The Sound You Feel in Your Chest

When SpaceX launched the Falcon Heavy from Kennedy Space Center in February 2018, spectators gathered at viewing sites six miles away. They watched the twin boosters ignite in silence — light travels faster than sound. Then, roughly thirty seconds later, the sound wave arrived. It didn't just reach their ears. It hit their chests. Observers described feeling their ribcages vibrate, their jacket zippers rattle. Car alarms triggered in parking lots a mile behind them. The ground itself trembled beneath lawn chairs and bleacher seats.

The psalmist knew that kind of sound. Seven times in Psalm 29, he repeats "the voice of the LORD" — and each time, something massive responds. Waters churn. Cedars snap like matchsticks. The wilderness convulses. Oaks twist and forests are stripped bare. This is no gentle whisper. This is a voice so powerful that everything in creation, from the tallest tree to the deepest sea, has no choice but to respond.

But here is the line that should stop every congregation mid-breath: this same God, whose voice splinters the cedars of Lebanon and makes the mountains skip like calves, sits enthroned forever — and blesses His people with peace. The Almighty whose word shakes the earth speaks that same word over you. Not to shatter you, but to shelter you. Not to break you, but to bless you with a peace the storm cannot touch.