No Surrender

OPENING PRAYER:

Father, I belong to you as no other. You are above, around, and in me. I praise your holy name.

READ: Psalm 29

A psalm of David.

1 Ascribe to the Lord, you heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. 2 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of his[a] holiness.

3 The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord thunders over the mighty waters. 4 The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is majestic. 5 The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon. 6 He makes Lebanon leap like a calf, Sirion[b] like a young wild ox. 7 The voice of the Lord strikes with flashes of lightning. 8 The voice of the Lord shakes the desert; the Lord shakes the Desert of Kadesh. 9 The voice of the Lord twists the oaks[c] and strips the forests bare. And in his temple all cry, “Glory!”

10 The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord is enthroned as King forever. 11 The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace.

Footnotes

[a] Psalm 29:2 Or Lord with the splendor of

[b] Psalm 29:6 That is, Mount Hermon

[c] Psalm 29:9 Or Lord makes the deer give birth

Psalm 29

REFLECT:

Call to mind your favorite hymn or worship song. Focus on the truths it teaches about your God.

Have you ever thought that singing praise to God is an act of defiance? That realization only really struck me during the thanksgiving service for the life of my dad. Our tears and sadness at his untimely death were real, but through them we sang of the hope we had because of what God has done in Christ. Our songs were not an exercise in denial, but in defiance. To sing of the reality of God, and of what he has done, is to insist that there is one more powerful than the pain and darkness that seem so often to prevail in our world.

Psalm 29 is a gift of a song with which to express faithful defiance in a fallen world. It plays to the rhythm of a ferocious thunderstorm in which the powerful voice of God is heard (vs 3–5,7–9), and his majestic, incomparable power is displayed (vs 5–9). This is in direct defiance of the Canaanite god, Baal, whose worshippers held that his voice was heard in the storm. Indeed, it may well be that this psalm is the result of an idolatrous hymn of praise having been purposefully reworked into a song celebrating the one true God. Redeeming culture is one of the ways in which God’s people on earth can echo his praise in the heavens (vs 1,9).

APPLY:

Sing a hymn of praise to God, acknowledging that you are engaging in an act of faithful defiance.

CLOSING PRAYER:

Almighty God, I rejoice that you are enthroned as King forever. Although everything around me can be like powerful storms, I claim the promise of this psalm, that you will give your children strength and peace.

WORSHIP:

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