Psalms 25

Psalms 25:1

Exalt God’s Work

Elihu returns to his starting point (Job 36:5) and points out to Job the high exaltation that God has by His power. He is the Almighty God, Who holds everything under His control and controls everything according to His counsel. As far above man, He bends down to that puny man to teach him. He does so in an inimitable way. No one is equal to Him as a Teacher.

God teaches His teaching in creation and in the lives of individuals. Elihu here says to Job, as it were, that God teaches him lessons in the exercise of His power. In all that God has brought over Job, He shows that He wants to tell Job Who He is and who Job is. Job receives private lessons from God, because God is deeply interested in Job personally and caring about him.

God composes His lessons for Job, and every man, Himself (Job 36:23). No one prescribes them to Him. Nobody tells Him how He should teach, what practical exercises He should have performed. No one can say to Him that He adds injustice in the material He has for each person. He composes the package with the care that is proper to Him. He never commands anyone more than he or she can bear (1 Corinthians 10:13). He knows us through and through and knows exactly what we need to learn and attunes the lessons accordingly. All His works are special lessons for us.

Therefore, it is fitting for Job that he exalts God’s work (Job 36:24) rather than complaining about it. God’s deeds invite us to sing about them. People have done this throughout the ages and it is fitting for us as well. That is why we have been created. Because of sin people don’t do that anymore. If we are saved by the blood of Christ, we have all the more reason to sing of God’s work in redemption.

“All men”, without exception, see the sun, the moon, and the stars; they see the storms, the rain, and the lightning (Job 36:25). In it they can perceive His exalted might. All men also see His work in the lives of other people when He brings them into trial, or in disasters in nature. In contrast, man is null and void. Elihu therefore speaks of “man”, i.e. mortal man. He stands by it, beholds it, and stands at a great, incalculable distance from it.

That distance is literally when it comes to celestial bodies. That distance is spiritual when it comes to what can strike a person personally. The friends saw the suffering of Job from afar (Job 2:12). The distance in kilometers did not remain, because they sat down with him. But the spiritual distance with respect to understanding Job’s suffering has remained.

Psalms 25:2

Exalt God’s Work

Elihu returns to his starting point (Job 36:5) and points out to Job the high exaltation that God has by His power. He is the Almighty God, Who holds everything under His control and controls everything according to His counsel. As far above man, He bends down to that puny man to teach him. He does so in an inimitable way. No one is equal to Him as a Teacher.

God teaches His teaching in creation and in the lives of individuals. Elihu here says to Job, as it were, that God teaches him lessons in the exercise of His power. In all that God has brought over Job, He shows that He wants to tell Job Who He is and who Job is. Job receives private lessons from God, because God is deeply interested in Job personally and caring about him.

God composes His lessons for Job, and every man, Himself (Job 36:23). No one prescribes them to Him. Nobody tells Him how He should teach, what practical exercises He should have performed. No one can say to Him that He adds injustice in the material He has for each person. He composes the package with the care that is proper to Him. He never commands anyone more than he or she can bear (1 Corinthians 10:13). He knows us through and through and knows exactly what we need to learn and attunes the lessons accordingly. All His works are special lessons for us.

Therefore, it is fitting for Job that he exalts God’s work (Job 36:24) rather than complaining about it. God’s deeds invite us to sing about them. People have done this throughout the ages and it is fitting for us as well. That is why we have been created. Because of sin people don’t do that anymore. If we are saved by the blood of Christ, we have all the more reason to sing of God’s work in redemption.

“All men”, without exception, see the sun, the moon, and the stars; they see the storms, the rain, and the lightning (Job 36:25). In it they can perceive His exalted might. All men also see His work in the lives of other people when He brings them into trial, or in disasters in nature. In contrast, man is null and void. Elihu therefore speaks of “man”, i.e. mortal man. He stands by it, beholds it, and stands at a great, incalculable distance from it.

That distance is literally when it comes to celestial bodies. That distance is spiritual when it comes to what can strike a person personally. The friends saw the suffering of Job from afar (Job 2:12). The distance in kilometers did not remain, because they sat down with him. But the spiritual distance with respect to understanding Job’s suffering has remained.

Psalms 25:3

God Is Exalted, and We Do Not Know Him

How great God is cannot be understood by us (Job 36:26). Whether it is His strength and power, His wisdom and knowledge, His love and grace, His counsel and His purposes; we humans cannot grasp the extent of it. Also “the number of His years is unsearchable”, it cannot be fathomed by us, for He is eternal. It determines us by our smallness and limitation as creatures and by the folly of our attempts to understand God’s actions and the reasons for them.

The word “for” (Job 36:27) is the introduction to a number of examples that prove God’s greatness, omnipotence, and wisdom to mortals, as well as their inscrutability. Elihu begins with the origin of “the drops of water”, something that is clear to almost all people and all nations. But who is aware of how this happens, that God works in the way Elihu describes here? Imperceptible to man, God draws up drops of water in the form of vapor through the heat of the sun (Psalms 135:7; Amos 5:8). Then those drops are poured out over the earth in the form of rain.

Of the raised-up water drops He forms the clouds, by which He bundles the raised water as it were into clouds (Job 36:28). He also sets the course of the clouds so that the raindrops “drip upon man abundantly”, that is on their fields. Thus He cares for them and shows them His goodness (Matthew 5:45b; Acts 14:17). Man can only observe, sometimes predict, but not understand how God works in this.

How the clouds spread under the heavens over the earth is also incomprehensible to man (Job 36:29). A cloud can start small and over time blacken the whole sky (1 Kings 18:44-45). Who can understand how He expands the clouds, then dispels them and creates them somewhere else? Science can sometimes predict where and when there are clouds. But it cannot create or disperse the clouds, nor can it determine their course.

The clouds are for God as “His pavilion” (Psalms 18:11; Psalms 97:2). From there He sends His commands and sounds the thunder of His voice. We can see this, but it is impossible for us to understand why God does it.

Psalms 25:4

God Is Exalted, and We Do Not Know Him

How great God is cannot be understood by us (Job 36:26). Whether it is His strength and power, His wisdom and knowledge, His love and grace, His counsel and His purposes; we humans cannot grasp the extent of it. Also “the number of His years is unsearchable”, it cannot be fathomed by us, for He is eternal. It determines us by our smallness and limitation as creatures and by the folly of our attempts to understand God’s actions and the reasons for them.

The word “for” (Job 36:27) is the introduction to a number of examples that prove God’s greatness, omnipotence, and wisdom to mortals, as well as their inscrutability. Elihu begins with the origin of “the drops of water”, something that is clear to almost all people and all nations. But who is aware of how this happens, that God works in the way Elihu describes here? Imperceptible to man, God draws up drops of water in the form of vapor through the heat of the sun (Psalms 135:7; Amos 5:8). Then those drops are poured out over the earth in the form of rain.

Of the raised-up water drops He forms the clouds, by which He bundles the raised water as it were into clouds (Job 36:28). He also sets the course of the clouds so that the raindrops “drip upon man abundantly”, that is on their fields. Thus He cares for them and shows them His goodness (Matthew 5:45b; Acts 14:17). Man can only observe, sometimes predict, but not understand how God works in this.

How the clouds spread under the heavens over the earth is also incomprehensible to man (Job 36:29). A cloud can start small and over time blacken the whole sky (1 Kings 18:44-45). Who can understand how He expands the clouds, then dispels them and creates them somewhere else? Science can sometimes predict where and when there are clouds. But it cannot create or disperse the clouds, nor can it determine their course.

The clouds are for God as “His pavilion” (Psalms 18:11; Psalms 97:2). From there He sends His commands and sounds the thunder of His voice. We can see this, but it is impossible for us to understand why God does it.

Psalms 25:5

God Is Exalted, and We Do Not Know Him

How great God is cannot be understood by us (Job 36:26). Whether it is His strength and power, His wisdom and knowledge, His love and grace, His counsel and His purposes; we humans cannot grasp the extent of it. Also “the number of His years is unsearchable”, it cannot be fathomed by us, for He is eternal. It determines us by our smallness and limitation as creatures and by the folly of our attempts to understand God’s actions and the reasons for them.

The word “for” (Job 36:27) is the introduction to a number of examples that prove God’s greatness, omnipotence, and wisdom to mortals, as well as their inscrutability. Elihu begins with the origin of “the drops of water”, something that is clear to almost all people and all nations. But who is aware of how this happens, that God works in the way Elihu describes here? Imperceptible to man, God draws up drops of water in the form of vapor through the heat of the sun (Psalms 135:7; Amos 5:8). Then those drops are poured out over the earth in the form of rain.

Of the raised-up water drops He forms the clouds, by which He bundles the raised water as it were into clouds (Job 36:28). He also sets the course of the clouds so that the raindrops “drip upon man abundantly”, that is on their fields. Thus He cares for them and shows them His goodness (Matthew 5:45b; Acts 14:17). Man can only observe, sometimes predict, but not understand how God works in this.

How the clouds spread under the heavens over the earth is also incomprehensible to man (Job 36:29). A cloud can start small and over time blacken the whole sky (1 Kings 18:44-45). Who can understand how He expands the clouds, then dispels them and creates them somewhere else? Science can sometimes predict where and when there are clouds. But it cannot create or disperse the clouds, nor can it determine their course.

The clouds are for God as “His pavilion” (Psalms 18:11; Psalms 97:2). From there He sends His commands and sounds the thunder of His voice. We can see this, but it is impossible for us to understand why God does it.

Psalms 25:6

God Is Exalted, and We Do Not Know Him

How great God is cannot be understood by us (Job 36:26). Whether it is His strength and power, His wisdom and knowledge, His love and grace, His counsel and His purposes; we humans cannot grasp the extent of it. Also “the number of His years is unsearchable”, it cannot be fathomed by us, for He is eternal. It determines us by our smallness and limitation as creatures and by the folly of our attempts to understand God’s actions and the reasons for them.

The word “for” (Job 36:27) is the introduction to a number of examples that prove God’s greatness, omnipotence, and wisdom to mortals, as well as their inscrutability. Elihu begins with the origin of “the drops of water”, something that is clear to almost all people and all nations. But who is aware of how this happens, that God works in the way Elihu describes here? Imperceptible to man, God draws up drops of water in the form of vapor through the heat of the sun (Psalms 135:7; Amos 5:8). Then those drops are poured out over the earth in the form of rain.

Of the raised-up water drops He forms the clouds, by which He bundles the raised water as it were into clouds (Job 36:28). He also sets the course of the clouds so that the raindrops “drip upon man abundantly”, that is on their fields. Thus He cares for them and shows them His goodness (Matthew 5:45b; Acts 14:17). Man can only observe, sometimes predict, but not understand how God works in this.

How the clouds spread under the heavens over the earth is also incomprehensible to man (Job 36:29). A cloud can start small and over time blacken the whole sky (1 Kings 18:44-45). Who can understand how He expands the clouds, then dispels them and creates them somewhere else? Science can sometimes predict where and when there are clouds. But it cannot create or disperse the clouds, nor can it determine their course.

The clouds are for God as “His pavilion” (Psalms 18:11; Psalms 97:2). From there He sends His commands and sounds the thunder of His voice. We can see this, but it is impossible for us to understand why God does it.

Psalms 25:7

God Speaks in Lightning and Thunder

During the thundering thunderstorm God spreads His light over the earth by lightning (Job 36:30). He does so in the high, in the sky. By “His lightning” He covers “the depths of the sea”. The depths – Hebrew: roots – of the sea are the darkest places and invisible to us. But these dark depths of the sea are not hidden from God, Who is light. God’s greatness is seen in the highest and lowest regions of creation. He is everywhere and He reigns everywhere. He is in the light of lightning and in the impenetrable darkness of the water depths.

He can use the rain to judge peoples by causing a flood (Job 36:31; cf. Genesis 7:11; 23). He may also use the rain as a blessing to moisten the land, so that corn and other agricultural products that depend on the rain grow well and there is “food in abundance”.

Lightning, which frightens us, is covered by His hands (Job 36:32). This means that lightning comes out of His hand and is guided by His hand to His purpose. He determines the purpose of lightning, where it hits the earth. We can wait for lightning, but never know when it will come, how it will go nor where it will go. The moment, the speed and the direction of lightning are unpredictable and inimitable for us.

When God gives rain, He announces it (Job 36:33). We hear rumbling in the distance and know that thunder is coming. That is His call. His call announces that He Himself is coming. The animals, the cattle, feel instinctively that a storm is approaching, which is noticeable by their behavior. Their behavior therefore also announces Him. The cattle react to His speaking and His coming. But man often does not recognize Him when He speaks and shows His presence.

Psalms 25:8

God Speaks in Lightning and Thunder

During the thundering thunderstorm God spreads His light over the earth by lightning (Job 36:30). He does so in the high, in the sky. By “His lightning” He covers “the depths of the sea”. The depths – Hebrew: roots – of the sea are the darkest places and invisible to us. But these dark depths of the sea are not hidden from God, Who is light. God’s greatness is seen in the highest and lowest regions of creation. He is everywhere and He reigns everywhere. He is in the light of lightning and in the impenetrable darkness of the water depths.

He can use the rain to judge peoples by causing a flood (Job 36:31; cf. Genesis 7:11; 23). He may also use the rain as a blessing to moisten the land, so that corn and other agricultural products that depend on the rain grow well and there is “food in abundance”.

Lightning, which frightens us, is covered by His hands (Job 36:32). This means that lightning comes out of His hand and is guided by His hand to His purpose. He determines the purpose of lightning, where it hits the earth. We can wait for lightning, but never know when it will come, how it will go nor where it will go. The moment, the speed and the direction of lightning are unpredictable and inimitable for us.

When God gives rain, He announces it (Job 36:33). We hear rumbling in the distance and know that thunder is coming. That is His call. His call announces that He Himself is coming. The animals, the cattle, feel instinctively that a storm is approaching, which is noticeable by their behavior. Their behavior therefore also announces Him. The cattle react to His speaking and His coming. But man often does not recognize Him when He speaks and shows His presence.

Psalms 25:9

God Speaks in Lightning and Thunder

During the thundering thunderstorm God spreads His light over the earth by lightning (Job 36:30). He does so in the high, in the sky. By “His lightning” He covers “the depths of the sea”. The depths – Hebrew: roots – of the sea are the darkest places and invisible to us. But these dark depths of the sea are not hidden from God, Who is light. God’s greatness is seen in the highest and lowest regions of creation. He is everywhere and He reigns everywhere. He is in the light of lightning and in the impenetrable darkness of the water depths.

He can use the rain to judge peoples by causing a flood (Job 36:31; cf. Genesis 7:11; 23). He may also use the rain as a blessing to moisten the land, so that corn and other agricultural products that depend on the rain grow well and there is “food in abundance”.

Lightning, which frightens us, is covered by His hands (Job 36:32). This means that lightning comes out of His hand and is guided by His hand to His purpose. He determines the purpose of lightning, where it hits the earth. We can wait for lightning, but never know when it will come, how it will go nor where it will go. The moment, the speed and the direction of lightning are unpredictable and inimitable for us.

When God gives rain, He announces it (Job 36:33). We hear rumbling in the distance and know that thunder is coming. That is His call. His call announces that He Himself is coming. The animals, the cattle, feel instinctively that a storm is approaching, which is noticeable by their behavior. Their behavior therefore also announces Him. The cattle react to His speaking and His coming. But man often does not recognize Him when He speaks and shows His presence.

Psalms 25:10

God Speaks in Lightning and Thunder

During the thundering thunderstorm God spreads His light over the earth by lightning (Job 36:30). He does so in the high, in the sky. By “His lightning” He covers “the depths of the sea”. The depths – Hebrew: roots – of the sea are the darkest places and invisible to us. But these dark depths of the sea are not hidden from God, Who is light. God’s greatness is seen in the highest and lowest regions of creation. He is everywhere and He reigns everywhere. He is in the light of lightning and in the impenetrable darkness of the water depths.

He can use the rain to judge peoples by causing a flood (Job 36:31; cf. Genesis 7:11; 23). He may also use the rain as a blessing to moisten the land, so that corn and other agricultural products that depend on the rain grow well and there is “food in abundance”.

Lightning, which frightens us, is covered by His hands (Job 36:32). This means that lightning comes out of His hand and is guided by His hand to His purpose. He determines the purpose of lightning, where it hits the earth. We can wait for lightning, but never know when it will come, how it will go nor where it will go. The moment, the speed and the direction of lightning are unpredictable and inimitable for us.

When God gives rain, He announces it (Job 36:33). We hear rumbling in the distance and know that thunder is coming. That is His call. His call announces that He Himself is coming. The animals, the cattle, feel instinctively that a storm is approaching, which is noticeable by their behavior. Their behavior therefore also announces Him. The cattle react to His speaking and His coming. But man often does not recognize Him when He speaks and shows His presence.

Psalms 25:12

Introduction

Elihu made it clear in the last verses of the previous chapter (Job 36:26-33) that God in His sovereignty has control over nature. This serves as an example that He has control over all things. In this chapter he continues to describe God’s control over nature. In Job 37:1-12 he cites more examples of “great things” that God does in nature that we do not understand (Job 37:5).

In Job 37:13 Elihu says what the effects of God’s control over nature are on people. What God does can cause pain, it can also give relief. When Elihu arrives at that point, he turns to Job again to apply these truths to his situation (Job 37:14-24).

The Thunder of God’s Voice

Elihu continues speaking of God’s voice in the thunder (Job 37:1), which he began in the previous chapter. Yes, about that (“at this”) his heart trembles and leaps from its place. There is no fear, but deep awe of this expression of God’s majesty. What he says to Job in his description of that majesty touches him himself. He stands, as it were, trembling on his legs. He does not teach Job physics, but undergoes the greatness of what he describes and passes on what he hears the creation of God’s eternal power and divine nature (Romans 1:20). In this we see again how he stands beside Job before God. This is necessary in order to serve someone.

Elihu calls upon Job to “listen closely to the thunder of His voice” (Job 37:2). “The rumbling that goes out from His mouth” is the sound of the approaching thunderstorm. It is an impressive sound, not clearly spoken words. It is recommended to read Psalms 29 (Psalms 29:1-11). In that psalm God’s majesty in the thunderstorm is impressively described. By listening to it attentively, lessons can be learned from it.

When the thunder of the voice of God rolls, that voice is heard “under the whole heaven” (Job 37:3). National borders do not count, nor do all kinds of differences on earth. Everyone is addressed by it. The same goes for His lightning. As far as the eye can see over the earth, His lightning goes over the horizon of our field of vision. In what Elihu says here, we can think of the coming of the Lord Jesus to earth to judge. The Lord says so Himself: “For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matthew 24:27).

After the lightning a deafening thunder breaks out. This is the roaring of God with His voice (Job 37:4). Thunder is “His majestic voice” (cf. Psalms 29:4). Then, after “His voice is heard”, other things follow that He does not restrain. This is seen in the rain and the storm that follow the lightning and the thunderstorm (Jeremiah 10:13). His voice announces something and it will come. He does not deceive.

Psalms 25:13

Introduction

Elihu made it clear in the last verses of the previous chapter (Job 36:26-33) that God in His sovereignty has control over nature. This serves as an example that He has control over all things. In this chapter he continues to describe God’s control over nature. In Job 37:1-12 he cites more examples of “great things” that God does in nature that we do not understand (Job 37:5).

In Job 37:13 Elihu says what the effects of God’s control over nature are on people. What God does can cause pain, it can also give relief. When Elihu arrives at that point, he turns to Job again to apply these truths to his situation (Job 37:14-24).

The Thunder of God’s Voice

Elihu continues speaking of God’s voice in the thunder (Job 37:1), which he began in the previous chapter. Yes, about that (“at this”) his heart trembles and leaps from its place. There is no fear, but deep awe of this expression of God’s majesty. What he says to Job in his description of that majesty touches him himself. He stands, as it were, trembling on his legs. He does not teach Job physics, but undergoes the greatness of what he describes and passes on what he hears the creation of God’s eternal power and divine nature (Romans 1:20). In this we see again how he stands beside Job before God. This is necessary in order to serve someone.

Elihu calls upon Job to “listen closely to the thunder of His voice” (Job 37:2). “The rumbling that goes out from His mouth” is the sound of the approaching thunderstorm. It is an impressive sound, not clearly spoken words. It is recommended to read Psalms 29 (Psalms 29:1-11). In that psalm God’s majesty in the thunderstorm is impressively described. By listening to it attentively, lessons can be learned from it.

When the thunder of the voice of God rolls, that voice is heard “under the whole heaven” (Job 37:3). National borders do not count, nor do all kinds of differences on earth. Everyone is addressed by it. The same goes for His lightning. As far as the eye can see over the earth, His lightning goes over the horizon of our field of vision. In what Elihu says here, we can think of the coming of the Lord Jesus to earth to judge. The Lord says so Himself: “For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matthew 24:27).

After the lightning a deafening thunder breaks out. This is the roaring of God with His voice (Job 37:4). Thunder is “His majestic voice” (cf. Psalms 29:4). Then, after “His voice is heard”, other things follow that He does not restrain. This is seen in the rain and the storm that follow the lightning and the thunderstorm (Jeremiah 10:13). His voice announces something and it will come. He does not deceive.

Psalms 25:14

Introduction

Elihu made it clear in the last verses of the previous chapter (Job 36:26-33) that God in His sovereignty has control over nature. This serves as an example that He has control over all things. In this chapter he continues to describe God’s control over nature. In Job 37:1-12 he cites more examples of “great things” that God does in nature that we do not understand (Job 37:5).

In Job 37:13 Elihu says what the effects of God’s control over nature are on people. What God does can cause pain, it can also give relief. When Elihu arrives at that point, he turns to Job again to apply these truths to his situation (Job 37:14-24).

The Thunder of God’s Voice

Elihu continues speaking of God’s voice in the thunder (Job 37:1), which he began in the previous chapter. Yes, about that (“at this”) his heart trembles and leaps from its place. There is no fear, but deep awe of this expression of God’s majesty. What he says to Job in his description of that majesty touches him himself. He stands, as it were, trembling on his legs. He does not teach Job physics, but undergoes the greatness of what he describes and passes on what he hears the creation of God’s eternal power and divine nature (Romans 1:20). In this we see again how he stands beside Job before God. This is necessary in order to serve someone.

Elihu calls upon Job to “listen closely to the thunder of His voice” (Job 37:2). “The rumbling that goes out from His mouth” is the sound of the approaching thunderstorm. It is an impressive sound, not clearly spoken words. It is recommended to read Psalms 29 (Psalms 29:1-11). In that psalm God’s majesty in the thunderstorm is impressively described. By listening to it attentively, lessons can be learned from it.

When the thunder of the voice of God rolls, that voice is heard “under the whole heaven” (Job 37:3). National borders do not count, nor do all kinds of differences on earth. Everyone is addressed by it. The same goes for His lightning. As far as the eye can see over the earth, His lightning goes over the horizon of our field of vision. In what Elihu says here, we can think of the coming of the Lord Jesus to earth to judge. The Lord says so Himself: “For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matthew 24:27).

After the lightning a deafening thunder breaks out. This is the roaring of God with His voice (Job 37:4). Thunder is “His majestic voice” (cf. Psalms 29:4). Then, after “His voice is heard”, other things follow that He does not restrain. This is seen in the rain and the storm that follow the lightning and the thunderstorm (Jeremiah 10:13). His voice announces something and it will come. He does not deceive.

Psalms 25:15

Introduction

Elihu made it clear in the last verses of the previous chapter (Job 36:26-33) that God in His sovereignty has control over nature. This serves as an example that He has control over all things. In this chapter he continues to describe God’s control over nature. In Job 37:1-12 he cites more examples of “great things” that God does in nature that we do not understand (Job 37:5).

In Job 37:13 Elihu says what the effects of God’s control over nature are on people. What God does can cause pain, it can also give relief. When Elihu arrives at that point, he turns to Job again to apply these truths to his situation (Job 37:14-24).

The Thunder of God’s Voice

Elihu continues speaking of God’s voice in the thunder (Job 37:1), which he began in the previous chapter. Yes, about that (“at this”) his heart trembles and leaps from its place. There is no fear, but deep awe of this expression of God’s majesty. What he says to Job in his description of that majesty touches him himself. He stands, as it were, trembling on his legs. He does not teach Job physics, but undergoes the greatness of what he describes and passes on what he hears the creation of God’s eternal power and divine nature (Romans 1:20). In this we see again how he stands beside Job before God. This is necessary in order to serve someone.

Elihu calls upon Job to “listen closely to the thunder of His voice” (Job 37:2). “The rumbling that goes out from His mouth” is the sound of the approaching thunderstorm. It is an impressive sound, not clearly spoken words. It is recommended to read Psalms 29 (Psalms 29:1-11). In that psalm God’s majesty in the thunderstorm is impressively described. By listening to it attentively, lessons can be learned from it.

When the thunder of the voice of God rolls, that voice is heard “under the whole heaven” (Job 37:3). National borders do not count, nor do all kinds of differences on earth. Everyone is addressed by it. The same goes for His lightning. As far as the eye can see over the earth, His lightning goes over the horizon of our field of vision. In what Elihu says here, we can think of the coming of the Lord Jesus to earth to judge. The Lord says so Himself: “For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matthew 24:27).

After the lightning a deafening thunder breaks out. This is the roaring of God with His voice (Job 37:4). Thunder is “His majestic voice” (cf. Psalms 29:4). Then, after “His voice is heard”, other things follow that He does not restrain. This is seen in the rain and the storm that follow the lightning and the thunderstorm (Jeremiah 10:13). His voice announces something and it will come. He does not deceive.

Psalms 25:16

God Does Great Things

Elihu, and we with him, cannot but say that “God thunders with His voice wondrously” (Job 37:5). The voice of His thunder is a wondrous display of His majesty and power. Not only the voice is wondrous, but also what causes the thundering voice of God. It sometimes cracks rocks and mountains, the earth trembles, and mighty trees break like matchsticks (Psalms 29:5-9).

With Job 37:5a the description of the thunderstorm ends. The “great things” of Job 37:5b not only refer to the thunderstorm, but they are also about the things Elihu mentions hereafter. They all have in common that we have to say, “which we cannot comprehend”. All natural phenomena are manifestations of Who God is. They refer to Him. How He works in them and controls them remains incomprehensible to man.

There are theories about their origin. By researching a number of natural phenomena, people can now partly explain their origin on the basis of cause and effect, through which for them the wonder has been explained and disappeared. Elihu and his contemporaries were not burdened with this ‘handicap’. But what people with all their intellect can never do is create or stop a thunderstorm. They can discover and apply laws of nature, but never change them. It takes faith in God to keep seeing the wonders in nature and to keep seeing them as expressions of His presence therein.

To come this far it takes faith in the greatest and most incomprehensible wonder and that is that God gave His Son to save those arrogant, proud creatures. Whoever believes that cannot but praise God for that wonder of His grace. The more we penetrate through the study of God’s Word into what Christ has done for lost sinners, and the more we become aware of our own sinfulness, the more we will understand its incomprehensibility. It will lead us to great thankfulness and a life dedicated to Him. Then it is no longer a question of how the worlds and the laws of nature came into being, for we will understand this “by faith” (Hebrews 11:3).

No one but God knows the origin of the snow and He alone knows where it falls on earth (Job 37:6). Physical explanations for the process of snow formation have been discovered far after the time of Job, but how the process as such originated is unknown. Here we hear that snow is created at the command of God and that He commands the snow to be on earth. Natural phenomena are there because God commands them to be there (Psalms 148:8). With the same commanding voice, He created the whole world (Psalms 33:6; 9).

Just because we know now how snow is formed, it should only increase our admiration for God as its origin. Everything we see and discover of God’s work in nature brings us to a greater admiration of Him. What we first admired, and rightly so, without knowing the laws of nature, we now admire all the more, now that we also know how God worked.

What Elihu said of the snow also applies to the downpour and the rain. He tells them: “Be strong.” At His command they go to earth to the extent He determines. They can be invigorating showers, but also devastating downpours. He, and He alone, gives rain and He alone determines the amount of it and where it falls.

When snow and downpours fall on the earth, man is eliminated in his outdoor activities (Job 37:7). God “seals the hand of every man”, which means that he cannot do anything. He is powerless against the forces of nature. God therefore speaks to “all men”. He makes known to them His work, that He is at the helm of life and that every human being is dependent on Him. People cannot always do what they want.

The sealing of every man’s hand is meant to bring man to a standstill and give him time to think of his Creator. In a practical sense this happens, for example at farms in northeastern China in winter when it is not possible to work on the land for a few months because of freezing of the ground and snowfall. Many believers who have their work on the land are therefore able to occupy themselves as much as possible with God’s Word and to be taught in it.

God has given the beasts the instinct to go into their hiding places during the snow and rain in winter and remain in their dens for as long as the snow and rain lasts (Job 37:8). For people, God’s speaking through snow and rain is a call to think of Him. Perhaps the beasts are an example to man and there is a lesson in this for man. That lesson is that man seeks refuge with God in a time of spiritual cold by taking refuge in Christ.

In Job 37:9 Elihu mentions “the storm” and “the cold”. He shows where they come from. The storm comes from God’s “chamber” [literal translation of “south”]. The cold is caused by winds from the north that spread snow and rain over the earth. The point Elihu is making is that all these things are under God’s control, whether it is the hot desert wind or the cold north wind.

Also, making ice is God’s work (Job 37:10). It happens physically through the freezing wind, but in reality it happens through “the breath of God”. That breath is so powerful that not only small ditches, but even “the expanse of the waters is frozen”. What used to be liquid is transformed by God’s breath into a massive mass that can no longer be broken through.

The enormous masses of ice in the polar regions are made by His breath and therefore remain. Once again, it makes it clear that God is the Creator and Processor of natural phenomena. We can think of the Lord Jesus, Who is the Word of God and of Whom it is written: “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being” (John 1:3).

Just as God controls the water on earth and can make snow and ice out of it, so He also controls the water in the air by collecting it in clouds (Job 37:11). As a result, they become large reservoirs of water, heavy “with moisture”. No matter how heavy the clouds are with moisture, God keeps them under His control. His mighty hand leads them wherever He wills. Likewise, during the darkness of the rain clouds, He spreads His light over the earth through a shining cloud, that is to say, the lightning coming out of that cloud.

The shining cloud is also controlled by Him (Job 37:12). Behind the course of a cloud “His guidance” is hidden. Not only He determines its course but also its work. Every cloud, wherever it floats above the earth, is not there by chance, but has been placed there by God with a purpose. The cloud will do without resistance anywhere “on the face of the inhabited earth” everything God commands.

What a cloud must do is described in Job 37:13. God possesses the clouds and the lightning and uses them to carry out His counsel. The area He has in mind is “His world”. This means the earth and the people who live there (Psalms 24:1). In view of them, God uses the elements of nature. In His speaking through what He does in nature, He has a dual purpose.

He can use the elements “for correction”. This means that He can use thunderstorms, rain, lightning, snow and the like as means of discipline to bring people back from the wrong path. Natural disasters and crop failures are always a speaking from God to people, to bring them to their senses. He can also send the weather conditions “for mercy”, so that people will thank Him for what He has done. Abundant harvests thanks to favorable weather conditions are proof of His mercy.

We see here that Elihu had more in mind than just impressing Job with God’s power in nature. In this verse he makes a direct connection between God’s rule over nature and His rule over the lives of men. In other words, he shows here how the unfathomable secret of God’s ways in nature coincides with the unfathomable secret of His ways with man. It is the direct preparation for God’s addresses in the following chapters. Elihu’s speech thus reaches a climax.

Psalms 25:17

God Does Great Things

Elihu, and we with him, cannot but say that “God thunders with His voice wondrously” (Job 37:5). The voice of His thunder is a wondrous display of His majesty and power. Not only the voice is wondrous, but also what causes the thundering voice of God. It sometimes cracks rocks and mountains, the earth trembles, and mighty trees break like matchsticks (Psalms 29:5-9).

With Job 37:5a the description of the thunderstorm ends. The “great things” of Job 37:5b not only refer to the thunderstorm, but they are also about the things Elihu mentions hereafter. They all have in common that we have to say, “which we cannot comprehend”. All natural phenomena are manifestations of Who God is. They refer to Him. How He works in them and controls them remains incomprehensible to man.

There are theories about their origin. By researching a number of natural phenomena, people can now partly explain their origin on the basis of cause and effect, through which for them the wonder has been explained and disappeared. Elihu and his contemporaries were not burdened with this ‘handicap’. But what people with all their intellect can never do is create or stop a thunderstorm. They can discover and apply laws of nature, but never change them. It takes faith in God to keep seeing the wonders in nature and to keep seeing them as expressions of His presence therein.

To come this far it takes faith in the greatest and most incomprehensible wonder and that is that God gave His Son to save those arrogant, proud creatures. Whoever believes that cannot but praise God for that wonder of His grace. The more we penetrate through the study of God’s Word into what Christ has done for lost sinners, and the more we become aware of our own sinfulness, the more we will understand its incomprehensibility. It will lead us to great thankfulness and a life dedicated to Him. Then it is no longer a question of how the worlds and the laws of nature came into being, for we will understand this “by faith” (Hebrews 11:3).

No one but God knows the origin of the snow and He alone knows where it falls on earth (Job 37:6). Physical explanations for the process of snow formation have been discovered far after the time of Job, but how the process as such originated is unknown. Here we hear that snow is created at the command of God and that He commands the snow to be on earth. Natural phenomena are there because God commands them to be there (Psalms 148:8). With the same commanding voice, He created the whole world (Psalms 33:6; 9).

Just because we know now how snow is formed, it should only increase our admiration for God as its origin. Everything we see and discover of God’s work in nature brings us to a greater admiration of Him. What we first admired, and rightly so, without knowing the laws of nature, we now admire all the more, now that we also know how God worked.

What Elihu said of the snow also applies to the downpour and the rain. He tells them: “Be strong.” At His command they go to earth to the extent He determines. They can be invigorating showers, but also devastating downpours. He, and He alone, gives rain and He alone determines the amount of it and where it falls.

When snow and downpours fall on the earth, man is eliminated in his outdoor activities (Job 37:7). God “seals the hand of every man”, which means that he cannot do anything. He is powerless against the forces of nature. God therefore speaks to “all men”. He makes known to them His work, that He is at the helm of life and that every human being is dependent on Him. People cannot always do what they want.

The sealing of every man’s hand is meant to bring man to a standstill and give him time to think of his Creator. In a practical sense this happens, for example at farms in northeastern China in winter when it is not possible to work on the land for a few months because of freezing of the ground and snowfall. Many believers who have their work on the land are therefore able to occupy themselves as much as possible with God’s Word and to be taught in it.

God has given the beasts the instinct to go into their hiding places during the snow and rain in winter and remain in their dens for as long as the snow and rain lasts (Job 37:8). For people, God’s speaking through snow and rain is a call to think of Him. Perhaps the beasts are an example to man and there is a lesson in this for man. That lesson is that man seeks refuge with God in a time of spiritual cold by taking refuge in Christ.

In Job 37:9 Elihu mentions “the storm” and “the cold”. He shows where they come from. The storm comes from God’s “chamber” [literal translation of “south”]. The cold is caused by winds from the north that spread snow and rain over the earth. The point Elihu is making is that all these things are under God’s control, whether it is the hot desert wind or the cold north wind.

Also, making ice is God’s work (Job 37:10). It happens physically through the freezing wind, but in reality it happens through “the breath of God”. That breath is so powerful that not only small ditches, but even “the expanse of the waters is frozen”. What used to be liquid is transformed by God’s breath into a massive mass that can no longer be broken through.

The enormous masses of ice in the polar regions are made by His breath and therefore remain. Once again, it makes it clear that God is the Creator and Processor of natural phenomena. We can think of the Lord Jesus, Who is the Word of God and of Whom it is written: “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being” (John 1:3).

Just as God controls the water on earth and can make snow and ice out of it, so He also controls the water in the air by collecting it in clouds (Job 37:11). As a result, they become large reservoirs of water, heavy “with moisture”. No matter how heavy the clouds are with moisture, God keeps them under His control. His mighty hand leads them wherever He wills. Likewise, during the darkness of the rain clouds, He spreads His light over the earth through a shining cloud, that is to say, the lightning coming out of that cloud.

The shining cloud is also controlled by Him (Job 37:12). Behind the course of a cloud “His guidance” is hidden. Not only He determines its course but also its work. Every cloud, wherever it floats above the earth, is not there by chance, but has been placed there by God with a purpose. The cloud will do without resistance anywhere “on the face of the inhabited earth” everything God commands.

What a cloud must do is described in Job 37:13. God possesses the clouds and the lightning and uses them to carry out His counsel. The area He has in mind is “His world”. This means the earth and the people who live there (Psalms 24:1). In view of them, God uses the elements of nature. In His speaking through what He does in nature, He has a dual purpose.

He can use the elements “for correction”. This means that He can use thunderstorms, rain, lightning, snow and the like as means of discipline to bring people back from the wrong path. Natural disasters and crop failures are always a speaking from God to people, to bring them to their senses. He can also send the weather conditions “for mercy”, so that people will thank Him for what He has done. Abundant harvests thanks to favorable weather conditions are proof of His mercy.

We see here that Elihu had more in mind than just impressing Job with God’s power in nature. In this verse he makes a direct connection between God’s rule over nature and His rule over the lives of men. In other words, he shows here how the unfathomable secret of God’s ways in nature coincides with the unfathomable secret of His ways with man. It is the direct preparation for God’s addresses in the following chapters. Elihu’s speech thus reaches a climax.

Psalms 25:18

God Does Great Things

Elihu, and we with him, cannot but say that “God thunders with His voice wondrously” (Job 37:5). The voice of His thunder is a wondrous display of His majesty and power. Not only the voice is wondrous, but also what causes the thundering voice of God. It sometimes cracks rocks and mountains, the earth trembles, and mighty trees break like matchsticks (Psalms 29:5-9).

With Job 37:5a the description of the thunderstorm ends. The “great things” of Job 37:5b not only refer to the thunderstorm, but they are also about the things Elihu mentions hereafter. They all have in common that we have to say, “which we cannot comprehend”. All natural phenomena are manifestations of Who God is. They refer to Him. How He works in them and controls them remains incomprehensible to man.

There are theories about their origin. By researching a number of natural phenomena, people can now partly explain their origin on the basis of cause and effect, through which for them the wonder has been explained and disappeared. Elihu and his contemporaries were not burdened with this ‘handicap’. But what people with all their intellect can never do is create or stop a thunderstorm. They can discover and apply laws of nature, but never change them. It takes faith in God to keep seeing the wonders in nature and to keep seeing them as expressions of His presence therein.

To come this far it takes faith in the greatest and most incomprehensible wonder and that is that God gave His Son to save those arrogant, proud creatures. Whoever believes that cannot but praise God for that wonder of His grace. The more we penetrate through the study of God’s Word into what Christ has done for lost sinners, and the more we become aware of our own sinfulness, the more we will understand its incomprehensibility. It will lead us to great thankfulness and a life dedicated to Him. Then it is no longer a question of how the worlds and the laws of nature came into being, for we will understand this “by faith” (Hebrews 11:3).

No one but God knows the origin of the snow and He alone knows where it falls on earth (Job 37:6). Physical explanations for the process of snow formation have been discovered far after the time of Job, but how the process as such originated is unknown. Here we hear that snow is created at the command of God and that He commands the snow to be on earth. Natural phenomena are there because God commands them to be there (Psalms 148:8). With the same commanding voice, He created the whole world (Psalms 33:6; 9).

Just because we know now how snow is formed, it should only increase our admiration for God as its origin. Everything we see and discover of God’s work in nature brings us to a greater admiration of Him. What we first admired, and rightly so, without knowing the laws of nature, we now admire all the more, now that we also know how God worked.

What Elihu said of the snow also applies to the downpour and the rain. He tells them: “Be strong.” At His command they go to earth to the extent He determines. They can be invigorating showers, but also devastating downpours. He, and He alone, gives rain and He alone determines the amount of it and where it falls.

When snow and downpours fall on the earth, man is eliminated in his outdoor activities (Job 37:7). God “seals the hand of every man”, which means that he cannot do anything. He is powerless against the forces of nature. God therefore speaks to “all men”. He makes known to them His work, that He is at the helm of life and that every human being is dependent on Him. People cannot always do what they want.

The sealing of every man’s hand is meant to bring man to a standstill and give him time to think of his Creator. In a practical sense this happens, for example at farms in northeastern China in winter when it is not possible to work on the land for a few months because of freezing of the ground and snowfall. Many believers who have their work on the land are therefore able to occupy themselves as much as possible with God’s Word and to be taught in it.

God has given the beasts the instinct to go into their hiding places during the snow and rain in winter and remain in their dens for as long as the snow and rain lasts (Job 37:8). For people, God’s speaking through snow and rain is a call to think of Him. Perhaps the beasts are an example to man and there is a lesson in this for man. That lesson is that man seeks refuge with God in a time of spiritual cold by taking refuge in Christ.

In Job 37:9 Elihu mentions “the storm” and “the cold”. He shows where they come from. The storm comes from God’s “chamber” [literal translation of “south”]. The cold is caused by winds from the north that spread snow and rain over the earth. The point Elihu is making is that all these things are under God’s control, whether it is the hot desert wind or the cold north wind.

Also, making ice is God’s work (Job 37:10). It happens physically through the freezing wind, but in reality it happens through “the breath of God”. That breath is so powerful that not only small ditches, but even “the expanse of the waters is frozen”. What used to be liquid is transformed by God’s breath into a massive mass that can no longer be broken through.

The enormous masses of ice in the polar regions are made by His breath and therefore remain. Once again, it makes it clear that God is the Creator and Processor of natural phenomena. We can think of the Lord Jesus, Who is the Word of God and of Whom it is written: “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being” (John 1:3).

Just as God controls the water on earth and can make snow and ice out of it, so He also controls the water in the air by collecting it in clouds (Job 37:11). As a result, they become large reservoirs of water, heavy “with moisture”. No matter how heavy the clouds are with moisture, God keeps them under His control. His mighty hand leads them wherever He wills. Likewise, during the darkness of the rain clouds, He spreads His light over the earth through a shining cloud, that is to say, the lightning coming out of that cloud.

The shining cloud is also controlled by Him (Job 37:12). Behind the course of a cloud “His guidance” is hidden. Not only He determines its course but also its work. Every cloud, wherever it floats above the earth, is not there by chance, but has been placed there by God with a purpose. The cloud will do without resistance anywhere “on the face of the inhabited earth” everything God commands.

What a cloud must do is described in Job 37:13. God possesses the clouds and the lightning and uses them to carry out His counsel. The area He has in mind is “His world”. This means the earth and the people who live there (Psalms 24:1). In view of them, God uses the elements of nature. In His speaking through what He does in nature, He has a dual purpose.

He can use the elements “for correction”. This means that He can use thunderstorms, rain, lightning, snow and the like as means of discipline to bring people back from the wrong path. Natural disasters and crop failures are always a speaking from God to people, to bring them to their senses. He can also send the weather conditions “for mercy”, so that people will thank Him for what He has done. Abundant harvests thanks to favorable weather conditions are proof of His mercy.

We see here that Elihu had more in mind than just impressing Job with God’s power in nature. In this verse he makes a direct connection between God’s rule over nature and His rule over the lives of men. In other words, he shows here how the unfathomable secret of God’s ways in nature coincides with the unfathomable secret of His ways with man. It is the direct preparation for God’s addresses in the following chapters. Elihu’s speech thus reaches a climax.

Psalms 25:19

God Does Great Things

Elihu, and we with him, cannot but say that “God thunders with His voice wondrously” (Job 37:5). The voice of His thunder is a wondrous display of His majesty and power. Not only the voice is wondrous, but also what causes the thundering voice of God. It sometimes cracks rocks and mountains, the earth trembles, and mighty trees break like matchsticks (Psalms 29:5-9).

With Job 37:5a the description of the thunderstorm ends. The “great things” of Job 37:5b not only refer to the thunderstorm, but they are also about the things Elihu mentions hereafter. They all have in common that we have to say, “which we cannot comprehend”. All natural phenomena are manifestations of Who God is. They refer to Him. How He works in them and controls them remains incomprehensible to man.

There are theories about their origin. By researching a number of natural phenomena, people can now partly explain their origin on the basis of cause and effect, through which for them the wonder has been explained and disappeared. Elihu and his contemporaries were not burdened with this ‘handicap’. But what people with all their intellect can never do is create or stop a thunderstorm. They can discover and apply laws of nature, but never change them. It takes faith in God to keep seeing the wonders in nature and to keep seeing them as expressions of His presence therein.

To come this far it takes faith in the greatest and most incomprehensible wonder and that is that God gave His Son to save those arrogant, proud creatures. Whoever believes that cannot but praise God for that wonder of His grace. The more we penetrate through the study of God’s Word into what Christ has done for lost sinners, and the more we become aware of our own sinfulness, the more we will understand its incomprehensibility. It will lead us to great thankfulness and a life dedicated to Him. Then it is no longer a question of how the worlds and the laws of nature came into being, for we will understand this “by faith” (Hebrews 11:3).

No one but God knows the origin of the snow and He alone knows where it falls on earth (Job 37:6). Physical explanations for the process of snow formation have been discovered far after the time of Job, but how the process as such originated is unknown. Here we hear that snow is created at the command of God and that He commands the snow to be on earth. Natural phenomena are there because God commands them to be there (Psalms 148:8). With the same commanding voice, He created the whole world (Psalms 33:6; 9).

Just because we know now how snow is formed, it should only increase our admiration for God as its origin. Everything we see and discover of God’s work in nature brings us to a greater admiration of Him. What we first admired, and rightly so, without knowing the laws of nature, we now admire all the more, now that we also know how God worked.

What Elihu said of the snow also applies to the downpour and the rain. He tells them: “Be strong.” At His command they go to earth to the extent He determines. They can be invigorating showers, but also devastating downpours. He, and He alone, gives rain and He alone determines the amount of it and where it falls.

When snow and downpours fall on the earth, man is eliminated in his outdoor activities (Job 37:7). God “seals the hand of every man”, which means that he cannot do anything. He is powerless against the forces of nature. God therefore speaks to “all men”. He makes known to them His work, that He is at the helm of life and that every human being is dependent on Him. People cannot always do what they want.

The sealing of every man’s hand is meant to bring man to a standstill and give him time to think of his Creator. In a practical sense this happens, for example at farms in northeastern China in winter when it is not possible to work on the land for a few months because of freezing of the ground and snowfall. Many believers who have their work on the land are therefore able to occupy themselves as much as possible with God’s Word and to be taught in it.

God has given the beasts the instinct to go into their hiding places during the snow and rain in winter and remain in their dens for as long as the snow and rain lasts (Job 37:8). For people, God’s speaking through snow and rain is a call to think of Him. Perhaps the beasts are an example to man and there is a lesson in this for man. That lesson is that man seeks refuge with God in a time of spiritual cold by taking refuge in Christ.

In Job 37:9 Elihu mentions “the storm” and “the cold”. He shows where they come from. The storm comes from God’s “chamber” [literal translation of “south”]. The cold is caused by winds from the north that spread snow and rain over the earth. The point Elihu is making is that all these things are under God’s control, whether it is the hot desert wind or the cold north wind.

Also, making ice is God’s work (Job 37:10). It happens physically through the freezing wind, but in reality it happens through “the breath of God”. That breath is so powerful that not only small ditches, but even “the expanse of the waters is frozen”. What used to be liquid is transformed by God’s breath into a massive mass that can no longer be broken through.

The enormous masses of ice in the polar regions are made by His breath and therefore remain. Once again, it makes it clear that God is the Creator and Processor of natural phenomena. We can think of the Lord Jesus, Who is the Word of God and of Whom it is written: “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being” (John 1:3).

Just as God controls the water on earth and can make snow and ice out of it, so He also controls the water in the air by collecting it in clouds (Job 37:11). As a result, they become large reservoirs of water, heavy “with moisture”. No matter how heavy the clouds are with moisture, God keeps them under His control. His mighty hand leads them wherever He wills. Likewise, during the darkness of the rain clouds, He spreads His light over the earth through a shining cloud, that is to say, the lightning coming out of that cloud.

The shining cloud is also controlled by Him (Job 37:12). Behind the course of a cloud “His guidance” is hidden. Not only He determines its course but also its work. Every cloud, wherever it floats above the earth, is not there by chance, but has been placed there by God with a purpose. The cloud will do without resistance anywhere “on the face of the inhabited earth” everything God commands.

What a cloud must do is described in Job 37:13. God possesses the clouds and the lightning and uses them to carry out His counsel. The area He has in mind is “His world”. This means the earth and the people who live there (Psalms 24:1). In view of them, God uses the elements of nature. In His speaking through what He does in nature, He has a dual purpose.

He can use the elements “for correction”. This means that He can use thunderstorms, rain, lightning, snow and the like as means of discipline to bring people back from the wrong path. Natural disasters and crop failures are always a speaking from God to people, to bring them to their senses. He can also send the weather conditions “for mercy”, so that people will thank Him for what He has done. Abundant harvests thanks to favorable weather conditions are proof of His mercy.

We see here that Elihu had more in mind than just impressing Job with God’s power in nature. In this verse he makes a direct connection between God’s rule over nature and His rule over the lives of men. In other words, he shows here how the unfathomable secret of God’s ways in nature coincides with the unfathomable secret of His ways with man. It is the direct preparation for God’s addresses in the following chapters. Elihu’s speech thus reaches a climax.

Psalms 25:20

God Does Great Things

Elihu, and we with him, cannot but say that “God thunders with His voice wondrously” (Job 37:5). The voice of His thunder is a wondrous display of His majesty and power. Not only the voice is wondrous, but also what causes the thundering voice of God. It sometimes cracks rocks and mountains, the earth trembles, and mighty trees break like matchsticks (Psalms 29:5-9).

With Job 37:5a the description of the thunderstorm ends. The “great things” of Job 37:5b not only refer to the thunderstorm, but they are also about the things Elihu mentions hereafter. They all have in common that we have to say, “which we cannot comprehend”. All natural phenomena are manifestations of Who God is. They refer to Him. How He works in them and controls them remains incomprehensible to man.

There are theories about their origin. By researching a number of natural phenomena, people can now partly explain their origin on the basis of cause and effect, through which for them the wonder has been explained and disappeared. Elihu and his contemporaries were not burdened with this ‘handicap’. But what people with all their intellect can never do is create or stop a thunderstorm. They can discover and apply laws of nature, but never change them. It takes faith in God to keep seeing the wonders in nature and to keep seeing them as expressions of His presence therein.

To come this far it takes faith in the greatest and most incomprehensible wonder and that is that God gave His Son to save those arrogant, proud creatures. Whoever believes that cannot but praise God for that wonder of His grace. The more we penetrate through the study of God’s Word into what Christ has done for lost sinners, and the more we become aware of our own sinfulness, the more we will understand its incomprehensibility. It will lead us to great thankfulness and a life dedicated to Him. Then it is no longer a question of how the worlds and the laws of nature came into being, for we will understand this “by faith” (Hebrews 11:3).

No one but God knows the origin of the snow and He alone knows where it falls on earth (Job 37:6). Physical explanations for the process of snow formation have been discovered far after the time of Job, but how the process as such originated is unknown. Here we hear that snow is created at the command of God and that He commands the snow to be on earth. Natural phenomena are there because God commands them to be there (Psalms 148:8). With the same commanding voice, He created the whole world (Psalms 33:6; 9).

Just because we know now how snow is formed, it should only increase our admiration for God as its origin. Everything we see and discover of God’s work in nature brings us to a greater admiration of Him. What we first admired, and rightly so, without knowing the laws of nature, we now admire all the more, now that we also know how God worked.

What Elihu said of the snow also applies to the downpour and the rain. He tells them: “Be strong.” At His command they go to earth to the extent He determines. They can be invigorating showers, but also devastating downpours. He, and He alone, gives rain and He alone determines the amount of it and where it falls.

When snow and downpours fall on the earth, man is eliminated in his outdoor activities (Job 37:7). God “seals the hand of every man”, which means that he cannot do anything. He is powerless against the forces of nature. God therefore speaks to “all men”. He makes known to them His work, that He is at the helm of life and that every human being is dependent on Him. People cannot always do what they want.

The sealing of every man’s hand is meant to bring man to a standstill and give him time to think of his Creator. In a practical sense this happens, for example at farms in northeastern China in winter when it is not possible to work on the land for a few months because of freezing of the ground and snowfall. Many believers who have their work on the land are therefore able to occupy themselves as much as possible with God’s Word and to be taught in it.

God has given the beasts the instinct to go into their hiding places during the snow and rain in winter and remain in their dens for as long as the snow and rain lasts (Job 37:8). For people, God’s speaking through snow and rain is a call to think of Him. Perhaps the beasts are an example to man and there is a lesson in this for man. That lesson is that man seeks refuge with God in a time of spiritual cold by taking refuge in Christ.

In Job 37:9 Elihu mentions “the storm” and “the cold”. He shows where they come from. The storm comes from God’s “chamber” [literal translation of “south”]. The cold is caused by winds from the north that spread snow and rain over the earth. The point Elihu is making is that all these things are under God’s control, whether it is the hot desert wind or the cold north wind.

Also, making ice is God’s work (Job 37:10). It happens physically through the freezing wind, but in reality it happens through “the breath of God”. That breath is so powerful that not only small ditches, but even “the expanse of the waters is frozen”. What used to be liquid is transformed by God’s breath into a massive mass that can no longer be broken through.

The enormous masses of ice in the polar regions are made by His breath and therefore remain. Once again, it makes it clear that God is the Creator and Processor of natural phenomena. We can think of the Lord Jesus, Who is the Word of God and of Whom it is written: “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being” (John 1:3).

Just as God controls the water on earth and can make snow and ice out of it, so He also controls the water in the air by collecting it in clouds (Job 37:11). As a result, they become large reservoirs of water, heavy “with moisture”. No matter how heavy the clouds are with moisture, God keeps them under His control. His mighty hand leads them wherever He wills. Likewise, during the darkness of the rain clouds, He spreads His light over the earth through a shining cloud, that is to say, the lightning coming out of that cloud.

The shining cloud is also controlled by Him (Job 37:12). Behind the course of a cloud “His guidance” is hidden. Not only He determines its course but also its work. Every cloud, wherever it floats above the earth, is not there by chance, but has been placed there by God with a purpose. The cloud will do without resistance anywhere “on the face of the inhabited earth” everything God commands.

What a cloud must do is described in Job 37:13. God possesses the clouds and the lightning and uses them to carry out His counsel. The area He has in mind is “His world”. This means the earth and the people who live there (Psalms 24:1). In view of them, God uses the elements of nature. In His speaking through what He does in nature, He has a dual purpose.

He can use the elements “for correction”. This means that He can use thunderstorms, rain, lightning, snow and the like as means of discipline to bring people back from the wrong path. Natural disasters and crop failures are always a speaking from God to people, to bring them to their senses. He can also send the weather conditions “for mercy”, so that people will thank Him for what He has done. Abundant harvests thanks to favorable weather conditions are proof of His mercy.

We see here that Elihu had more in mind than just impressing Job with God’s power in nature. In this verse he makes a direct connection between God’s rule over nature and His rule over the lives of men. In other words, he shows here how the unfathomable secret of God’s ways in nature coincides with the unfathomable secret of His ways with man. It is the direct preparation for God’s addresses in the following chapters. Elihu’s speech thus reaches a climax.

Psalms 25:21

God Does Great Things

Elihu, and we with him, cannot but say that “God thunders with His voice wondrously” (Job 37:5). The voice of His thunder is a wondrous display of His majesty and power. Not only the voice is wondrous, but also what causes the thundering voice of God. It sometimes cracks rocks and mountains, the earth trembles, and mighty trees break like matchsticks (Psalms 29:5-9).

With Job 37:5a the description of the thunderstorm ends. The “great things” of Job 37:5b not only refer to the thunderstorm, but they are also about the things Elihu mentions hereafter. They all have in common that we have to say, “which we cannot comprehend”. All natural phenomena are manifestations of Who God is. They refer to Him. How He works in them and controls them remains incomprehensible to man.

There are theories about their origin. By researching a number of natural phenomena, people can now partly explain their origin on the basis of cause and effect, through which for them the wonder has been explained and disappeared. Elihu and his contemporaries were not burdened with this ‘handicap’. But what people with all their intellect can never do is create or stop a thunderstorm. They can discover and apply laws of nature, but never change them. It takes faith in God to keep seeing the wonders in nature and to keep seeing them as expressions of His presence therein.

To come this far it takes faith in the greatest and most incomprehensible wonder and that is that God gave His Son to save those arrogant, proud creatures. Whoever believes that cannot but praise God for that wonder of His grace. The more we penetrate through the study of God’s Word into what Christ has done for lost sinners, and the more we become aware of our own sinfulness, the more we will understand its incomprehensibility. It will lead us to great thankfulness and a life dedicated to Him. Then it is no longer a question of how the worlds and the laws of nature came into being, for we will understand this “by faith” (Hebrews 11:3).

No one but God knows the origin of the snow and He alone knows where it falls on earth (Job 37:6). Physical explanations for the process of snow formation have been discovered far after the time of Job, but how the process as such originated is unknown. Here we hear that snow is created at the command of God and that He commands the snow to be on earth. Natural phenomena are there because God commands them to be there (Psalms 148:8). With the same commanding voice, He created the whole world (Psalms 33:6; 9).

Just because we know now how snow is formed, it should only increase our admiration for God as its origin. Everything we see and discover of God’s work in nature brings us to a greater admiration of Him. What we first admired, and rightly so, without knowing the laws of nature, we now admire all the more, now that we also know how God worked.

What Elihu said of the snow also applies to the downpour and the rain. He tells them: “Be strong.” At His command they go to earth to the extent He determines. They can be invigorating showers, but also devastating downpours. He, and He alone, gives rain and He alone determines the amount of it and where it falls.

When snow and downpours fall on the earth, man is eliminated in his outdoor activities (Job 37:7). God “seals the hand of every man”, which means that he cannot do anything. He is powerless against the forces of nature. God therefore speaks to “all men”. He makes known to them His work, that He is at the helm of life and that every human being is dependent on Him. People cannot always do what they want.

The sealing of every man’s hand is meant to bring man to a standstill and give him time to think of his Creator. In a practical sense this happens, for example at farms in northeastern China in winter when it is not possible to work on the land for a few months because of freezing of the ground and snowfall. Many believers who have their work on the land are therefore able to occupy themselves as much as possible with God’s Word and to be taught in it.

God has given the beasts the instinct to go into their hiding places during the snow and rain in winter and remain in their dens for as long as the snow and rain lasts (Job 37:8). For people, God’s speaking through snow and rain is a call to think of Him. Perhaps the beasts are an example to man and there is a lesson in this for man. That lesson is that man seeks refuge with God in a time of spiritual cold by taking refuge in Christ.

In Job 37:9 Elihu mentions “the storm” and “the cold”. He shows where they come from. The storm comes from God’s “chamber” [literal translation of “south”]. The cold is caused by winds from the north that spread snow and rain over the earth. The point Elihu is making is that all these things are under God’s control, whether it is the hot desert wind or the cold north wind.

Also, making ice is God’s work (Job 37:10). It happens physically through the freezing wind, but in reality it happens through “the breath of God”. That breath is so powerful that not only small ditches, but even “the expanse of the waters is frozen”. What used to be liquid is transformed by God’s breath into a massive mass that can no longer be broken through.

The enormous masses of ice in the polar regions are made by His breath and therefore remain. Once again, it makes it clear that God is the Creator and Processor of natural phenomena. We can think of the Lord Jesus, Who is the Word of God and of Whom it is written: “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being” (John 1:3).

Just as God controls the water on earth and can make snow and ice out of it, so He also controls the water in the air by collecting it in clouds (Job 37:11). As a result, they become large reservoirs of water, heavy “with moisture”. No matter how heavy the clouds are with moisture, God keeps them under His control. His mighty hand leads them wherever He wills. Likewise, during the darkness of the rain clouds, He spreads His light over the earth through a shining cloud, that is to say, the lightning coming out of that cloud.

The shining cloud is also controlled by Him (Job 37:12). Behind the course of a cloud “His guidance” is hidden. Not only He determines its course but also its work. Every cloud, wherever it floats above the earth, is not there by chance, but has been placed there by God with a purpose. The cloud will do without resistance anywhere “on the face of the inhabited earth” everything God commands.

What a cloud must do is described in Job 37:13. God possesses the clouds and the lightning and uses them to carry out His counsel. The area He has in mind is “His world”. This means the earth and the people who live there (Psalms 24:1). In view of them, God uses the elements of nature. In His speaking through what He does in nature, He has a dual purpose.

He can use the elements “for correction”. This means that He can use thunderstorms, rain, lightning, snow and the like as means of discipline to bring people back from the wrong path. Natural disasters and crop failures are always a speaking from God to people, to bring them to their senses. He can also send the weather conditions “for mercy”, so that people will thank Him for what He has done. Abundant harvests thanks to favorable weather conditions are proof of His mercy.

We see here that Elihu had more in mind than just impressing Job with God’s power in nature. In this verse he makes a direct connection between God’s rule over nature and His rule over the lives of men. In other words, he shows here how the unfathomable secret of God’s ways in nature coincides with the unfathomable secret of His ways with man. It is the direct preparation for God’s addresses in the following chapters. Elihu’s speech thus reaches a climax.

Psalms 25:22

God Does Great Things

Elihu, and we with him, cannot but say that “God thunders with His voice wondrously” (Job 37:5). The voice of His thunder is a wondrous display of His majesty and power. Not only the voice is wondrous, but also what causes the thundering voice of God. It sometimes cracks rocks and mountains, the earth trembles, and mighty trees break like matchsticks (Psalms 29:5-9).

With Job 37:5a the description of the thunderstorm ends. The “great things” of Job 37:5b not only refer to the thunderstorm, but they are also about the things Elihu mentions hereafter. They all have in common that we have to say, “which we cannot comprehend”. All natural phenomena are manifestations of Who God is. They refer to Him. How He works in them and controls them remains incomprehensible to man.

There are theories about their origin. By researching a number of natural phenomena, people can now partly explain their origin on the basis of cause and effect, through which for them the wonder has been explained and disappeared. Elihu and his contemporaries were not burdened with this ‘handicap’. But what people with all their intellect can never do is create or stop a thunderstorm. They can discover and apply laws of nature, but never change them. It takes faith in God to keep seeing the wonders in nature and to keep seeing them as expressions of His presence therein.

To come this far it takes faith in the greatest and most incomprehensible wonder and that is that God gave His Son to save those arrogant, proud creatures. Whoever believes that cannot but praise God for that wonder of His grace. The more we penetrate through the study of God’s Word into what Christ has done for lost sinners, and the more we become aware of our own sinfulness, the more we will understand its incomprehensibility. It will lead us to great thankfulness and a life dedicated to Him. Then it is no longer a question of how the worlds and the laws of nature came into being, for we will understand this “by faith” (Hebrews 11:3).

No one but God knows the origin of the snow and He alone knows where it falls on earth (Job 37:6). Physical explanations for the process of snow formation have been discovered far after the time of Job, but how the process as such originated is unknown. Here we hear that snow is created at the command of God and that He commands the snow to be on earth. Natural phenomena are there because God commands them to be there (Psalms 148:8). With the same commanding voice, He created the whole world (Psalms 33:6; 9).

Just because we know now how snow is formed, it should only increase our admiration for God as its origin. Everything we see and discover of God’s work in nature brings us to a greater admiration of Him. What we first admired, and rightly so, without knowing the laws of nature, we now admire all the more, now that we also know how God worked.

What Elihu said of the snow also applies to the downpour and the rain. He tells them: “Be strong.” At His command they go to earth to the extent He determines. They can be invigorating showers, but also devastating downpours. He, and He alone, gives rain and He alone determines the amount of it and where it falls.

When snow and downpours fall on the earth, man is eliminated in his outdoor activities (Job 37:7). God “seals the hand of every man”, which means that he cannot do anything. He is powerless against the forces of nature. God therefore speaks to “all men”. He makes known to them His work, that He is at the helm of life and that every human being is dependent on Him. People cannot always do what they want.

The sealing of every man’s hand is meant to bring man to a standstill and give him time to think of his Creator. In a practical sense this happens, for example at farms in northeastern China in winter when it is not possible to work on the land for a few months because of freezing of the ground and snowfall. Many believers who have their work on the land are therefore able to occupy themselves as much as possible with God’s Word and to be taught in it.

God has given the beasts the instinct to go into their hiding places during the snow and rain in winter and remain in their dens for as long as the snow and rain lasts (Job 37:8). For people, God’s speaking through snow and rain is a call to think of Him. Perhaps the beasts are an example to man and there is a lesson in this for man. That lesson is that man seeks refuge with God in a time of spiritual cold by taking refuge in Christ.

In Job 37:9 Elihu mentions “the storm” and “the cold”. He shows where they come from. The storm comes from God’s “chamber” [literal translation of “south”]. The cold is caused by winds from the north that spread snow and rain over the earth. The point Elihu is making is that all these things are under God’s control, whether it is the hot desert wind or the cold north wind.

Also, making ice is God’s work (Job 37:10). It happens physically through the freezing wind, but in reality it happens through “the breath of God”. That breath is so powerful that not only small ditches, but even “the expanse of the waters is frozen”. What used to be liquid is transformed by God’s breath into a massive mass that can no longer be broken through.

The enormous masses of ice in the polar regions are made by His breath and therefore remain. Once again, it makes it clear that God is the Creator and Processor of natural phenomena. We can think of the Lord Jesus, Who is the Word of God and of Whom it is written: “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being” (John 1:3).

Just as God controls the water on earth and can make snow and ice out of it, so He also controls the water in the air by collecting it in clouds (Job 37:11). As a result, they become large reservoirs of water, heavy “with moisture”. No matter how heavy the clouds are with moisture, God keeps them under His control. His mighty hand leads them wherever He wills. Likewise, during the darkness of the rain clouds, He spreads His light over the earth through a shining cloud, that is to say, the lightning coming out of that cloud.

The shining cloud is also controlled by Him (Job 37:12). Behind the course of a cloud “His guidance” is hidden. Not only He determines its course but also its work. Every cloud, wherever it floats above the earth, is not there by chance, but has been placed there by God with a purpose. The cloud will do without resistance anywhere “on the face of the inhabited earth” everything God commands.

What a cloud must do is described in Job 37:13. God possesses the clouds and the lightning and uses them to carry out His counsel. The area He has in mind is “His world”. This means the earth and the people who live there (Psalms 24:1). In view of them, God uses the elements of nature. In His speaking through what He does in nature, He has a dual purpose.

He can use the elements “for correction”. This means that He can use thunderstorms, rain, lightning, snow and the like as means of discipline to bring people back from the wrong path. Natural disasters and crop failures are always a speaking from God to people, to bring them to their senses. He can also send the weather conditions “for mercy”, so that people will thank Him for what He has done. Abundant harvests thanks to favorable weather conditions are proof of His mercy.

We see here that Elihu had more in mind than just impressing Job with God’s power in nature. In this verse he makes a direct connection between God’s rule over nature and His rule over the lives of men. In other words, he shows here how the unfathomable secret of God’s ways in nature coincides with the unfathomable secret of His ways with man. It is the direct preparation for God’s addresses in the following chapters. Elihu’s speech thus reaches a climax.