Thoughts for the Day

Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength...

The voice of the Lord is over the waters;
the God of glory thunders,
the Lord, over mighty waters.
The voice of the Lord is powerful;
the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.

The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;
the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon....

The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire.
The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;
the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.

The voice of the Lord causes the oaks to whirl,
and strip the forest bare;
and in his temple all say, 'Glory!'

The Lord sits enthroned over the flood;
the Lord sits enthroned as king for ever.
May the Lord give strength to his people!
May the Lord bless his people with peace!

(New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

Psalms often have wonderful picture imagery in them, so that you can almost feel the scene and think you were present. Psalm 29 is one such. I have only selected some verses to show this.

The psalmist asks us to give God praise (he uses the word 'ascribe' for 'give') and he imagines God's power coming from His voice. It must have been a terrible storm that broke over Israel that night for the writer to be able to describe what happened - with thunder crashing, lightning like bolts of fire, waters that raged, enormous cedar trees bent in two, and the forest stripped bare.

At times like this when it seems as all hell has been let loose and we are scared stiff, all we can do is praise God for His majesty and power, and ask Him for peace.

Wednesday 27th May, follow up thoughts

Lord God,
when storms occur we feel so small and helpless,
knowing we are dependent on Your mercy.
We pray at this time for all who can be affected
by climate change on land or sea.
Encourage those in government and industry
to rethink their policies
to stop damaging Your world,
and help make it a safer place for us to live.
Amen.