Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the 29th Psalm:
Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord, over many 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. He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf, and Sirion like a young wild ox. 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 makes the deer give birth and strips the forests bare, and in his temple all cry, “Glory!” The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord sits enthroned as king forever. May the Lord give strength to his people! May the Lord bless his people with peace!Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
Our text today from Psalm 29 describes a voice. Voices can do a lot. Together, they can fill a room with a sound so loud it could break your eardrums. Alone, they can speak in the quietest of whispers. We can yell, we can sing, we can talk, we can ask questions in class, we can cheer on our favorite teams.
David talks about the voice of the Lord in particular. The very first time we ever hear about God, the first thing He does is to speak, “Let there be light…” He said. And there was exactly what God said there would be. God’s voice alone is powerful. It is the loudest thing you can imagine, shaking stars out of their positions, moving planets. It can be heard aloud, creating things out of nothing, forming animals and plants and people. It can be the smallest whisper, whispering to His prophets the truth of His own Word.
The voice of the Lord is over the 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 voice of the Lord flashes forth like flames of fire.
The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness.
The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth and strips forests bare.
The voice of the Lord promises life and salvation to His people. It tells of His own name, I Am. The voice of the Lord reveals Himself to the nations. The voice of the Lord calls out in the middle of the night for His priests to come and worship before Him. There is nothing the voice of the Lord cannot cause or do or say. It is the very power of God.
This week, our texts have focused us on the Baptism of Jesus, and the Church celebrates this miraculous event. This is when Jesus begins His earthly ministry. This is when Jesus is anointed, covered over with water, as the Messiah, the Christ. And at His Baptism, the voice of the Lord echoed over the waters of the Jordan, “This is My beloved Son. Listen to Him.” The voice that shakes the universe, the voice that makes things out of nothing, now commands that we listen to Jesus, the very man who is God.
There are times when we don’t listen to voices all that well. We all know from experience when we don’t listen to our teachers telling us to settle down or get to work. We know we don’t listen to our parents when they tell us to do things. We don’t listen to those in authority. We don’t listen when our friends and classmates ask for help. We have a pretty good tendency to filter out voices when we don’t want to hear them.
But, you cannot miss the voice of God. It thundered over you, even, in your Baptism, where God claimed you with His voice and His name, “This is my beloved child; they are mine.” Through our Baptism, the voice of the Lord speaks to you and claims that your sins are forgiven. And if the voice of He who created light from nothing, trees from nothing, mankind even from the dirt which He created says that your sins are forgiven, they must be. The voice that claims Jesus as the Son of God speaks out His forgiveness to you and tells you that you are His beloved child, His beloved son or daughter.
It is no wonder then that God has given us voices also, voices to pray, praise, and give thanks, voices to comfort, voices to warn others when they sin, voices to speak forgiveness to those who repent. The very God who speaks from heaven has given you a voice to speak on earth. And your voice is to speak God’s words that He has shared with us in His Holy Scriptures. He’s given you His Word, from His voice, that you may know Him, believe in Him, and have everlasting life. His voice gives you faith to believe, and your voice shares that faith and does what our Lord says.
When He says, “Let there be light,” and there is, that’s serious business. When He says, “This is my Son, listen to Him,” you should. When He says, “Forgive as you have been forgiven,” so we should. When He invites you, you out of all the world, to believe in Him, to trust Him, to have faith in Him that you might have everlasting life, you should. And you do. For the voice of the Lord has commanded it in you, and so it is. He has claimed you as His beloved child, and you are His now and forever. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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