Psalm 29: The Judgment Storm
A Psalm of David.
“The voice of His trusting people is hushed; His voice is now heard. From Psalms 25:1-22; Psalms 26:1-12; Psalms 27:1-14; Psalms 28:1-9 we have seen the soul exercise of the remnant of Israel, we heard their prayers, we learned of their hopes and anticipations and of their trials and sorrows.” (Arno Gaebelein) Their last prayer in the preceding Psalm was ‘Do not be silent to me, lest, if You are silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit.’ And suddenly David’s countenance changed. There was a turn. The Lord spoke to him and quieted him. These are likely those Oracles.
“According to Rev 5:5, the Lamb is the Lion of Judah. Of all the animal kingdom, the lion’s voice is the most like thunder. The first living creature looks like a lion (Revelation 4:7) but when he speaks his voice is like the sound of thunder (Revelation 6:1). There are a number of connections: the lion is a symbol for Yahweh in the Old Testament where He acts like a lion to save His people from their enemies (Hosea 11:10, Jeremiah 25:30); judges His people like a lion (Amos 1:2, 3:8); and uses a lion for prophecy (Amos 3:7-8).” (Revelation by Jon Paulien)
1 Give unto Yahweh, O you mighty ones, give unto Yahweh glory and strength. 2 Give unto Yahweh the glory due to His name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.
“‘Give unto Yahweh'— by word and confession, as Joshua 7:19, Jeremiah 13:16; acknowledge Him the King immortal, invisible, etc., and yourselves His vassals, ‘O ye mighty; ye potentates and rulers of the earth,” even of Israel, “as did those three best emperors, Constantine, Theodosius, and Valentinian. ‘Cedite, colite,’ step back, stoop, humble and tremble before this dread Sovereign of the world; bear an awful respect to the Divine Majesty, the high thunderer, the great wonder worker, unless you will come short of brute beasts and dumb creatures.” (John Trapp) These were they who had persecuted David, as well as his Lord. “[Give unto Him] glory and strength,’ i.e. ‘the glory of His strength.’” (Matthew Poole)— “By ascribing all to Him, casting down your crowns at His feet, setting up His sincere service wherever ye have to do, etc.” (John Trapp)—
‘in the beauty of holiness’—the loveliness of a spiritual worship focused on the past acts and Oracles of God, as recorded in Torah.
3 The voice of Yahweh is over the waters; the God of glory thunders; Yahweh is over many waters. 4 The voice of Yahweh is powerful; the voice of Yahweh is full of majesty. 5 The voice of Yahweh breaks the cedars, yes, Yahweh splinters the cedars of Lebanon. 6 He makes them also skip like a calf, Lebanon and Sirion like young wild ox. 7 The voice of Yahweh divides the flames of fire. 8 The voice of Yahweh shakes the wilderness; Yahweh shakes the Wilderness of Kadesh. 9 The voice of Yahweh makes the deer give birth, and strips the forests bare; and in His temple everyone says, “Glory!”
These things are an allegory of the Second Coming— “a metaphor in which a character, place or event is used to deliver a broader message about real-world issues and occurrences.” “The voice of Yahweh is over the waters— “The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues.” (Rev 17:15) “There is no agent in universal nature so powerful as the electric fluid. It destroys life, tears castles and towers to pieces, rends the strongest oaks, and cleaves the most solid rocks: universal animate nature is awed and terrified by it. To several of these effects the psalmist here refers.” (Adam Clarke) In verse 7, the voice of Yahweh "divide Heb. heweth out the flames of fire It "makes way for lightning [fire] which are suddenly dispersed over the face of the earth.” (Matthew Poole) “Two men will be in the field: one will be taken [in that first death] and the other left.” (Matthew 24:40)
“The thunderstorm is described in terms of ‘the voice of the LORD’ and the consequences of that voice are mighty acts of God. So the thunders of Psalm 29 probably recall the mighty acts of God in Old Testament times, Creation, the Flood, the Exodus, and so on. I believe Revelation 10 has an intentional allusion to Psalm 29.” (Revelation by Jon Paulien)
“‘The God of glory thunders, Yahweh is over many waters’— The day of the Lord, when He will be manifested in wrath and in mercy, is described under an onrushing thunderstorm. The mighty tempest passes from north to south. Jehovah thundereth, great waters sweep along, His voice is heard with power. The mighty cedars of Lebanon are broken by the fury of the storm. The cedars of Lebanon are symbolical of the high and exalted things which will be broken to pieces in that day. (Read Isaiah 2:11-14 below) Lebanon and Sirion, the lofty mountains, skip like a young unicorn. The mountains will be shaken by mighty earthquakes and all the governments, typified by mountains, will also be shaken. He is manifested with flames of fire, the lightning of His righteousness, which ushers in His glorious reign. Then the hind is made to calve— it means Israel’s new birth, while the forests (the nations) are stripped and laid low. And in His temple, that greater house, whose maker He is, earth and heaven, ‘all that is therein uttereth glory’ (literal translation).” (Arno Gaebelein)
The wrath of God will be against all high places, and those people enthroned therein. “The proud look of man will be abased and the loftiness of man will be humbled, and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day. For the LORD of hosts will have a day of reckoning against everyone who is proud and lofty and against everyone who is lifted up, that he may be abased. And it will be against all the cedars of Lebanon that are lofty and lifted up, against all the oaks of Bashan, against all the lofty mountains, against all the hills that are lifted up. (Isaiah 2:11-14)
“God's voice thunders in marvelous ways; He does great things beyond our understanding.” (Job 37:5) All is shaken. The seven thunders of Revelation 10, as well as Psalm 29 are “mighty actions of God which are 1) decisive and 2) cannot be understood without revelation (Amos 3:7-8)… There is an interesting NT parallel to the seven thunders in John 12:28-30. When God spoke to Jesus, it was with a voice that sounded like thunder: "'Father, glorify your name!' Then a voice came from heaven, 'I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.' The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him. Jesus said, 'This voice was for your benefit, not mine.' What is interesting in this passage is that God's voice speaking like thunder in Jerusalem happened just before the cross. It is significant that in the Gospel of John the cross was the greatest revelation of God.” (Revelation by Jon Paulien)
10 Yahweh sat enthroned at the Flood, and the Lord sits as King forever. 11 Yahweh will give strength to His people; Yahweh will bless His people with peace.
“The calm after the storm— Jehovah is King. The storm is past. The Lord has come. The judgment flood is gone. Jehovah now has taken His throne. He is King and blesseth His people with peace. The name of Jehovah is found 18 times in this Psalm and this Jehovah is our ever blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” (Arno Gaebelein) This awesome God reigns, “not for an hour, riding on the tempest [as when He returns in glory], but [when He] sitteth above the waterfloods, and reigneth king forever.” (Joseph Sutcliffe) “The Lord will bless His people with peace’— internal, external, eternal: for godliness hath the promises of both lives, of prosperity, safety, and welfare both of soul and body.” (John Trapp)