“Hearing the voice”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Sunday, May 26, 2024

Psalm 29 (Forward, p. 28) CEV p. 751

Years ago, a small book came into my possession. It was entitled, The God Who Speaks, and was by B. H. Streeter, and for me, at least at the time, it was revolutionary. It was revolutionary, because up until then I had seen God basically as a disinterested, uninvolved, remote being, someone too ‘heavenly minded to be of any earthly good.’ I had no idea that God could actually speak and speak in a way that made a difference.

Now, today’s psalm, Psalm 29, is most explicit in saying that God does indeed speak. In fact, it alleges that God’s voice achieves, merely by its utterance, all sorts of incredible things. He speaks and creation comes into being. Indeed, that is what we hear in Genesis chapter one: God said, and it was so. Not only that, in today’s passage, we read that He speaks causing storms to come into being, such that all of creation trembles. God’s voice is powerful.

But all of this is rather impersonal. However, as Streeter proposed and has J.I. Packer stated in his little book, God Has Spoken, God has also spoken to groups and to individuals. That is what the Holy Scriptures are all about, namely God’s word spoken to His people. But even more revolutionary is what Streeter also proposed, namely, that God can, and does, speak to individuals, that is, to you and to me. And indeed, that is what I have discovered personally. And so, as momentous and powerful as God’s voice can be in our created world—as described in today’s psalm—even more momentous and powerful is when He speaks to us personally. And thanks be to God that He does so.

Forward notes: “Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his Name, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness” (verse 2).

“The Scripture readings for today’s celebration of the Trinity focus on the holiness of God. If you attend a church service with music, you will likely sing many hymns that cry out, ‘Holy, holy, holy!’ In one church, I sat near a stained-glass window with this verse from Psalm 29 etched on it, and I meditated on it when my attention drifted during parts of the liturgy. The relationship between beauty and holiness intrigued me. It is not hard for me to feel worshipful in a soaring cathedral, surrounded by beautiful

stained-glass windows and expert organ-playing. But God’s holiness is not dependent on our aesthetic preferences.

“The beauty of holiness is the divinity that is the Holy Trinity, Three-in-One. It is a mystery so beyond our human comprehension or explanation that all we can do is fall down in worship, in awe at the beauty and holiness that is our God.”

Moving Forward: “How do you understand the Trinity? Can you embrace the mystery even without full comprehension?”