Psalm 29

Psalm 29 KJV 1900

A Psalm of David. 1 Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty, Give unto the Lord glory and strength. 2 Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. 3 The voice of the Lord is upon the waters: The God of glory thundereth: The Lord is upon 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 breaketh the cedars; Yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon. 6 He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn. 7 The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire. 8 The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness; The Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh. 9 The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve, And discovereth the forests: And in his temple doth every one speak of his glory. 10 The Lord sitteth upon the flood; Yea, the Lord sitteth King for ever. 11 The Lord will give strength unto his people; The Lord will bless his people with peace.

Introduction

A song for the victorious coming home.

Close parallels to Canaanite hymns.

Some say adapted from an existing Canaanite song.

More likely a sign of victory to take some elements and ascribe them to God.

A call to worship (1-2)

Some say this is addressed to the heavenly beings such as angels.

Could just as easily be addressed to the conquering army.

Repeating directive to give something to God.

Give glory

Give strength

Talk about his glory and strength.

Give Him credit for the victory that was won.

Command to worship.

This Hebrew word for worship means to bow down or surrender.

These are words that are connected to defeat not victory.

This psalm is meant to welcome home a conquering army.

The armies of Israel were not to forget where their victory really came from.

God was the cause of the successes.

The voice of the Lord (3-9)

This is where the the comparisons to Canaanite worship can be most clearly seen.

Baal is often depicted as the God of the storm.

He is seen with lightning in one hand and a cloud in the other.

It was also said that Baal fought and defeated the sea.

All of these things are counteracted by what we see to be true of god.

Remember when Elijah withstood Ahab’s Baal worship God had him announce the withholding of the rain.

Remember, David spent time among the Philistines and the Moabites while on the run from Saul.

Perhaps he heard this Canaanite hymn or tune and decided to fix the message.

Right off the bat, we see God in the storm.

His voice is upon/over the waters.

His glory thundereth.

Thunder: 120-310 db

Rock concert: 90-120 db

Shotgun: 155 db

He is upon the waters.

Next we see the power of the Lord’s voice.

Voice = actions

God breaks the cedars of Lebanon.

There were no finer cedars than the ones grown by the Lebanese.

God snapped them.

Scientists found that a wind of 94 mph will snap any tree.

God is not threatened by the mighty ones to the north of His people.

Lebanon and Syria are made to skip like a calf or a young unicorn.

This means he makes earth’s mightiest look foolish.

God’s voice can also divide the flames of fire.

Most commentators relate this to the splitting of lightning.

God controls all of the elements even the fast super hot explosion of lightning.

Lightning can reach temperatures of 50,000 degrees.

That’s hotter than the sun.

Lightning moves at a speed of 270,000 mph.

God is in control of the lightning.

God’s voice shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.

Two things here.

He has already subjugated the political powers to the north.

Now we see that He is able to shake the impenetrable wilderness to the south.

Earthquakes are powerful events.

An underwater earthquake in Japan made so much noise in the ocean that sound monitoring devices in Alaska measured sounds as high as 263 db.

That’s over a distance of 3,300 miles.

The noise of the Lord’s voice startles the wild deer.

It causes them to give birth early.

It is startling when God’s creation sees the full extant of His power and ability.

When it says He discovereth the forests, we are not to imagine that they were lost.

Instead, it means that He exposes the forest.

Think of the power of the storm.

Just a few days ago, S. Dakota was hit with a Derecho.

A derecho can have winds that exceed those of a tornado or hurricane.

We’ve seen the pictures of destruction that these events can have.

No longer do you see a blanket of green concealing what lies beneath the forest.

Instead the storm has discovered or exposed what lay beneath.

This is a picture of the power of God.

His enemies

So His people would glorify Him.

In His temple, He is forever glorified.

The people of God cannot stop by speak of His glory.

The people of God who have witnessed and benefitted from the power of His voice use their voice to glorify Him.

No one will ever unseat Him from His throne of power.

Though David sees the army of Israel returning in victory.

He knows that the source of their victory must come from God.

He is the source of their strength.

He is the source of their blessings.

He is the source of peace.