Psalm 29: 1. The Awesome Power of God’s Voice!

1.  God’s Glory Vs Man’s Rebellion - Psalm 29:1-2

Text:  “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I (Christ Jesus) have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!  Behold, (look and pay heed!) your house is left unto you desolate.  For I say unto you, Ye shall not see Me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord.”

                                                                                                         Matthew 23:37-39.

Good morning, God-fearing Christian!  You and I have been blessed with a Godly fear of the One true Lord God Almighty, Jehovah.  We bow down before His Almighty power and offer unto Him sincere worship and heart gratitude and praise.  Our thankfulness knows no limits; our reverence of His Holiness is utter and complete.  Praise God it is so, for the Lord God Jehovah, in Christ Jesus, is the only true meaning of the word AWESOME.  No one, nor anything else - Spiritual or temporal - can truly be described as awesome.  Lord God Almighty our hearts, souls, and minds bow down at the sound of Thy Almighty voice.  Hallelujah!  The Lord God Omnipotent reigns!  Amen.

“Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the Heaven and in the earth is Thine; Thine is the Kingdom, O Lord, and Thou art exalted as Head above all.  Both riches and honour come of Thee, and Thou reignest over all; and in Thine hand is power and might; and in Thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all.  Now therefore, our God, we thank Thee, and praise Thy glorious Name.”  (1 Chronicles 29:11-12)

Natural mankind who are born of woman - since the Fall into sin of our created progenitors, Adam and Eve, in Eden’s Garden - are naturally rebellious against the Lord God Almighty; and will not GIVE Him the authority and the recognition our Lord God Supernaturally possesses.  Sin has blighted the hearts and minds of natural born mankind, so that he/she not only will not, but cannot, receive the things of the Lord God.

“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him/her; neither can he/she know them, because they are Spiritually discerned.”  (1 Corinthians 2:14)

This is the reason why we ‘…must be born again…’, we must be quickened by God the Spirit, and regenerated by His power.  Only then will we ‘give unto the Lord…’ all the worship and honour, and praise and glory, and thankfulness that our Sovereign Lord God commands.  Praise God for His grace to Hell-bound sinners such as we!

“This Psalm is meant to express the glory of God as heard in the pealing thunder.  The verses march to the tune of thunderbolts.  True ministers are sons of thunder and the voice of God in Christ Jesus is full of majesty.  Thus we have God’s works and God’s Word joined together.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 141)

“Whole Psalm:  In this Psalm, the strength of Jehovah is celebrated; and the exemplification of it is evidently taken from a thunderstorm in Lebanon.  From the mountains, the storm sweeps down into the plains.”  (Robert Murray M’Cheyne 1813-1843)

There is nothing to focus the mind of mankind as well as a heavy thunderstorm.  One feels and knows oneself to be, puny and defenceless when compared to the power being manifested during a thunder and lightning storm.  Sizzling flashes of lightning explode across a rain-leaden sky.  Then, moments later, ‘Boom!’ the peal of heavy thunder blasts its way throughout the stratosphere, shaking everything within its sound.

“There is no phenomenon in nature so awful as a thunderstorm.  The Twenty-ninth Psalm derives a sacred vitality and power from the Presence of Jehovah in each successive peal.”  (James Hamilton D.D.1814-1867)

Verse 1.  “Give unto the Lord.  Neither men nor angels can confer anything upon Jehovah, but they should recognize His glory and might.  Natural causes as men call them, are God in action, and we must not ascribe power to them.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 141)

Verse 2.  “Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His Name.  A third time the admonition is given, for men are backward in glorifying God, and especially ‘great men’.  Unbelief and distrust, complaining and murmuring, rob God of His honour.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 141)

Verse 2.  “Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His Name.  Which yet you cannot do, for His Name is above all praise; but you must aim at it.”  (John Trapp 1601-1699)

“Worship the Lord.  Why is the Lord to be worshipped?  Why must He have such high honours?  Verses 1-2.  A sincere Christian aims to glorify God, to exalt God, and to lift up God in the world.  He that sets up the glory of God as his chief end will find that his chief end will by degrees eat out all low and base ends.  Where the glory of God is kept up as a man’s greatest end, there all bye and base ends will be kept at an under.”  (Thomas Brooks 1608-1680)

Thought: Personal holiness exercised, exalts the Lord God Who alone is Holy.

“Thy People” Psalm 28:9

Text:  “He (the great Lord God, I AM) feed His flock like a shepherd; He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.”

                                                                                                                   Isaiah 40:11.

Good morning, well cared for Christian!  The Ritz Hotel service is as nothing to the service our Heavenly Father bestows upon you and me, ‘His people’.  Can we not lift up our hearts and voices in praise and worship of such a Good Shepherd today?  Let me hear it, beloved Christian friend: ‘Hallelujah!  The Lord God Omnipotent reigns!’

“He that spared not His own Son (Jesus Christ) but delivered Him up for us all (all ‘His people’), how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?  Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?  It is God that justifieth (the continuous verb, justifies and continues to justify).”  (Romans 8:32-33)

What is promised in the Old Testament, is fulfilled by Christ Jesus in the New Testament.  David’s Spirit-inspired prayers in Psalm 28 ends with verse nine, a prophetic plea which we find truly fulfilled by Christ Jesus, ‘…the same yesterday, today, and forever…’  Praise His Holy and Faithful Name!  (Hebrews 13:8)

Verse 9.  “Save Thy people.  The angel of the Lord appeared unto Joseph, espoused to Mary, in a dream, and informed Joseph that Mary had conceived a child from God the Holy Ghost - what we theologians refer to as ‘the immaculate conception of Jesus’, ‘the incarnation of Christ’, God taking on a human body and being born of a virgin.  The angel of the Lord prophesied unto Joseph when he said, “And she (Mary) shall bring forth a Son, thou shalt call His Name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins.”  (Matthew 1:21)

Who was Jesus going to save?  Yes!  Jesus was going to save ‘His people’ from their sins.  Not ALL people, but ‘His people’ were going to be saved from sin.  Praise God!

God the Father, in Eternity, before the foundation of the world, Divinely elected (chose) who He was going to save from our sins and whom He would not.  God is God, He does just whatever He desires to do with the Creation He has Created.  Amen.

“But our God is in the Heavens: He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased.”  (Psalm 115:3)

“In Whom (Christ Jesus) we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him Who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will; that we should be to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ.”               (Ephesians 1:11-12)

Those whom God the Father elected to save in Eternity, ’His people’, would in His  time and manner receive faith to believe/trust in the coming Messiah, or the Messiah Who had come; or the Messiah (Jesus Christ) Who has come, lived a Holy life in human form; suffered on a cruel Cross as a Sacrifice for ’His people’s sin; died an infinite death that ’His people’ deserved to die; shed His Holy Blood, to redeem the sins of ’His people’, elected by His Father; and rose again to justify us, ’His people’ in the sight of our Thrice Holy Lord God of wrath against all sin.  Thus, our Lord Jesus Christ totally fulfilled the prophecy the angel of the Lord gave to Joseph - we, ‘His people’ are Eternally saved by Him.  Hallelujah!  What a gracious Lord God we serve!

Jesus said: “All that the Father giveth Me shall come unto Me; and him/her that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.  For I came down from Heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me.  And this is the Father‘s will which hath sent Me, that of all which He hath given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.”  (John 6:37-39) 

Christ Jesus has fulfilled, and will continue to fulfil, the prophecy the angel of the Lord gave to Joseph and to all his Old Testament prophets - “…He shall save His people from their sins.”  (Matthew 1:21)

Verse 9.  “…Bless Thine inheritance; feed them also, and lift them up forever.  Note it is Christ’s ’inheritance’ that is to be blessed, fed, and lifted up!  ’All that the Father giveth Me…’  (John 6:37)  Christ’s Divinely ordained remit is to ’Save Thy people’.

Verse 9.  “Save Thy people, and bless Thine inheritance; feed them also, and lift them up forever.  Some people think they can ignore the Lord God, despise the Lord Jesus Christ; persecute ’His people’, and promote all sorts of false, man-devised ’religions’ without ever incurring the wrath of the One true God, Jehovah.  How dangerous!  How sad!  What a terrible doom awaits such wilfully arrogant souls!

“The Lord is known by the judgment which He executeth; the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands.  The wicked shall be turned into Hell, and all nations that forget God.”  (Psalm 9:16-17)

Well cared for Christians shall suffer persecution, it is a promise from God, because of the wilful evil and disobedience of mankind’s hearts.  (2 Timothy 3:12)  However, we who are ’His people’ have His promise that we will be saved, blessed, feed with convenient food, Spiritual and temporal; and lifted up daily and, in God’s time, forever.  Now, this is a wonderful thought to begin a new Lord’s Day, well cared for Christian.

Thought:   Rejoice, true believer!  God takes care of ‘His people’.  Hallelujah!

‘I Am Helped’ Psalm 28:7-8

Text:  “Fear thou not; for I am with thee; be not dismayed; for I am thy God; I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness.  Behold, all they that are incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded; they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish.”

                                                                                                                   Isaiah 41:10.

          “And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM; and He said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.”

                                                                                                                   Exodus 3:14.

Good morning, trusting Christian!  You and I trust the Lord God Jehovah absolutely, without doubt; in every meaning of the word entirely.  Why?  Because He has first granted us His gift of true faith to do so!  Without His gift of saving, and believing faith, we could not put such a complete and total trust in a Being which we cannot see, feel, or fully imagine.  Saving faith is the gift of a gracious and Sovereign Lord God, without it, we could never ever be saved.  Thank you, Lord God for such a Divine gift with which we can fully trust/believe in Christ Jesus and His full Atonement Sacrifice at the Cross, for Hell-deserving sinners such as we!  Hallelujah!  What a Saviour!

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen…But without faith it impossible to please Him; for he that cometh (comes and continues to come) to God must believe (trust) that He is (that He exists), and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.”  (Hebrews 11:1; 6)

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it (faith) is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast.”  (Ephesians 2:8-9)

David’s sincere prayers for help and encouragement found in the commencing verses of Psalm 28, are fully answered by the time we get to the end verses of this great Psalm.  King David is reminded of the fact that any ‘strength’ he has or needs; any defence (shield) he requires; any uplifting there is to be of his downcast soul - must all be found in the Sovereign Lord God Jehovah, and not in his own puny self.  Thus, by the time we get to verse seven, the Lord God has already both heard and answered David’s prayers and sent him his Divine aid and uplifting.  Wow!  Oh that you and I could always pray such sincere and soul-filled prayers!  (Jeremiah 33:3)

Verse 7.  “The Lord is my strength.  If he have strength added to him, if the burden be doubled, yet his strength be trebled, the burden will not be heavier, but lighter.  If we cannot bear them with our own strength, why may we not bear them with the strength of Jesus Christ!  Can we have the strength of Christ?  Yes: that very strength is made over to us by faith, therefore, is Christ’s strength ours, made over to us.”  (Isaac Ambrose 1592-1674) 

Thus, again, we see that true FAITH is the key to all things Eternal, including Divine strength, and without such true and saving faith, we can never please God; not pleasing God, how could we ever petition Him for His help?  God KNOWS them that are His.

“Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth (knows and continues to Eternally know) them that are His.  And let every one that nameth the Name of Christ depart from iniquity.”  (2 Timothy 2:19)

Verse 7.  “…My heart trusted in Him, and I AM helped.  The same Almighty Lord God, ‘I AM’, Jehovah, that enabled Moses to lead Israel out of Pharaoh’s enslavement, heard and answered David’s prayer in Psalm 28.  Who helped Moses?  I AM.  Who helped king David?  “…I AM helped…”

“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and for ever.”  (Hebrews 13:8)

“For I AM the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”  (Malachi 3:6)

Verse 8.  “The Lord is their strength, and He is the saving strength of His anointed.  Not mine only, but the strength of every believer.  For we are sure there is enough for all and enough for each.”  (Matthew Henry 1662-1714)

God’s Word goes out to each and every one of us who truly believe and trust in Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living Lord God Jehovah; His Word is His bond, and His bond is His promise signed in Blood, the precious Blood of Christ as of a Lamb without spot nor blemish.  Praise His Holy and Victorious Name!  Here is God’s promise to you and me today, dear Christian:

“Fear thou not; for I am with thee; be not dismayed; for I am thy God; I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness.  Behold, all they that are incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded; they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish.”  (Isaiah 41:10)

Thought:  Verse 8.  “…the saving strength of His anointed.”  The Lord must give strength to those of us whom He has personally anointed for Salvation through the Cross of Christ Jesus.  The Lord is not going to save us then leave us to fend for ourselves in a world that hates us with a diabolical passion.  No!  The Lord gives strength to all He saves.  We are secure in the great I AM.  Praise God!

‘Them’ And ‘Us’ Theology Psalm 28:5-6

Text:  “For unto US was the Gospel preached, as well as unto THEM; but the Word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.”

                                                                                                                 Hebrews 4:2.

          “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that (faith) not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man/woman should boast.”

                                                                                                             Ephesians 2:8-9. 

Good morning, Christian theologian!  You were enlightened by God’s grace; you were quickened from Spiritual death to Spiritual life, by God’s grace; you were born again, Spiritually regenerated, by God’s grace; and by God’s Sovereign grace you were redeemed by the precious Blood of Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God.  Hallelujah!

Means of Grace: The means of God’s great and freely given grace to you and I - the method He used to enable us to partake of His Sovereign grace - was His gift of believing FAITH, as our secondary Bible text for this study proclaims: ‘…faith…the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.’  Praise God for such a gift!

Without God’s gift of saving faith, you and I could never have believed and continued to believe; trusted and continue to trust, Christ Jesus and His once-for-all-time Sacrifice for our sins at the Cross of Calvary.  No God-given faith?  No Salvation.  Fact.

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that (faith) not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man/woman should boast.”  (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Definition of Theology:  Many Christians, even Christian Pastors, seem to be very frightened of the concept of ’theology’ - some have even spoken of ’theology’ in a most disparaging manner; almost publicly despising the need to engage in it!  How sad.

“Theology - Greek theos ’God’, and logos, Word; the systematic study of the Being, attributes, purposes, and works of God, and of the world, man, and history in relation to Him.  It is usually referred to as a science, because it should be conducted by the investigation of the objective data of Divine revelation, which has its full expression in the written and incarnate Word - I.e. in the Bible and its Christ-centred message.  Indeed, theology used to be called the queen of the sciences…”  (Dictionary of Theological Terms, by Alan Cairns, page 405)

A simple, working definition of Theology which I use is this: Theology - Theos = God, and ology = knowledge.  Therefore, theology is basically ‘Divinely revealed knowledge of God’.  Without a Divinely revealed knowledge of God, that is, Spiritual knowledge revealed to sinful man by our Holy Lord God, we can never ever be saved; we will in fact never ever even know that we are sinners in need of Salvation!  Theology, therefore, is totally essential, for who shall ever seek to be saved, without first being enlightened that they are lost?  The Bible (KJV) is God’s written revelation of His Eternal Salvation to man; found only in His dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen. With all this clearly in mind, therefore, let us look again at our two-verse Bible reading from Psalm 28:5-6; in these two verses we see clearly that there is a ’THEM’ and an ’US’ theology being taught.

“Because THEY regard not the works of the Lord (they take no interest in God’s Word), nor the operation of His hands (they even detest Creationism!), He shall utterly destroy THEM, and not build THEM up.”  Those designated ’THEM’ are Eternally lost.  They have not been given God’s free gift of saving faith, and cannot be saved.

“For unto US was the Gospel preached, as well as unto THEM; but the Word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” (Hebrews 4:2)

Both groups, the ‘Them’ and the ‘Us’ heard the Gospel preached, but only those with God-given faith profited Eternally from the hearing - ‘Salvation is of the Lord’!  He chooses whom He will grant His gift of faith, and those of us who are given faith, repent from our sins, receive Christ as our Saviour and our Lord, and are Eternally secure in Him.  Wow!  How humbling to think our Holy Lord God did all this for Hell-deserving sinners such as we!  Lord God, we praise and thank you!  Hallelujah!

Verse 6.  “Blessed be the lord, because He hath heard the voice of my supplications.  Our Psalm was prayer up to this point, and now it turns to praise.  They who pray well will soon praise well; prayer and praise are the two lips of the soul; two altars; two of Solomon’s lilies.”  (Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 140)

Verse 6.  “Blessed be the Lord, because He hath heard the voice of MY supplications.  This is a cry to God that only the ‘US’ section, the elect of God, spoken of here in my lesson can make - the Lord will not hear the cry that is not offered in sincere, God-given, faith; and it must be faith placed in God the Son, Christ Jesus.

“If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.”  (Psalm 66:18)

Are YOU praying to the Lord and being heard at His throne constantly?  Then, praise God, for you are included in His election as a ‘sheep’ and not a ‘goat‘; one of the saved ’us’ and not the lost ’them’.  This is an example of ’them and us theology’ as taught by Christ Himself in Matthew 25:31-46 - please take time to check this out!  Bless you.

Thought: Without ‘theology’ - knowledge of God - no man/woman can be saved!