A psalm of David.
1 Honor the Lord, you heavenly beingst;
honor the Lord for his glory and strength.
2 Honor the Lord for the glory of his name.
Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.
3 The voice of the Lord echoes above the sea.
The God of glory thunders.
The Lord thunders over the mighty sea.
4 The voice of the Lord is powerful;
the voice of the Lord is majestic.
5 The voice of the Lord splits the mighty cedars;
the Lord shatters the cedars of Lebanon.
6 He makes Lebanon’s mountains skip like a calf;
he makes Mount Hermont leap like a young wild ox.
7 The voice of the Lord strikes
with bolts of lightning.
8 The voice of the Lord makes the barren wilderness quake;
the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
9 The voice of the Lord twists mighty oakst
and strips the forests bare.
In his Temple everyone shouts, “Glory!”
10 The Lord rules over the floodwaters.
The Lord reigns as king forever.
11 The Lord gives his people strength.
The Lord blesses them with peace.
In Psalm 29 - God is on the loose. His almighty power on display for all of heaven and earth to see - much like we are experiencing today.
The voice of the Lord is heard seven times in Psalm 29: it is over the waters, powerful and full of majesty; it breaks the cedars; flashes forth flames of fire; shakes the wilderness; shakes the oaks and strips the forests bare. The glory of God thunders. The Lord makes Lebanon to skip like a calf and Sirion (Mt. Hermon) like a young wild ox. The display of God and all His almighty power - it is enough to make any human heart fail.
The cedars stand as warning enough on their own. The famous cedars of Lebanon were Solomon’s choice for building the first temple, and were selected specially by King Hiram of Tyre. They can grow over 100 feet tall, their circumference exceeding 50 feet, with wood that is perfumed, resinous evergreen and both rot- and knot-free. Such was their grip on the Israelite imagination that these trees are mentioned everywhere, from levitical codes of purification to prophetic analogies in Isaiah and Ezekiel. (Ezekiel 31:15; Isaiah 31:24) Compare the once-mighty, soon-to-fall Assyria with a cedar so splendid that "all the trees of Eden envied it."
But like a sinful human race, these fabulous cedars are not permitted to remain in their pride. They are paired with lowly hyssop, a small and straggling foil to the cedars’ magnitude. In the end, it is hyssop that quenches the thirst of the dying Messiah. (John 19:29) Lowliness serves the lowly, but when might matches might, the voice of the Lord triumphs, breaking the cedars (Isaiah 14:8).
God has proven His power before in the aqueous domain. When God's creation turned to evil, and there was one remaining righteous man, Noah, who built a little boat out of gopher wood, the waters came again to speak the Lord’s word of judgment against his people. Much later, the waters split in half to pave an escape route for enslaved Israelites, and folded shut to swallow up the pursuing Egyptians. And once a storm was conjured just to grip the attention of runaway Jonah while out at sea, terrifying untold numbers of sailors in its wake.
The God who commands the waters commands everything else. So this psalm isn’t just an utterance of awe at the power wielded in and over nature. It’s also a aggressive attack directed against a confused and disobedient human race who mistakenly takes and gave credit to itself and its idols. It’s no accident that Psalm 29 sounds so much like a general heading into the storm of battle. As Spurgeon once wrote: "It is best recited beneath the black wing of tempest, by the glare of the lightning, or amid that dubious dusk which heralds the war of elements. The verses march to the tune of thunderbolts. God is everywhere conspicuous, and all the earth is hushed by the majesty of his presence. The word of God in the law and gospel is here also depicted in its majesty of power. True ministers are sons of thunder, and the voice of God in Christ Jesus is full of majesty. Thus we have God's works and God's word joined together."
Our God is the Creator and righteous Judge, not the pseudo-divinity pretenders of this world.
With extraordinary faith, the Psalmist concludes with these encouraging words, "May the Lord give strength to his people! May the Lord bless his people with peace!"
God's power is displayed in hurricanes, tornadoes, fire, drought, famine, earthquakes, flooding - whose course this Psalm so epically pictures; and now, in the cool calm after the storm, that power is promised to be the strength of His chosen. He who wings the infallible lightening bolt, will give to His redeemed the wings of eagles; He who shakes the earth with His voice, will terrify the enemies of His saints, and give His children peace. Why are we weak when we have divine strength to flee to? Why are we troubled when the Lord's own peace is ours? Jesus the mighty God is our peace—what a blessing is this today!
Isaiah 45:22 "Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other."
Deuteronomy 4:29 "But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find Him; if you look for Him with all your heart and with all your soul."
Isaiah 55:6 "Seek the LORD while you can find Him. Call on Him now while He is near."
