Psalm 29 - Yahweh Defeats Oceans and Nations and Wilderness

Podcast Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by Apple Podcasts)

Hello, and hope you're ready to dive into God's Word today. We are in Psalm 29. We only have, I believe, 12 more Psalms to go in Book 1 of Psalms.

And I know next week, we're going to be engaging with some of my favorite Psalms. Psalm 31 and 32 are actually Psalms that I've written songs from. Psalm 34 has one of the kind of most quotable songs of all.

And I've heard many wonderful songs from that portion of Scripture. And so looking forward to diving into that. But today we have an amazing passage in Psalm 29.

And the inscription says this, a Psalm of David. He says, Ascribe to Yahweh, you heavenly beings, ascribe to Yahweh glory and strength, ascribe to Yahweh the glory, do his name, worship Yahweh in the splendor of his holiness.

The voice of Yahweh is above the waters, the God of glory thunders, Yahweh above the vast water, the voice of Yahweh in power, the voice of Yahweh in splendor, the voice of Yahweh breaks the cedars. Yahweh shatters the cedars of Lebanon.

He makes Lebanon skip like a calf and Syrian like a young wild ox. The voice of Yahweh flashes flames of fire. The voice of Yahweh shakes the wilderness.

Yahweh shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of Yahweh makes the deer give birth and strips the woodlands bare. In his temple, all cry glory.

Yahweh sits enthroned over the flood. Yahweh sits enthroned king forever. Yahweh gives his people strength.

Yahweh blesses his people with peace. This one, if you'll note over and over and over and over again throughout the verses, it talks about the fact that all of this is because of Yahweh.

I don't remember if I've mentioned the particular reason for that name as of yet on the podcast, so I want to take just a second if I haven't. If I have, then you can enjoy a little bit of a refresher course.

But beginning in Exodus, we see God telling Moses his name is I Am. Now, many times since God told Abraham, I Am, or in Hebrew, Yahweh, many times since that was given, the Hebrew people then took on this particular rule that God had not said.

God did not say, don't say my name.

But in an attempt to be very reverent, in an attempt to obey some of the spirit of the command of not taking the name of the Lord in vain, which is more of a statement, not necessarily of blasphemy, though we shouldn't blaspheme the name of God.

That particular command is don't say God said this when God didn't say it. Don't say I am God's people and then act in such a way that is completely counter to how God would have you to act. Is more the spirit of that particular law.

That's what that command is. But in an attempt to be reverent, the Jews completely abstained from saying that name. It's spelling, if you kind of transliterated a little bit over into English, is called the Tetragrammaton.

It's four letters, Y-H-W-H. In some older translations, so those from the 1500s and 1600s, the way that they attempted to translate that was instead of with a Y, with a J, and instead of with a W, with a V.

So, they had J-V, and they inserted, if I remember correctly, the vowels in Hebrew from the word Adonai, which is kind of a generic Lord, and they made the word Jehovah.

And that was kind of what was used for a couple hundred years while those initial translations were in use. But as further studying to the biblical languages was done, they discovered, okay, there were no J's.

There wasn't anything pronounced with that J in ancient Hebrew. It would have all been Y.

So you would have instead of Judah be Yudah, which is reflected even in Greek with how the name Jesus, where we say it with a J today, it would have been said with an I.

In Greek, it's Iesus or in Hebrew with a Y, Yeshua, Yahashua for the word Joshua. Also the word salvation as it turns out.

So because of that and because what was previously pronounced as a V was more accurately pronounced as a W, the correct pronunciation, we believe, of the Tetragrammaton of YHWH is Yahweh.

And so in the Old Testament, whenever you see, I think the majority of Bible translations have this particular method. If you have capital L, O, R, D, and oftentimes all of those letters will be in small caps.

If you ever see that where it's Lord, but it's all capital letters or all small capital letters, it's communicating Yahweh. Or if you have maybe an older translation, Jehovah.

And so when I'm reading through these passages of scriptures, I read that because that's what God inspired. Like he put YHWH for Yahweh, he didn't put Lord. That word is Adonai, which sometimes there is that word Adonai that's in the text.

A lot of times Lord God, as I'm looking even here in my Bible, over in Psalm 30 and down in verse 20, it says, Yahweh, I called to you, I sought favor from my Lord. And it's Adonai.

So at least as I'm reading through scripture, I want to make that differentiation between, okay, here's what God said, and here's how this goes. It's kind of an older feature.

Even the New Testament, when it references back to the Old Testament, they still use this same thing of saying Lord instead of saying the name of God. And so they'll use the word kurios, K-U-R-I-O-S, kurios, instead of saying Yahweh.

So it's not a bad thing to say Lord. But that's why I would include that particular function there. Now we're actually to the text itself.

You got to learn a little bit something today. Today's both some spiritual encouragement and some spiritual learning that you get to learn some about Hebrew and translation and all that.

First, he starts off, ascribe to the Lord, you heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength, ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name, worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.

He's calling on the heavenly beings, on the angels, the cherubim, the seraphim, the inhabitants of the spiritual realm, those that live in heavenly places.

He says, hey, tell God how amazingly glorious he is, tell God how strong he is, give him all of the glory that is his due, worship him because he is so amazing in his splendor and in his holiness.

And then he talks about the way that God isn't just amazing and holy and splendorous up in heaven, but he actually does things on earth in verses kind of nine through about 20 ish. It talks about God doing amazing works.

So he starts off, the voice of Yahweh is above the waters, the God of glory thunders, Yahweh above the vast water, the voice of the Yahweh in power, the voice of Yahweh in splendor.

So above the waters, the waters were especially in the ancient imagination. This was where a lot of death took place. Water could come up if it overflowed, it could flood your lands, it could destroy your crops, it could kill you.

If you were out fishing and a big storm came, you could be swallowed up by the sea. So the sea often pictured death itself. It was a place that couldn't really be tamed.

You can till the ground, you can take rocks out of the ground, you can do many things to make it behave. You can't do anything to make the ocean behave. And so here God is described as being greater than the oceans.

I think for us today, we think of many areas of our life where we go, I can't control that. There's political things happening right now.

At the time of my recording, even people that kind of purported themselves to be Christians going, hey, here's where I think we kind of need to cave to culture in these areas so that we can win the election.

It's more important that I win this election than that lives are saved. And me, as a believer, as one that holds to the value of life, I can't do anything about that. I can't change that man's position.

I can't change the other guy's position where he's also not for what the Bible says. And I can't fix them. So all I can do is go, God, this is out of my hands.

And so I'm relying on you. I'm relying on you to do what only you can because you are powerful. The verses go on to describe what our powerful God can do.

It says, The voice of Yahweh breaks the cedars, shatters the cedars of Lebanon. These would be very, very strong trees in a region kind of northish of Judah, Israel adjacent. He says, God, you can rip apart the incredible trees.

He says, He makes Lebanon skip like a calf and Syria like a young wild ox. He says, God, you make nations kind of flee and run off. That's how powerful you are.

God, these places that have great fortresses, great natural scenery and brush so that they don't have to fear like invading armies because invading armies would have to go through these incredible woods.

He says, God, you can scatter nations like nothing. He says, The voice of Yahweh flashes flames of fire. The voice of Yahweh shakes the wilderness.

Yahweh shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of Yahweh makes the deer give birth and strips the woodlands bare.

So just like the ocean was viewed as something untamable, wilderness was another place that was viewed as, okay, death is out there, lions are out there, jackals are out there, snakes and scorpions are all in those places.

And you never know where they're coming from because they blend in with the dust. They blend in with the rocky scenery. And here God is being phrased as flaming against the wilderness, that he can shake the very ground.

And there is no place of darkness or death or uncertainty or untamability that our God is not able to overcome. And that can give us strength because we don't have to fear, okay, God, are you with me? Are you able to help me through this?

Are you able to give me the strength to go through this particular event in my life? God goes, I'm right here and I am more than powerful. The results of all of this in verse number 20, in his temple, all cry glory.

And then he says, the Lord sits enthroned over the flood. He always sits enthroned king forever. He's amazing.

He can do incredible things. He can shake nations. He can literally shake the earth itself.

He can overcome the wilderness and the ocean. And so what does he do with all of this power? The end of the Psalm, the Lord gives his people strength.

The Lord blesses his people with peace. Today, will you realize how incredible, how powerful God, Yahweh, I am the all-sufficient one, the one who is not in need of anything that we bring, but invites us into relationship with him.

Will you turn to him? Will you ask him for strength? Will you ask him for peace?

It's what he says that he gives to us. So call out to him, say, God, I don't know how this looks. I don't know how this works, but I really need you to get me through today.

I need you to carry me. I need you to give me just enough grace to make it through today. I need you.

I need you to give me just enough grace to encounter this person and walk through this relationship with your words. God is mighty. He's powerful enough to hear your prayer.

He's powerful enough to answer your prayer. He's powerful enough to take good care of you as a good and loving father. Will you turn to him today?

Hope that be an encouragement to you. And tomorrow we finish out the week with Psalm 30. Thanks for tuning in.