Psalm 29:10; Job 37:5,6, 10-13; Psalm 18:13—Psalm 148:8
The LORD sitteth upon the flood; yea, the LORD sitteth King for ever.
God thundereth marvellously with his voice; great things doeth he, which we cannot comprehend. For he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth; likewise to the small rain, and to the great rain of his strength…By the breath of God frost is given: and the breadth of the waters is straitened. Also by watering he wearieth the thick cloud: he scattereth his bright cloud: And it is turned round about by his counsels: that they may do whatsoever he commandeth them upon the face of the world in the earth. He causeth it to come, whether for correction, or for his land, or for mercy.
The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire.—Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word.
MARTIN GEIER (1614-1680): “Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind.” The words of this verse have special use; for men are exceedingly apt to ascribe the violence of tempests to blind chance.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): In this atheistic and materialistic age God is not only not accorded His proper place in the hearts and lives of the people, but He is banished from their thoughts and virtually excluded from the world which He has made. His ordering of the seasons, His control of the elements, His regulating of the weather, is now believed by none save an insignificant remnant who are regarded as fools and fanatics.
HENRY P. LIDDON (1829–1890): It might at first sight seem that there are forces in nature which have escaped from God’s rule, and are in insurrection against it, since they bring upon His world destruction and death. And therefore, the psalmist carefully adds, “fulfilling His Word.” The storm and wind, he maintains, although somewhat against appearances, do obey God’s Will; but appearances may point so much the other way that the fact can hardly be taken for granted, and requires an explicit statement.
HERMANN VENEMA (1697-1787): This verse arrays in striking order three elements that are ever full of movement and power—fire, water, and air. The first includes meteors, lightnings and thunders; the second, snow, hoar-frost, dew, mist and rain; the third breezes, tempests and hurricanes.
HENRY P. LIDDON: The Bible occasionally lifts the veil, and shows us how destructive forces of nature have been the servants of the will of a moral God. It was so when the waters of the Red Sea returned violently on the Egyptian pursuers of Israel, Exodus 14:26-30. It was so when, at the prayer of Elijah, the messengers Ahaziah were killed by lightning, 2 Kings 1:10-14.
MARTIN GEIER: The “stormy wind” is the swift messenger of God, Psalm 147:15-18. The hurricane fulfils the divine command—the stormy wind is a minister of judgment, Ezekiel 13:13.
HENRY P. LIDDON: It was so when, as Jonah was fleeing to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, that “the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken,” Jonah 1:4.
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): The whirlwind, the tempest, or the tornado; each accomplishing an especial purpose, and fulfilling a particular will of the Most High.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Be they ever so strong, so stormy, they “fulfill God’s word,” and do that, and no more than that which He appoints them; and by this Jesus Christ showed Himself to have a divine power, that He “commanded even the winds and the seas,” and “they obeyed Him,” Matthew 8:27.
JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): The winds blow not at random, but by a Divine decree; and God hath ordered that whether north or south blow, they shall blow good to His people, Song of Solomon 4:16.
HENRY P. LIDDON: So again, it was when there arose a great storm on the Sea of Galilee, that the disciples might learn to trust the power of their sleeping Master, Matthew 8:23-27; or when Paul, a prisoner on his Rome-ward voyage, was wrecked on the shore of Malta, Luke 13:14. In all these cases we see the “wind and storm fulfilling God’s Word,” because the Bible leads us to understand how God’s Word or Will was fulfilled, but there is much in modern history, perhaps in our own lives, which seems to us to illustrate the matter scarcely less vividly. Our English ancestors saw God’s hand in the storm which discomfited the great Spanish Armada.
MATTHEW HENRY: The sea is God’s for He made it, He restrains it; He says to it, “Here shall thy proud waves be stayed,” Job 38:11. This may be considered as an act of God’s power over the sea. Though it is so vast a body, and though its motion is sometimes extremely violent, yet God has it under check. Its waves rise no higher, its tides roll no further, than God permits; and this is mentioned as a reason why we should stand in awe of God, Jeremiah 5:22; and yet why we should encourage ourselves in Him, for He that stops the noise of the sea, even the noise of her waves, can, when He pleases, still the tumult of the people, Psalm 65:7.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Though rushing with incalculable fury, the stormy wind is still under law, and moves in due order, to carry out the designs of God.
A. W. PINK: It is God who withholds the rain, and God Who gives the rain when He wills, where He wills, as He wills, and on whom He wills. Weather Bureaus may attempt to give forecasts of the weather, but how frequently God mocks their calculations!
JAMES MacGOSH (1811): The half-learned man is apt to laugh at the simple faith of anyone who tells us that rain comes from God. The former, it seems, has discovered that it is the product of certain laws of air, water, and electricity. But truly the peasant is the more enlightened of the two, for he has discovered the main cause, and the real Actor, while the other has found only the second cause, and the mere instrument.
A. W. PINK: Atmospheric disturbances are merely secondary causes, for behind them all is God Himself. Let His Word speak once more: “I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereon it rained not withered. So two or three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD,” Amos 4:7,8.
MATTHEW HENRY: Those that will not fulfill God’s Word, but rise up in rebellion against it, show themselves to be more violent and headstrong than even the stormy winds, for the winds fulfill it.
A. W. PINK: Truly, then, God governs inanimate matter. Earth and air, fire and water, hail and snow, stormy winds and angry seas, all perform the Word of His power and fulfill His sovereign pleasure. Therefore, when we complain about the weather, we are, in reality, murmuring against God.
C. H. SPURGEON: Somebody will grumble at the weather today. “And when the people complained, it displeased the LORD,” Numbers 11:1—I suppose that they complained of the weather. It was too cold. It was too hot. It was too wet. It was too dry. In fact, they were very like ourselves! They often complained most when they had least to complain of. Discontent is chronic to our humanity.
H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): It is a blessed thing to be in that state of soul where we can just trust ourselves to Him. Spurgeon also tells of a man who had the words, “God is love,” painted on his weather-vane. Someone said, “That is a queer text to put there. Do you mean to say that God’s love is as changeable as the wind?” “Oh, no,” said the other, “I mean that whichever way the wind blows, God is love.”
