God’s Sufficient Strength

 

Psalm 29:11 “The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace.” (NIV)

Psalm 29 is often referred to as a “Nature” psalm, since it clearly demonstrates God’s control over nature. The psalm opens with a call to the glory, reverence, and power of God over the thunder and all of nature. I laugh when I see the lightning light up the night skies and know that in a few seconds my dog and I will hear the clap of the sound of thunder. Dixie, the dog, immediately retreats to her safe place when she hears the loud thunder. “Come on Dixie it’s only thunder,” I tell her, only to recall my own fear when walking outside in a lightning storm, hurrying to find some cover for protection.

The material spiritual point that Psalm 29 must elicit from the worshipper is that the grand nature we live in, that sometimes produces chaos, damage, and death, is still under the control of our God, which must bring praise to our lips and worship to our minds as we honor our God for the great God that he is! The weather makes us feel very vulnerable, doesn’t it? About eight years ago I was walking the line of flood protection in the 9^th Ward of New Orleans, and found myself behind concrete flood walls in someone’s back yard with a swing set and sand box and all the nice things of back yards. I asked myself the question, “What happens if this floodwall fails these people?” The folks in the house had no fear or understanding of their vulnerability, because they were “protected” by a massive concrete floodwall. A few years later that very same floodwall failed following Hurricane Katrina, with devastating results for New Orleans.

Friends, we live in a world of powerful forces, both seen and unseen, and we need the powerful protection of our God, knowing full well he is in control. When the rains come, the winds blow, the thunder claps, and the lightning flashes, who do we turn to in the storms of life? I often flew into the Denver Airport, and the air pockets and weather coming off the Rocky Mountains would often turn violent, throwing our plane around the stormy sky. Immediately at those times I would go to God in prayer, knowing regardless of what happened to this plane with me on it, that I would stay calm in the lap of the Lord.

In our devotional verse, David speaks to this confidence when facing the storms of life at our most vulnerable moments when he states, “The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace.” This is what I want us to see in this devotional verse, that our God gives us the sufficient measure of strength to deal with any storm, and the peace of mind to calm our anxiety, so that we might respond to the stresses of the moment. Don’t waste any storm of nature by letting it go by without acknowledging the power and grace of God, knowing full well that he is in control!

TODAY, FATHER, WHEN I SEE THE STORM CHURNED SKY, I WILL PRAISE YOUR NAME AND OPEN MY HEART TO RECEIVE YOUR STRENGTH AND PEACE INTO MY LIFE. AMEN!

Article source: Mike White @ Summit church of Christ