“The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is majestic.”
~ Psalm 29:4
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you like seeing during a thunderstorm sudden flashes of bright lightning? Do you like hearing during a thunderstorm the deafening thunderclap after a close lightning strike? Do you like listening to the sound of rolling, rumbling thunder after seeing a flash of lightening in the distance? Do you like watching a line of dark, menacing looking clouds heading right for you? Do you like watching black, scary looking clouds spin above you as they are passing over you? Do you like hearing the sound of heavy rain drops splattering on the ground or on your house’s roof? Do you get really nervous when you see an area of aqua green in a thunderstorm as the foreboding looking thunderstorm zeros in on where you are because you know that an aqua green area in the clouds means that the angry looking thunderstorm is carrying hail which means that there is a chance that it will hail where you are? Do you want to crawl under your bed when you see lightning? Do you want to hide inside a closet when you hear the sound of thunder? Does the loud, booming sound of thunder make you think of God’s voice? What do you think God’s voice sounds like? How strong do you think that God’s voice is? David wrote about God’s voice when he wrote the song psalm that is now Psalm 29. David knew what God’s voice is like when he wrote in verse 4, “The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is majestic.” David wrote in this psalm song that he knows that God’s voice will shake deserts, break cedars, twist oaks, strip forests completely bare and lead guys, gals and kids who know Him personally to ascribe to Him glory and strength. Do you personally know God’s voice? Ask your dad and/or ma if they have heard God’s voice.
There are more psalm songs that were written by David in the Psalm Book than by any other writer of psalm songs. Your grandpaa thinks that David wrote a good number of his psalm songs during the years that he herded his dad’s sheep on the rolling hills south of Bethlehem. Your grandpaa thinks that David would often lie awake at night staring up into a night sky that was filled with sparkling stars which would have him reflecting on God’s glory. Your grandpaa thinks that David as he kept his eyes on his dad’s sheep would admire the panorama all around him which would have him reflecting on God’s majesty. Something that David wrote about was the power and majesty seen in a flash of lightening and heard in a thunderbolt. David wrote about the rainstorms that he must have seen rolling over the northern Kadesh wilds. David points out in his psalm songs how God can be seen in what He has created. David points out in his psalm songs – such as this psalm song, how God can be heard in what He created. David points out in this psalm song that it is not a false Canaanite god – called Baal, who is being heard in a thunderstorm but that it is Yahweh (the LORD) who is being heard in the peals of thunder. David wrote this psalm song with an introduction and a conclusion that became translated into a two verse introduction and into a two verse conclusion. The body of this psalm song that David wrote was translated to have seven verses between the introduction and the conclusion. David included in this psalm song that he wrote the name of Yahweh four times in both the introduction and in the conclusion. David repeated in this psalm song that he wrote the voice of the LORD or the thunders of the LORD seven times in the seven verse body. David also in this psalm song that he wrote referred to the LORD as Yahweh ten times in the seven verse body. The numbers four, seven and ten are as Old Testament numbers symbolic of completeness.
David knew when he wrote this psalm song that God will do things that will have the guys, gals and kids who He chose or elected before the beginning of time to ascribe to Him what He deserves. To ascribe means to give credit or to attribute something to someone. When your grandmaa and grandpaa were recently in the United States, your grandmaa and grandpaa watched a very scary, angry looking thunderstorm develop over the middle part of South Dakota. Your grandmaa and grandpaa at the time were driving to Volga, South Dakota to spend a few days with your dad’s grandpa and grandma. The closer that your grandmaa and grandpaa got to Volga, the scarier the blue-black sky looked to your grandmaa and grandpaa. When your grandmaa and grandpaa realized that they were going to get caught in the middle of the roiling storm if they didn’t stop, your grandmaa and grandpaa stopped and waited for the churning, chaotic blue-black cloud wall pass them. Once the threatening looking dark cloud wall had passed where your grandmaa and grandpaa were sitting in their car, your grandmaa and grandpaa started out again for Volga. A few miles from where your grandmaa and grandpaa had sat in their car watching the sinister, boiling clouds pass, your grandmaa and grandpaa saw corn fields with full grown corn stalks lying down like a green carpet. There was not a corn stalk left standing upright. A straight line wind was in the damaging storms that your grandmaa and grandpaa watched pass only a couple of miles ahead of them. The straight line wind – which was a part of the frightening, unnerving thunderstorm that your grandmaa and grandpaa saw – which completely flattened entire cornfields, also ripped limbs off trees, broke off tree tops, tore apart round, metal storage bins that are used to store grain and flipped over a boat carrying trailer – with a boat on the trailer, in the middle of the highway that your grandmaa and grandpaa were traveling. A life challenge is like a thunderstorm. A life challenge can be just as scary as a thunderstorm. Do you hear God’s voice speaking in the life challenges that He has been sending your way?
Psalm 29 (230)