Go with me, if you would, back
to Psalm 29. Psalm 29. I was reading through
the Psalms and came across Psalm 29, which has always been a favorite
psalm of mine to read and to reference. We turn over here
and reference it often. It's such a powerful song. Um, it's a song of devastation. It's a song of annihilation. It's a psalm of absolute conquering
victory. Whenever I read this, I can't
help but read it in an energetic way, an excited way, because
it is such a psalm of absolute power and victory. But as I read through it this
time, one word grabbed my attention and blessed my heart. One word. Look at the very last word of
the Psalm. Peace. Peace. The last line says, the
Lord will bless His people with peace. That is so calming. And it's so restful. It's just so quiet. You know,
those, he leads me by quiet waters, still waters, so quiet. The Lord
will bless his people with peace. Now let's read this Psalm and
really enter into the power of it. And then let's see something
that I pray will be a real blessing to all of us. Verse 1, David
begins by saying, Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty, give unto
the Lord glory and strength. Now who is he talking about when
he says, O ye mighty? The scriptures talk about the
mighty hosts of heaven, mighty angels that excel in strength. It talks about mighty men on
this earth that have influence and authority over other men
and women, mighty armies, mighty nations, but it doesn't really
matter whether something is mighty or not. Doesn't matter whether
something's great or small, because the same thing applies to both
that could say, give unto the Lord. Oh, ye weak. Oh ye frail. It applies to both, it doesn't
matter either way. Let everything and everyone give
glory and strength to the Lord. Not their own, which is what
many think that's saying. Not our own glory and not our
own strength, we don't have any. No soul on earth has any. When
he says give, he's not saying that there's something we need
to actually give to the Lord. What could we give to the Lord?
We don't have anything to give Him. In our hand, no price we
bring. There is nothing that He needs
from anyone. Nothing at all. He doesn't need
anyone to give Him anything. That's great news. He doesn't
need anyone to give him anything. Look with me at Psalm 50. This
is another very powerful Psalm. Psalm 50 verse one says, The
mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken and called the earth from
the rising of the sun and to the going down thereof. Out of
Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined. Our God shall
come and shall not keep silence. A fire shall devour before Him,
and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him. He shall call
to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge
his people. Gather my saints together unto
me, those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice, and the
heavens shall declare his righteousness, for God is judge himself. Hear, O my people, and I will
speak, O Israel, and I will testify against thee. I am God, even
thy God. I will not reprove thee for thy
sacrifices or thy burnt offerings to have been continually before
me. I will take no bullock out of
thy house, nor he goats out of thy fold." Now watch verse 10.
He said, for every beast of the forest is mine. We're going to
sacrifice, you know, an offering to him. Well, he said, every
beast of the forest is mine and the cattle upon a thousand Hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains
and the wild beast of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I
would not tell thee for the world is mine. and the fullness thereof."
There is nothing that anyone can give to him because everything
is already his. It's already his. So back in our text in Psalm
29, when he says, give unto the Lord, he's not saying that there's
something we need to actually give to him. He's saying, we
need to acknowledge that everything is already his. Give unto Him,
that means ascribe unto Him. Acknowledge all credit where
it's due. Verse one, he said, give unto
the Lord, oh ye mighty, give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory
due unto His name. Worship the Lord in the beauty
of holiness. Oh, the glory due unto His name.
What is His name? Savior. That is His name. Call His name Jesus. That means Savior. For He shall
save the glory due to His name. Moses, when he said, show me
your glory, the Lord said, here it is. I'll save. I will save. I will show mercy
and compassion and I'll be gracious in saving my people. David said,
worship the Lord in that. Worship Him in that. Worship
Him for His glory. Worship Him for His strength.
Worship Him for His holiness. And then he went on to say, here
it is. You can hear all of it in his voice. He doesn't even
need to display the work of his hands. His power and his glory
and his strength and his holiness is so great. All he has to do
is utter his voice. That's all He has to do. Verse
3 says, the voice of the Lord is upon the waters of all kinds,
the seas, the storms. Verse 3 goes on to say, the God
of glory thundereth. The Lord is upon many waters. Many means great, great waters. I was watching TV, watching a
TV show a long time ago, and it was about these very deep
sea fishermen. I mean, they were out there.
They were way, way out into the ocean. And in the process of
this show, while they were filming, a storm rolled in. And these
men were on a huge ship. This was not a tiny boat. I mean,
they were on a huge ship and this storm came in and this storm
overshadowed this ship so much. It was just so small compared
to these waves. They were just crashing over
the top of the ship and the crew and the gear, everything was
just getting slung around like a rag doll. One man, after he was washed
up against the sidewall of the ship, he stood up and he got
right in the camera and he said, you don't believe in God, come
out here. Psalm 107 says, all God has to
do is give the command. And He raises the wind, which
lifts the waves up thereof." He's the one that does that.
And He does it with His voice. All He has to do is give the
command. Verse four says, the voice of
the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full
of majesty. The voice of the Lord breaketh
the cedars. Yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars
of Lebanon. What man is so proud of. All you have to do is say the
cedars of Lebanon and everybody thinks now, buddy, those are
trees. You want to see trees? Those are trees. Those are something
to look at. Those are something to be proud
of. The voice of the Lord snaps them like toothpicks. All he
has to do is say the word. Verse six says, he maketh them
also to skip like a calf, Lebanon and Syrian, like a young unicorn. That means get leap. Verse seven says the voice of
the Lord divided the flames of fire. That's a reference to lightning
cracking through the sky. The Lord said to Job one time,
he said, can you command? And the lightning says, here
we are. He said, can you do that? Everything, every element is
under the command of the voice of the Lord. Everything. Verse eight says the voice of
the Lord shaketh the wilderness in earthquakes The Lord shaketh the wilderness
of Kadesh. He's the one doing that. That's
the voice of the Lord. Verse nine says the voice of
the Lord maketh the hinds to calve. A hind is a doe, a female
deer. The voice of the Lord makes the
hinds to calve. It says, The voice of the Lord
discovereth the forest. That means it makes all the trees
drop their leaves and everything is exposed. You can see right
through it. Verse nine goes on to say, and
in his temple doth everyone speak of his glory at the voice of
the Lord. When he speaks, not me, and not
any other man, but when He speaks at the hearing of His Word, at
the hearing of His voice in His Word, all of His subjects worship
Him. When He utters His voice to them,
all of His subjects Everyone in His temple speaks of His glory. They all worship Him. Verse 10
says, The Lord sitteth upon the flood of all things, all people,
everything. It goes on to say, Yea, the Lord
sitteth king forever. King. Oh, the power. and the majesty and the greatness. Doesn't that make you want to
give glory unto His name? Well, this will too. This great
and glorious and majestic God, the Lord our God, verse 11 says,
the Lord will give strength unto His people. The Lord will bless
His people with peace. Now, this is what I had the privilege
of entering into. That last word is such a contrast
to all the other words in the Psalm. If you think about all
the words in this Psalm, it is such a contrast to every other
word that's in the Psalm. But it's because of all the other
words in the Psalm that that last word can truly exist. Now I'm gonna repeat that because
this is what really got a hold of me. The last word is an absolute
contrast to every other word in the Psalm. But it's only because
of every other word in the Psalm that that last word will stand
true and stand firm. And you can count on it. Absolutely
count on it. Peace has come to God's people
because of His power. He made peace for His people. And He did that because He had
the ability to make peace for His people. He had the authority
to make peace for His people. He demanded it. He accomplished
it and He will ensure that it remains with His people forever. The comfort of our peace is in
the authority of his power to create and to demand and to sustain
peace. Here's how things go in the world.
When you talk about nations and wars and rumors of wars, what
will determine whether or not you're at war or peace is whoever
holds the most power, whatever they say we're at. If whoever's holding the power
says, we're gonna have peace, then there will be peace. But
if whoever's holding the power says, I'm going to war with all
of you, then we're at war. The only way that there can be
peace is if the one who holds the most power says, there will
be peace. And because he holds all the
power, all the power. Verse 11 says, the Lord will
bless His people with peace. Now, the Lord's people desire
peace in every way. They desire peace without, they
desire peace within, they desire peace with each other. But above
every peace that there is, The one that they know they have
to have is peace with the holy God that they've sinned against.
We want peace in every way, shape, and form, but the one that we
must have is peace with this holy God that we've sinned against.
And for all of God's people, Christ is that peace. He is that peace. He is the blessing
that is given to God's people that brings peace to them. He
is also the strength that they're given. Verse 11 says, the Lord
will give strength unto his people. The Lord will bless his people
with peace. Christ is that strength. Christ
is that peace. Look with me at Psalm 18. Psalm 18, verse one, it says,
I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock
and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my strength, in whom
I will trust, my buckler and the horn of my salvation. and
my high tower. Oh, Lord, my strength. Look at Psalm 27. Psalm 27, verse one, it says,
the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is
the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? The
Lord is the strength. Oh Lord, my strength. The Lord
is the strength. Psalm 28 verse seven says, the
Lord is my strength and my shield. My heart trusted in him and I
am helped. Therefore, my heart greatly rejoiceth
and with my song will I praise him. The Lord is their strength
and he is the saving strength of his anointed. Save thy people
and bless thine inheritance. Feed them also and lift them
up forever because our God is so able to give it. Strength
will be given to all of God's people. And that strength is
Christ himself. And peace, turn with me over
to Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2 verse 13, it says, But now in Christ Jesus, ye who
sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ,
for he is our peace, who hath made both one and hath broken
down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished
in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained
in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one new man,
so making peace. That's how he did it. And that
he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross,
having slain the enmity thereby. and came and preached peace to
you which were afar off and to them that were nigh, for through
him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father." He is
our peace. He made our peace in his own
body on the cross. He slayed all the sin, put away
all the enmity, that's enemies, And then He came to us and He
blessed us by preaching peace to us through the blood of His
own sacrifice. Romans 5 verse 1 says, therefore,
being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ. And He brought that peace to
us and He brings that peace to all of His people with and through
that same authority and power that Psalm 29 is telling us about. He brings it with the same power
and the same authority that Psalm 29 is talking about. It all comes
to God's people through the voice of the Lord. And may He speak to us. May He
speak to us. I just, the voice of the Lord
is so powerful. Peter, James, John, Andrew, all
the apostles, all right, those rough fishermen, those cussing
sailors, He walked by them and said, follow me. They left it all. Can you imagine
leaving your big boat on the beach? Maybe a net, but a boat. They followed him. He walked
by Matthew. Matthew was a publican. That
means a man involved in the mafia. He was sitting at a table full
of money, and he said, Matthew, follow me. He left all the money and followed
Christ. He, Saul of Tarsus was on his
way to Damascus. He was going there to kill, imprison,
do anything he could do to God's people. The voice of the Lord
said, Saul, Saul, what would you have me to do? The voice of the Lord is full
of power. The voice of the Lord does not
beg anybody for help. The voice of the Lord does not
ask anybody to do anything for Him. The voice of the Lord is
full of majesty and power. The voice of the Lord, when He
was in that ship that day, said to the wind and the waves, peace
be still and There was a great calm. Had it slowly died down,
those men would have thought, well, the storm went away. But
it went from, we're professional sailors knowing we're about to
die. Carest thou not that we perish?
This is it, we're dying. Peace be still. The voice of the Lord is so full
of majesty. so full of power. And that power and that command
from that voice, that is what brings us so much peace. That
is, He is our peace. That is what brings us so much
peace. The Lord came to us, those of
us who believe, the Lord came to us and thundered to our hearts. The voice of the Lord thunders. The voice of the Lord shakes
the wilderness and he shook us. The voice of the Lord broke this
cedar of Lebanon in my own mind, like a toothpick. broke all my
pride and broke all my self-righteousness and broke all my arrogance. The
voice of the Lord struck fear in every single one of us and
caused every single one of us to deny ourselves and speak of
His glory. He did it to every single one
of us. The King seated on His throne forever. And when He did
that to us and did that in us, God in that moment blessed us
with peace, absolute peace. When He revealed Christ to us
in all of His glory, He blessed us with peace Himself, Christ
Himself. The power and the authority and
the ability of Christ our King, that's what blesses all of God's
people, with peace. Just knowing that that authority,
His authority and His power demanded peace, accomplished peace, and
will forever ensure that peace. With that, our text said in verse
11, the Lord will give strength unto his people. The Lord will
bless his people with peace. All right, I pray he will. Let's
all stand together.