8. The Voice of the Lord Gives Strength!

Text:  “The Lord will give strength unto His people; the Lord will bless His people with peace.”       

Psalm 29:11.

          “The Lord thundered from Heaven, and the Most High uttered His voice.  And He sent out arrows (lightning?) and scattered them; lightning, and discomfited them…He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them that hated me; for they were too strong for me…He brought me forth also into a large place; He delivered me, because He delighted in me.”                                                           2 Samuel 22:14-20.

Good morning, Divinely strengthened Christian!  Were it not for the Lord’s Divine help and the impartation of His Divine strength - you and I, as sincere regenerate Christians, would have been utterly consumed and destroyed by our enemies long before now.  Praise God for His Divinely imparted help and strength!

Verse 11.  “The Lord will give strength unto His people.  Note that our Bible verse does NOT teach us that the Lord will give strength unto ALL people - but only unto ‘His people’!  The Lord Jesus Christ was not sent into this sinful world to save ALL people, only ‘His people’ from our sins.  Check it out, Christian friend, learn this lesson well.  If we are NOT ‘His people’, then we will never receive His Salvation, ever!

“And she (Mary) shall bring forth a Son, and thou (Joseph) shalt call His Name Jesus: for He shall save ‘HIS PEOPLE’ from their sins.”  (Matthew 1:21)

“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 him/her up again at the last day.  And this is the will of Him that sent Me, that of every one which seeth the Son (with Spiritual sight), and believeth (trusts, and continues to trust) on Him, may have everlasting life; and I will raise him/her up at the last day.”  (John 6:37-40)

Verse 11.  “The Lord will give strength unto His people; the Lord will bless His people with peace.  Power was displayed in the hurricane whose course this Psalm so grandly pictures; in the cool calm after the storm, that power is promised to be the strength of the chosen.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 143)

Verse 11. “The Lord will give strength unto His people; the Lord will bless His people with peace.

“First: The Gospel puts that price into his hand which will assuredly purchase it; it is peace of conscience, because peace of conscience is but a discharge under God’s hand, that the debt due to Divine justice is fully paid.

“Secondly: Every true believer hath peace of conscience in the promise, that we count as good as ready money.  It is worth your reading the whole Psalm to see what weight the Lord gives to this sweet promise.  The Psalm is spent is showing what great things God can do, and that with no more trouble to Himself that a word.  This God that doeth all this promiseth to bless His people with peace.  A sad peace, were it not, to have quiet streets, but cutting of throats in our houses?  Yet infinitely more sad to have peace both in our streets and houses, but war and blood in our guilty consciences.  ‘Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you.’

“Thirdly:  It is called ‘the peaceable fruit of righteousness.’  It shoots as naturally from Holiness as any fruit in its kind doth from the seed proper to it.”  (William Gurnall 1617-1679)

The Voice of the Lord Gives Strength.  Any earthly father knows that his child can begin to be afraid, even of the darkness of his/her own bedroom.  However, once the child’s cry is heard, and the father’s voice of assurance is heard - the child’s fears are abated, and his/her heart is stilled at the sound of the father’s loving voice.

“So then faith cometh (comes, and continues to come) by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.  But I say, Have they not heard?  Yes, verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.”  (Romans 10:17-18)

Spiritually regenerate Christians, those of us born again of God’s Holy Spirit, and washed from our sins in the sinless and precious Blood of Christ the Lamb - received initial faith to believe (trust) in Christ and were graciously saved.  (Ephesians 2:8-9)

From that day forth, we are often faced with dangers, perils, hardships, persecutions - but during those unsettling times, we find our Father’s voice, spoken in His written Word, to be of a great comfort and reassurance.   We are children of God, in Christ.

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them (intimately), and they follow Me; and I give unto them Eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man (including our sin-prone selves!) pluck them out of My hand.  My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand.  I and My Father are ONE.”  (John 10:27-30)  What a blessed assurance!  Praise God.

Thought: Next time you hear thunder and see lightning in the skies - know that your Father in Heaven is speaking peace and encouragement to your soul and to mine.  May Psalm 29: be a real blessing unto you, beloved Christian friend.