461_The awesome power of God Psalm 29 Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. 2 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. 3 The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord, over many waters. 4 The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty. 5 The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon. 6 He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf, and Sirion like a young wild ox. 7 The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire. 8 The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness; the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. 9 The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth and strips the forests bare, and in his temple all cry, “Glory!” 10 The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord sits enthroned as king forever. 11 May the Lord give strength to his people! May the Lord bless his people with peace! In August of 2015, a tremendous lightning storm struck the Grand Canyon. A photographer, who had waited for years to capture such a moment, finally clicked a once-in-a-lifetime shot: a single bolt of lightning arcing across the dark sky, illuminating the vast canyon with an otherworldly glow. The image went viral—not just because of its visual brilliance, but because it captured something deeper. That moment of thunder and lightning brought people to a standstill. It was as if nature itself was trembling before a presence greater than any man could explain. What we felt when looking at that photo was awe. Not fear alone, not admiration alone, but a deep, trembling recognition of a power that we could not control or contain. This is the power that Psalm 29 invites us to ponder—not in nature alone, but in the voice and majesty of God Himself. Psalm 29 is a poetic display of the awesome power of God. The psalmist, King David, begins by calling on “heavenly beings”—perhaps angelic hosts or even earthly rulers—to give God the glory and strength that is due to Him. This is not a casual invitation; it’s a summons to worship. And not just any kind of worship, but the kind that recognizes the weight of His holiness. David says, “Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.” In our culture, beauty and holiness rarely walk hand-in-hand. We associate beauty with glamour, with youth, with external perfection. Holiness, on the other hand, is often seen as outdated, stiff, or inaccessible. But the psalmist insists: there is a surpassing beauty in holiness—a radiant, awe-inspiring purity that draws us near even as it humbles us. True holiness isn’t self-made; it is a garment given by God Himself—the imputed righteousness of Christ, without which none of us could stand in God’s presence. As the psalm continues, a single phrase echoes seven times like a thunderclap: “The voice of the Lord.” Each repetition draws our attention to the sheer authority