Gods display of His power over creation

Ps 18 13 The LORD thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded. 


In Ps 18 the Psalmist is describing his experience on the battle field. The circumstances that happen on the battle field are an extreme example of how God acts in this world to deliver His elect from danger. The Psalmist begins the Psalm describing his thoughts and emotions of anxiety as he enters and fights in the battle. There is a point when the battle heats up ,where the Psalmist has expended all of his strength. The Psalmist describes the entire struggle both physical and meta physical in terms of enduring through strength. At the most trying time the Psalmist cries out to God. 

This describes the response from heaven. The Psalmist describes Gods saving presence as a voice that is behind all events for the purpose of delivering His people. In this Psalm we are taught that God responded from heaven as a commander of an army appearing in the sky ,riding his chariot with his soldiers following him. This voice is Gods work in creation and recreation to subdue His enemies and save His people. God comes in the heat of the battle and overcomes His enemies, gathers His army together and marches to the temple in a victory procession. The voice of God is the same concept as the NT teaching that our citizenship is in heaven. It is not of this world. So in this sense we are taught that our confidence is not our view of the circumstances that come into our lives but it is the power behind the creation and the hope we have in knowing the sustaining power that will deliver us in the end. We are looking at the circumstances of Gods actions that are behind the creation and our final victory over all things as a result of God power in creating and recreating. 

Yous see when there is a disaster that comes on this earth we find that God causes the course of the world to be turned upside down. The  participants in the disaster receive the benefits in the sense that God forces society to turn away from their corruption and selfishness. This is Gods eternal voice that is His display of His authority that is beyond the control of man. This is what we find in Ps. 29. Our natural response to the disasters that happen on the earth is to experience the effects as if they are produced to destroy us. But we must learn that God displays the power of His sovereignty as an example of the success of His curses that bring the freedom of His blessing. In other words Gods display of His sovereignty undoes mans confidence in his own power or it is a relief for those who are fully assured of Gods absolute sovereignty. These disasters are produced so that we cannot say in our hearts that God responds to us but He does everything in our lives for His own purposes for His own glory. God strikes at the heart of mans religious pride. 

We must learn that God comes in the weather as a saving God. When God strikes there we lose control of our lives. This experience is God drawing near to us. God is speaking beyond the normal activity of His silent re-creative daily work. This is why the Psalmist responds to the sounds of the storms as praise to God for speaking His power and His majesty from the heavens! You hear the winds and the trees splitting , and the mysterious dark clouds that are so low and are moving along at a very rapid pace as if they are crushing down upon the earth. All of these sounds are metaphors of Gods re creative voice. The result of His power over creation is perfect silence. You see this is God speaking His curses so loud that He has silenced the opposition just like when we pray the Psalms and experience the coming together of Gods kingdom and our present experience in this corrupted world. These curses silence the voices of the evil empire that is controlled by Satan and his children.