Episode Transcript
You’re listening to a podcast by Lance Lambert Ministries. For more information on this ministry, visit lancelambert.org or follow us on social media to receive all of our updates.
In this episode, Lance reads from Psalm 29 and explains how this psalm teaches that Lord is the King even in the midst of a fierce storm. Let’s listen to The Lord Sat as King at the Flood.
Psalm 29, verse one.
Ascribe unto the Lord, o ye sons of the mighty. Ascribe unto the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe unto the Lord, the glory due unto his name worship the Lord in holy array, or in the beauty of holiness.
The voice of the Lord is upon the waters, the God of glory thundereth even the Lord 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 in pieces the cedars of Lebanon. He maketh them also to skip like a calf, Lebanon and Syria like a young wild ox.
The voice of the Lord cleaveth the flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness. The Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve and stripeth the forest bare, and in his temple everything saith glory.
The Lord sat as king at the flood. Yea, the Lord sitteth as king forever. The Lord will give strength unto his people, the Lord will bless his people with peace.
I do not know whether you have ever found this psalm confusing, but I remember it has often been to me a somewhat confusing psalm. If we read things superficially, we shall not be confused because we are not taking in what we read.
But if we study such a psalm, I think naturally we shall become a little confused. What has ascribing unto the Lord glory and strength, ascribing unto the Lord, the glory due unto his name, worshipping the Lord in the beauty of holiness, to do with forests being stripped bare and the wilderness being shaken, and hinds being made to calve, and the voice of the Lord on many waters exactly what was all this to do?
And why this strange little phrase in the midst of this obvious catastrophe and everything in his temple saith glory. It's very confusing.
It seems to be a jumble of phrases. Indeed, in the last century some people suggested that this psalm was just that, a collection of bits and pieces that had been rather hastily put together with not much thought, just because it seems to be so confusing. And then at the end the Lord sat as king at the flood, the Lord sitteth as king forever. It seems to be, at a first reading, a somewhat confusing psalm.
Then I want you to notice, having said that, that this psalm has an introduction and a conclusion. If you have your revised version or your standard version, you will see that very, very clearly. Verses one and two are a clear, distinct introduction, and verses ten and eleven are a distinct and deliberate conclusion. From verse three to verse nine is a description of a storm.
You have then an introduction in the first two verses, a description of a vivid storm and a conclusion in the last two verses. Its context is quite simple. In this country, although of late we have had more vivid storms, we do not have the vivid, more tropical type storm that we have in the Middle East.
This is a description of an electric storm and a tornado that swept in from the Mediterranean Sea and crashed about in the mountains of Lebanon and around Hermon, Syria is another name for Hermon. And then as the psalmist watched it come in from the sea and crash and roll around in the mountains, then he saw it sweep down to the lowlands.
And at last he sees it vanishing in the desert, the wilderness of Kadesh, that is in the very far south. So we have a description of a storm that evidently the psalmist is taking as his vantage point, the temple.
He evidently feels that he is in the temple and he says, far in the far north, it sweeps out from the sea and then crashes around in the mountains.
All kinds of devastation ravishing ravaging the mountains. And then it sweeps right through the whole country and sweeps away in the lowlands, the wilderness, as it was called, the lowlands of Judah. And so the storm has ended. We have then this description of the storm, and some have said it is one of the most remarkable and the most vivid descriptions of a storm in all literature.
The voice of the Lord is upon the waters. The God of glory thundereth, even the Lord 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 in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.
You see, the tornado has hit the Lebanon region, smashing the cedars, which are always a symbol in the Old Testament of that which is the most majestic and the most stately and the most dignified. And then even the mountains, Lebanon and Hermon, begin to skip and dance. They are jumping.
The impact of the storm is making things which, as it were, were a symbol of stability and a symbol of strength. They're making those things to shake and to dance, as it were. Then was the lightning. And then at last we find the wilderness being shaken and the forest being stripped bare and calves being born prematurely because of the suddenness and the vividness of the storm.
Well, now what have we to learn from this psalm? Is it just a description of a storm? And if so, why this introduction and this conclusion? The first thing I want to point out to you this morning is this that the Lord is in everything, the Lord bounds everything in the child of God's experience.
It is a remarkable thing that in this short, brief little psalm the name of the Lord appears 18 times. 18 times the Lord is found in this psalm. In actual fact, 25 times it’s found, but 18 times he is actually named by his own name, Jehovah. And that not just in the storm. The remarkable thing is this that seven times is the voice of Jehovah mentioned in the storm.
But we find the Lord is found in every part in the introduction, in the conclusion and right through the description of the storm. The Lord is found in every part. That has something, you know, to teach us. There are times, and there may be some of us here this morning that are tempted at times to feel that the Lord is not in everything.
There are some things far too terrible, far too dark, far too mysteriously evil for the Lord to have anything to do with them, for the Lord to in any way govern them or to be behind them, or for it to be possible for the Lord to use those things for his own end. But this psalm teaches us that the most terrifying experiences, the most sudden and the most inexplicable experiences can be taken up by the Lord and used by the Lord. The Lord bound everything. Now, I don't know the problems of your life.
I do know one thing, that whatever the problem of your particular life or whatever the problems of your particular life whatever it be, whether it be in relationships, whether it be in things, whether it be in your own personality or nature, whatever it is, I do know this that the Lord bounds it all. The Lord sits as King. Over what? The flood.
Now, the flood in Scripture always speaks of restlessness, of sorrow and of judgment. And it is over that that the Lord sits as King. Is that not wonderful? Isn't that very wonderful for us to take hold of today? There's something very, very wonderful about the ways the Lord, once he has saved us, once we've become his children he takes everything in our lives and bounds it all.
There's nothing that is without the circumference of his grace. There's nothing that is without the scope of his hand. It's all bounded. It may be there's some illness you're facing. Maybe there's some other kind of difficulty. It may be there's something in your heart or in your life which you yourself at present can find no solution or answer for the Lord is bounding all that and the Lord can govern all that.
He sits as King over the flood. He is in all and he bounds all. Now, just take hold of that this morning and go away and think about it.
It's one thing to sing about it. It's one thing to talk about it. It's one thing to profess it. It's another thing in experience to believe it. Is the Lord really in everything? And is the Lord really bounding everything? That's where our difficulty comes. We're so apt to sing, so apt to talk, so apt to pray. But when it comes to the experience, we're so apt to disbelief.
So let us believe that. And then I want to mention one other thing in connection with this thought that may help you. The name that the Lord uses in this psalm 18 times is his own covenant name, Jehovah.
He doesn't use, as you would have thought, El Shaddai, God Almighty. He doesn't even use his general name for creation, Elohim. And we would have thought that he would have used these names, would we not? Here is a description of creation in havoc, a description of a catastrophe in the natural creation. Then we would have thought that the description, the title that the Holy Spirit would have used would have been El Shaddai. God Almighty.
Make us stand back and think, My, how tremendous he is. The voice of El Shaddai is powerful. The voice of El Shaddai is full of majesty. The voice of El Shaddai breaketh the cedars and so on. We would have expected that. But no, the Lord uses this name. He speaks of Himself as the voice of Jehovah, his covenant name. What does Jehovah mean?
It always signifies God in his redeeming relationship with his people. It always brings into view his love, his mercy and his faithfulness. Now, is that not wonderful? It's not only that God is in everything and God bounds everything. It is much more personal than that. It is our Father.
Our Lord is in everything and bounds everything. It is as if he is taking every single thing in our lives and, as it were, using it to one end to bring us to that full stature that is his aim. So you see, there's something very, very wonderful there. It's Jehovah that has got us in hand and that is very, very wonderful for the foundation of all his work in us and with us and through us is not what we are, but what he is.
In other words, it is Jehovah. And if I thought that it was anything else, I should be frightened about this psalm. I should say, what a terrifying psalm. What a frightening psalm. Oh, what the Lord requires of us. But you see, the Lord's laid the foundation already. He's given us the provision already, his name's Jehovah.
And he says, on this ground I will prove my faithfulness to you. I will prove my faithfulness to you. On this ground. I will work in you and I will take everything, even your mistakes, even your failures, even all that you are. I'll take those very things, sometimes mysteriously evil, I will take them and I'll make them the weapon.
I'll make them, as it were, the hammer to bring you to the place where you're fully conformed to the image of my son. That is the thought I wanted to leave with you and I want to pass on another as time just permits. And that is this something we should never do.
I'm afraid I rather apt to do it myself. I want you to look at the introduction and the conclusion. I want you just to look at the first two verses and the last two verses, and I want you to see there what we are told.
First of all, you will notice the introduction. And what is the introduction? It is a call. Oh, a call? Yes, a call. And it is a call to two things. Now listen to the call, ascribe unto the Lord, o ye sons of the mighty. Ascribe unto the Lord glory and strength.
Ascribe unto the Lord the glory due unto his name. What is this call? The psalmist makes a call, he issues an invitation. And what is the invitation? It is twofold. First of all, it is to recognise our unworthiness and his worth. What do we mean? Well, it's all bound up in this: ascribe unto the Lord glory and strength.
Now, of course we all do that by lip, but what we do in heart is often another matter. It's so easy to say, oh, the Lord is everything, the Lord is everything, all the glory is the Lord’s until it comes to the issue. And then we suddenly find that we feel we're quite capable of doing certain things.
We really don't feel we need the Lord. Quite honestly, in that situation, I don't feel I need the help of the Lord there, I've always been able to do it. I'm sure I can continue going on doing it. We are not prepared in experience to ascribe unto the Lord the glory and the strength. And that's exactly the heart of the New Testament. No flesh shall glory in his presence.
Let him that glorieth, glory in this that he knoweth me, says the prophet Isaiah, says the prophet Jeremiah, you see everywhere through the word the Lord's very, very careful to get a very real and practical recognition of this fact that he is everything. The glory is his and the strength is his.
Very important for us to understand that the psalmist is issuing an invitation. He says, Come, come, let's recognise the Lord. Let's recognise that all the glory of Israel is the glory of Jehovah. Let us recognise that the strength of Israel is the strength of Jehovah.
Let's ascribe unto the Lord the glory that’s due unto his name. Recognition, you will never be able ever to really ascribe unto the Lord the glory and the strength which is due to Him, until you find out your own corruption and your own weakness.
That's a simple law. Until we know what it is to be broken and empty and weak and shattered, we can talk about the Lord having the glory and everything else, but he hasn't really. So it is here. And the second part of this call, this invitation, is to worship.
Do you know what worship is? It's a word that's come in English from the word worth-ship, acknowledging his worth, that's worship, worth-ship. So you see, once you've recognised what you are and what he is, then the psalmist says worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness, worship the Lord in holy array. You see, there's a twofold invitation.
Well, that's the introduction to this psalm. A call to give the Lord what is due to him, to ascribe the glory and the strength unto the Lord and to worship the Lord. Now, what is the conclusion? We ought not to look, I suppose, at the end, as it were, of the book, but let's see what it's all getting to and how it's all ending. The last two verses have three very, very wonderful things. What is the end? The psalmist tells us what the end is. First of all, the kingship of the Lord.
The Lord sat as king at the flood. Yea, the Lord sitteth as king forever.
That's the issue. Oh, this is interesting. We've seen the introduction. A call to recognise what we are and what he is.
That it’s all of grace, it's all of God, all of the Lord, and a call to worship. Now, the issue of this is kingship, that he should be King of everything and forever. None of this fluctuating business. People who make the Lord King one day and something else the next. And they say, yes, Lord, you can govern me today, and tomorrow they're deciding exactly what they're going to do themselves. None of this fluctuating business. He's going to be King over the flood and King forever. Do you see?
Kingship. The second thing is a strong people. Oh, this is the end of this psalm. A strong people. A strong people. It says, the Lord will give strength unto his people. When you've come to ascribe the strength unto him, you're a strong man and a strong woman.
That's when the Lord starts to put his strength into you. And not until then, you'll know a lot of weakness, a lot of being knocked around till the time comes when you know what you are and you know what he is. And then the Lord will give strength unto his people. The end is kingship and a strong people.
Are not those two things linked together? In the time of the judges everyone did that which was right in his own eyes because there was no king in the land. Kingship and a strong people are linked. Here we have it. A strong people. And what is the third thing? A very wonderful thing, it's simply peace.
The Lord will bless his people with peace. That's the issue. So we've looked at the introduction and we've seen it's a call. We've looked at the conclusion and we see what the issue is. His kingship, a strong people and peace on every side.
Now, I have to ask one last question and we have to leave one last thought with you, and you must go. How is the call realised? In other words, how is the call in the first two verses realised?
In this psalm, we find that there's been a progression. At the beginning, there's a call to recognise the Lord, to worship him. At the end something is obviously established. He is King. He is King. There's a strong people, there's going to be a strong people and there's peace on every side.
What is the way? The way, says the psalmist, is by the storm. You see those vital, those vital six verses lie between the introduction and the conclusion. How is the Lord going to be King? Ah, he says the Psalmist has learnt a great lesson. He has found out that it has been by the storm. And it is the most significant thing that in this storm the voice of the Lord is mentioned seven times.
What does that teach us? That it is in the storm that the Lord speaks. It is in the storm that the Lord educates us. It is in the storm that the Lord instructs us. In this storm, so full of terrifying power, so dark, so sudden and so inexplicable, the Lord comes and the Lord speaks and he takes his little child and he starts to instruct and educate his child in that storm. It's all found just simply there. Now let us just see this and we can go. It will not take me a few minutes to simply say this, a recognition of our unworthiness and of his worth.
How easy it would be if all we had to do was to rely upon our lips and to be able to say Lord, Thou art everything to me. Would it not be easy if that were it? No. The psalm tells us how are you and I going to learn how unworthy we are? How are we going to learn that all the glory is the Lord’s and all the strength is the Lord’s? How are we going to ascribe the glory due unto His name?
By a storm, by storm that will come in, will strip us bare. All kinds of things will happen, but there we shall learn what we are. A storm, as it were, uncovers things, it discovers things, it shows our weaknesses, it shows us our natural strength, our natural tenacity.
And so as the storm sweeps, not just over a part of us, but from end to end of our lives, so we shall learn what it is to ascribe unto the Lord what is his due. That is the way we learn. That is the way we learn the way in some measure anyway, I have learnt oh, you don't learn your unworthiness in meetings or in any other way. We can talk about it. It seems humble to speak like that. It seems modest, it seems so pious and godly to talk like that. And so perhaps we should, if it's real.
But where do we learn what we are? Not when we're on the mountaintop, but when we're in the storm. And then I want to tell you one other thing. Here too is a call to worship. But tell me, what a strange thing this is the psalmist is we must worship the Lord in the storm and we must worship the Lord by way of the storm.
That's the explanation for that wonderful little verse that comes so inexplicably, seemingly in the description of the storm and everything in his temple saith glory. That's where it learnt it at the heart of a storm. Well, isn't that wonderful? There's that storm ravaging everything and what do we find in his temple? Everything saying glory.
Ah, you see, you and I have been broken. We've being stripped of what we are. We've found out what we are and we're giving all the glory to the Lord. We are the living stones of the temple, built together, an habitation for God in the spirit. And what's the Lord doing in the storm that centres on that house of God? Everything that we are is being brought to light and executed, discovered and shattered. And then you see what happens.
We come to the place where it's all glory, we can give Him the glory. And you see, it simply says His Kingship is the end. That's it, that's what comes out of the storm, His Kingship. We'll never know what it is to be governed by the Lord Jesus until we find we can't govern ourselves.
We'll never know what it is to utter allegiance to His government till we find what an awful mess we make ourselves. Even spiritually. You see, these things can't be gained cheaply. They have to come like this in the storm. When we've got through it, what happens? The Lord is King over it all, King over it all. We come out the other side and His Kingship is real, practical, experimental, and what is more, the stability that was never there before and the strength that was never there before, spiritual strength and stability. And may I say that spiritual stability and strength are a question of spiritual character.
How quickly people wilt in the storm, how they go under. Just see them, the slightest suggestion of a storm and they've wilted, have gone, got to be carried through by others. Spiritual character is something which comes out of the storm, that’s produced in the storm, on the anvil of the storm, it's hammered out and it comes out the other side. Something that's strong and stable can be something like a pillar in the house of the Lord. And peace, is it strange to associate peace with the storm?
But the Lord Jesus said, my peace I give unto you. His peace was the peace He obtained in the midst of a life of storm and turmoil, bitterness. My peace, My peace I give you.
Oh, that we might be known as people who have peace in this world. Oh, it's one of the greatest needs, not only to have peace with God, but the peace of God. That's so important, that the world should find in us that which is peace. Let us really ask the Lord then to make this psalm a living reality in our lives.
May you have spiritual strength and stability from knowing the Lord as King. May you know the deep, deep love of Jesus.
