Worshiping with Both Hands
“The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars;
the LORD breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.
He makes Lebanon skip like a calf,
Sirion like a young wild ox.”
PSALM 29: 5-6 (NIV)
ness. Human efforts will never bring the
kingdom of God. Only He can do that.
The twentieth-century theologian
Karl Barth famously said that
preachers should preach with the
Bible in one hand and the newspaper in
the other. Two-handed preaching connects God’s Word to the challenges of
daily life and the struggles in our world.
Ancient Words
Sometimes my devotional life is
two-handed, even when I don’t expect it
to be. My private devotions are based on
the prayerful reading of one psalm a day.
Usually, I go in order through the Psalms.
When I get to Psalm 150, I return to Psalm
1 and start over again. Yesterday I prayed
through Psalm 29. When I got to verses 5
and 6, I was startled by what I read. God
“breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon”
and “makes Lebanon skip like a calf.”
Lebanon! How often have I heard that
word these days. As I write, the war in
Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah
rages. Trees are literally being broken and
burned as rocket-started fires scorch the region, as well as northern Israel. The ground
is literally skipping like a calf—the Hebrew
means something like shuddering—as
bombs rain down on the land. It’s as if images from Psalm 29 are being displayed on
the evening news.
preoccupation with my own life. All of a
sudden I’m praying for people on the other
side of the world. I’m asking for peace, not
just for my soul, but for the nations. The
Psalms, even as they speak to the deepest
desires of our hearts and invite us into intimate fellowship with God, also challenge
us to look beyond ourselves at the wider
world. They blur the distinction between
private piety and public activity.
When we engage in two-handed devotions, we are also able to see this world
from a divine perspective. When trees are
breaking and the ground is shaking in
Lebanon, we understandably worry about
how peace will be found, how terrorism
can be defeated and how mortal enemies
can ever be reconciled. Yet Psalm 29, like so
many other psalms, opens our eyes wider.
It reveals the glory, strength and majesty
of God. His voice breaks the giant cedars
of Lebanon and causes the ground to “skip
like a calf.” Psalm 29 reminds us that, no
matter how impressed we may be by human might, God’s power is infinitely greater. Thus, even as we pray for the struggles
in our world, we recognize that only God
can bring the peace we so desperately need.
Only God can defeat the powers of dark-
Awesome God
Moreover, Psalm 29 reminds us to worship God above all: “The voice of the LORD
twists the oaks and strips the forest bare.
And in His temple all cry, ‘Glory!’” Who
are these who lift their voices in praise?
The people of God gathered for worship,
the loyal subjects of the King of kings. So
when we see earthly power—whether in
the form of military might or natural wonders—we’re reminded of how much more
powerful God is. We’re encouraged to marvel at the majesty of the Creator and Judge
of all things. Like the Israelites of long ago,
we cry “Glory!”
Psalm 29 celebrates the kingdom of
God, His rule upon the earth. When we see
brokenness in our world, when we grieve
over heartache and violence, we yearn for
the fullness of God’s kingdom. We long for
the day when “The kingdom of the world
has become the kingdom of our Lord and
of His Christ, and He will reign for ever and
ever” (Revelation 11: 15). In the meanwhile
we wait, we pray, and we worship the all-powerful Lord with the Bible in one hand
and a newspaper in the other.
Dr. Mark D. Roberts is Senior Pastor of
Irvine Presbyterian Church. His latest book,
No Holds Barred: Wrestling with God in
Prayer is a practical and devotional exposition of the
Psalms. Mark’s writings on various topics and his
daily blog are available at www.markdroberts.com.
His Psalm-based devotional Web site, The Daily
Psalm, can be found at www.thedailypsalm.com.
Modern Ramifications
What happens if I pray with the Bible
in one hand and the newspaper in the other hand? Well, for one thing, my personal
devotions are stretched beyond their usual
Consider the happenings of the world this week and create
a worship set that is informed by the current events.
