Alright, let's open our Bibles
again to Psalm 29. The title of the message this
evening is the voice of the Lord. You probably saw how often the
voice of the Lord was mentioned as we read through this psalm,
and that's why I want us to look at this evening. That's why I
read that passage in 1 Samuel to begin the service. That's been my prayer all week
that the Lord would speak to us, enable us to hear His voice
this evening. All of us, from the oldest to
the youngest, you're never too young that the Lord wouldn't
speak to you. Well, if we'll listen, maybe
He'll speak to us tonight. If He's speaking, we'll hear, won't
we? Whether we think we're planning on listening or not, if He speaks,
we'll hear. Now, David begins describing the voice of the Lord
in verse 3. That's where we're going to begin,
and we'll come back to verses 1 and 2 in just a little bit.
But first, the voice of the Lord is the voice of creation. Verse
3. The voice of the Lord is upon
the waters. The God of glory thundereth. The Lord is upon
many waters. Genesis 1, you know, describes
the earth as being without form and void. Darkness was upon the
face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon
the face of those waters. And God said, let there be light.
And there was light. God spoke and creation appeared
from nothing. What a voice! What a voice! But you know, it's the same voice
that speaks today. It's the same voice of God in
creation that speaks in the hearts of His people and creates new
life, a new nature in His people. It takes the power of the Creator
Himself to give the new birth, to create a new nature in a sinner. 2 Corinthians 4.6, For God who
commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in
our hearts. to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's how we
ever see Christ. That's how we ever believe Him,
is by being born again from divine, creating power. But David says
here, the voice of the Lord is upon many waters, many different
waters, great waters. That word many means great. The
voice of the Lord is upon the deep waters, the deep waters
of trial. It was the voice of the Lord
that brought the trial. And it's going to be the voice of the
Lord that brings an end to it, too. Look at Psalm 144. The voice of the Lord is upon those
deep, deep waters. David says, Psalm 144, verse
7. Send thine hand from above. Rid
me and deliver me out of great water. from the hand of strange
children. That's when the trial is going
to end, is when God speaks and brings it to an end. But now
look over in Isaiah chapter 43. Until then, the Lord speaks,
sends the trial to His children, puts them in those deep waters.
But it's not like they never hear from Him again until He
speaks and brings an end to it. No, they hear from Him in the
midst of those trials. Until the Lord sees fit to bring
that trial to an end, He'll speak to comfort His people in those
deep waters. Isaiah 43, verse 2. When thou
passest through the waters, I will be with thee. And through the
rivers, they shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through
the fire, thou shall not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon you. Because the Lord is with His
people. He'll speak and comfort His people.
Now look at Psalm 56. Here's another place where the
voice of the Lord is upon the waters. The voice of the Lord
is upon the tears that moisten the cheeks of his children. Psalm
56 verse eight. Thou tell us my wanderings, put
thou my tears into thy bottle. Are they not in thy book? The
Jews had a custom, this is what Dave is referring to here, when
someone was crying and they were having a time of sorrow and they
would catch those tears in a bottle to remember this time. And then
later on they would pour them out so there would be no more
sorrow about this situation. For the voice of the Lord is
upon those waters. The Lord remembers the tears
of His people. He's going to remember and He
can come for you. He not only might comfort or
he hopes for comfort, the Lord comforts the hearts of his people.
And one day he's going to pour that bottle out and there'll
be no more tears, no more crying. Now that's the voice of the Lord
upon those waters. You know where you hear the voice
of the Lord upon all those different waters? In the water of His Word. This is how God speaks to His
people. It's through His Word. And you know it's not audibly,
but He speaks to the heart of His people by His Word in a way
that no human being can do. It's the Word that's the seed. It's the seed God uses to give
spiritual life in the hearts of His people in the first place.
And it's His Word that comforts the hearts of His people in time
of trouble. I got an email today from a dear
lady who lives away from here. She's in these deep waters. She
listened to a message preached here and she told me that's my
comfort. In this difficult, difficult
time, that's my comfort. Hearing the word preached, hearing
Christ exalted, that's my comfort. That's the voice of the Lord
upon many great waters. Second, the voice of the Lord,
verse 4, back in our text, Psalm 29, is a powerful voice. The
voice of the Lord is powerful. Now, whenever God speaks, always
speaks in power. He never begs, he never asks,
he never pleads. God always speaks in power. Solomon said where the word of
a king is, there's power. That's why David said in verse
three, the glory of the Lord thundering. Thunder has got the
power to get everybody's attention. Even if we're sleeping, suddenly
we're awake because thunder gets everybody's attention. It shakes
everything. Now, you can hear a lot of preachers
preach. God's servants, every one of
them, are the sons of thunder. But you can sit there in your
flesh and you can hear a lot of preachers. You can hear a
lot of good preachers preach and never hear a thing. It may be
in your head, but never any further than that. But when God speaks,
He speaks to the heart. He speaks in power. And there's
going to be effects because God speaks in power. When God speaks,
the dead live. When God speaks, the deaf, who
never could hear anything, didn't understand what in this world
was going on, didn't understand why everybody loved this gospel
so much, suddenly the deaf hear. Suddenly when God speaks in power,
the lame walk, and they walk following Christ. When God speaks
in power, that proud sinner suddenly becomes willing, willing in the
day of God's power to bow. willing in the day of God's power
to come to Christ because God gives them a new heart and a
new want to. So they want to submit to him.
They want to bow to him. The voice of the Lord is powerful.
Thirdly, the voice of the Lord is a majestic voice. It says
here at the end of verse four, the Lord, the voice of the Lord
is full of majesty. That word majesty means beauty.
It means excellence. glorious glory, not just glory,
but glorious glory and goodly. That's the voice of the Lord.
When God speaks, he speaks to his word. He speaks to his gospel.
That message is beautiful. The message of the gospel, the
message of Christ is majestic. It's full of excellency and glory. When God speaks, he speaks of
good things to the hearts of his people. He speaks of things
of Christ. The gospel speaks of majestic
things. Now, I think about majestic things. I think about mountains. I think
about the Rocky Mountains or the Smoky Mountains. You stand
there on some peak or some distance and you try to look at those
mountains and you just... They're so big. They're so beautiful. They're so wonderful. You can't
see them all at one time. They're just enormous. They're
majestic. That's the gospel. Gospel is
breathtaking because it's majestic. It's too big to see all at one
time. But by God's grace, we can believe these things, can't
we? We believe and love these majestic truths of the gospel. The voice of the Lord is full
of majesty. You know, when God speaks, we
hear the king of kings speak. Now kings talk like kings. Kings act like kings. Kings talk
in majestic language about majestic things. Then any message that
you hear that makes God out to be a beggar, or makes God dependent
upon a man to do something to make God's will happen, that's
a shameful thing. There's no majesty there. That's
not the gospel. It can't be the gospel. Because
everything about Christ, and that's what the gospel is, it's
the message of Christ. Everything about Christ is full
of majesty. beauty and good. The voice of
the Lord is a majestic voice telling us majestic, glorious
things. Then fourthly, verse five, the
voice of the Lord, it's a breaking voice. The voice of the Lord
breaketh the cedars. Yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars
of Lebanon. Now the cedars of Lebanon were
gigantic trees. They were stately, they were
beautiful. Those trees stood the test of
time. I mean, they just didn't get
knocked over by just any wind. I mean, they just stood the test
of time. I would imagine the closest thing we can come to
them are the giant redwood forests that we have. Some of those trees
have been there for hundreds of years. Some of those trees
were standing. They were already there standing
in their majesty when George Washington was inaugurated President
of the United States. I mean, they've been there a
big trees. Well, you know, that is the hard
heart of man. Like those cedars. Men think
they're stately and tall and stout when really they're weak
and ugly, defiled with sin. That's the way God sees them.
Men think they're so strong. They think they can't be moved.
They don't think there's any reason for them to be moved.
There's no reason for them to bow. They're too strong in themselves.
And I tell you what, they're going to stay just that way unless
God speaks in breaking power. And when God speaks that voice
of authority, that voice of power, they're broken. Suddenly they're
broken hearted. They're broken in spirit and
they beg God for mercy. And God's near to them because
they're broken in spirit. He's the one who broke them and
he's near to them. God's going to break. all of
his people. Now we just got to be broken
and usually many times don't we? Before we're willing to serve
the Lord, before we're willing to bow to him, he's got to break
us. And before we're willing to serve
him, he's got to break us. It's just like a cowboy or soldier,
you know, they out there in the old west, they get those wild
horse and they get it in there, the crown, they think, oh, that's
a good horse. They got an eye for horse flesh.
That's a good horse. Well, that horse is going to
carry that soldier anywhere. If that horse isn't used to that
soldier, he's got to break that horse. He's got to break him
so he knows who the master is. He's got to break him so that
soldier can ride him. And when he does, that horse
will carry that soldier anywhere. He'll carry him straight into
the cannon fire because he's broken. He's willing to serve.
And that's what God does for His people. He breaks His people. He's got to break us so we bow.
He's got to break us so He's got to humble us. He's got to
break us so we're willing to serve. But I'll tell you how
else this voice of the Lord is a breaking voice. Voice of the
Lord breaks that yoke of the law off the neck of His people.
That yoke is so heavy and grievous and it's the voice of the Lord
that breaks the yoke of that law. So we don't have to serve
the law anymore. Now we have freedom in Christ.
It's the voice of the Lord that breaks down all of our idols.
They just crumbled His voice. So we worship Him alone. The
voice of the Lord is a breaking voice. Then next, verse 6, comes
the voice of rejoicing. Verse 6. He maketh them also
to skip like a calf, Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn.
At first God breaks His people. Then He makes them rejoice in
Christ. He makes them just leap around like mountain goats in
those meadows. They're just full of joy. What
makes the heart of a believer rejoice more than hearing from
God in his word? When we hear that our righteousness
is nothing but filthy rags, that's humbling and that's that breaking
voice that humbles us. But then we hear Christ, our
righteousness, that we're completely and the believing heart rejoices.
We hear from God's Word that our sin has separated us from
God. That's a breaking voice. That's
a humbling voice. That kills the flesh. But hearing
that the blood of Christ has brought us nigh, brought us nigh
to God so that we can come, not timidly, but boldly, confidently,
before the very throne of God to find grace to help in time
of need. Does that thrill your heart? Does that cause your heart to
rejoice? When we hear from God's Word, in this world, we shall
have tribulation. Here we talked about our brothers
and sisters in tribulation. It's no surprise, is it? We could
open almost every service that way. There's always somebody.
We will have tribulation in this world. And that troubles the
heart of the flesh. But we hear that our Savior's
overcome the world. Don't fear. He said, I've overcome
the world. That brings joy to the believers. Our troubles, our trials of this
life, they are real heartaches. Nobody's glossing over them.
Nobody's saying that they really don't matter. No, they matter.
They matter. They hurt. But Christ speaking to the heart
brings joy, even in the midst of that hurt. And when that happens,
we don't dance around like a fool, just making a show of ourselves
and drawing attention to ourselves. That's not what this is talking
about. We don't throw songbooks and jump around and those kinds
of things. But in the heart, we're skipping and leaping aren't
we? I don't think I could anymore. I've got this heel thing going
on. I can't skip and jump anymore. But in the heart we do. In the
heart we do. We do when we hear from the Lord
through His Word. When we hear His voice. And how
often does this happen to you? This is the voice of rejoicing.
You come in from the world. Especially on a Wednesday night.
You come in, you've got to drag yourself in here. I mean, it's
been a day. You've been up since 4.30. I
mean, it's been a day. You come in here and you think... You mean to tell me I came in
here and the Lord had prepared a word just for me? That's the
voice of rejoicing. You imagine, with everything
that He's ruling and controlling and reigning over in this creation,
Almighty God took time to send a word to my heart right when
I need it. That's the voice of joy. Now sixth, verse seven. The voice
of the Lord is a dividing voice. Verse seven. Voice of the Lord
divided the flames of fire. I want you to look at a couple
of scriptures here on this one. First, Hebrews chapter four. Voice of the Lord is a dividing
voice. And the voice that divides is
his word. It's God always speaking to us
through his word. Hebrews four, verse 12. For the
word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and
of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart. Now the word of the Lord is a
sharp two-edged sword. That means it cuts both ways.
It both kills and it makes alive. One edge kills the flesh, the
other edge gives life to the spirit. Now I know when we look
at ourselves, we can't tell the difference. We say, I say, I
say all of you too, that all of us who believe that there's,
we've been born again. There's two natures in me. There's
that nature of the flesh that's been with me from the time I
was conceived in the womb. And there's that nature of the
spirit that God caused to be born in me. But you know, when
I look at myself, I can't tell the difference between the flesh
and the spirit. Actually, when I look at myself,
I can't say anything but flesh. Can you? I mean, I look at myself.
All I see is flesh. But God can't. God sees. And He puts that sword of the
Word right between the flesh and the spirit to kill the flesh
and give life to the spirit. That's how He divides. Now look
at Matthew chapter 10. Here's another example. The voice
of the Lord being a dividing voice. God has an elect people. You
can't read the scripture and deny that. God has an elect people.
Those people, they're going to hear the gospel and they're going
to believe it. God's going to speak to it, that
that happens. And he does it through the preaching
of his word, by his gospel. The gospel always divides the
sheep and the goats. Always. The gospel always divides
the believer and the unbeliever. Always. Hebrews chapter 10 verse
32. Whosoever therefore shall confess
me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is
in heaven. But whoso shall deny me before men, him will I also
deny before my Father which is in heaven. And I read those verses
so we see this. The issue is Christ, David. Whoever
believes me, confesses me. Whoever doesn't believe me, denies
me. The issue is Christ. The issue
is God and His work of redemption, right? Verse 34. Here's gonna be the reaction
to that message. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth.
I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set
a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against
her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And
a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth
father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he that
loveth son or daughter more than me It's not worthy of me. Now the gospel divides. It divides
those who love the gospel from those who hate it. It divides
those who believe Christ from those who don't believe him.
But now listen to me. I spent some time praying about
this and thinking about this and looking into this. The gospel
divides. But we are not to seek division. We're not to seek division at
all. We're not to seek to cause division. When we have division
with folks, we're not to be proud of ourselves for it. That's not
our concern. The Word of the Lord is what
divides. That's not our business. What we're to do is to seek an
opportunity to preach Christ. Just preach Him so that people
will believe Him. If they do, we'll have unity,
won't we? But we're never to seek unity. at the expense of
the truth of the gospel. We're not, we're just not going
to do that. And if we're going to divide over that, then that's
fine. Our job is to preach the gospel. This is the mission.
This is the commandment God's given us to go preach the gospel.
And it's God who's going to divide the sheep from the goats. He's
going to divide them. It's just going to naturally happen when
the gospel is preached. And when that happens, that dividing
is going to make the sheep, it's not going to divide the sheep.
That dividing is going to make the sheep draw closer together
in love and unity. It's the voice of the Lord that's
the dividing voice. And you know why? This is why
he's dividing. So he can gather his people to
himself. That's why he's just dividing them out from the world
so he can gather his people to himself. His voice is saying,
come follow me and all his people will. And they'll be divided
from this world. Right here is the eighth thing or the seventh
thing, excuse me, verse eight. Psalm 29. The voice of the Lord
is a shaking voice. The voice of the Lord shaketh
the wilderness, the Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh. Now,
I'll tell you, when God speaks, everything is shaken. The voice
of the Lord shakes the wilderness, the wilderness of sin. Remember
when God called Israel to Mount Sinai and there he was on the
mount to give the law. The earth shook, didn't it? It
was a shaking voice. Caused the people to tremble.
And it ought to make people tremble. We hear the law, we ought to
tremble because we can't keep it. We should be shaken by the
law. But then God speaks in the gospel.
And when he speaks in the gospel, everything is shaken again. Every
time God speaks, the wilderness of our hearts is shaken. Everything
we used to believe is shaken to the core. Everything we used
to trust in just crumbles to the dust when God speaks. When God speaks, idols are cast
down. When God speaks, sinners are
cast into the dust before the God of glory because we cannot
stand before Him. His voice is a shaking voice. It just shakes the foundations
out of everything that's not Christ. But now the Lord's not
going to leave His people like that. He keeps on speaking to
them. He keeps speaking to them in
grace, and that's the eighth thing. The voice of the Lord's
a life-giving voice. Verse nine. The voice of the
Lord maketh the hinds to calve, and discovereth the forest, and
in his temple doth everyone speak of his glory. Now the hind is
a female deer, and I don't know a lot about them, but from what
I read about them this week, it's very difficult for them
to give birth. And when they do give birth,
they're always very nervous because they're in a weakened condition.
The fawn is just a little thing, can't even stand up yet. They're
worried about predators and so forth. Just nervous, nervous,
nervous, nervous, nervous. They just almost don't even want
to give birth hardly. They just find a safe, where
can I be safe? But the voice of the Lord speaks. And that
deer gives birth. The fawn is born. Now you think
how wonderful it is that God takes the time to think about
an insignificant deer up there in those hills somewhere. He speaks and they give birth. I mean, God's command. Is there
anything God does not rule over? God rules over everything, even
the deer give him birth. Well, you know, the same thing
is true spiritually. With men, it's not hard for us
to be spiritually born. It's impossible with me. But
in an instant, just in an instant, God speaks through his word and
his children are born again. Now, God takes the time to think
on a maggot like me. And then in mercy and grace,
he moves, he speaks to give eternal life, to make me born again,
make me a partaker of the divine nature. That's the word of the
Lord. That's a voice of the Lord giving
life to His people. And David goes on in this thing
of the voice of the Lord being life-giving. The Lord discovereth
the forest. That word discovereth means strips
bare. In the spring, God gives life to those trees. They all
bud and are green and lush and beautiful. And this is what we're
going to see here in just a few weeks. The Lord strips the trees
bare in the fall of the year. Makes all the leaves fall off.
Well, that's exactly how God gives spiritual life to His people.
He discovers the forest. He discovers His people. He comes
and He's got to strip them bare. He's got to strip us of everything
that we think is clothing us. Whatever it is, whatever our
version is of Adam and Eve's fig leaves, that's what we're
trying to cover our nakedness with. God's got to strip us of
it. Adam and Eve had to take those fig leaves off before they
put on those skins that God prepared for them. He strips His people
before He clothes. He strips us of our goodness,
of our righteousness, of anything we trust in before He clothes
us in the righteousness of His Son. And that happens at the
voice of the Lord, the life-giving voice of the Lord. Now so far,
all we've heard about is the voice of the Lord. For nine verses,
all we've heard about is the voice of the Lord. At the end
of verse 9, we finally hear something about His people speaking. And
when His people speak, what do they say? They speak of the glory
of God. Everything they talk about is
His glory. All they want to talk about is all the glorious things
Christ has done for me, everything He's done in me, everything He's
done for His people. And you know how they do that?
You know how they go tell all these great things that God has
done for me? They just repeat what the voice
of the Lord said from his Word. That's all preaching is. It's
just repeating what God said in his Word. It's the voice of
the Lord. It's not our commentary on the
Word that gives life. Now, we ought to make commentary
on the Word. We're to preach the gospel. We're to make it
plain and open to people. But it's not our commentary on
the Word that gives life. It's the Word that gives life.
God causes it to go forth and give life to his people. In verse
10, the voice of the Lord is a calm voice of authority. Verse 10. The Lord sitteth upon
the flood. Yea, the Lord sitteth king forever. Now the Lord sitteth upon the
flood. Everybody's been, I'm sure, watching
on the news these floods down in Texas. I'm sure we're going
to start seeing on the news floods there in Florida. Nothing's calm
when floodwaters are raging. I mean, there's just nothing
calm about that situation. Except God. He's calm. The Lord sits upon the flood. He's not riding on it like one
of those rafts, you know, they blow up and you shoot the rapids
with. He sits upon the flood. He rules those floodwaters. He
rules where they go. He rules how high they rise,
just exactly like he did the ocean. He told those proud waves,
you come right here, no further. You rise up this high and no
further. And that's exactly where they stay. At his voice. The floodwaters are the same
way. I mean, you know, we think, well, we don't know where the
floodwaters are going. It looks like they're going in these random
directions. No, they're not. They're going right where God
sent them. The wind and the waves still obey His voice, even to
this day. He sits upon the flood. Have
you seen the NASA pictures of this hurricane, Irma, out there
in the Atlantic? My goodness. I saw that thing,
they showed it from above, this twirling. And I thought, well,
you can't see it, but God's sitting there. He sits upon that thing,
ruling over it. Look at 1 Kings 9. In the midst
of the loud chaos of this flood and wind and waves, the Lord
rules in a calm voice of authority. 1 Kings 9. I'm sorry, 1 Kings 19. Verse 9. 1 Kings 19. This is when Elijah found out
that Jezebel was determined to kill him. In verse 9, And he
came thither into a cave and lodged there. And behold, the
word of the Lord came to him and said unto him, What doest
thou here, Elijah? And he said, I've been very jealous
for the Lord God of hosts, for the children of Israel forsaken
my covenant. They've thrown down my altars.
They slain my prophets with the sword. And I, even I only am
left. and they seek my light to take
it away. Elijah's looking like to him, everything's out of control.
What's going on? This is chaos, everything's out
of control. Has God's purpose really failed, Elijah? Let's
see what God says, verse 11. And he said, go forth and stand
upon the mount before the Lord. And behold, the Lord passed by
in a great and strong wind, rent the mountains and break in pieces
the rocks before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind.
And after the wind and earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.
And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.
And after the fire, a still small voice. The Lord sat upon those
storms and he spoke to his servant in a calm voice of authority. And look what he said, verse
13. And it was so when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his
face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entering in
of the cave. And behold, there came a voice unto him and said,
what doest thou hear Elijah? And he said, I've been very jealous
for the Lord God of hosts, because the children of Israel forsaken
my covenant, they thrown down mine altars and slain my prophets
with the sword. And I, even I only am left, and
they seek my life to take it away. And the Lord said unto
him, go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus. And
when thou comest, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. And Jehu,
the son of Nimshi, shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel.
And Elisha, the son of Shaphat, of Abel Meholah, shalt thou anoint
to be prophet in thy room. And it shall come to pass that
him that escapeth the sword of Hazel shall Jehu slay. And him
that escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay. Yet, Elisha, you need to know
this. I have left me 7,000 in Israel,
all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth
which hath not kissed him. Elijah, you just go do what I
told you You just go preach the gospel. You be faithful to preach
the gospel in the place where I've sent you, my will shall
be done. His people shall be saved. Now you just go preach the message
that I gave you to preach. See, that's God. God moves in
a mysterious way, his wonders to perform. He plants his footstep
in the sea and rides upon the storm, all for this purpose,
so that he accomplishes the salvation of his people. All right, last,
verse 11. The voice of the Lord strengthens
and blesses his people. The Lord will give strength unto
his people. The Lord will bless his people
with peace. The Lord strengthens his people.
He strengthens them by giving them spiritual life, by giving
them life, the life of Christ who died for them. When we were
yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly.
And the Lord strengthens His people and blesses them all the
days of their life. When His people are so tired
from their journey, they don't think they can take another step.
The Lord strengthens them. And you know how? By just what
we're doing right now. He speaks to them through the
Word. And strengthens them. Strengthens their heart so they
can go on. We looked at this a couple weeks ago. Psalm 27
verse 14. Now wait on the Lord. Just wait
on Him. and be of good courage, he shall strengthen thine heart."
It's not, well, maybe he will or he can't. No, he shall strengthen
thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. He'll
strengthen his people. He told Isaiah, fear not, for
I'm with thee. Be not dismayed. I am thy God. I will strengthen thee. I'll
give you strength for the hour. I will strengthen thee. I'll
help thee. Yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my
righteousness. The Apostle Paul read those scriptures. The Lord gave him faith to believe
it. So you know what Paul said? I can do all things. I can do
anything through Christ which strengthens me. He strengthens
his people with his voice. And it's the voice of the Lord
that gives peace to his people. Now how does he do that? How
does he give peace to the hearts of his people? just by speaking
to us and showing us Christ who is our peace. Just by showing
us Christ who made peace for us by the blood of His cross.
If we believe Christ, we have peace. Peace. Peace even in the
midst of the storm, even in the midst of the wind and the waves
and the flood. He gives peace to the hearts
of His people. That's the voice of the Lord. And in closing,
let me ask you this. Have you heard it? Have you heard
the voice of the Lord speak? Well, I'll tell you how you can
tell if you haven't. If you've heard the voice of
the Lord speak, you'll praise him. Now go back to verse one.
Give unto the Lord, O 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. Now we cannot give
glory and strength to the Lord. He already has it all and we
don't have any to give him, do we? So I'll tell you what David
means here. He means ascribe to the Lord
all glory and strength. That's how we worship the Lord
is by prostrating ourselves before him saying, Lord, you've got
all the glory, you've got all the strength and I've got none.
But yet these ones who have no strength, have no glory, prostrate
themselves and worship before the Lord, David calls them, O
ye mighty. And that word mighty means the
offspring. They're the sons and the daughters
of God. You know why they have might?
Because they rely on Christ. When I'm weak, then am I strong
because I'm depending on Christ. And these mighty ones, they ascribe
all glory, all honor, all praise, all strength to the Lord. He's
got the power to save me, and it's by His power I'll be kept.
Now we can't praise God as He ought to be praised. He says
here, give unto the Lord, O ye mighty, give unto the Lord glory
and strength. Praise Him. Well, we can't do that like He
deserves to be praised. We can't do it like we ought
to, or certainly like He ought to be praised, because no matter
what we say, it's never enough. But I'll tell you what, let's
give it our best shot. Let's just give it our best to
worship and praise the Lord. Davis says, worship the Lord
in the beauty of holiness. The holiness of the Lord is His
beauty. It's that beauty that no man
can approach to. His people love that beauty and
His people long to be just like Him. That's my heart's desire.
to be made whole, to be made just like the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the voice of the Lord tells us that's what God's made His
people in His Son. That fills our heart with joy,
doesn't it? That fills our heart to sing His praises, to worship
Him. I grant you, it's not what He
deserves, but let's give it our best. Let's bow together. Our God, how we thank You for
this, Your Word. Ty, we thank you for the promise
that you will speak to your people, that we will hear, your people,
every one of them will hear the voice of the Lord. Father, I
pray in your mercy and your grace and your goodness to your people
that you'd cause us tonight to hear the voice of the Lord and
give us a heart of faith to be like Samuel of old who says,
speak Lord, for thy servant heareth. and then to follow Thee. Father,
bless us, we pray. It's in the precious name of
our Lord Jesus Christ. For His glory and His sake, we
pray and give thanks.