King over the Chaos (Friday Devotional)

“The voice of the Lord strikes with flashes of lightning. The voice of the Lord shakes the desert; the Lord shakes the Desert of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord twists the oaks and strips the forests bare. And in His temple all cry, “Glory!” The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord is enthroned as King forever. The Lord gives strength to His people; the Lord blesses His people with peace.”

- Psalm 29:7-11

There are few things that can match the chaotic confusion of getting caught outside when a storm hits. The wind whips around you, the rain gushes down, hailstones pelt you, and no amount of covering seems enough to shield you from nature’s wrath. You frantically spin around looking for some source of shelter, but can hardly see a thing through the downpour and the darkness. As the thunder cracks overhead and lightning illuminates the sky for the briefest of moments, your only recourse is to take off running in what you hope is the right direction. There is no plan, only confusion, discomfort, and fear.

In Psalm 29, the psalmist portrays God as sovereign over that sort of chaos—at the mere sound of His voice lightning flashes, deserts shake, and entire forests are laid to waste. The Lord, says the psalmist, is enthroned over the flood; He is King even in the chaos. In the face of the sort of pandemonium that leaves us trembling, God remains firmly in control.

But while the Lord’s power is great enough to turn the world upside down with a word, chaos is not what He brings His people. Instead, “the Lord gives strength to His people; the Lord blesses His people with peace.” God doesn’t demonstrate his power with destruction, but reconciliation; His will is not that his people experience ruin and confusion, but peace.

For believers, tasked with following Christ in an often chaotic world, the 29^th psalm is a reminder that as children of God, we are called to respond to chaos with grace—to meet violence with nonviolence, anger with forgiveness, lies with truth. Our task is not to match the destructive power of sin, but to overcome it with the gracious, compassionate, holy power of God. So as you seek to navigate life in our chaotic world, may you remember where true power lies—with the Lord who can create the fiercest storms, but who calms them instead.