Psalm 29:1-4 — Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty, give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. The voice of the Lord is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the Lord is upon many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.

There was a storm early today, and the sky has been pretty grey all day. A co-worker passed me in the office today and asked me how I was. I replied that I was a little down (that’s a story for another day). The follow was “Oh, it’s the weather I suppose?” Here’s what I said …
“No, not at all. I woke at 4:30 this morning and was entertained by the music of the rain. Then I saw the glory of the lightning and heard the Lord’s voice thundering over the Gulf of Mexico. Then when Myra and I did our devotions this morning, there was Psalm 29 almost like a direct message from God! I love this weather.”
The storm speaks to me so clearly as the voice of the Lord. But it carries another message to me — a warning that haunts me.
The message is tied up in the name Ichabod — which is what the wife of Phinehas son of Eli named her son.
The Philistines defeated Israel in battle, killing Eli’s two sons Hophni and Phinehas and, worst of all, capturing the Ark of the Covenant:

And she named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father-in-law and her husband. And she said, The glory is departed from Israel: for the ark of God is taken. (1 Samuel 4:21-22)

Whenever I hear one of the great Florida storms passing over, the thought passes through my mind that the glory of the Lord is passing — may have passed — from God’s church in America.
Dr. Robert G. Lee was the pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee (where Dr. Adrian Rogers was later to be another beloved pastor) for thirty-two years, and a strong leader in the Southern Baptist Convention. He preached a powerful sermon “Goodby To Glory, Ichabod” on the passing of glory from nations, cities, churches, homes and even individuals. All can have a good name and lose it, and it can never be retrieved. In that message he said:

In America we must remember that the glory of a nation is righteousness and faith in God – and going the way God points – and in such is our security against all foes, our immunity against the ravages of time.
“For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish, yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted.”- Isaiah 60:12. This sober truth that only righteousness exalteth a nation — that if ever America loses her faith in God she will have to come off her pedestal, that pallbearers that carried other nations to their graves will do work for us if we forsake God and refuse to go the way He points — was put upon our hearts once by the editor of the Watchman-Examiner”

When I hear the storm overhead, and the voice of the Lord on the waters, I rejoice. When the storm has passed, and His voice is still, sometimes I tremble.