Yesterday myself and a few others were thinking back to the first three Neighborhood. Serve. days, and the unbelievable fact that each day had no rain while we were serving. I am reminded of Psalm 29, which speaks of attributes of God and how things like the weather point us to His nature.
While studying at Corban, I had the chance to analyze Psalm 29. This Psalm can be interpreted in light of David rebuking religions that worship creation instead of the creator. One commentator claims that it is the main purpose of this Psalm (Scott Hoezee PC). Though this commentator may be oversimplifying the purpose of the Psalm, it is a helpful perspective that orients the reader in focusing on the attributes of God and how He is deserving of glory as our Creator rather than giving the glory to creation.
29 A PSALM OF DAVID.
1 Ascribe to the LORD, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
2 Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness.
3 The voice of the LORD is over the waters;
the God of glory thunders, the LORD, over many waters.
4 The voice of the LORD is powerful;
the voice of the LORD is full of majesty.
5 The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars;
the LORD breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
6 He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf, and Sirion like a young wild ox.
7 The voice of the LORD flashes forth flames of fire.
8 The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness; the LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
9 The voice of the LORD makes the deer give birth and strips the forests bare, and in his temple all cry, "Glory!"
10 The LORD sits enthroned over the flood;
the LORD sits enthroned as king forever.
11 May the LORD give strength to his people! May the LORD bless his people with peace!
ESV
Psalm 29 is a good demonstration of Hebrew poetry. Some of the major aspects of Hebrew poetry are parallelism, imagery, and comparison. All three of these aspects are present in Psalm 29, which helps us to understand how David articulates the character of God and specifically how He deserves our worship.
The first two verses of this Psalm can be understood through the lens of repetitive parallelism. David is instructing his readers to glorify God. He repeats the phrase "ascribe to the Lord" three times and each time includes additional reasons as to why the readers should ascribe to the Lord glory through climactic poetry that climaxes with call to worship God (how to read the psalms, the Bible knowledge commentary).
In the third verse we begin to see the repetition of the word voice, specifically the voice of God and how this voice is awe-inspiring (dictionary of Bible themes). The Hebrew word that is translated as voice is defined as sound, noise, voice, message, tidings, and proclamation. Though it could be true for the passage to say the noise of God is over the waters. With the context of God's character being advocated for in this Psalm, the word voice, which is repeated many times, is likely meant to communicate the message, essence, and characteristics of God.
(BWS, abridged brown-driver-briggs).
As verse 3 progresses, David then compares God's glory to the storm, using the imagery of God's glory thundering. One commentator claims that what David says in verse 3 is an exhibition of His power over the storm. David says, "The voice of the LORD is over the waters" in verse 3. Rather than interpreting that God was proclaiming a message over the waters/clouds, the verse could communicate that the waters reflect the Lord and His message. Psalm 19:1 says, "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.". A similar sentiment is being expressed by using the word voice in this Psalm. The emphasis is on the characteristics of the Lord as He who can create with His word yet also, He who can control nature with His word/voice (BKC).
God's character and essence are seen through His voice as described in the Psalm.
The next verses elaborate on the glory of the Lord in explaining His power and majesty over creation. It is important to make the distinction between God being over creation versus in creation.
God as creator is powerful and majestic, which separates Him from creation (Concise Theology).
In the next two verses, David describes witnessing the storm moving inland thus destroying the cedars of Lebanon. The storm then moved into the mountains of Lebanon, specifically Mount Hermon. David says that Lebanon skips like a calf and Mount Hermon like a young wild ox.
This metaphor describes the jumping of the mountains, which is a description for the earthquakes that David was seeing. The calf jumps up and down and around, as one might picture an earthquake in the mountains as the hills shake up and down and around. God's sovereignty over creation is again seen in this verse as David describes the earthquakes as God making the calf skip.
In verse 7, David continues in narrating the storm by describing the voice of God in lightning. Then he says that the voice of God shakes the wilderness. Not just the wilderness near him, but the wilderness all the way in Kadesh.
Let's look at a picture for reference of the distance and magnitude of this storm.
You see the storm over the waters, then through the cedars of Lebanon, then causing earthquakes at Mount Hermon.
Then verse 8 tells us that the storm (the voice of God) shakes the wilderness. Then David says that the wilderness shakes at Kadesh, which is all the way up here closer to the top of the map. This means that the voice of God is spreading across all of Lebanon in the shape of a storm. This then shows the power and magnitude of God displayed in this storm.
In verse 9, we see the fear of the Lord in action. The deer prematurely gives birth out of fear, the trees are stripped of bark, and all are glorifying God.
The passage takes a seeming turn away from the storm in the concluding verses. However, in reading this Psalm with the context of the characteristics and nature of God, verses 10 & 11 are very fitting. David says that God is enthroned over the flood as the King. And as the King, He is sovereign and will give strength and peace to His people.
One commentator says this about the closing of Psalm 29, "Over this terrible raging of the elements God is enthroned, directing and restraining by sovereign power; and hence the comfort of His people. ‘This awful God is ours, our Father and our Love.' (JFB)
We remember why David wrote this Psalm, which was to direct worshippers of nature to the glory, power, and majesty of the one true God. Reflecting on the passage, David uses the storm occurring to point out the glories and wonders of God.
As believers today, do we fear Him in the way that He deserves?
I think of in Mark 4, when the disciples were on a boat that was in the middle of the storm. They very quickly became fearful. However, they were fearful of the storm rather than fearful of the Lord.
The passage says, "37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?" 39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. 40 He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?" 41 They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!"
Like the disciples, how often do we fear the storm rather than the Creator of the storm. Psalm 29 tells us all these attributes of God that place Him over creation. David describes Him as being the Lord over the waters, that His glory thunders, that His voice is powerful and full of majesty. In the passage from Mark, we see that with just His voice He calmed the seas. We remember the creation account in Genesis, where with just His voice he brought things into existence. These qualities establish His authority and sovereignty over all of creation.
When we are fearful of creation, we attribute glory and power to creation. This really means that somewhere in our hearts we doubt God in His nature of being over creation. We believe a lie, like Eve did, like the disciples did, that cause us to fear creation and give glory to creation, rather than giving glory to God. We must address this lie by consciously believing in the characteristic of God and that He is who He says He is. This then allows us to glorify and fear Him rather than creation.
When we as believers fully recognize who God is, in His power, His glory, His majesty, and His sovereignty, we can properly fear and glorify Him. We can allow things, like days without rain, to remind us of His nature.
Since my initial study on Psalm 29 was for an assignment, I've included the various resources that helped shape this blog!
WORKS CITED
“H6963 - Qôl - Strong’s Hebrew Lexicon (ESV).” Blue Letter Bible. Accessed December 2, 2023.
https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h6963/esv/wlc/0-1/.
Henry, Matthew. “Commentary on Psalms 29 by Matthew Henry.” Blue Letter Bible. Blue Letter Bible, March 1, 1996. Last modified March 1, 1996. Accessed December 2, 2023.
https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/mhc/Psa/Psa_029.cfm.
Logos. “Bible World Study : Voice.” Bible Word Study. Accessed December 2, 2023.
https://wiki.logos.com/Bible_Word_Study.
Longman, Tremper. How to Read the Psalms. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988.
Manser, Martin H. The Dictionary of Bible
Themes. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1997.
Packer, J. I. “Concise Theology.” Logos Bible Software. Last modified January 1, 1993. Accessed December 2, 2023. https://www.logos.com/product/155/concise-theology.
“Psalm 29.” Center for Excellence in Preaching. Last modified December 29, 2022. Accessed December 2, 2023. https://cepreaching.org/commentary/2023-01-02/psalm-29-12/.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, vol. 1 (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 356.
Walvoord, John F., and Roy B. Zuck. Bible Knowledge Commentary. Kathmandu, Nepal: Vachan Prakashan, 2006.
Whitaker, Richard, Francis Brown, Samuel Rolles Driver, and Charles Augustus Briggs. “The Abridged Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew-English Lexicon of the Old Testament.” Logos Bible Software. Last modified January 1, 1906. Accessed December 2, 2023. https://www.logos.com/product/677/theabridged-brown-driver-briggs-hebrew-english-lexicon-of-the-old-testa
