1. Give.
Ascribe. Neither men nor angels can confer anything upon Jehovah, but they
should recognize his glory and might, and ascribe it to him in their songs and
in their hearts. Unto the Lord,
and unto him alone, must honor be given. Natural causes, as men call them, are
God in action, and we must not ascribe power to them, but to the infinite
Invisible who is the true source of all. O ye mighty. Great ones of the
earth and of heaven, kings and angels, join in rendering worship to the blessed
and only Potentate; ye lords among men need thus to be reminded, for ye often
fail where humbler men are ardent; but fail no longer, bow your heads at once,
and loyally do homage to the King of kings. Give unto the Lord glory and strength, both of
which men are too apt to claim for themselves, although they are the exclusive
prerogatives of the self-existent God. Let crowns and swords acknowledge their
dependence on God.
2. Give unto the Lord
the glory due unto his name.
A third time the admonition is given, for men are backward in glorifying God,
and especially great men, who are often too much swollen with their own glory
to spare time to give God his rightful praise, although nothing more is asked
of them than is most just and right. Surely men should not need so much pressing
to give what is due, especially when the payment is so pleasant. Unbelief and
distrust, complaining and murmuring, rob God of his honor; in this respect,
even the saints fail to give due glory to their King. Worship the Lord, bow before him with devout
homage and sacred awe, and let your worship be such as he appoints. Of old,
worship was cumbered with ceremonial, and men gathered around one dedicated
building, whose solemn pomp was emblematic of the beauty of holiness;
but now our worship is spiritual, and the architecture of the house and the
garments of the worshipers are matters of no importance, the spiritual beauty
of inward purity and outward holiness being far more precious in the eyes of
our thrice holy God.
3. The voice of the Lord
is upon the waters. The thunder is not only poetically
but instructively called “the voice of God,” since it peals from on high; it
surpasses all other sounds, it inspires awe, it is entirely independent of man,
and has been used on some occasions as the grand accompaniment of God’s speech
to Adam’s sons. There is peculiar terror in a tempest at sea, when deep calleth
unto deep, and the raging sea echoes to the angry sky. The God of glory
thundereth. Thunder is in truth no mere electric phenomenon, but is caused
by the interposition of God himself. Electricity of itself can do nothing, it
must be called and sent upon its errand; and until the Almighty Lord
commissions it, its bolt of fire is inert and powerless. The Lord is upon many waters. Still the
psalmist’s ear hears no voice but that of Jehovah, resounding from the
multitudinous and dark waters of the upper ocean of clouds, and echoing from
the innumerable billows of the storm-tossed sea below.
4. The voice of the Lord
is powerful. His voice, whether in nature or
revelation, shakes both earth and heaven; see that you refuse not him who
speaks. If his voice be thus mighty, what must his hand be! Beware lest you
provoke a blow. The voice of the Lord
is powerful; the voice of the Lord
is full of majesty. The King of kings speaks like a king. As when a lion
roars, all the beasts of the forest are still, so is the earth hushed while
Jehovah thunders marvelously.
5. The voice of the Lord
breaketh the cedars. Noble trees fall prostrate beneath
the mysterious bolt, or stand in isolation as mementos of its power. Lebanon
itself is not secure, high as it stands, and ancient as are its venerable
woods: Yea, the Lord breaketh
the cedars of Lebanon. When the Lord sends the word, it breaks hearts far
stouter than the cedars.
6. Not only
the trees, but the mountains themselves move as though they frisked and leaped
like young bulls or antelopes. The voice of our dying Lord rent the rocks and
opened the graves; his living voice still works similar wonders. Glory be to
his name, the hills of our sins leap into his grace, and are buried in the red
sea of his blood, when the voice of his intercession is heard.
7. As when
sparks fly from the anvil by blows of a ponderous hammer, so the lightning
attends the thundering strokes of Jehovah. Flames of fire attend the voice of
God in the Gospel, illuminating and melting the human heart: by these he
consumes our lusts and kindles in us a holy flame of ever-aspiring love and
holiness. Pentecost is a suggestive commentary upon this verse.
8. As the
storm traveled, it burst over the desert. God courts not the applause of
men—his grandest deeds are wrought where man’s inquisitive glance is all
unknown. What a shaking and overturning power there is in the word of God! Even
the desert quivers into progress when God decrees it.
9. The voice of the Lord
maketh the hinds to calve. Those
timid creatures, in deadly fear of the tempest, drop their burdens in an
untimely manner. Perhaps a better reading is, “the oaks to tremble,”
especially as this agrees with the next sentence, and discovereth the
forests. The dense shades of the forest are for a moment laid bare. The
Gospel has a similar revealing power in dark hearts; in a moment it lights up
every dark recess of the heart’s ungodliness, and bids the soul tremble before
the Lord. In his temple doth every one speak of his glory. Those who
were worshiping in the temple were led to speak of the greatness of Jehovah as
they heard the repeated thunder-claps. The whole world is also a temple for
God, and when he rides abroad upon the wings of the wind, all things are vocal
in his praise. We too, the redeemed of the Lord, who are living temples for his
Spirit, as we see the wonders of his power in creation, and feel them in grace,
unite to magnify his name.
10. The Lord
sitteth upon the flood. Flood
follows tempest, but Jehovah is ready for the emergency. No deluge can
undermine the foundation of his throne. Far out on the wild waste of waters,
Jehovah “plants his footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm.” Yea,
the Lord sitteth King for ever.
Jesus has the government upon his shoulders eternally; our interests in the
most stormy times are safe in his hands.
11. Power was
displayed in the hurricane whose course this psalm so grandly pictures; and
now, in the cool calm after the storm, that power is promised to be the
strength of the chosen. He who wings the unerring bolt will give to his
redeemed the winds of eagles; he who shakes the earth with his voice will
terrify the enemies of his saints, and give his children peace.
Is not this a noble psalm to be sung in stormy weather? Can
you sing amid the thunder? Will you be able to sing when the last thunders are
let loose, and Jesus judges quick and dead? If you are a believer, the last
verse is your heritage, and surely that will set you singing.
Excerpt from:
The Treasury of David
By Charles H Spurgeon
