Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Psalm 29 is a thunderstorm bookended in gifts.  It starts with our gift to God, saying,
“Give to the Lord the glory due his name
  Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness”  (v. 1). 

And it concludes: 
“The Lord gives strength to his people;
        The Lord blesses his people with peace” (v.11). 

Between our gift of praise to God, and God’s gift of peace to us, the psalm describes God’s power in a storm. It is much like that passage in Job where God speaks in a thunderstorm. Elihu said, 

“Who can understand how he spreads out the clouds,
        how he thunders from his pavilion?
    See how he scatters his lightning about him,
        Bathing the depths of the sea” (Job 36:29-30). 

One summer our family vacationed on the eastern edge of the Rockies. We stayed at a campsite in our thin nylon dome tent with matching blue nylon rain sheet. The made-in-China tent was supposed to sleep six, but the four of us filled it up. The gravel pad under the tent bent regular tent pegs, so we substituted 12-inch nails driven in with an axe. The tent floor had a small hole created by campfire embers from some forgotten expedition, but fortunately I had patched it with duct tape. 

One night after our evening walk to the running water and flush toilets at the “Trading Post”, the late summer twilight darkened quickly as black clouds hurried over the mountains. Large raindrops splattered on the dusty path so we crawled into our sleeping bags, zipped the nylon door, and waited. Heavy rain lashed our thin shelter and bursts of lightning flashed blue light through the walls. After each burst of light, a dark pause, then a rumble and an awesome crack of thunder. Water streamed down the flysheet and flowed in shallow rivers away from the tent. The duct tape on the floor held fast.

That’s probably the least protected I’ve ever been in a thunderstorm. It was beautiful and it was awesome, but in a  fearful and dangerous way. Like the voice of God.

Let’s pray the familiar verses of Psalm 29. 

The voice of the Lord is over the waters;
    the God of glory thunders,
    the Lord thunders over the mighty waters.
The voice of the Lord is powerful;
    the voice of the Lord is majestic.
The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;
    the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
He makes Lebanon leap like a calf,
    Sirion like a young wild ox.
The voice of the Lord strikes
    with flashes of lightning.
The voice of the Lord shakes the desert;
    the Lord shakes the Desert of Kadesh.
The voice of the Lord twists the oaks
    and strips the forests bare.
And in his temple all cry, ‘Glory!’ (vv. 3-9).

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.