Psalms

Psalms 29

11 verses · Wisdom · Old Testament

1Ascribe to Yahweh, you sons of the mighty, ascribe to Yahweh glory and strength. 2Ascribe to Yahweh the glory due to his name. Worship Yahweh in holy array.
3Yahweh’s voice is on the waters. The God of glory thunders, even Yahweh on many waters. 4Yahweh’s voice is powerful. Yahweh’s voice is full of majesty. 5Yahweh’s voice breaks the cedars. Yes, Yahweh breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon. 6He makes them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young, wild ox. 7Yahweh’s voice strikes with flashes of lightning. 8Yahweh’s voice shakes the wilderness. Yahweh shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. 9Yahweh’s voice makes the deer calve, and strips the forests bare. In his temple everything says, “Glory!”
10Yahweh sat enthroned at the Flood. Yes, Yahweh sits as King forever. 11Yahweh will give strength to his people. Yahweh will bless his people with peace.

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4 commentators · 23 notes on this chapter

Matthew HenryEnglish Puritan / Nonconformist · 1708–17141

Writes as a pastor rather than a critic. Expect devotional and practical application over historical or linguistic analysis, read through a Reformed covenantal frame — and expect the Old Testament to be read forward toward Christ throughout.

Why this voice is here: The most widely read English commentary for three centuries. Included as a baseline: where Henry and a modern voice diverge, the divergence itself is usually the interesting part.

v. 1–11

In this psalm we have, I. A demand of the homage of the great men of the earth to be paid to the great God. Every clap of thunder David interpreted as a call to himself and other princes to give glory to the great God. Observe, 1. Who they are that are called…

John GillParticular Baptist / High Calvinist · 1746–176311

The most exhaustive and the most doctrinally committed here. Expect high — even supralapsarian — Calvinism applied consistently, and unusually heavy use of rabbinic and Talmudic sources for Jewish context. Where a passage bears on election or the will, Gill will read it in one direction, and knowing that in advance is the point.

Why this voice is here: The strongest Calvinist reading available in the public domain, and the best on Jewish background. Read alongside Clarke, not instead of him — between them you get both sides of the argument.

v. 1

Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty,.... The Targum refers this to the angels, "give praise before the Lord, ye companies of angels, sons of the Mighty;'' these are mighty ones, and excel all other creatures in strength; and are the sons of the Mighty, or of God…

v. 2

Give unto the Lord the glory due to his name,.... Or "the glory of his name" (x): which is suitable to his nature, agreeable to his perfections, and which belongs unto him on account of his works; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; the Lord is only…

v. 3

The voice of the Lord is upon the waters,.... What follows concerning thunder, the voice of the Lord, gives so many reasons why he should have glory given him and be worshipped; the Heathens (y) paid their devotion to thunder and lightning: but this should be…

Keil & DelitzschGerman Lutheran, conservative-critical · 1861–18753

The technical one, and Old Testament only. Expect Hebrew grammar, textual argument, and direct engagement with nineteenth-century critical scholarship — closer to a scholarly apparatus than a devotional read. Where a modern critic claims a text is late or composite, this is where the conservative counter-argument was made.

Why this voice is here: Old Testament only, and heavy going — but the place to look when someone asserts a passage cannot mean what it appears to.

v. 1–2

The opening strophe calls upon the celestial spirits to praise Jahve; for a revelation of divine glory is in preparation, which, in its first movements, they are accounted worthy to behold, for the roots of everything that takes place in this world are in the…

v. 3–9

Now follows the description of the revelation of God's power, which is the ground of the summons, and is to be the subject-matter of their praise. The All-glorious One makes Himself heard in the language (Rev 10:3.) of the thunder, and reveals Himself in the…

v. 10–11

Luther renders it: "The Lord sitteth to prepare a Flood," thus putting meaning into the unintelligible rendering of the Vulgate and lxx; and in fact a meaning that accords with the language - for ישׁב ל is most certainly intended to be understood after the…

Jamieson, Fausset & BrownScottish Presbyterian / Reformed · 18718

The concise option. Three authors split the canon, so the voice shifts between sections. Expect brief, sober, conservative notes that resolve difficulties rather than dwelling on them — useful for orientation, thinner than Gill or Clarke where a passage is genuinely contested.

Why this voice is here: The quickest way to see what the mainstream Reformed reading of a passage is. Start here, then go to Gill or Clarke when it matters.

v. 2

name--as (Psa 5:11; Psa 8:1). beauty of holiness--the loveliness of a spiritual worship, of which the perceptible beauty of the sanctuary worship was but a type.

v. 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 (Psa 18:11; Jer 10:13).

v. 4

powerful . . . majesty--literally, "in power, in majesty."

World English Bible — Public domain