This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Psalms” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, September 20, 1987.

Ascribe to the Lord, O sons of the mighty. Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due to His name. Worship the Lord in fully arrayed. The voice of the Lord is upon the waters. The glory of God thunders The Lord upon many waters, the voice of the Lord is powerful, the voice of the Lord is majestic, the voice of the Lord breaks the cedars. Yes, the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon, and He makes them skip like a calf. Lebanon and Syria are like a young wild ox. The voice of the Lord hues out flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness. The Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.

The voice of the Lord makes the deer to calf and strips the forests bare. And in his temple, everything says, Lord. The Lord sat as king at the flood. Yes, the Lord sits as king forever. The Lord will give strength to his people. The Lord will bless his people with peace.

Our Father, what strength you give to your people. they then ascribing that strength to you, thereby worshiping you in a proper way. We ourselves would ascribe what strength appears in us, what glory comes our way, as your glory and your strength. We give to you our glory and our strength, for it is yours So it is our Lord for all of your people, truly in keeping with their confession and their worship. And Lord, we pray that your people would increase in their understanding of precisely this, that they are yours. They have been made to be yours. And what glory and strength appears in them, to them, for them, is yours.

Truly, in your temple, in the sanctuary of your presence, everything says glory. We pray these things in the name of that one who perfectly served you, ascribing strength and glory to you. without fault, without sin. Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. Amen.

On Wednesday nights, we have been looking at Deuteronomy, and we have come to a very instructive section in that piece of writing from the hand of Moses. Towards the end of that book, it says that if there is something of an interruption, that we observe in it, for the style and the mood of that book swiftly changes. It changes, however, in something of an imperceptive way. I say that because it doesn’t ordinarily strike people as they are reading that things have And the shift does take place, after all, mid-chapter, so that doesn’t help. In the middle of the thirty-first chapter of Deuteronomy, God appears. Now, we’re liable to read that, very undramatically, for the scriptures aren’t melodramatic in fashion.

They report the facts, they drive you to consider the implication of the facts, this intrusion of God itself, appearing there mid-chapter. And unfortunately, many who have commented on that chapter have not picked up on the But you have moved from the major section of that writing, thirty chapters worth, of instruction, preaching. And with the intrusion of God, you have then been moved on beyond that instruction, that didactic section of Deuteronomy, to that which is introduced to us by God himself Namely, a section dominated by song. Chapter 32 in Deuteronomy deems a great song of Moses. Now that’s where the melodrama comes in. That’s where the dramatic impact hits you as you are reading that song of Moses. that you have already been prepared for that midway through the thirty-first chapter.

The thing that you want to note about both the instruction and the psalm is how they are so appropriate for the people of God, especially in what we might call their present circumstance. Think of the children of Israel, for instance. Behind them there is the great work of redemption, Israel having been delivered from Egypt, the great and marvelous working of God’s power on their behalf. There lies before them what He is yet to do. climactically, conclusively, for them his people. But in the midst, between the times, between the two great acts of God, that which goes before, that which comes after, there is this interlude of instruction, this interlude that is filled with sermons. This interlude that is filled as well with song. Now you can think of how it is later on for the children of Israel.

They have behind them, having taken up residence in the land of promise now, the great works of redemption that belong to the Exodus period. and even their movement into the promised land. So God’s great works undergird them, but they are looking forward, you see, to something greater still, for God has promised them permanence. He has promised them eternality. He has promised them an eternal inheritance, and that mediated unto them through that One who is coming, the Promised King, the Great Messiah.

But between the times, you see once more what dominates. Yes, instruction, teaching, all that didactic material, sermons from the prophets, messages from them for the people, and as well the wisdom literature, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job, if you will, instruction heaped upon instruction for them. marvelous songs, the fullness of the Psalter, so that between the times you have the time filled up with teaching, instruction, and singing. How is it I think that you can see the pattern. Behind us is the great work of redemption for us in Christ, undergirding our lives. Before us is the great promise of his return, his coming in the clouds of glory, between the times we live. And while we live between the times given to us, once more is instruction. The Church may well react, enough of this teaching, enough of this instruction. I’ve had enough of sermons. I don’t want any more.

Let’s get into something else. Let’s get into celebration. Let’s have a party and call it Church. Notations for instruction, notations for preaching, notations for learning. A call settles over the congregation. Indeed, it’s hard to keep those eyelids propped up after the sermon begins. You see, the songs help us, of course. Especially in this church, because we have to stand up. It is hard to sleep on your feet. Not impossible, but it is hard. But I believe you understand, you can see precisely what I’m driving at.

We might get tired with the instruction. We might even get tired with the songs. So familiar, possibly, we’re acquainted with them. Before long, our spirits become dull, and we’re not giving our thoughts, our spirits, to either the instruction or the song. Between the times, then, there comes the instruction, the teaching, and that characterizes the period in which we live specifically, as does the singing. Not just the songs that were taught to Israel. Oh, how I plead!

You see, I come from covenant stock. My roots. My family’s roots. are in the covenant of tradition. My family, going back generations, hails from the Ulster plantation. Scotch-Irish we were, and I was always told to look for a Scotch-Irish girl. My roots are in the covenant of tradition. And in my family, my ancestors sang the psalms, and the psalms only.

And they did so with such conviction and strength. And for some of their reasons, I thank them, because they were so concerned to judge even their singing. by the Word of God. But you see, now, we living between the times, live between that time in which Christ has come, and that time when he will come again. And what is to inform our singing now, are those great and marvelous works of God.

I must sing Christ’s name. I must sing the name of Jesus. His name must be on my lips. As much as he is central to the instruction that I receive, so he is central to my singing. So I’m not even allowed to read the Psalms as I once read them, for I can’t read them apart from the name of Jesus.

Jesus the Christ. Well, there you have a pattern laid out for you. But there are a few other things that remain to be said. We’ve already emphasized that what is getting the stress now As we view our lives, be it our teaching or our singing, is the mighty, marvelous works of God, His acts, His mighty deeds. What He has done undergirds me. What He will do is out in front of me yet. And it doesn’t matter whether we are dealing with instruction or with song, it is this insight that informs both.

Now, I know how it goes, and I don’t want to sound unsympathetic. I realize how easy it is for us to allow our religion to slip into the category of some sort of religious psychology. as if God’s intent was nothing more than to provide us a sort of spiritual reader’s digest, and as if God himself were nothing more than a heavenly hierarchy whom we could consult, from whom we could get advice about how we are to live. how we are to cope, how we are to get through our difficulties. But you see, that’s not the emphasis of the Scriptures, and that’s not the emphasis of the instruction that is placed before us, be it Deuteronomy, be it the Prophets, be it the Psalms, be it the Epistles or the Gospels. No, not at all. What is receiving emphasis, what is being stressed, is the mighty works of God, what God has done. The instruction, then, and the singing is for the purpose of repeating these things again and again, rehearsing them over and over, so that our souls may be nourished and encouraged, so that we might be reproved and corrected.

Here is God’s way. Now, we might not like it. We might want the psychological fix or the psychological soothing. That may be what we want out of religion. But if that is the case, we will not find it, regardless of what may be said by some. We will not find it in true Christianity.

For true Christianity is placing before us the heartbeat of that instruction that we have observed in Moses, that we have observed in David, in Isaiah, in any of the prophets, in Christ Himself, in any of the apostles, namely to set before the people of God God’s mighty works.

God has acted for you, and when He did, you were included. and he will act again. He will bring his work to completion. You see then, you might get worn out with the repetition. It takes a great deal of patience, for instance, to read through the book of Deuteronomy. I realize that. But there is method in Moses’ madness, so to speak. The repetition is intentionally bringing before you what God has done.

What has he done? He has liberated his people. He has overthrown their oppressors. He has set them free from the bonds of his love. And he has made them his own. He has made them His own. By His work, by His act, He has made you His possession, His treasure. But repeated over and over again, is what he has done and what he will do, because we are prone to forget.

Lose sight of it. Push it aside. Tray him in on a better deity. So we think that the idols of the world are nothing. They have mouths, but they cannot speak. Eyes have them, but they cannot see. They cannot act, nor will they. In the end, they have no people. They can guarantee nothing.

I think that you realize the tie-in to Psalm 29. I have tried to explain to you that the background of the psalm should not be thought to be some sort of romantic reflection on a thunderstorm. I think it is clear to you that what is going on in this is reflective of a thunderstorm, and many have pointed out, as I suggested to you last week, that the repetition of the voice of the Lord seven times in verses three through nine is like so many peals of thunder. But you understand that this is not the romantic reflections of a religious soul on a phenomenon of nature. Rather, what the psalmist is doing, unlike what the religions of the world about him are doing, what the psalmist is doing is reflecting once more, tried and true according to biblical methodology, he is reflecting upon the great and mighty acts of God. Now, that may not be clear to you as you begin the psalm, but it certainly ought to be clear to you by the time you end. For what the psalmist chooses to comment on in conclusion is the flood. The Lord sat as king at the flood. Was there, in the ancient world, anything comparable to that? Unless it was the parting of the Red Sea. to anything comparable to that. Well, you understand then, how the psalmist has developed his thought throughout. He’s been pushing towards that consideration.

Namely, the greatness of God, that greatness that tells you that our God is the great God of judgment, and He will judge the world. Therefore, as you trip back across the verses to the beginning of the psalm, and you read at the beginning, ascribe to the Lord, O sons of the mighty, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength, ascribe to the Lord the glory due to His name. Why? Because he was caught outside one afternoon in a thunderstorm? Because God sat as king of the flood.

And as he has judged and acted in that judgment, so he shall judge. and act summarily, comprehensively, with regard to his creation. Therefore, therefore, ascribe to the Lord of sons of the mighty. Kiss the son while you have time, lest his anger be kindled and you be conserved. The mighty acts of God.

My own confession before you is a confession first of all on behalf of the whole Church So I believe that the Church as a whole is floundering. She is being pushed from side to side, bewildered, confused, because she has none to tell her any longer that her hope is first of all and foremostly in the God who acts. and performs mighty deeds for his people. Do you see how the Psalm concludes? The Lord will give strength to his people, he will bless his people with peace. Do you see what is being said? The root of your strength, the source of your peace, is the God who acts. Your appropriation of that strength and peace is determined by your determination to reverse that very fact. Will you recite the mighty words of God?

But truly and sadly, the church has not been given much encouragement in that regard of life. And therefore she is bullied. She’s beat up. She’s distressed. When it comes to myself, I do talk a lot about it. I do speak a great deal about the mighty works of God as being the foundation of our faith and the source of our peace. But I find myself in a common struggle with you, a struggle which we share, namely, how do I train myself with this sort of instruction, how do I learn how to rehearse the mighty works of God for my own benefit, for the health of my soul? So, people and pastor alike, often strung out, The medicine is here. The Lord in his wisdom sets it before us. Truly. The Lord sat as king at the flood. Yes, the Lord sits as king forever. He gives strength to his people. He blesses them with peace.

Truly our Father, your mighty works your great demonstrations of power, the unveiling of your love. Oh Lord, how these things are to inform us, how slow we are to learn, even how resistant our sin, even pushing you aside, Lord, show us how our lives are rooted in, grounded in what you have done and how they are fulfilled and consummated in what you will do. And while we live between the times, may we never weary of rehearsing your great deeds, principally what you have done in Christ, and what you shall do upon his return.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.