Heart of a Psalmist - Worshipping Christ Through The Psalms

• Guidance - “ Lead them like a shepherd…” • Strength - “ …carry them forever in your arms.”

The beautiful imagery of the shepherd carrying his sheep in his arms expresses the tenderness of God’s heart toward us when life is overwhelming. Isaiah sees the same cameo picture in his prophecy: “ He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will carry the lambs in his arms, holding them close to his heart. “ (Isa. 40:11) This is the anointed king we have been invited to know and love.

1 Spurgeon

PSALM 29: THE VOICE OF THE LORD The Thunderstorm of Worship

This psalm is about a violent thunder and lightening storm that arose from the waters of the Mediter- ranean Sea and swept across the entire land of Palestine from Mount Hermon in the north to the wilder- ness of Kadesh in the south. It describes God’s spiritual Thunderstorm of Worship that will come from His temple and cover the world with the honor due his name. The name of God is mentioned 25 times in this short poem reminding us that God is ‘in’ the storms of life. Psalm 19 is to be read as you look at the starry heavens, Psalm 23 beside still waters but this psalm is to be read in the thunderstorm. The psalm was traditionally sung on the day of Pentecost in the Old Testament liturgy corresponding to the Day of Pentecost in the New Testament when the church experienced the lightening-like tongues of fire being poured out upon the believers. It is divided into three distinct parts:

I. GIVE HONOR TO THE LORD -The Summons for Angelic Worship- 1,2 II. THE VOICE OF THE LORD - The Seven Voices of Thunder- 3-9 III. THE LORD RULES - The Storm is God’s Throne- 10,11

INTRODUCTION :

“ A Psalm of David ” King David, a man who experienced many storms in his lifetime, is the author.

I. GIVE HONOR TO THE LORD - The Summons for Angelic Worship- (1,2)

“ Give honor to the Lord, you angels; give honor to the Lord for his glory and strength. Give honor to the Lord for the glory of his name. Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.”(1,2)

The psalmist calls for the two aspects of worship to be loosed in the heavenly realm; the angels giving God the honor due his name in thunderous praise and the worshiping him in the splendor of His holiness. Revelation lets us see more clearly: “ Then I looked again, and I heard the singing of thou- sands and millions of angels around the throne and the living beings and the elders. And they sang in a mighty chorus: ‘The Lamb is worthy…’”(Rev. 5:11,12). One of the great truths of this psalm is ‘when heaven comes down, earth rises up.’ The angelic wor- ship is like the down-stroke of lightening and the responding of the people of God on earth is like the backstroke of lightening. The speed of the down-stroke is 100 to 1,000 miles per second but the back- stroke is 87,000 miles per second creating the sound of thunder. The worship of God upon earth is to be even greater than the angelic praise!

Revelation 19:4-6 illustrates this.

Heaven comes down- (the down-stroke of God’s lightening)- “ Then the twenty-four elders and the four living beings fell down and worshiped God, who was sitting on the throne. They cried out, ‘Amen! Hallelujah!’ And from the throne came a voice that said, ‘Praise our God, all his servants, from the least to the greatest, all who fear him.’”

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