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Psalms 29

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Call to Worship and Ascribe Glory 1–2

1
Ascribe unto Jehovah, O ye sons of the mighty, Ascribe unto Jehovah glory and strength. ​
2
Ascribe unto Jehovah the glory due unto his name; Worship Jehovah in holy array. ​

The Voice of the Lord in the Storm 3–9

3
The voice of Jehovah is upon the waters: The God of glory thundereth, Even Jehovah upon many waters. ​
4
The voice of Jehovah is powerful; The voice of Jehovah is full of majesty.
5
The voice of Jehovah breaketh the cedars; Yea, Jehovah breaketh in pieces the cedars of Lebanon. ​
6
He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young wild-ox. ​
7
The voice of Jehovah cleaveth the flames of fire.
8
The voice of Jehovah shaketh the wilderness; Jehovah shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh. ​
9
The voice of Jehovah maketh the hinds to calve, And strippeth the forests bare: And in his temple everything saith, Glory. ​

God's Eternal Reign and Blessing 10–11

10
Jehovah satas Kingat the Flood; Yea, Jehovah sitteth as King for ever. ​
11
Jehovah will give strength unto his people; Jehovah will bless his people with peace. ​

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

Study Notes for Psalm 29

Verse 1

O ye mighty — Literally ‘sons of the mighty’ (bene elim), the phrase of Ps 89:6, ‘among the sons of the mighty’. The call is read as reaching the angels or the earthly great, and it is widened to ‘ye kindreds of the people’ in Ps 96:7. ‘Glory’ is kavod, weight; ‘strength’ is oz.

Verse 2

the beauty of holiness — Hadarah, ornament or splendour, joined to qodesh, the holy. The same pair stands in 1 Chr 16:29 and Ps 96:9, and the singers who went out before the army ‘praise the beauty of holiness’ (2 Chr 20:21). ‘Worship’ is shachah, to bow down.

Verse 3

The voice of the LORD — These words recur seven times in the psalm (vv.3–9). Here the voice is thunder: ‘the God of glory thundereth’ (ra’am), as in Job 37:5, ‘God thundereth marvellously with his voice’. The ‘many waters’ are the ones he is ‘mightier than’ in Ps 93:4.

Verse 5

the cedars of Lebanon — Trees Scripture takes as the mark of height. They stand among the things ‘high and lifted up’ that the day of the LORD of hosts brings low (Isa 2:12–13), and Ps 104:16 calls them ‘the trees of the LORD’. Here his voice breaks them (shavar), and the verb is repeated for emphasis.

Verse 6

Lebanon and Sirion — Sirion is Hermon: ‘which Hermon the Sidonians call Sirion’ (Deut 3:9). The cedars ‘skip’ (raqad) like a calf, and Lebanon and Sirion like a young re’em, the wild ox that the KJV renders ‘unicorn’ (Num 23:22). Ps 114:4 uses the same picture: ‘The mountains skipped like rams’.

Verse 8

the wilderness of Kadesh — Lebanon and Sirion lie in the north (v.6); Kadesh is in the southern wilderness where Israel’s spies returned to Moses (Num 13:26). ‘Shaketh’ is chul, to writhe as in labour, and it is the verb rendered ‘to calve’ in the next verse.

Verse 9

maketh the hinds to calve — The verb chul of v.8 again: the voice that shakes the wilderness brings the hinds to travail. ‘Discovereth the forests’ means it strips them bare (chasaf). ‘In his temple’ (heykal) is the place where, after all this, each one speaks of his glory (kavod, as in vv.1–3).

Verse 10

sitteth upon the flood — Mabbul is the word used only of Noah’s flood in Genesis (Gen 6:17; 7:17; 9:11) and here, so the throne stands over the waters that drowned the world. ‘The LORD sitteth King for ever’ answers Ps 10:16, ‘The LORD is King for ever and ever’.

Verse 11

bless his people with peace — The peace of the priestly blessing, ‘The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace’ (Num 6:26). ‘Strength’ is oz, the word of v.1: what the mighty were told to give to the LORD, he now gives to his people.