God who speaks awesomely
Psa
29:3 The voice of the LORD
is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the LORD thunders over
the mighty waters.
Sometimes
there are things in life that you simply take for granted, breathing
for instance, or life itself, or colours or taste, a whole range of
things. For those of us who study God's word, the thing we probably
take for granted most and accept without thought is the fact that
God speaks. In the 18th meditation we did indeed pick up on the fact
that God is a God of communication, but today's verse goes beyond
that. When God speaks, things happen. In this respect He is very different
from us. We can use words and nothing changes (if it's in respect
of people, to people, they may change), but when God speaks, so often
it is a command and when God commands, the world changes. God speaks
and material things change. How does He do that? It's beyond our finite
minds. He's God and when we say He's all-powerful, we mean it. He
only has to speak it and things change.
In
this psalm, David perhaps is under cover watching a thunder storm.
He sees the thunder as God speaking. He starts the psalm with a call
to ascribe to God glory and strength or power. It's like he's saying,
you need to see God as He really is, acclaim Him for who He really
is. Later in the psalm he says, “And
in his temple all cry,"Glory!"
(v.9). The end result of thinking of these things is that the people
will give glory to God. Why? Because they will have seen His might
and His majesty as they look on Creation and see the works of God.
Seven
times in this psalm he refers to “the voice of the Lord”.
God speaks and it happens. At Creation, each act of creation was bought
about by God saying, “Let there be…”
(Gen 1:3,6,9,11,14,15,20,24,26). The same thing: God speaks and
it happens. In this psalm today, David sees the Lord speaking and
thundering (v.3), breaking trees (v.5), even the oaks (v.9), and shaking
the desert (v.8). Yes, for the materialist this is purely the work
of nature (don't let's give it a capital ‘N' for that seems to suggest
personality), temperature changes that brings about thunder and rain
and lightening. For David, this is the voice of God at work, a mighty
voice having mighty effect.
Have
you ever stood in a thunderstorm with a sense of awe? We're told that
one lightning strike can carry enough electricity to power 10 million
homes for one month, and there you are standing there with deafening
thunder and lightening strikes of incredible power every few seconds.
If that isn't awesome, what is? Of course scientists can observe temperature
and pressure changes but why should they happen? Don't be silly, says
David, just recognize here the power and presence of God in His Creation.
He speaks and things happen.
The
struggle to understand ‘providence' is the struggle to see the hand
of God and hear the voice of God. Was God in this flood or that hurricane?
We'll never be able to answer that confidently this side of heaven.
The Bible suggests, at the very least, He is behind it sometimes.
There are Biblical examples of God bringing ‘natural' effects to bear
to destroy enemies. Whether it's all or some, we could be in danger
of missing the point: God can speak and this can be the effect. He
can do it and sometimes, at least, does do it. That makes Him awesome,
that brings a proper perspective in life. In the early years of the
21st century we have seen a considerable number of such ‘natural catastrophes'.
What they tell us is that we're powerless. Let's give Him proper respect
and worship.