Transcript

The following are some STRIKING facts about lightning that might SHOCK you.

The diameter of a lightning strike is actually pretty small, just the size of a quarter! It just looks much larger because of how bright it is.

A lightning bolt can reach 54,000 degrees Fahrenheit, about five times hotter than the surface of our sun.

Thunder is the rapid expansion of air around a lightning strike. When air is heated it expands, so the cracking and rumbling you hear is the 50,000-degree lightning almost instantaneously expanding the air around it.

Thunder is heard after the lightning strike because light travels much faster than the speed of sound. Thunder can be heard as far as 10 miles from the lightning strike.

There are 50 to 100 cloud to ground lightning strikes every second worldwide, that’s over 3 million strikes per day!

Lightning can carry over 100 million volts of electricity. Cloud to ground lightning strikes are 2 to 3 miles long. Strikes happens in under 2 microseconds, and travel at 270,000 mph.

Florida experiences more lightning than any other U.S. state. And Venezuela experiences more lightning than anywhere on Earth.

In poetic beauty, King David in Psalm 29 described a strong thunderstorm as it swept down over Israel and it inspired him to praise the Lord for His power and glory.

It expresses God’s working through His natural creation. And it’s fascinating to study this portion of Scripture, because you get taken back into time to read about a powerful storm in Israel that took place over 3000 years ago.

Psalm 29:1-2: “Give unto the LORD, O ye mighty, give unto the LORD glory and strength. Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.”

The key to understanding this verse is to define who the “O ye mighty” is referring to. It could refer to mighty ones on the earth, to rulers and the influential.

However, in the original Hebrew word it literally means “ye sons of the mighty” or “ye sons of God.”

In Job 1:6, we read, “Now there was a day when the SONS OF GOD came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them.” These sons of God in Job are heavenly beings, or angels.

Psalm 89:6 gives us a clear answer for who this phrase is speaking of: “For who in the heaven can be compared unto the Lord? who among THE SONS OF THE MIGHTY can be likened unto the Lord?”

“The sons of the mighty” are translated from the exact same Hebrew words translated as “O ye mighty” in Psalm 29:1. And “the sons of the mighty” in Psalm 89:6 is referring to beings who are “in the heaven,” or angels.

Thus, when David makes a plea to “O ye mighty” in Psalm 29:1, he is referring to angels.

And David calls on all these heavenly beings to give praise the Lord. He called on the angels to glorify Him who reigns as King forever over nature and the creation.

Three times David dramatically asks the angelic host to “Give unto the Lord, give unto the Lord, give unto the Lord.”

As David witnessed this strong thunderstorm in Israel, he appeals to all the hosts of heaven to worship the Lord in full recognition of His glory and strength.

The Lord has a glory and strength that far exceeds the glory and strength of angels, and David asks those in the heavens to recognize and praise that fact before the Lord.

David felt that even to the angels the mighty, majestic storm he saw must surely indicate the glory and strength of the Lord, and reveal Him as fitting of all honor, and as having power over all things. And he asks them to ascribe to the Lord the attributes He manifested in and through this powerful storm, that of glory and strength.

This psalm is notable in its emphasis on the name, “The LORD” or Yahweh, using it 18 times in these 11 verses. And as David emphasized His name, he also requests that the angels in heaven “Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name.”

David asks that they give God the glory properly belonging to His name and all that He is.

Giving glory to “the Lord” or Jehovah, is a call to recognize the character and nature of that name in particular, which declares that He is eternal, self-existent and that He is the covenant-keeping, faithful God.

Psalm 8:1: “O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!” God’s name is excellent and noble, and it is worthy of glory and to be praised.

Heaven is a place of worship and the angels are exhorted to “worship the Lord” in view of the manifestations of His power in the storm, because the one who is capable of such power as He displayed in that great tempest, has a rightful claim to adoration and praise.

And the “holy angels” are exhorted to worship the Lord “in the beauty of holiness.” This expression is found 5 times in Scriptures.

Everything about heaven is about God’s holiness. God is spoken of as being “glorious in holiness” (Ex. 15:11). Psalm 47:8 states that “God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness.”

Day and night angels call attention to His holiness saying, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come” (Rev. 4:8).

Holiness is beautiful to God and brings glory to God, and the holy angels worship the Lord in heaven in the beauty of holiness.

Psalm 29:3-4: “The voice of the LORD is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the LORD is upon many waters. The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty.”

The Psalm turns now to the great thunderstorm that David witnessed. In verses 3-9, he uses the phrase “the voice of the LORD” 7 times. This phrase refers to the storm in general and to the thunder in particular.

God’s voice is frequently associated with the thunder in Scripture. Job 37:5 reads, “God THUNDERETH marvellously with his voice; great things doeth he, which we cannot comprehend.” In Job 40:9 the Lord challenged Job, “Hast thou an arm like God? or canst thou THUNDER with a voice like him?”

Since thunder peals from on high it is equated with the voice of the Lord who reigns on high. And like thunder has power and inspires awe, the voice of the Lord does the same.

David states that “The voice of the Lord is upon the waters.” The “waters” here refers to the waters stored in the clouds that float high in the air.

Psalm 18:11 states, “He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.”

Jeremiah 10:13 reads, “When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens…he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.”

David begins in Psalm 29:3 by referring to the waters in the heavens and the dark, thick rain clouds of the skies that he saw in the distance, and the voice of the Lord, or the thunder that emanates from those clouds.

Then “the God of glory thundereth: the LORD is upon many waters.” Many waters means great or abundant waters.

The “many waters” implies that the psalm was composed in view of waters more extended than a lake or a river, that it was in view of many or great, abundant waters which was in proximity to David. In other words, the waters of the Mediterranean.

The thunderstorm started somewhere over the many waters of the Mediterranean Sea. And as David observed the dark rain clouds over the Mediterranean, “the God of glory thundereth.”

The thunder cracked and rumbled and the Lord’s voice was heard there and the Lord Himself, in a poetic sense, even appeared to be there, as David wrote, “the Lord is upon many waters.”

Again reminding why the angels in heaven should “give unto the Lord GLORY,” and “give unto the Lord they GLORY due unto His name,” was because “the God of GLORY thundereth,” and His glory was revealed through this powerful thunderstorm.

As the storm and the thunder continued, David remarked that “The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty.”

David heard and felt the power of thunder, the loud, audible exhibition of His power in the tempest, and associated it with the powerful, majestic voice of God.

Like David, as we live by faith, we can see the hand of God in nearly every event of life.

David saw truths about God by this storm, and his observations were true. Storms still are examples of the massive power of God.

The thunder reverberated over the waters of the Mediterranean like an advancing cannonade. It was a sound of awesome power and majesty.

The two descriptions of the voice of the Lord in this verse represent the storm advancing, and gradually drawing nearer and nearer to David, with two crashes of thunder, each louder than the preceding one, one showing that that the voice of the Lord is powerful, then the second one demonstrating that the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.

Powerful thunderstorms, like all of God’s creation, declare His power and majesty. Like the Apostle Paul states in Romans 1:20: “For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His ETERNAL POWER and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.”

And the power and majesty of God’s voice is also connected to His word. The voice of God is powerful and the words made known by that voice have the same power and authority.

And we have His Word which has been revealed by the voice of the Lord. And His Word is likewise powerful and full of majesty. This verse is a good description of your Bible.

Psalm 29:5-7: “The voice of the LORD breaketh the cedars; yea, the LORD breaketh the cedars of Lebanon. He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn. The voice of the LORD divideth the flames of fire.”

The thunderstorm now moves inland. It was over the Mediterranean and it moved eastward to the Lebanon mountain range in the northern part of the land of Israel.

And here the thunder, lightning and wind bombard the mountains of Lebanon, and this great storm destroyed and “breaketh the cedars of Lebanon.”

The cedars of Lebanon are often referred to in the Scriptures as remarkable for their size and grandeur. Nothing seemed more firm and solid than these great cedars.

But even the sturdy, stalwart, grand cedars of Lebanon could not stand before the Lord’s might and power in this storm. Before this strong storm they were broken and snapped like they were just matchsticks.

With the flames of fire of lightning mentioned in verse 7 the cedars of Lebanon were shattered and broken into pieces. The voice of the Lord in this storm was so strong He splintered these mighty trees and sent pieces of their wood flying in different directions.

Dark clouds, wind, rain, forked flashes of lightning and thunder all violently tore through the forest. The tall, lofty cedars went crashing down under the wind and the lightning assault and they fell prostrate by this storm.

Tony Evans stated about this account of the storm that “Such a spectacular display is not the work of so-called Mother Nature, but of Father God.”

In verse 6, David spoke of the strength of the wind of the storm stating that the Lord made the forests “skip like a calf” and “like a young unicorn.”

As the wind passed over and through the forest in sudden, violent gusts, the trees bent in rhythmic waves, creating the impression that the Lebanese range was skipping like a calf.

“Sirion” is the Phoenician name for Mount Hermon, and the wind of the storm made its forests look like a young unicorn, or a young wild ox, was skipping.

The waving of these mountain forests as a result the strong wind that ripped through it is expressed by the figure of skipping or leaping.

Going from Lebanon to Mount Hermon showed the progression of the storm as it continued moving eastward overland to Mount Hermon, the highest peak of the eastern range of Lebanon.

In verse 7, David stated that “The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire.” As he described the great lightning b from the storm he remarks how these flames of fire were divided, which describe the scattered forked lightning bolts in the skies.

The loud booming and rolling of the thunder (the voice of the Lord) with the streaks of lightning across the sky (divideth the flames of fire) made David stand in awe at the sight of it all, like we do as well when we see strong thunderstorms.

Psalm 29:8-9: “The voice of the LORD shaketh the wilderness; the LORD shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of the LORD maketh the hinds to calve, and discovereth the forests: and in his temple doth every one speak of his glory.”

From Lebanon to Mount Hermon, the storm now turns south and traveled 200 miles down to Kadesh in the wilderness.

Lebanon marks the northern boundary of Israel, and Kadesh marks the southern extremity. The whole land was affected by this great and mighty storm from the far north to the extreme south.

And nothing stopped the advance of the storm; it went from sea to land, through mountains and forests, from west to east, north to south.

The wilderness of Kadesh shook like an earthquake from the ferocity of the “voice of the Lord” or the thunder of this storm.

As the storm faded away in the south, in verse 9, David wrote how the storm and thunder made the deer give birth. So frightened were the animals that the deer went into premature labor and delivered their calves. This shows how not only was the wilderness shaken, but the animal kingdom was also shaken by the storm.

David stated that the storm “discovereth the forests.” The word “discovereth” means to strip off, to uncover. The howling wind from the storm was so severe that it blew the leaves off the trees and made the forest gaunt and bare, robbed of its foliage.

Turning heavenward again, as at the beginning of the Psalm, David states that “in His temple doth every one speak of His glory.” This is speaking of His temple in heaven.

Psalm 11:4 states, “The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD’S throne is in heaven.”

Lightning and thunder attract attention. And it caught the attention of those in the temple of God in heaven. They watched this mighty storm in awe.

During this demonstration of God’s great power in this powerful storm, the angels watched with amazement and shouted “Glory!” “Every one” that was in that temple spoke of God’s glory and shouted praises of glory to His power.

The bolts of lightning, the peals of thunder, the gale-force winds, the heavy rains, all joined together in declaring the power, glory and majesty of God, and in response in God’s temple in heaven they gave God glory for it.

Psalm 29:10-11: “The LORD sitteth upon the flood; yea, the LORD sitteth King for ever. The LORD will give strength unto his people; the LORD will bless his people with peace.”

The word translated “flood” here is only used elsewhere in reference to the flood in Noah’s day. Psalm 29:10 is the only place in the Old Testament where this Hebrew word for flood occurs outside of the account of the worldwide flood in Genesis 6-9.

David saw the storm bring a deluge of rain. Seeing the rain, hearing the strong thunder and the lightning reminded David of the flood that occurred in the days of Noah.

And it reminded David that the Lord was in charge and in control and He sat as King then during the flood, and this further reminded him that “the Lord sitteth King for ever.” As the Lord ruled over His creation then, so He did in David’s day, and so He does forever.

The storm David saw was gone; but the LORD remained. And He knew that the Lord remains and reigns forever. In other words, God is always on the throne, and we can rest in His control.

And as David considered the strength of the Lord in the power of that storm, he recognized that He gives this same strength, His strength to His people. The Lord who shows His strength in a thunderstorm, is able, and is willing, to “give strength to his people.”

And in the storm and following it, He is able and willing, to bless His people with His perfect peace.

There is a lot of prophetic truth for Israel taught and typified here by this storm. The storm pictures the great and powerful storm of the 7-year Tribulation.

After the storm is over it is followed “the Lord sitteth King for ever” in His everlasting kingdom that He will establish on the earth, as well as the fact that “the Lord will bless His people with peace” when the Prince of peace reigns and there will be peace on earth.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the Word of God; He is the voice of the Lord. And we see Him coming in judgment at His Second Coming in this Psalm.

At His Second Coming, Revelation 19:13 says, that “He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.”

We see His descent in verse 3 when at first the voice of the Lord is upon the waters in the sky, and then the God of glory thunders and the Lord descends “and is upon many waters.”

Revelation 17:1,15 says this, “And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon MANY WATERS:

“And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.”

The Lord, the voice of the Lord, descends upon many waters, the peoples, and multitudes and nations at His Second Coming at the Battle of Armageddon, and Revelation 19:15 says, “And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations.”

He smites them with His voice, the sharp sword that proceeds out of His mouth.

The voice of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, is as verse 4 says: powerful and full of majesty. And at the Battle of Armageddon, He will break the cedars of Lebanon.

Isaiah 2:12-13 reads, “For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low: And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up.”

In Scripture the cedar tree is sometimes used as a symbol of a nation or a kingdom. Such as in Ezekiel 31:3: “Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs.”

At the Lord’s Second Coming, the voice of the Lord comes to judge and make war and to break in pieces, shatter, and cut to the ground the high, lifted up cedars and nations.

Verse 7 says that the voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire. In Matthew 24:27 the Lord said of His Second Coming, “For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” And Revelation 19:12 describes the Lord at that day that “His eyes were as a flame of fire.”

Verse 8 states, that “the voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness” and Joel 3:16 states of the Second Coming that “The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter HIS VOICE from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall SHAKE.”

“The Lord sitteth upon the flood” verse 10 says, because as in the days of the flood, Christ will destroy unbelievers by His great power, and He will deliver and save His own at His Second Coming.

As the Lord showed himself to be the King and the Judge of the world at the time of the worldwide flood against those who rebel against God, so He will show Himself to be the King and Judge of the world at His Second Coming and destroy the rebels in that day.

Daniel 9:26 further teaches that “and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with A FLOOD.”

This refers to the flood of people and armies that will overwhelm, level, and destroy Jerusalem and the temple when they enter the land at the end of the Tribulation as they gather for the Battle of Armageddon.

But “the Lord sitteth upon the flood.” He is in control, and as King of kings and Lord of lords, He comes to reign on the earth and He will crush and destroy this flood of people at the Second Coming.

And then following that troubling storm, the Lord Jesus Christ will sit and reign as King forever over all the earth and bless His people, Israel, with strength and peace.

But then there is also a practical application even for today. Because we each go through personal storms at times. And during those storms, the Lord’s voice in His Word is powerful and full of majesty. It gives us comfort and encouragement.

During those times we can know that “the Lord sitteth King forever,” trusting and resting in the truth that He is in control, and that He is working all things together for good.

And during our personal storms, He gives strength to us, His people under grace, the Body of Christ as well. And as we keep our focus on Him and rely upon Him, He blesses us with peace, His peace that passes all understanding.

As a result of this love and mercy, we should “Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name.”