Well friends, it's my privilege to share with you some of the word of God this evening. And it's Psalm 29, Psalm 29 that we're reading from this evening. Psalm 29 in verse one. Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty, give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory, Jew, unto his name. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. The voice of the Lord is upon the waters. The God of glory thunders. The Lord is upon many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars. Yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon. He maketh them also to skip like a calf, Lebanon and Surin, like a young unicorn. The voice of the Lord divides the flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness. The Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kaddish. The voice of the Lord maketh the hounds to calve, and discovereth the forest, and in the temple doth everyone speak of his glory. The Lord sitteth upon the flood, yea, the Lord sitteth king for ever. The Lord will give strength unto his people, and the Lord will bless his people with peace. And trust the Lord to bless the reading of his precious word. The theme of this psalm, of course, is largely a psalm of worship and of God's mighty power. I'm not necessarily going to go from verse to verse, as you should do. normally when you're speaking from the word in this psalm, but I'm just going to cherry pick through it, so you can forgive me for that in the time that we have. But there's good pickings, of course, in this psalm here, so I'm just going to cherry pick, which is not normally the way you should speak. This is a psalm of David, and it's thought to express David's fear. that he may perish in a great storm sweeping the nation, sweeping the nation of Israel at this time. David, it seems, is caught out in this storm in some way. He's exposed to its full wrath. Whether he was on sea or on land, we cannot be sure, but that seems to be the background that many believe that this is a background to the psalm. But of course, finally, it goes on to tell of God's faithfulness in the storm to David. So verse one and two, two we read, 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. There's three little words in there that stood out to me, and there's three gifts. There's three gives and then two verses. The requirement is that we give unto the Lord the glory due to his name. That is one thing that is required of us. The question is, do we really come, do we really meet together with the Lord's people to give? That's a question I can ask myself many times and a question you, I'm sure, can ask yourself. What do we bring? And the answer is here. The answer is here to glory and honor and praise, and praise to the Lord. We have to give up our feeble stance, and he will then, as promised, to uphold us. We are to give to the Lord glory due to his name, that lovely name that reminds us of the one who has come to save his people, Jesus, and the one who has come to save his people from their sins. We are to give worship and adoration and do it all in the beauty, in the beauty of holiness, for he is beautiful, and holy and we are to give with holy motives in a holy manner to the one who is truly worthy of glory and truly worthy of glory and honor. So that remains as just the three gives. We're here to give. We're here to give as we gather in the Lord's house. But the question comes, we could all ask ourselves, as I ask myself, how is my giving going? How is my giving going? We live in a world that does not think so much about giving. Doesn't think so much about giving. We all know this very well. But they think more, much more about what can I get? What can I get? What's in it for me? Is a question you might ask. The danger, of course, is that attitude comes into the church of Jesus Christ. What's in it for me? So that's just a practical challenge for us all and for myself in the verse. As we notice the three gifts. And we are here to give and not just to expect to receive. We're here to be taking all the time. There's many ways to give, of course. We all know them. I don't need to mention them at this time. There's many ways we can give unto the Lord. But we all can give in some way or another. Of course, the New Testament tells us what we should give very clearly. It says we were to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto the Lord, which is a reasonable service. In other words, the least we can do, the least we can do is present our bodies as a living sacrifice. So how's our giving going? A great question we can all ask ourselves. Also in verse one, we notice it says, O ye mighty men, give unto the Lord glory, glory and strength. What I've thought of there is pray for the mighty men. Pray for the mighty men. This is a sad fact about our mighty men today in this land of ours, in this nation of ours. Few of them will give any sort of glory and honor to God in this nation. Very few of them do. Very few of them do. To be fair to Queen Elizabeth and even Kings Charles, they would mention the Lord in a brief way at times, but I'd say that other top politicians God doesn't exist. God doesn't exist, which is a sad fact in this nation. It's a very sad fact in this nation that was so different many years ago. Indeed, worse still, they would mock and hinder the Church of Jesus Christ, as we can see coming down the line, passing laws totally against the scripture. Asked why this nation and so many others go from one crisis to another, leave the leave the mighty God out of their plans and out of their thinking entirely. No wonder we go from COVID-19 to war in Europe and Ukraine, to rampant inflation, to many other things, humanistic religion, the humanistic religion which has climate change agenda, which is really what it is, it's a humanistic religion. What should our response be? Simply pray that they may rule well in spite of themselves. that they may rule well in spite of themselves and their godless nature, and that their God may steer their evil hand away from doing acts that will do the nation harm. That's what our responsibility is, pray for the mighty men of this land, that they'll not do this nation harm by what they seek to do. That's a sad fact, the mighty men of this land don't honor God in any way. Verse three then goes on to say, the voice of the Lord is upon the waters. The God of glory thunders. The Lord is upon many waters. The godly voice, there's a godly voice in the storm. The God of glory thunders. The God of glory thunders. Nobody misses the sound of thunder. I've many a time been, I've been out in the open air of course a lot, and you can hear the thunder way in the distance. I'm sure you've all heard it yourselves, I could hear the thunder maybe away at the far side of the loch, and somebody's getting a pounding over there or whatever's going on. It could be raining as well. But what this just reminds us of the voice of, nobody misses it. Nobody misses it. If you're out in open at all, you will hear it away in the distance. There's nobody can escape the sound of the thunder, which reminds us of the voice of the Lord. This is a great truth. And this, that the God of glory could be in the storm. but he's using us maybe to get us to stop and to listen more intently. His power is almighty, it is limitless, it's loud, and all may hear, that all may hear and listen. God may be trying to tell us something he could not get through to us any other way. There can be times when the Lord is not in the storm, but maybe still has things to say to teach us through it all. We would do well to be attentive, to have an attentive ear like Samuel. Remember what Samuel said as the Lord spoke to him in 1 Samuel 3, verse 10, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, speak, Lord, for thy servant hears. It's better to listen than a storm to come our way that we may hear it more clearly. Verse four then, it says that the voice of the Lord is powerful, the voice of the Lord is full. is full of majesty, a godly voice, a godly majestic voice in the storm. The voice of the Lord is powerful and full of majesty. It's a blessed thing and an uplifting thing to really get a view, a vision of the might and majesty of our God. It always sticks in my mind what the officers said in the temple, what the officers said in the temple as our Lord spoke Never a man speak to this man. Never a man speak to this man. What a pleasure it would have been to listen to the Lord teach from his own book, from his own book. Never a man speak to this man. Or what the fearful disciples said about our Lord as he awakened, as he awakened and the Lord came, as the Lord came to wind and the waves. What manner of man is this, even the wind, even the wind and the sea obeys him? Or in 1 John 1, 14, and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. This is the one who is powerful, the one who indeed is full of majesty, the one who is majestic, the godly, majestic voice in the storm, full of majesty. Verse five then goes on to say, the voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars, yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars, Lebanon cedars are well known with a tall and very strong tree, so it takes something to break them, but the storm Is in the sky in verse 5 and verse 3 and see we notice it's it's upon the water So it's on the Mediterranean Sea in verse 3 upon the waters the glory of God thunders and verse 5 we see it's it's north When it's breaking the cedars of Lebanon, it's north and then it's in the south and verse 8 in the wilderness and So what I'm just trying to say there, the storm has surrounded them. They're totally surrounded from the Mediterranean Sea, south and north. And of course the storm is moving east. So they're totally surrounded. Then once the Mediterranean and the west, their movement would have been limited, the storm had totally surrounded them. So much more, this can remind us all of times when troubles come our way, they can feel all-consuming. They can feel all consuming. You could feel like you're under siege. But ours is a God that can break the siege. Ours is a God that can break the siege. Our God can sustain his people in and through the siege. We may feel overwhelmed, but our God is never overwhelmed. He is never overwhelmed. But what feels like great trouble and a great storm to us can be stilled by a single word from the Lord, if he wills. if he wills to do it. And if our God does not calm the storm, he can give us peace. He can give us peace in the midst of the storm. As verse 11 says, the Lord will bless his people with peace. He can bless his people with peace no matter what may be happening in the background. Verse 7 then. The voice of the Lord divides the flames of fire. A fire lit in the heart and hearts in the storm. That's what I've called this, a fire lit in hearts in the storm. This is a poetic way of describing fork lightning. The voice of the Lord divide us the flames of fire, a poetic way of describing fork lightning darting from the clouds. The voice of the Lord and the fire of the Lord can we could think of can change a carnal Christian to a spiritual believer by lighting a fire in their heart to burn for God's glory. It would always be good to be like John in the book of Revelation, chapter 1, verse 10. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day and heard behind me a great voice. I also have a trumpet. Friends, it's good to be in the Spirit on the Lord's day, but it would even better to be in the Spirit every day. not just the Lord's Day, hearing the Lord's voice loud and clear. Friends, there's times we all could do a lot of fire lit in our hearts, a lot of fire coming from the Lord to strengthen us and to bring the Spirit on the Lord's Day or every day. Verse 9. Verse 9. The voice of the Lord maketh the hains to calve and the One discovers the forest, and in the temple doth one speak of his glory. The voice of the Lord maketh the hens to calve. Now this reminds me of what I do from day to day. So I figured this one out as fruit very quickly. So the fruit results of the storm. Fruit as a result of the storm. New life comes out of the storm, which is the obvious thing you see there. New life comes out of the storm. They calved early because of the storm that caused them to calve early, or a few days early, anyway. Fruit is something the Lord desires from all of us. Fruit is something the Lord desires from all of us. Sometimes the troubles in life can change us by focusing our minds on what's important being fruitful for the Lord, which is what is important for the Lord and what should be important for us. In John chapter one, verse five, it says, speaking of the vine, I am the vine and ye are the branches. He that abides in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth fruit. For without me, ye can do nothing. For without me, ye can do nothing. Fruit is a must. Fruit is a must for all our lives. It's not an option. as some of us may think at times, but that's fruit as a result of the storm. We citizens of heaven troubles are passing, we notice in verse nine as well. And in his temple doth everyone speak of his glory. Get heaven's view of our troubles is really what I was thinking of a get heaven's view of our troubles. If we have heaven's view of all events on earth, then despair need not raise its ugly head, that despair need not raise its head. God would have us dwell in him above the storm, above the storm. Troubles will not be named there in God's temple. Only the glory of God, only the glory of God Everyone sings from the same hymn sheet in heaven. Glory to God, hallelujah. Things may often look dark down here at times. They may often look dark down here at times, but nothing can disturb the serenity of God's throne. Nothing disturbs it. Nothing disturbs it. When we are in glory, earth's troubles will only bring a smile as the hymn writer wrote. Romans 8 verse 18 says For I reckon the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Our citizenship is in heaven, from hence we look for our Saviour. To keep the Lord near down here, as in heaven, for sure our view of life's problems would be less distressing. If we are to see everything in this life through through heaven. Truly, earth's problems wouldn't be as bad. Friends, if we could view earth from heaven, we would see things very different. Viewing a temporary earth from an eternal heaven, things certainly would look a whole lot better. So we citizens of heaven troubles are passing. And then verses 10 and 11, The Lord setteth upon the flood, yea, the Lord setteth king forever. The Lord will give strength unto his people, the Lord will bless his people with peace. This is an assurance of blessing as addressed to men in tales of peace. The throne of the Lord rules over the flood. Rules over the flood, we notice here. The Lord setteth upon the flood. The Lord setteth upon the flood. Our Lord controls every difficult event in our lives. He controls every event of our lives. Trouble may come in like a flood, but the flood will only raise as high as the Lord allows it. The flood that you fear is going to overwhelm you won't, for our God simply will not allow it. He simply will not allow it, for he set us upon the flood. The Lord sitteth king forever, the Lord is on a stone, and he will remember his own. Things may seem out of control, but our God still rules from the stone. Verse 11, we notice from the throne strength and peace are shared. The Lord will give strength unto his people, the Lord will bless his people with peace. He will give his people a share of his strength, in other words, and then and beyond the storm will bless them with peace. I'll read that again. He will give his people a share of his strength, and then and beyond the storm will bless his people with peace. What a lovely truce that is, explaining a wee bit more intensely what that verse is. With the Lord's strength and peace, What more would we need? What more would we need? Surely we could learn to trust the Lord's strength and peace from day to day. Surely with these two, we could any storm withstand. With these two, God-given blessings, strength and peace, we could boldly say the Lord is my helper. The Lord is my helper. This is truly a psalm for storm-tossed souls. As we said, quoted earlier on, with Christ in the vessel, we can smile. We can almost smile at the storm. This is truly a psalm for a storm tossed souls. Just to finish off with, there's seven thunder utterances in this psalm. We read seven times the voice of the Lord. Seven times in that passage, the voice of the Lord. Our God speaks time and time again before he uses a storm. There's an easy way for a soul to learn and a hard way, and we unfortunately all take the hard way most of the time. Our God can use the still small voice of the scripture as he does in the Book of Kings, as we hear about in the Book of Kings through his word, but sometimes it doesn't work. We're not just to be hearers of the word, friends, we're to be doers also. We're to be doers also. We need to listen intently to the voice of the Lord. We need to listen intently to the voice of the Lord, which is what them seven thunder utterances remind us of. I trust the Lord will bless this work. Thank you.