Early in the morning, Thanksgiving day...
...and I was spending a few minutes of time with the Lord (the littles were awake, but still sleepy and playing quietly together)...
I had lots to do, but if I didn't read then, it wouldn't happen. I just knew...
I read through Psalm 29.
I know I've read it before, but it has never been one of those psalms that has stood out in my mind. It didn't, again, as I read it that Thanksgiving morning.
But I'm part of an accountability group and that was our scheduled reading. I like to share what God says to me through His word in that forum. Therefore I determined to wrestle with the passage a bit... maybe even wrestle with the Lord, and ask Him to help me understand something, anything from words read early on a Thanksgiving morn that I could apply to my life immediately.
So as I read... and reread... and rereread... I noticed: the psalmist points the readers'/listeners' attention towards that one thing which is always most important - God's voice.
In the entire psalm, a short passage of only 11 verses, the serious reader cannot help but take note of God's terrifying voice and all that His voice accomplishes:
- gloriously thundering over waters
- full of power
- majestic and mighty
- snapping huge trees into pieces
- causing the earth to buck and move like a frolicking calf
- striking like lightning
- making deserts tremble and shake
- twisting and contorting mighty trees
- leveling forests and stripping foliage from trees
Yes, God does speak in a still, small voice. But He is not limited to that voice alone. This psalm paints a stunning, stupefying picture of:
a God whose voice speaks with power,
power more terrifying than
a thunderstorm...
a tornado...
an earthquake...
a flood...
a volcano...
a tsunami...
I read this one commentator, a guy named M. Stith who wrote:
"This is a voice able to rip creation apart, just as it brought creation into being.... The voice does not break just any little, scrubby tree but rather the cedars of Lebanon -- the largest, strongest, and most famous trees in Israel's experience. The voice does not cause just any old piece of land to shudder and shake but rather Sirion, also known as Mt. Hermon, the largest, tallest mountain in all the Levant, and the wilderness of Kadesh, the anvil on which Israel was forged. The Psalm, with its repetition of 'The voice of the Lord...the voice of the Lord...the voice of the Lord,' is relentless in driving home the awesome power and terrible majesty of that voice and of its owner. There is nothing else that compares.... The voice that strips the cedars and the forests also strips away all human pretensions of power, control, and agency. The voice that flashes fire and lightning erases any notion of our own insight and understanding. The voice that shakes Lebanon, Sirion, and Kadesh shakes all human sureties, assumptions, and plans. Before this revelation of even a tiny fraction of the full reality of the Lord, we are undone. We see the only sort of response to this sort of power - cry "Glory!"
Ummmm... Yes! All that!
May we, not just on days of remembrance like Thanksgiving, but always, every day, fall before Him in prayer as we recognize that
- we are utterly, totally and completely dependent upon Him;
- that our only reasonable and right response is to give Him all glory.
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Joining up with Kate for another Five Minute Friday!
You have given me the inspiration to read everyday, from the Bible. I used to do this, just let the Book fall open and read from wherever I put a finger down. This Bible was like a gift from God for me a long time ago. I'll write about it, I'm so inspired by your post. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteA powerful piece of writing. It's only when we analyse the Bible that we realise it's true significance. [A fellow FMF-er]
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