And here in these first two verses,
three times in these two verses, David repeats these instructions. He says in verse 1, give unto
the Lord. Give unto the Lord. He says also, give unto the Lord
glory and strength. And thirdly, in verse 2, he says,
give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name. Now, no creature
can give God anything. We know that. Let's turn to Psalm
50 and let me read this to you. No creature can actually give
anything to God. The Lord tells us that in Psalm
50, verse First, now, he said, the Lord
says, I will take no bullock out of your house, nor he goats
out of your foals. For 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 beasts of the field
are mine. And if I were hungry, I would
not tell you. For the world is mine, and the
fullness thine. So what does this mean? Give
unto the Lord. Give unto the Lord glory and
strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name. I believe a better word for us
in which to understand this is the word ascribe. Ascribe unto
the Lord all things. Attribute unto the Lord glory
and strength. attribute, ascribe to the Lord
the glory due his name. I can do that. I can ascribe
to God all the glory, it's his, and all the praise and the strength
because it's his. I can do that. And I must do
that. And by God's grace I will do
that. Ascribe unto God all things. And then he says in verse 2 here,
In Psalm 29, he said, Worship. Worship. I want to do that. Worship
the Lord in the beauty of holiness. What is it to worship? I've tried
my best to speak on that subject a time or two, and I've never
really felt like I preached it like I ought to or would like
to. But I can tell you again, worship is to bow down. It's
to bow down, it's to reverence, to respect, to honor God. Worship is to express extreme
devotion, admiration, and love for God, as only God is worthy. That's what worship is. Secondly,
worship is heart business. You don't engage in worship except
with the heart. With the heart, man believes.
And to worship the Lord is to worship him, he said, in the
beauty of holiness. What is this beauty of holiness?
It's where true holiness and beauty is. It's in his presence. And that's the only place where
true holiness and beauty dwells in His presence. You know, this
is where the Samaritan woman just missed it. She said to our
Lord, she said, our fathers worshiped in these mountains. And you Jews
say that men should worship in Jerusalem. And our Lord said, You worship you know not what.
God is spirit. God is spirit and they that worship
God worship him in spirit and truth and the Lord God seeketh
such to worship him. Worshipping him in the beauty
of holiness is to worship him in his divine awesome holy presence. And thirdly, And this is so important. To worship has nothing to do
with the form, standing, sitting, lying. It has nothing to do with
the form. Worship itself. Worship may drive
you to being prostrate or to lying in tears and agony. It may take you to that place,
but you don't necessarily worship just because you're there. So
it has nothing to do with farm, has nothing to do with buildings.
Not a thing in the world does worship have to do with where
you are. A building, or a garment. I see
these fellows with all these garments on, going through all... Worship has nothing to do with
a garment. or even with words, which really cannot be spoken. True worship is in the beauty
of His holiness, His presence, God Himself. A man and his God,
that's where you worship, and whom you worship, and how you
worship, and all else is chaff. which the wind driveth away. Thy people shall be willing to
worship in the day of thy power, in the beauty of holiness. Let's turn to Isaiah, just a
moment, verse chapter 6 of Isaiah, in which Isaiah says he saw the
Lord. the presence of the Lord. Isaiah
chapter 6, verse 1. In the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted
up in his train, build a temple And above it stood the seraphims. Each one had six wings. With
two he covered his face. With two he covered his feet.
With two he did fly. One cried to another and said,
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is
full of his glory. And the post of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried. And the house was filled with
smoke. And then said I, Oh, woe is me. I am undone. I am cut off, because I am a
man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips. For mine eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of hosts. And then flew one of the seraphims
unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken
with the the tongs from off the altar, and he laid it on my mouth,
and said, Lo, this has touched your lips, and your iniquity
is taken away, and now your sin is purged. That's the work of
our Lord Jesus Christ, from the altar, the live coal burned away
the sin and iniquity. And then, also, Having seen His
holiness and His power, I heard the voice of the Lord. I got into the presence of God
in His true holiness and beauty, and then I heard. What did you
hear? Go back to my text. First chapter
29 of the book of Psalms. I'll give you six or seven reasons
why the Lord should have all the glory and the strength. And
we should ascribe to Him the glories of His name and worship
Him in the beauty of true holiness. And here it is. The voice of
the Lord, verse 3, is upon the waters. The voice of the Lord
is upon the waters. Now, what does that suggest to
you? When the psalmist says, what
does that bring to your mind when you think of the voice of
the Lord upon the waters? Well, let me show you. Over in
Genesis 1, His voice, His Word, everything God made, He made
by His Word. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and all things
were made by him. Without him was not anything
made that was made. And listen to this in Genesis
1 verse 1. In the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and
void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit
of God moved upon the face of the waters. The Spirit of God
moved on the face of the waters. Look at verse 6. And the Lord
God said, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and
let it divide the waters from the waters, the waters above
and the waters below. And then over here in Psalm 27,
he said, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness of the world
and they that dwell therein. He founded it upon the seas and
established it upon the floods. The Spirit of God moved upon
the waters in creation. Then the Spirit of God was upon
the waters in the flood of Noah's day. And the ark was lifted up
above all the waters. The Spirit of God moved. And
then in Exodus chapter 14, listen to this. In Exodus chapter 14,
verse 21. And Moses stretched out his hand
over the sea, and the Lord caused the sea to go back with a strong
east wind all that night, and made of the sea dry land, the
whole area. And the waters were divided,
and the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon
dry ground, and the waters protected were a wall under them on the
right hand and on the left. The voice of the Lord God upon
the waters. And then I'll tell you another
beautiful place where the water, the voice of the Lord was upon
the waters. Turn to John chapter 19. John chapter 19. Listen to this. John chapter 19 verse 34. Then came the soldiers, and broke
the legs of the first, and of the other which were crucified
with Christ. But when they came to the Lord
Jesus, and saw he was dead already, they broke not his legs, but
one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and out came
blood and water. The voice of the Lord upon the
waters. Augustus Toplady talked about
that. Rock of ages cleft for me, let
me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from
thy wounded side which flowed be of sin the double cure. Save
me from wrath, justify me, and make me pure. Waters of God. And then the believer's comfort.
It says, he maketh me to lie down by the still waters. That's our comfort. So, David
said the voice of the Lord, the word of God is upon the waters,
wherever they are, upon the waters. Now watch this, in verse 3, and
the God of glory thundereth, and the Lord is upon many waters. Two different things, aren't
there? The voice of the Lord is upon the water, and then the
voice of the Lord thunders. You know, somebody said, he spake and they heard it thunder. Didn't they say that about the
whole way, it thunders? What does that mean when the
Lord thunders? He's going to be heard. That's exactly what
it tells me. It says that the Lord thunders,
because he's going to be heard. And that thunder, which we will
hear, will be to the point of feeling the sound. If you've
been in a, I know you have, all of you, a great thunderstorm,
you'd feel it. It feels like the earth shakes,
but when the Lord speaks, you'll be heard. You'll be heard. My sheep will hear my voice.
There won't be any mistake about it. You'll hear it. You'll thunder. And you know when he thunders,
so many times he thunders on many waters. What do you do with that picture?
I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but I did look this up.
Listen to it. The Lord is upon many waters. He thunders. on great waters. And David said, listen to this,
Psalm 18, 16, the Lord sent from above and took me and drew me
out of many waters. He took me, he called me, and
then he took me through some deep water. Psalm 69, save me,
O God, save me, for I am come into deep waters. and the floods
overflowed." You've been there, haven't you? Many waters. Psalm 73, "...therefore his people
returned hither, and waters of a full cup were wrung out to
them." Psalm 144, verse 7, "...Lord,
send your hand from above, and deliver me out of these many
waters. How does he deliver us? Verse
3, the voice of the Lord is upon the waters. The Lord thunders,
but the Lord himself is upon those many waters. He's involved in it. You're not
alone. He says, I'll never leave you.
I'll never forsake you. You're not alone. He's upon the
waters. Yeah, he's upon the waters. All
right, let's go back to our text, verse 4. All right, the voice
of the Lord is upon the waters, and verse 4 says the voice of
the Lord is powerful. Powerful. One verse said, where
the word of the King is, there's power. Where the word of the
King is, there's power. And Paul the Apostle told the
church at Thessalonica, our gospel didn't come to you in word only. It came to you in power. The
voice of the Lord is powerful. It came to you in power, in the
Holy Ghost, in much assurance. Romans 1.16 says, I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ. It is the power of God. You know what that word is? It's
dunamis. It's dynamite. The power of God
is the dynamite of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. If
my voice is the only voice you hear, it won't help you much. We must hear him speak who speaks
from heaven." And when he said that, one who speaks from heaven,
he said, I not only shake the earth, I shake heaven too, for
your sake. The voice of the Lord is powerful,
powerful, great in power, because the voice of the Lord is powerful
upon the conscience. to convince us and convict us
of sin. The voice of the Lord upon the
mind is powerful to reveal the wisdom of Christ. The voice of
the Lord is powerful upon the heart to break it and shed abroad the
love of God and enable us to embrace the Lord Jesus. The voice
of the Lord is powerful upon the will to make us walk in paths
of righteousness. That's right. He'll enable you
to walk in paths of righteousness if you hear His voice thundering
in power. And then, what's this word here?
The voice of the Lord is powerful and the voice of the Lord is
full of majesty. Majesty. The voice of the Lord
is powerful and full of majesty. A sealer calls. Think about it. Majesty. One
writer said this, when it thunders, what else is usually there? When it thunders, what else is
usually there? Lightning. There is lightning
and then there's thunder. And in the scriptures, the Lord
talks about his having the power over the lightning. I say to
it, go and it goes and come and it comes. What is lightning? Light. Oh, more than that. It's the light. This light is
the intensity of the sun. If you stood at a stormy night
and watched the lightning, it just blinds you. But not only
does it bind you, but it leaves, when it's gone away, it leaves
a mark. It leaves where it was. Light
to the intensity of the sun. And this light, this heat, can
melt a stone. Did you know that? It'll melt
a stone. This stone, yeah. This light
is the power of God to defy gravity. lightning. And the effect of
it is to paralyze both men and animals that they might be still
and know that I'm gone. Be still. The voice of the Lord
is powerful and so full of majesty. Look at the next verse, verse
5. The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars, yea? The big ones,
the powerful ones, the beautiful ones. The cedars of Lebanon,
known throughout the whole world. The voice of the Lord breaketh
the cedars. Have you ever seen what lightning
can do to a tree? I know you have. What lightning
can do to a proud tree that stood for years? even to the proud
cedars of Lebanon. And one fellow wrote a poem about
this. He wrote, Black, from God's stroke
from above, the burnt, smoldering cedar stands,
a sad, pitiful, shattered trunk, broken by his mighty hand. The mighty cedar will have two
effects when struck by lightning. It will either fall prostrate
before him, crushed, or it will just stand there, black, smoldering,
stripped of its beauty and a mere memento of his power like Pharaoh
of old. The Lord just let him stand there
and made him a monument to man's failure and to God's glory. What'll it be? He breaks the
proud cedars of Lebanon and brings them prostrate before his presence
or lets them just stand there and wear away as a memento of
his power. Let me read that to you in Isaiah
chapter 2. Isaiah chapter 2. I want you
to look at this. Isaiah chapter 2, oh how the
mighty have fallen, how the mighty do fall. Isaiah chapter 2 verse
10, enter into the rock, you got it? Isaiah 2.10, enter into
the rock, hide thee in the dust for fear of the Lord, for the
glory of his majesty. That's what we're talking about.
The lofty looks of men, man shall be humble. The haughtiness of
men shall be brought down, and the glory of the Lord alone shall
be exalted in that day. For the day of the Lord of hosts
shall be upon everyone that is proud and lofty, and upon everyone
that is lifted up, and he shall be brought low. And upon all
the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up, and upon
the oaks of Bashan, and upon all the high mountains, and upon
All the hills that are lifted up, upon every high tower, every
fenced wall, upon the ships of Tarsus, upon the pleasant pictures,
and the loftiness of man shall be brought down. The haughtiness
of men shall be made low, and the Lord alone shall be exhausted
that day. The Lord breaketh the cedars. Even the cedars of Lebanon. The
voice of the Lord. Verse 7. The voice of the Lord
divided the flames of fire. The word divide here is to separate. It's like hewing something. Hew. Chop wood. Split wood. Hew it. Threw it apart. And I'll turn
to Hebrews 4 for our New Testament example, Hebrews 4, this is what
we're saying, the Lord divided the flames of fire. In Hebrews 4 verse 12, now watch
it, the word, the voice of God is quick, Hebrews 4 verse 12,
and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. It pierces even
to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, divides the flames,
joints and marrow, it's a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart, and neither is there any creature that is not manifested,
exposed, revealed in his sight, for all things are naked and
open under the eyes of him with whom we have to do." What does
this say? The voice of God, the Word of
God divides the flames. It casts away all of our pretended
goodness and manifests and reveals true
goodness and the holiness of God. His voice exposes our great
guilt and reveals His great grace. His voice, His word lays bare
the heart and reveals the secret thoughts and intents of our hearts. while he gives us, through the
sword of the Spirit, a new heart and love for him. The flames
consume our dross, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye,
the pride of life, and yet at the same time purifies us in
the flames and gives us the gold of faith. The word separates, the voice
of God separates and divides the enemies of Christ from the
friends of Christ. The voice of the Lord divides
the plague. And number five is verse eight. The voice of the Lord
shaketh the wilderness. Now I want you to listen to me.
He shaketh the wilderness. The Lord shaketh even the wilderness
of Kadesh. That's that terrible wilderness
through which Israel wandered all those years. When will God
speak? When God pleases. Where will
God speak? Where God pleases. The wilderness,
if it so pleases Him. To whom will God speak? To whom
He pleases. But it's the Lord who speaks.
And the Lord, the voice of the Lord, shaketh the wilderness. Now listen to me. Our Lord does
not court the applause of people. His greatest deeds are done where
the eye of men never see. When the voices and sounds of
the earth are heard so loud, and so regularly, and so multiple,
no great work is done. But in the closet, our Lord said,
where men pray, that's where the work is done.
In the wilderness, when no one speaks, that's when His voice is very
distinct. when people will just be still
and know that I'm God. But when we're always talking,
always trying to figure things out, always trying to find a
way, He's not going to say anything. He's going to speak in the wilderness.
He's going to speak in the quiet places. He's going to speak when
we stop speaking. Takes a long time to find that
out. Just stop speaking. Just stop trying to figure it
out. And wait on the Lord. You see,
the Lord will shake the wilderness. Even the wilderness of Kadesh.
And He'll come to our wilderness where all is quiet. And make it blossom like a rose. That's right. Let me show you
a verse. Isaiah 35. Make it blossom like a rose.
Isaiah 35, verse 3. Strengthen ye the weak hands,
confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful
heart, Be strong now, fear not. Behold ye, God will come with
vengeance, even God, with a recompense, and he'll come and save you.
And then, when he comes, the eyes of the blind will be opened,
and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped, and the lame shall
leap as a height, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing. For in
the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.
and the parched ground shall become as a pool, and the thirsty
land springs of water, and the habitation of dragons, where
each lay, shall be grass with wreaths and rushes, and the highway
shall be there, and it shall be called the way of holiness,
the unclean not pass over it, it shall be for those The wayfaring men, though fools, we once were fools, shall not
err therein. He'll shake our wilderness and
make it blossom like a rose. And then the last one, this is
Psalm 29, look at it. The voice of the Lord maketh
the hounds to calve. What's that say? the female deer, the frightened
deer. Just out there in the hills of
West Virginia are thousands of deer. And there's the little
female doe that's carrying her first fawn, as they like to call
them, and she doesn't know what's happening to her. But yet the
Lord The Lord maketh her to give birth. He maketh her to have an understanding
of what's going on and be able to handle what's going on. How'd
she know it? The voice of the Lord. He talks
to her. He tells her what to do. Job
said that. Turn to Job. Just a minute. Job
39. Listen to it. Job 39. Job 39 verse 1, listen, the frightened
deer is going to give birth, something that she's never done
before, but she does it very effectively because he tells
her. He's the midwife. That's right. God's the midwife. He says, knowest thou the time
when the wild goats of the rock bring forth? You know that? No,
you don't know that. Or canst thou mark When the hinds,
the deer, do carry, bring forth their young, can you handle that?
Can you number the months that they fulfill? You know how to
handle that? No. Or notice the style of the time
when they bring forth, they bow themselves, they bring forth their young
ones, they cast out their sorrows, and their young ones are in good
liking. He tells them. And then they
grow up with corn and go forth and return up to their mamas
after a while. Like those little birds, you
know. Who instructed those little birds to build those eggs? Who made them sit all day on
those eggs? The voice of the Lord. The voice
of the Lord teaches everyone. Who knows when you push them
out of the nest? He does. And he tells them. I
believe that. That's what it says here. The
voice of the Lord maketh the hounds the deer to calve. And
listen. And the voice of the Lord discovereth
the forest. Let me just turn to that part
here. Genesis 2. Listen. Here it is. Verse 8. And the Lord God planted a garden. He planted the garden in Eden,
eastward in Eden. And there he put the man whom
he had formed, and out of the ground, out of the ground, made
the Lord God to grow. He made it grow. Every tree that's
pleasant to the sight, good for food, tree of life, also in the
midst of the garden, a tree of good and evil, he planted the
garden. He discovered the forest. They didn't just happen to be
there. The voice of the Lord put them there. And then it says
here in closing, And here's the close, listen. The voice of the
Lord makes the deer to calve, and discovereth the forest, and
in his temple doth everyone speak of his glory. That's a given. Everyone that's in his temple,
of his temple, part of his temple, they're going to speak of his
glory without question. No tongue will be silent when
the glory of the Lord is the theme. It just can't be. Just can't be. Given to the Lord. Given to the Lord, glory and
strength. Given to the Lord, the glory due His name. And in
His presence, in the beauty of true holiness, and in His temple,
everyone, everyone speaks of His glory. I just did.