Looking to Psalm 29 we see how the Psalmist starts with the idea of God within the storm and then finally moves beyond that idea to the God that comforts us and strengthens us in the face of life's storms.
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I don't know about anyone else, but I love a good thunderstorm.
When I was in high school, my family had a pop-up camper trailer that sat in the yard by the house when we weren’t on a camping trip. I remember that most summers, we had a chance of storms coming through nearly everyday. Many times, the clouds would build with lots of lightning and thunder before it actually rained.
As the storms would build, I would go lay out on top of the camper and just look up at the clouds and watch the lightning jump around in the sky. Many times, it would look like fingers shooting out from one cloud to wrap around another. Or you would just see the flashes of the lightning buried deep inside the cloud, giving them an eerie glow.
Or I remember other times growing up. My family went to a beach house on Edisto Island in South Carolina every fall for many years. The house was on stilts on the beach side of the road. Over the years, the high tide mark eventually made it to those stilts. But I remember sitting up on the deck, watching the flash of lightning out on the water as storms would move up the coast.
The sheer power and intensity would fill me with the same sense of awe that I would get standing on the beach next to the waves as they would crash against the shore. At those times, I always felt like I was standing in God’s presence.
For centuries, this has been a fairly common occurrence across cultures. On every inhabited continent on earth, we find cultures that look to storms as evidence of gods. Some are familiar to us, such as Zeus and Thor, gods associated with thunder and lightning in their respective traditions, not forges and hammers (even if those were involved).
The Psalm today shows this same awe in the presence of God’s power. God’s voice thunders over the waters. God’s voice causes the earth to quake and the trees to shatter. God’s voice appears in the sky like flames shooting down.
We feel insignificant in the face of the storm. Just as we can stand at the edge of the sea and recognize its power, we sometimes cower in the midst of the storm as the lightning flashes, the thunder booms, and the ground shakes. But just as the sea can point us to the power of God that is far greater still, so it is with the storm.
At the same time, we see the destruction that storms can cause. Those of us that have lived in this part of the country for any amount of time know that summer storms can also bring with them tornadoes. Many of us have seen first hand the destruction such storms can cause. Not too far away, we know the damage that Hurricane Michael caused across Florida and south Georgia last year. We’ve seen pictures of the devastation in the Bahamas. Recovery is still ongoing in Puerto Rico. For that matter, parts of New Orleans are still recovering from Hurricane Katrina, which hit there 15 years ago.
If we claim that God is contained within the storm or that the storm is the voice of God, then we also have to be okay saying that God caused each and every one of these tragedies.
And I know that there are some that would say that.
But as with the seas, we have to look beyond the power of the storms to the one that is greater still. God is not confined to the storm. God's presence in the storm is the same as God's presence all around us at any other time.
We know that our God is one that saves. The one that created the earth and skies, that tamed chaos and gave it order; the one who created life, that promises us salvation and relationship; the one who came to an imperfect and sinful people and offered us hope... It is this God that walks with us still.
We all have stories in our families of times of tragedy. We have all known the pain caused by both physical and metaphorical storms. But we also have stories of hope and of growth after loss. Stories of healing. Stories of love shared with one another in times of need. Our faith in the one who remains faithful to us gives us the ability to weather many of the metaphorical storms in our life. Our faith also compels us to act with compassion to the physical storms that occur in our lives and in the lives of those around us. There are people in this world today who will be given hope and the chance to survive because of our faith. God shows up for people at least partly through the love and mercy we believers extend to them during their times of need.
As I wrestled with this passage today, I was reminded of the story of Elijah. After confronting the king and the prophets of Baal, Elijah was threatened with death by one who had killed many of God’s servants already. And so he did what many of us would likely have done in his situation - he ran away into the wilderness. He finally sat down under a solitary tree, told God he was giving up, and fell asleep. A messenger from God woke him up and told him to eat. He found food and water next to his head, so he ate and drank and went back to sleep. The angel woke him a second time and told him to eat and drink again so that he would have strength for the journey ahead. So he ate again before journeying into the wilderness another 40 days and nights.
Now I could simply stop here and say something about the God that comforts us in the midst of life’s storms. I remember seeing a post on facebook recently that referred to Elijah and said something along the lines of “sometimes when we are feeling overwhelmed, God tells us to take a nap and eat a snack.” And truly, that would be one place to stop with this story. But it is the part of the story that comes next that struck me in relation to this Psalm today.
You see, after walking in the wilderness for 40 days and nights, Elijah came to the mountain of God and fell asleep in a cave. He was awakened by a voice asking him why he was there. He repeated the story of all he had done and how he is now afraid because he is the only prophet left and his life is in danger. This is where Eljah’s story intersects most directly with today’s text for me.
The Lord said, “Go out and stand at the mountain before the Lord. The Lord is passing by.” A very strong wind tore through the mountains and broke apart the stones before the Lord. But the Lord wasn’t in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake. But the Lord wasn’t in the earthquake. After the earthquake, there was a fire. But the Lord wasn’t in the fire. After the fire, there was a sound. Thin. Quiet. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his coat. He went out and stood at the cave’s entrance (1 Kings 19:11-13b, CEB).Rather than finding God in the terrific power of the wind and the thunder and the lightning, Eljah found God in the quiet stillness that followed. God had offered Elijah comfort for his journey, comfort in the face of death threats and violence, and then God appeared to Elijah on the mountain. But God didn’t appear in the power and the violence that came first. Instead, God appeared in the quiet stillness that followed.
Our Psalmist ultimately does the same thing in our primary text today. As we read through Psalm 29, we find 10 verses extolling the power and might of God. We get the thunder and the wind and the lightning. But in the final verse, the Psalmist comes back around to a God that is not distant, not full of the violent nature that he just described. Instead, he ends with a blessing and peace.
“Let the Lord give strength to his people! Let the Lord bless his people with peace!” (Psalm 29:11, CEB).
I recognize that it is difficult at times to reconcile the many facets of God we find in Scripture. We speak of God’s strength, a wild strength that can frankly be a bit scary. The Psalmist speaks of trees shattering, the earth quaking and jumping, lightning and thunder, crashing waves and flooding waters. But this isn’t where he ends the story. He doesn’t leave us cowering in fear before an angry God that might hurl a lightning bolt at us at any moment. Instead, he reminds us that as powerful as God is, God is also present to us in the midst of the storm providing strength and blessing to us. God is here as a comforting presence in the face of violence and uncertainty. God offers peace in a world full of destruction.
Because of God’s faithfulness, we have hope to carry us through the difficult times.
And by our faith, we extend that hope out to others--offering food, shelter, and rest in times of need.
When we speak of God’s power, this is the power we mean. The storms may remind us of God’s power, a power far greater than the storms themselves. But we also find God in the moments of beauty that follow.
We find God in the midst of the storm and in the midst of the quiet.
We find God in the peace and hope that help us through.
We find God in the love that we share with one another.