3 Yahweh's voice is on the waters. The God of glory thunders, even Yahweh on many waters.
4 Yahweh's voice is powerful. Yahweh's voice is full of majesty.
5 The voice of Yahweh breaks the cedars. Yes, Yahweh breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.
6 He makes them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young, wild ox.
7 Yahweh's voice strikes with flashes of lightning.
8 Yahweh's voice shakes the wilderness. Yahweh shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
9 Yahweh's voice makes the deer calve, And strips the forests bare. In his temple everything says, "Glory!"
10 Yahweh sat enthroned at the Flood. Yes, Yahweh sits as King forever.
11 Yahweh will give strength to his people. Yahweh will bless his people with peace.
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Commentary on Psalms 29 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
PSALM 29
Ps 29:1-11. Trust in God is encouraged by the celebration of His mighty power as illustrated in His dominion over the natural world, in some of its most terrible and wonderful exhibitions.
1. Give—or, "ascribe" (De 32:3).
mighty—or, "sons of the mighty" (Ps 89:6). Heavenly beings, as angels.
2. name—as (Ps 5:11; 8:1).
beauty of holiness—the loveliness of a spiritual worship, of which the perceptible beauty of the sanctuary worship was but a type.
3. The voice of the Lord—audible exhibition of His power in the tempest, of which thunder is a specimen, but not the uniform or sole example.
the waters—the clouds or vapors (Ps 18:11; Jer 10:13).
4. powerful … majesty—literally, "in power, in majesty."
5, 6. The tall and large cedars, especially of Lebanon, are shivered, utterly broken. The waving of the mountain forests before the wind is expressed by the figure of skipping or leaping.
7. divideth—literally, "hews off." The lightning, like flakes and splinters hewed from stone or wood, flies through the air.
8. the wilderness—especially Kadesh, south of Judea, is selected as another scene of this display of divine power, as a vast and desolate region impresses the mind, like mountains, with images of grandeur.
9. Terror-stricken animals and denuded forests close the illustration. In view of this scene of awful sublimity, God's worshippers respond to the call of Ps 29:2, and speak or cry, "Glory!" By "temple," or "palace" (God's residence, Ps 5:7), may here be meant heaven, or the whole frame of nature, as the angels are called on for praise.
10, 11. 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."