And then we're going to finish with the strength and the peace of his people. That's verses 11 and 12. And that includes us. And we're going to get to how we might have that strength and that peace from his voice. So for my friend Andrew, I've got a three-part outline, all starts with the letter P.

6:17 Power, praise, and peace. That's where we're going in the next few minutes. The power, the praise, and the peace. So number one, see the power of God's voice. this reality of thunder has long been likened to God's voice because it echoes from above comes down almost sounds like God's speaking this happens in John chapter 12 there is Jesus hears his father's voice as he goes to the cross and other people want did it thunder did it thunder thunder sounds like God's speaking above and it comes down this this loud noise in the sky. An important observation for us in terms of where we're going here. I already revealed my hand about accessing God's word. We're headed there. This voice of the Lord is not disconnected or separate from the Lord himself. This is one of the most important realities in Psalm 29. So verses 5, verses 6, verses 8 show us that what the voice of God does, God himself does. And what God does, he does through his voice. You don't separate the two, like here's his voice, here's his word over here, and that's one thing, and here's God, but these are together. A righteous person speaks, and without lying, they speak what's coming from the inside. The words of a righteous person are that person spoken, and all the more with our God, who never lies. So verses five and six, the voice of the Lord breaks the cedars. The Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon. So the voice does it. God does it. He Listen to his voice.

8:11 He makes Lebanon in the north to skip like a calf. And maybe you can connect with that image if a thunderstorm has broken over you at a point. You're outside. I had an experience like this last June at my daughter's softball game. There's no thunderstorm on the radar. Nobody's expecting it. Nobody in the Twin Cities called it. We're out playing softball. and all of a sudden the heavens opened with a downpour. And the umpire did not step out and call the game. Like no human called it. He didn't say, all right, now you can go. We'll pause the game, go to your cars. The rain came and everyone ran. They skipped like a calf to their automobiles off to the side. This is the picture.

9:03 The thunderstorm comes. The animals who are outside, humans who are outside, they're gone. They're skipping like a calf because here comes this threat from above. And verses 5 and 6 says, the voice of the Lord does this. And it says, the Lord does this. That's how he does it, by his voice. Verse 8, the voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness. The Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh in the south. So God does it. And how does he do it? He just says it and it happens.

9:44 I mean, this is such a display of power. It is one thing to display your power with muscles and weapons and bombs and drones. Those forceful displays of power do show real power. and when you just say a word and it happens like peace be still and the storm goes flat it's an even greater display of power than the flexing of muscle this phrase in verse 5 the cedars of lebanon if that caught your attention there in verse 5 What are these cedars of Lebanon? Well, literally, the cedars in Lebanon. Lebanon, north of Israel, is known for its great cedars, the greatest trees in the ancient world.

10:40 But not only that, because they're known for being great, they also became an emblem of human greatness and pride. So those who were great among humans, who were lifted up tall among humans, were known as cedars of Lebanon. And so when preaching Psalm 29, the great Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon, who I love, and I know your pastors love, and many of you love Charles Spurgeon, he said that the voice of the Lord has dominion over the most inaccessible mortals. When the Lord sends the word, it breaks hearts far stouter than cedars. breaks stout hearts in Iran, in the United States, in Russia. May God be pleased to do it in our day.

11:39 There is no heart, no heart in Boise or anywhere beyond the power of God's word. however hard that heart is however high up that heart is the thunderstorm is not the extent of his power but it is just a flick of his pinky we might also hear in verse 5 a warning to all of those who are entrusted with worldly power whether that's in politics in your job in your community where that would be the puritan preacher named david dixon saw in this mention of the cedars of lebanon a warning to all those who are entrusted with earthly power here's what he said of all men and he's talking specifically about government officials, of all men, government officials should be the most careful to glorify God, and yet it is most rare to see them humble themselves before him. This is an observation from 300 years ago. It's a timeless human truth.

12:50 and then he gives the reason he says for natural corruption is as strong in them as in others that's true of all of us natural corruption all right and it's as strong in leaders as all of us and he says their education breeds them to high and stately thoughts of themselves and their riches and power puff them up and flatterers ordinarily following them make them forget themselves and God also.

13:27 So not only a sinful nature, but education, riches, power, flatterers all dispose the cedars of our world to be arrogant. conceited. And get this, this is the point of Psalm 29. No heart is too hard for the voice of the Lord, the all-powerful word of God. All he needs to do is speak, and they will be humbled. And so, Father, humble cedars in Boise and in Minnesota and in our world. So the power of God's voice is the power of God himself. And the power of his voice, one little word, can shatter the tallest and the strongest in nature and in humanity.

14:30 What about this strange mention of giving birth in verse 9? I don't know if you've got an ESV there. It says, the voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth. Like, well, that's surprising. I wasn't expecting the thunderstorm and the trees are being blown up by lightning and shattering. And now we've got a deer giving birth.

14:56 Depending on your translation, you may have a note about a marginal reading. So the ESV says, revocalization yields, makes the oaks to shake. And the NIV says, twists the oaks. Some of you may know that the ancient Hebrew, it's just a consonant, and they're all run together. And so you see the consonants, you provide the vowels, so to speak, they're not pointed with the vowels. And so another way to revocalize, to point these consonants would be, makes the oaks to shake. So I see in some sense that makes more sense. And often we like to challenge ourselves with the harder reading, makes the deer give birth. Whichever way it is, I don't think it matters in the end because the point is the same. The point is the greatness of his voice. His voice can make oak shake. His voice can make deer give birth. He covers it all, great and small.

15:49 That's the point here in Psalm 29. So verses three to nine, celebrate in the thunderstorm God's greatness, his power, his majesty that is tied to his voice, his word, which leads into number two. Hear the praise of his friends.

16:12 This is a much shorter point here. Hear the praise of his friends. So I said verses 3 to 9 is the heart of the psalm. And then the storm rolls in, sweeps across the land with power, and then the climax comes in the last part of verse 9. The storm comes through. In verse 9, in his temple, all cry glory. So, the summit of this psalm is not the destruction of nature in the aftermath of the storm. The point is not to destroy the world and have disorder. The high point is the praise of his friends in the palace of heaven. The trembling awe, the thrill, the fearsome wonder of his angels seeing his power in the storm. And then they respond, glory, if he puts on a show for them.

17:14 Imagine that next time a thunderstorm rolls in over the foothills into Boise. The angels are watching. They're up above. We're down here. We tremble down here. And they're up above watching this display of the power saying, glory. and that praise in verse 9 is in response to a call to worship in verses 1 and 2 so look back to verse 1 and 2 this is how it starts this starts with a call to worship he's telling us at the beginning here's what the storm's doing i'm gonna send the storm and cause my angels to worship so verse 1 ascribe to the lord oh heavenly beings that's the angels ascribe to the lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory to his name. Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. Now, I know that probably nobody in this room used the word ascribe during the course of your work or conversations this week. It's not a typical word. It just means give. It's very simple Hebrew, just give. But ascribe in our English leans in toward giving with words.

18:31 So it does help. It's a good translation, give with words. It means you acknowledge some greatness, and you admire the greatness, and then you say it out loud so other people hear it. So you don't only see it, but you say it. You give with words. Say what it is. You give praise. And so in verses 1 and 2, the angels are called, these heavenly beings, in the palace of heaven to watch the storm and offer their praise. And then the storm rolls in, and then verse 9 comes, all in his temple cry, glory. They don't say, meh. They don't say... Impressive.

19:25 They don't say, glory. They say, glory. What's going on in a heart when somebody doesn't say, meh? When somebody says, glory. What's going on in a heart in that moment?

19:48 Joy is going on in a heart. They are impressed. They're not running and cowering. In the palace of heaven, they are safe, and they are impressed, and they thrill, and in great joy, they say, glory. and he is glorified when his people express delighted wonder in who he is and what he does. Giving God glory or giving him strength, attributing strength to him, doesn't mean that God's people give him glory he doesn't have or strength he doesn't have, but that we see the glory. See the strength, acknowledge it, marvel at it, and then express it with words of praise. That's what's going on in this psalm. So other voices get involved. We heard about the voice of the Lord seven times, and that's calling for the involvement of other voices, the angelic voices. He sends the storm. The storm thunders, and the angel voices return with their voice saying, glory, which leads to a third and final part of the psalm here.

21:02 Number three, enjoy the peace of his people. All right, now we're involved here. So far, storm, angels, and now we come down below the storm, and we want to enjoy the peace of his people. Verses 10 and 11 imply that there's two groups down here, on the ground, under the storm, perceiving God's power. For one group, the thunder and the lightning and the driving rains are a warning of a flood that's coming. There's the word flood here. The only other place this word flood is used is in the Genesis flood, the great flood that wiped out all humanity and judgment except for Noah and his family so this the mention of flood here is a threat of judgment and when the rains start to come when the downpour starts to come the wicked don't know when the downpour is going to stop how long is this downpour going to come it's a little taste of a flood will this be the final flood that sweep some away? Or is this a warning to repent, to turn to the one who controls the flood, be on his side, be in his palace, be with his people? So God's power, his thunder, his storm looms as judgment for his enemies. But then verse 11 brings in another group. That's his people, His friends who receive strength and enjoy peace.

22:42 It's really important. Strength and peace. that's what I want. I want this from our God. I want strength, peace. It's the same massive storm, the same majestic power, but there's panic from his enemies and there is peace in his people. And this mention of strength and peace is what helps move us here in Psalm 29 from his voice in the storm to his voice in Scripture and how we might access and go on receiving the thunder of his voice today and tremble at his word. Notice there that in verse 1, his people give strength to him, attribute strength to him with our words.

23:39 We see strength in him, say it in our words, and so we give strength to God. But then verse 11 says that God gives strength to his people. You see that? Verse 1, verse 11, this exchange of strength. But we don't have strength we give him. He's got strength. We see it and we say it. And then he's got strength that he gives to his people. How would you give someone strength? Someone who's weak. Someone needs help. How would you give them strength? Well, one way is you might give them food. I could strengthen them for some task to have nourishment. You could give them some skill through training. You could give them a tool, some kind of technology that would magnify strength, give them strength.

24:35 But the most common way to give someone strength is what? Let's go. words through your words we talk about encouraging someone how do you encourage someone that can happen without words through a gift but it often happens by saying something and your voice goes into the air and goes into their head through these holes in the side and goes down into their heart and transfers strength to their inner person. It is amazing how words can give strength, how a voice can give strength to the soul. God made our souls like that to receive strength from a voice.

25:33 And Psalm 29, with its refrain about the voice of the Lord and His greatness and His power, ends with His people being strengthened. God's own strength, through His voice, is transferred to His people through His voice in the storm. How does that work? It's people on the ground. Here comes a storm, way bigger than we control. but we know it is from our God. And so as he sweeps through with his power, his thunder, his lightning, his downpour, we see it as the work of his hands and his voice, and we say, wow, our God is big. That's just a little glimpse. Our God is big. He's strong. Not just God, but our God. We're safe in him. And so we can get strength from the storm. And even better, even more reliably, even more clearly, even more powerfully, it happens through encountering his voice in scripture. In Psalm 29 itself, the psalm is meant to convey strength and peace to the people, whether they've witnessed the storm recently or not. The psalm itself conveys strength and peace. And Scripture itself conveys strength and peace to the people of God.

26:57 So let me end here with a few ways to try to make this practical daily. We're making a jump here. We're going from big, in the clouds, thunderstorm, down to your kitchen, your desk, your bedside tomorrow morning, how to hear and respond to the voice of the Lord today. The goal of Psalm 29 and the aim of a daily encounter with God's voice in Scripture is the same. We want to experience fearsome wonder at our God. Stand in awe of the majestic one through his majesty in his words. Enjoy a whole-souled thrill in him. Be enthralled in worship, in his presence.

27:53 Receive his strength. Experience his peace. And when we're talking about enjoying God in his word and listening to him and then speaking back to him in prayer, we're talking about communion with God. Maybe you've heard this language. We talked about it some this weekend at the seminar. Communion with God. Communion means there's two parts, a two-way street. He's speaking to us in his voice, and then we're responding to his voice in our own voice called prayer. We're enjoying the gift of having his ear. Enjoy the gift of his word. Enjoy the gift that he's the kind of God who not only speaks and reveals himself, but also pauses and stoops and says, I want to hear from you too. I've spoken, I've revealed myself.

28:49 What do you think? What would you ask? How can I help? What strength do you need? How can I give peace? So perhaps the best way I could shoot you straight here about a plan to help in your Bible reading for 2026 as we all work on this, a modest step forward to living our lives in earshot of his voice, receiving his peace and strength, is to tell you my little three-part arc. The seminar people already heard this. This is review for the seminar people, and maybe this is new for the others here this morning. So we're going to end with this. Number one, begin with Bible. As you come, as you open his word and seek to hear the glorious thunder of his voice, the place to begin is with the Bible. Open the Bible. Access his voice.

29:43 Come to the book to hear him speak. and the amazing thing is this is not just a book, it's a library. It's 66 books. This thing never gets boring. I'm age 45 and since Andrew and I were in college together with the same college ministry, it's been like 25 plus years now and I can tell you 25 plus years later, I am all the more convinced. This book will never get boring. This library of 66 books will never get boring. It only gets better and better. So with this Bible being a lifelong project, it helps to have a little plan. You guys have talked about this, some kind of plan, not just open random and end up reading the book of Jude every morning, but find a plan that will move you through scripture, whatever that is, at a modest pace. Doesn't have to be the whole Bible in a year. That can be a good thing, but just to take some time and work slowly through the Gospels or the Psalms or wherever you're being led, wherever that plan is, it's good to have a plan. And then we need to find a pace that is appropriate to God's Word, especially in our modern world. We are learning to read so fast with our screens.

31:03 As society accelerates, we feel this subconscious pressure to move. I know I need to, I want to read my Bible and so I'm going to get this done. This is the first to do of the day. Check the box, move on to the rest of boxes to check. I would encourage you, let there be nothing else where you are so intentional to slow down and to receive the glory of his words, to hear the thunder of his voice at the pace that is worthy of his voice.

31:36 If you're reading transient news, yeah, sure, read it quick, move on, don't waste too much time there, Don't let it shape your soul. But if you're hearing the voice of the living God, linger, unhurried. Pray that it would shape you, fill you, form you, warm you.

31:58 People often ask, how long should I have an encounter with God's word? And my answer is not to give a certain number of minutes, but to say, I think it's really helpful if it's long enough to lose track of time so that you're not listening to clock tick. You're not just trying to get it done. You're not mainly thinking about the to-dos. There's enough space, enough margin that you can give your undivided, unhurried, happy attention to God himself who is speaking by his spirit in his word. So begin with Bible. And then, number two, move to meditation.

32:39 This is often the overlooked step. We talk about reading the Bible, read it, done with it, move on. Later in the day, think, I don't even remember what I read. That's probably because you just read, and you read fast, and you've missed this middle step of meditation. Meditation is like a bridge. It's a bridge between receiving God's Word in the Bible and then praying back to Him. There's this bridge called meditation. meditation is where we we slow down and try to take what he's saying in his word down deeper into our soul our minds can work so quick words can go in one ear and out the other but our hearts are slower our hearts need some room to breathe so if we access his word in the book we need to sit with his voice in meditation. This is where reading becomes hearing or listening or connecting or communing with God, enjoying him, feeding on him, nourishing your soul in him. Maybe you find in the passage you read, you find a particular word or phrase or verse that struck you, and you come back and you linger on that.

33:57 You can follow the Bible's order. The Bible works. These sentences work in a certain order. So whatever level you're at, if you're at the book level, the paragraph level, the sentence level, you can work back in order through that word, through that phrase, through that verse. See how God would be leading your soul, your heart as you work through it, as you maybe think of other places you can go. Oh, that sounds like something in Colossians. Let me go check that out and deepen my meditation on this concept by having Scripture interpret Scripture as I linger over this concept. Meditation, in particular, seeks to experience joy in God's Word in the moment. I don't think that that is too bold to pray and to seek. I want to experience joy in you, Father.

34:53 I want to experience joy in you through your word. Would you be pleased by your spirit to stir up joy in my soul as I linger here, as I chew, perhaps for just a few minutes, chew on the nourishment you're providing in your word. Number three, then, polish with prayer. So begin with Bible, move to meditation, polish with prayer. that's responding to his voice with your voice.

35:22 Having first heard his voice in his word, pray in light of his word. Once you've lingered in meditation on a verse or a phrase or a truth, turn it to prayer. Instead of just doing a hard pivot and praying the same list every day, it becomes rote and mere duty. Hear what God has to say in the passage before you that morning and let that be the theme or the background or the suite of your prayers that day for spouse and friends and family and coworkers and unbelievers and Boise and the nations and your church. Take God's leading in his word as what you would respond to in prayer. So my prayer for you this morning is that you might begin to hear the voice of God in a fresher and deeper way as the thunderous voice in his word, and that you would tremble afresh in these days ahead in his book.

36:29 And one missing piece remains as we close. Some of you know what that is. What about the voice of the Lord in his son? the key link between the voice of God in the storm and the voice of God in Scripture is the voice of the Lord in his Son. Key link.

36:58 So let me close with this. I have a Christian recasting of Psalm 29. And this is verses three to nine. This is how a Christian might creatively and faithfully, I hope, hear the voice of the Lord in Psalm 29 in light of his word, who is Jesus. The voice of the Lord was in the beginning, and the voice of the Lord was with God, and the voice of the Lord was God. All things were made through him, and nothing was made without him that has been made. The voice of the Lord spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days, he has spoken to us in his Son, his word, his voice, the voice incarnate. and the voice of the Lord became flesh and dwelt among us, and we've seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

38:05 And the voice of the Lord broke the cedars, broke the prideful in Galilee, and he made the cedars in Jerusalem to scamper like calves and wild oxen. And the voice of the Lord flashed forth at Calvary, And he cried out from the cross, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? For your sake. And then the voice went silent for three days. And then the voice shook the earth again. And his people cried, glory, he is risen indeed. And the voice of the Lord ascended to heaven. And the voice of the Lord sat at his father's right hand in majesty.

39:00 And he poured out his spirit who inspired the voice of his apostles and gave us his voice in scripture. And so now the voice of the Lord thunders every morning. And thunders every moment if we'd only take up the living word by his spirit and hear his voice. the voice that gives strength, the voice that imparts peace to his people. And brothers and sisters, the voice of the Lord will one day return in glory, clothed in a robe dipped in blood. and the name by which he will be called is the word of God or the voice of God.

39:55 And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, pure and white, will follow him on white horses. And so we will always be with him. And we'll see his face and we'll hear his voice. and until then, we cherish his voice in the storm and in nature and all the more in Jesus and in the scriptures. Let's pray. Father in heaven, would you indeed make us among those who tremble with joy at your voice? your voice in the spectacular world around us the way you speak when the earth shakes the way you speak when the skies thunder and light up the way you have spoken climactically in your son who is the word and your voice incarnate and the way you continue to speak by your spirit in the book father make us people of the book make table rock increasingly a people of the book in a special way here in 2026 and in these small mornings and small moments of our lives in the days to come.