Give unto the Lord the glory
due unto His name. Now, no creature can give God
anything. Nothing I can add to Him. He
said, if I were hungry, I wouldn't ask you. So I believe a better word, and
one you can write there in the margin of your Bible in the place
of the word give, and when we take it like it's Like it's supposed
to be taken, it does mean this. Ascribe to the Lord. Ascribe
unto the Lord. Attribute to the Lord. The word
is, ascribe unto the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe or attribute
to the Lord the glory due unto His name. Now this I can do.
And this I must do. And this I will do. confess that
God is glorious and almighty, a tribute to the Lord, the glory
due unto His name, a tribute unto Him all strength and all
power. When our Lord taught His disciples
to pray, He said, pray this way, Our Father which is in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. Give unto Him the glory do his
name. Hallowed be thy name. And in
that prayer he also said, thy kingdom come, thy will be done
on this earth as it is in heaven. That's the way we pray. He's
worthy of the glory. He alone is worthy. And then
the prayer went this way, for thine is the kingdom and the
power and the glory forever. Ascribe unto the Lord Glory and
strength. A scribe, a tribute to the Lord,
the glory due His name. There's a word here in the first
verse. Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty. Give unto the Lord glory and
strength. Who's this talking about? Well,
it's really threefold. First of all, he's talking about
the mighty angels. And the mighty seraphims, and
cherubims, and the host of heaven, and every creature of strength
and power, give unto the Lord glory. Give unto the Lord the
glory. Do His name. Ye angels about
the throne of God. Ye mighty creatures of God. Give unto Him all the glory.
And then he's also talking about the mighty men on earth. There
are men here on earth who have leadership. They have power over
other people. They have positions and offices
that are special. He says, you men and you women
give unto the Lord the glory due His name. Set an example
for everybody about you and everybody who's under you and everybody
who works for you. You mighty men, you who have
influence. and power over other people,
you give to the Lord the glory due His name. A tribute to the
Lord. Ascribe unto Him all the praise
and all the glory among those over whom you have control and
leadership and influence. Give God the glory. And then
it's talking about someone else because it takes in everybody.
Let every tongue and every heart Give God all the glory. Ye mighty
sons of God. Do you know what He calls us
who are saved people's sons? We are kings. And we are priests
unto God. And all ye mighty ones, you sons
of God, you kings and priests of the Lord God, give Him all
the glory. It ought to be the easiest thing
in the world for us to do. Give God the glory. That ought
to be the easiest task that God could possibly assign to me.
Give Him the glory. Because He's worthy. Over here
in Jeremiah chapter 9, it says this, in Jeremiah chapter 9 verse
23, Jeremiah 9 verse 23, it says, Thus saith the Lord, let not
the wise man glory in his wisdom, his education, his intellect. Let not the strong man glory
in his strength and in his might and in his accomplishments. Let
not the rich man glory in his riches. Who maketh thee to differ? What
do you have that God didn't give you? But let him that glorieth,
boasteth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth
me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment,
and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight."
In what things? Lovingkindness and judgment and
righteousness. In these things I delight. Not
in man's wisdom and might and strength and riches, but in loving
kindness, judgment, and righteousness. Those are the things in which
I delight. Well, one day, one day, every tongue will give Him
the glory. For God hath highly exalted Him
and given Him a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus
every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that He's
Lord. It's not a matter of will you
confess Jesus Christ as Lord, it's a matter of when. A matter
of when. Alright, let's look at the next
line here in verse 2. I believe I have a little light
on this right here. It says in verse 2, a tribute
unto the Lord, the glory due unto His name. Like I said, that
ought to be the easiest thing in the world for us to do. Like
Paul said, by the grace of God I am what I am. But now watch
this line. Worship the Lord in the beauty
of holiness. I guess there have been a thousand
sermons preached on what is worship, what is true worship. But I tell
you this, two or three things. Number one, worship has to do
with the heart. Worship has to do with the heart.
Our Lord said to the Samaritan woman, God is spirit, and they
that worship Him, worship Him in spirit and truth, in heart. And secondly, the word worship
means reverence. It means to express extreme devotion, admiration, reverence, respect,
and love. To worship is to bow down in
extreme devotion and adoration. It's to look upon Him with love
and thanksgiving and praise. It's to be awed in His presence. I wrote a little article in the
Bulletin recently on worship. And I used this illustration.
I said, the next time that you visit a young mother, a new young
mother, you go into the house. And I've done this, and Doris
and I have done this many times. And there, you call and tell
them you're coming. And they got the baby all fixed
up, you know. bathed and smelling good and
cute things on it. And the mother's got her prettiest
robe on and the dad is standing there beaming. And I suggested
that you do this the next time you visit a situation like that.
Everybody goes in and starts looking at the baby, the new
baby. Next time you go, don't look
at the baby. Look into the eyes of that mother.
If you want to see adoration, if you want to see love, if you
want to see fondness, if you want to see devotion, don't look
at the baby, look at her. And that's worship. When I can
look upon my God with such fondness and love and affection, that's
worship. That's right. Now what's this? Listen to this. Worship the Lord
in the beauty of holiness. Let me turn that around, because
this is what it says. You know, He said, thy people
shall be willing in the day of thy power in the beauty of holiness. And what this is saying is this,
this worship is to be in true holiness where beauty really
is. in the beauty of holiness is
worshiping God with a true holiness, with a true heart, with a true
sincerity, with a true affection. It's not in the building, it's
not in the form, it's not in the garments, it's not in the
words. Those things are of little value if the heart's not there.
See what I'm saying? So when we worship God in true
Holiness. Holiness is the beauty of God.
And holiness and righteousness is the beauty of His people.
And true holiness is the beauty of that relationship. You're
a holy people unto the Lord. God's made you holy. So worship
Him in true holiness, in true worship. in true affection, in
true adoration, in true spirit, for that is where the beauty
is. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power in the beauty of holiness, in true holiness,
which is the beauty of the Lord. That's right. The beauty of the
Lord. Alright, now in the next few
verses, in the next few verses, The next several verses, the
psalmist gives us many reasons why the Lord is to be worshipped,
and many reasons why the Lord should have all the glory, all
the praise, and all the honor. And in every one of these verses,
it begins with the same words. Verse 3, the voice of the Lord
is upon the waters. Verse 4, the voice of the Lord
is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full
of majesty. Verse 5, the voice of the Lord
breaketh the cedars. Verse 7, the voice of the Lord
divideth the flames of fire. Verse 8, the voice of the Lord
shaketh the wilderness. Verse 9, the voice of the Lord
maketh the hens to calve, the female deer to bring forth her
young. the voice of the Lord. You know,
no man had seen God at any time. If I worship God, I can't drum
up a vision. I can't really imagine anything
as far as these eyes are concerned. Brother Dale read in the I studied
tonight how Moses came to the burning bush and God, he didn't
see God. He didn't see God. No man can
see God and live. But he heard Him. He heard Him. And I'm going to worship God. I'm going to ascribe to Him and
attribute to Him all the glory and honor and majesty. Let's
do His name. Not because I've seen Him. But
I've heard Him. I've heard Him. And God's revealed
by what God says. I've heard Him. And that's what
this is saying. This is the Lord that I've heard.
Alright, watch it as I look at each one of these just briefly.
First of all, in verse 3, he says, the voice of the Lord is
upon the waters. When I read that, what comes
to your mind when you think about the voice of the Lord? upon the
waters." Well, first thing I think about is over here in Genesis
1, where it says, in the beginning, Genesis 1, 1, 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. And God said,
and God said, Let there be light. God, the darkness, and the waters. And God moved upon the face of
those waters and said, let there be light. That's my God. He spoke
everything into being. And then secondly, over here
in Genesis 7, when I think about the voice of God upon the waters,
I think about the flood and God's judgment upon this earth. In
Genesis 7, verse 16, and it says, And they went in, verse 15, they
went in unto Noah unto the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein
is the breath of life. And they that went in, went in
male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him. And
the Lord shut him in. And the flood was forty days
upon the earth, and the waters increased, and bear up the ark. And it was lifted up above the
earth. God's salvation. God's spoken judgment destroyed
every living thing. You read about the rest of the
chapter. All flesh died. And the waters, the last verse
in that chapter 24 said the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred
and fifty days. But God lifted that ark above
the flood. God spoke. And then when I think
about the voice of God upon the waters, I think about Exodus
14. Look over here a moment. Exodus
14. There the children of Israel
were crossing the desert there, and they came to the Red Sea.
Exodus 14. And God told Moses what to do. And listen, verse 21, And Moses
stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord caused the
sea to go back by strong east wind all that night, and made
the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the children
of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon dry ground, and
the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and on their
left. God made a way. The impossible situation. The sea in front of them, the
enemy behind them, and God spoke and the waters opened up. And
then when I think of the voice of God and the waters, I think
about John 19. John 19, also when God stood
upon the rock, Moses smote it and water came out, to satisfy
the hungry, thirsty people. But here in John 19. John 19, verse 34. Verse 33 says, When they came
to Jesus and saw He was dead already, they broke not His legs,
but one of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and
forthwith came thereout blood and water. blood to justify us,
and water to sanctify us. And then one more, I think about
Psalm 23, and the comfort that every believer has in the Word
of God. He leadeth me beside still waters. Alright, back to Psalm 29. The
voice of the Lord is upon the waters. And he says here, the
God of glory thundereth It's thundering. Now, we're going
to have in a few moments something else about God thundering, but
I searched for meaning here, and I searched different writers
and commentaries and so forth, and everybody had something to
say. But I concluded this. We're talking about the voice
of the Lord. We're talking about God is worthy to be worshiped
given all the glory due His name and reverenced and feared because
the voice of the Lord speaks and the voice of God thunders. But that's not to frighten me.
It's saying this, that God will be heard. That's what it's saying. He will be heard. You can go
outside on a stormy night And it doesn't matter how much noise
is going on. There can be one of these boys
riding by in his souped-up truck playing his tape player as loud as it can
go, and there can be rain pouring down and wind howling, but when
it thunders, you're going to hear it. You're going to hear
it. You're going to hear thunder. And I'll tell you this, when
God is pleased to speak, You're both going to hear. Because He
thunders. I know there's a still, small
voice, and that's fine. But I'm saying the Lord of glory,
the God of glory, when He speaks, He's heard. And then watch this
next line. And the Lord is upon many waters. Many waters. You have a reference
there in the middle in the middle of the Bible, great waters. Great waters. And the Scripture
reference is Psalm 144. Why don't we go over there and
see what this says. The Lord is upon great waters. Great waters. What this is talking
about is the same thing Jim read a while ago. Brother Jim read.
You remember when he read over there, while you were finding
Psalm 144, he read in Psalm 73, the people of God, waters of
a full cup are wrung out to them. Waters of a full cup. We're talking about deep water.
We're talking about great water. We're talking about many waters.
Now listen to Psalm 144. Psalm 144, 7. Send thy hand from
above, rid me, deliver me out of great waters from the hand
of strange children. That's what David's talking about
here. Deliver me out of deep... Some of God's ships do business
in deep water. Great waters. But thank God,
the voice of the Lord is upon great waters. Let me show you
a couple of more scriptures. Psalm 69. Come back a little
bit. Psalm 69. Wrung out a full cup
of water. Great waters, deep waters, dark
waters, fearful waters. In Psalm 69, verse 1 and 2, Save
me, O God, for the waters are coming in unto my soul. I sink
in deep mire, where there's no standing. Deep water. I'm coming
to deep water, where the floods overflow me. I'm weary of my
crying. My throat is dried. My eyes fail
while I wait on God. God is upon the deep waters. Aren't you glad? The deep waters. One more. Psalm
18. Psalm 18. The voice of the Lord is upon
the deep waters. Many waters. Many waters. Psalm
18, 16. He sent from above. He took me. He drew me out of
great waters. He delivered me from my strong
enemy, from them which hated me, for they were too strong
for me. That's why I used to be worshiped.
They're too strong for me. Can't handle them. Can't handle
them. Alright, let's look at verse
4. The voice of the Lord is powerful. Powerful. That's what Paul said
to the Thessalonians. He said, our gospel didn't come
to you in word only. When we preachers, and I've got
three of my favorite preachers here tonight, and I don't use
that facetiously, I use that sincerely. Deeply, I mean that. And my elders
too, but these three pastors I'm talking about now. And I
encourage them in this way. We don't speak in vain. Our words
are not in word only. They're in power. You know what
it says? Power. The gospel is the power of God. The power of God unto salvation. Where the word of the King is,
there's power. Let me read you a psalm here.
Psalm 62. Talking about the voice of the
Lord is powerful. Powerful. Psalm 62. Listen to
this. Verse 11 and 12. God has spoken
once, twice have I heard this, that power belongeth unto God. Power. And unto thee, O Lord,
thank God belongeth mercy. But he couldn't show mercy unless
he had that power. He's got the power to show mercy.
Because Christ is the wisdom and power of God. And He's our
mercy. So, it takes the power of God
to accomplish mercy and to apply mercy. And thank God, He speaks
with power. He speaks with power. Power. I want to show you something
here now. It says, the voice of the Lord is upon the waters.
The God of glory thundereth, thundereth. The Lord is upon
deep waters, and the voice of the Lord is powerful, and the
voice of the Lord is full of majesty. Thunder! And I told
you I was coming back to that thunder. I looked up the word
thunder, and it says, the sound that follows or accompanies lightning. You fellas know something about
the thunder and thorns. Where there's thunder, there's
lightning. That's what it says. It says, thunder is the sound
that follows or accompanies lightning. So when God speaks, it's not
just with thunder, it's with lightning. Lightning. It's not just noise.
There's a purpose. He sends the lightning, He says.
He says, I say to them, you come and they come and you go and
they go and they come and they go where I send them. Job, listen to Job. Look at a
few verses here in Job. He talks a lot about thunder
and lightning. In Job 37, look at this. Job
37 verse 1, At this also my heart trembles, and is moved out of his place.
Now hear attentively the voice, the noise of his voice, and the
sound that goeth out of his mouth. He directeth it unto the whole
heaven and his lightning unto the ends of the earth. After
it a voice roareth, he thundereth with the voice of his excellency.
And he'll not stay them when his voice is heard. God thundereth
Marvelously with his voice, great things doeth he which we cannot
comprehend. One writer called this lightning
of God, unconquerable lightning. He said one time, have you considered
the lightning? Have you considered the lightning
and the thunder? What about lightning? Well, several
things. It's light is the intensity of
the sun. You ever look at it? It's like
a welding rod. It'll burn your eyes. Lightning. The light is the intensity of
the sun. Secondly, it's heat. Lightning
will fuse a rock. It'll melt a rock. It'll fuse
metals. Power. You talk about power.
Lightning, its force can paralyze men or animals, paralyze them. Its power, he said, can defy
gravity. No one can measure the force
and the power and the effect of lightning. And every one of those things
you can say about my gospel. It's the light of the sun. God
said, let there be light. He who spoke the light out of
darkness has shined in our hearts to give us the knowledge of the
glory of God. The heat has broken up this old stony heart, crushed
it, melted it, and its force driven out satanic powers and opened the grave and let
the dead come forth. Ah, my, my, the voice of the
Lord, it is powerful. It is powerful. All powers given
unto me, he said, in heaven and earth, are powerful. And it's
full of majesty. Majesty. Thy people shall be
willing in the day of thy power. You can bring folks down the
aisle, talk them into professions, get them in the water, sign them
up, do all these things. But if God is ever pleased to
cause the lightning, the power of His Word to hit this heart,
they'll never be the same. Never be the same. Conquered. And His voice, whether
in nature or grace, will shake the heavens. Alright, verse 5,
quickly. The voice of the Lord. Oh, I love this right here. Listen.
The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars. Yay! The Lord breaketh
the cedars of Lebanon. Well, have you ever seen what
lightning can do to an old, proud, A strong tree. You have, haven't
you? A poet said this, black from
the stroke above, the smoldering cedar stands, a sad and shattered
trunk. And that's what he's saying here,
the voice of our God, when He speaks with His lightning and
purpose, and thunder, one of two things will happen. When
God's lightning strikes, the tree will fall. Either it will
fall prostrate before His power, before His presence, crumble
and fall down, down. Or secondly, if it's left standing,
it will be left standing stripped, black, stripped of all its beauty,
and a memento of His power. Pharaoh didn't bow, but God said,
I showed my power in you. So one of the two. He'll show
His power in conquering us or destroying us. And you look at
the trees. When the lightning hits, they
either go down, or if they're left standing, they're dead. Black. Stripped. Nothing but a memento. Lightning's
been here. Destroyed him. Destroyed him. And none are immune. Listen,
he says, he says, the voice of God breaketh the cedars, yea,
the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon. You know where that
is, Tom? Lebanon's the high point. Lebanon's the most beautiful,
proudest, Worthwhile, coveted cedars on
earth. Isn't that right? Cedars of Lebanon,
somebody said. God can whip them too. Even the
cedars of Lebanon fall before His power. Can't stand against
His lightning. Not even the cedars of Lebanon. And Almighty God, by His power,
can destroy even the proudest. Even the proudest. Now what about
this Mount Hermon here? He says in verse 6, He maketh
them also to skip like a calf. Lebanon, that's the cedars of
Lebanon. And Syrian, that's Syrian, Deuteronomy
3, turn over there a minute, that's Mount Hermon. That's what
they call Mount Hermon, Syrian. I'll show you that so you'll
know that I didn't make that up. It's in Deuteronomy 3, verse
8 and 9. Deuteronomy 3. And we took at
that time, out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites,
the land that was on this side of Jordan, from the river Arnon
unto Mount Hermon, which Hermon, that is this Mount Hermon, the
Sidonians call Sirion. S-I-R-I-O-N. That's what the
Sidonians call Mount Hermon. And that's what he says here
in verse 6. Almighty God, the voice of the
Lord can break the mighty cedar. Break the mighty cedar. And even
the mountains respond to His voice and make them move about
and jump like a young calf, like a young deer. Somebody said, He can break the
mighty cedar, remove the stony heart, bring down the mountains
of pride and trouble, open the graves and make the rocks to
give forth water. When He speaks, even the mighty
cedars and the mountains respond. That's what John the Baptist
said. The high places have got to be brought down. And that's
what he's talking about here. The mighty places. Alright, verse
7. Let's move on quickly. The voice
of the Lord. He used to be worshiped. The
voice of the Lord divided the flames of fire. As I told you,
when you go to all these different sources, you get all these different
interpretations. And I'll give you a few here.
They say the lightning is forked. Forked lightning divided. They
said the lightning divides the clouds. When lightning comes
in, the thunder rolls when they come together. Then one author
talked about the giving of the law at Sinai. And then another
talked about the cloven tongues of fire at Pentecost that rested
on different people. But let me read that again. Verse 7, The voice of the Lord
divideth the flames of fire. The voice of the Lord divides.
Divides. Turn to Hebrews, just a moment,
chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4. And this is
what I like to, this is the application I like to give it. The voice
of the Lord, the Word of God divides. Now listen to Hebrews
4.12. For the Word of God is quick. It's called, in the Word of God,
called a hammer. It's called a flame of fire, a hammer, a flame of fire, a
light, and it divides. Now watch it. The Word of God
is quick, powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing even
to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit. Joints and marrow
is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither
is there any creature that is not manifested in His sight,
but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with
whom we have to do." Alright, see if this doesn't
help you. The Word of God, the voice of God, which speaks like
a hammer, thunder, lightning, flame of fire, it cuts away the
goodness of men. and reveals the righteousness
of our Lord. It exposes our sin, at the same
time reveals His grace. The voice of our God lays open
the heart and reveals the secrets of men, at the same time brings
the balm of healing to the wounded. The voice of Christ in the gospel
will reveal the friends of Christ and also the enemies of Christ,
dividing them. The voice of Christ in the gospel
is a fire to consume our dross and purify his gold, which is
faith. That's what it does. It burns
up the dross and purifies the gold. The flame of fire. The flame of fire. The Word of
God divides. Alright, the voice of God. Let
me give you this. The voice of the Lord shaketh
the wilderness. The voice of the Lord shaketh
the wilderness of Kadesh. Wilderness. Why would God want
to be out there speaking in a wilderness? Somebody says, where will the
lightning strike? Where He pleases. Where will
the voice of God be heard? Where He pleases. And He is pleased to come to
my wilderness and your wilderness, dead, barren, unfruitful, ignorant,
and speak, and make that desert blossom like a rose. Let me show
you that in Isaiah 35. Turn over to Isaiah 35. Oh, the
voice of our God shaketh the wilderness. What is a wilderness? Barren, unfruitful, ignorant,
dead. Isaiah 35, listen, verse 4. Then shall the lame man leap
as a heart, the tongue of the dumb sing, for in the wilderness
shall waters break out, and streams in the desert, and the parched
ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water,
and in the habitation of dragons, where each lay shall be grass
with reeds and rushes, and a highway shall be there, and a way, it
shall be called the way of holiness. The way of holiness. The Lord
is going to shake the wilderness. And this is the last thing. Why
is He to be worshipped? The Lord maketh, verse 9, the
voice of the Lord, maketh the hinds to calve, discovereth the
forest, and in His temple doth everything, every one speak of
His glory. Now what this is saying is the
Lord cares for, by His voice, by His word, cares for and meets
the need of everyone in His kingdom. Now here in verse 9, the voice
of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve. This is a deer we're
talking about. We're talking about a deer. Female deer. And this female
deer is going to bring forth her young. And even God is involved
in that. Our God is involved. He that
thunders and He that shakes the earth and He that the heavens
won't contain Him. And yet here's the simple thing
is a deer bringing forth young. And the voice of God has taught
her how to do that and how to take care of her young. And the
voice of God, the word, you can look this up if you want to,
shake it the wilderness. The word shake it there is bring
forth. Bring forth. And I tell you,
in our wilderness, He has brought forth life and faith and love
and grace and all these things. And even this little deer, He
brings forth her young, and then listen, and he discovereth the
forest." That word discover there is makes bare, lays bare, and
what he's saying here is to his eyes everything is known, even
in the deep forest. Move all the leaves and the limbs
and the foliage and the ferns and all these things, and underneath
some little shrub is a little rabbit. God. He's a sparrow, takes care of
the rabbit. Frightened little rabbit, that's
me. He's involved. This God is to be worshipped. You know, somebody said one time,
amid all the voices and noises, and like you said, Dale, man
speaks and it never ends, it just keeps going. Somebody said
the voice and the sound waves are still there, but among all
of this, and the thunder and lightning and hail and floods
and storms and everything, and yet one of His own can call His name, and He hears,
and He cares. He hears your whisper. He hears
your groaning, not even whispering, because everything listens, and
in His temple, We're not talking about that place in Jerusalem.
We're not talking about this place here in Ashland. We're
talking about His temple. The heavens are the roof, and
the grass and the forest are the carpet, and the windows are
the universe, and the stars and the moon are the lights in this
temple. And in His temple, everyone speaks of his clothes.