Psalms 29

Ascribe to the LORD, you sons of the mighty, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. Wesley: Ye—Ye potentates and rulers of the earth. Glory—By an humble and thankful acknowledgment of it. The doubled call presses great ones to give God what is already his.

Shared piety—glory and strength belong to the LORD alone; the mighty must confess them, not keep them as private stock. Humble and thankful acknowledgment is the fitting answer when the storm displays who reigns.

Calvin: it is more difficult to reduce great men to order, so he addresses the sons of the mighty—princes who abuse lofty station and arrogate divine prerogatives. Give strength unto Jehovah: deluded imaginations think power comes from elsewhere than heaven. Lay aside haughtiness and false opinion of your own strength, and glorify God as he deserves. The repetition shows they must be vehemently urged ere proper acknowledgement is extorted.

Ascribe glory and strength to the LORD, not to rank. Pride in high place is the special target; force of the summons humbles those who will not stand in awe otherwise.

Ascribe to the LORD the glory due to his name. Worship the LORD in holy array. Worship is to be offered in the splendor of holiness. Wesley: Give—The honour which he deserves: own him as the Almighty, and the only true God. Holiness—Or, in his holy and beautiful house.

Due glory means owning him as Almighty and only true God. Worship aims at his holy house, not at empty display. Give the name the honour it deserves.

Calvin: the glory of God's name is that which is worthy of his majesty, of which the great are wont to deprive him. By the brightness of his sanctuary is meant not heaven but the tabernacle of the covenant, adorned with symbols of divine glory. The prophet names this place that all, bidding adieu to superstition, betake themselves to the pure worship of the one unchangeable God.

Ascribe what is due his name; worship where he has manifested himself. Flee forged services; cling to the pure worship pledged in his sanctuary.

The LORD’s voice is on the waters. Wesley: The waters—Above in the clouds, which are called waters. The Divine power displays itself in those high places, far above the reach of all earthly potentates. Many—Upon the clouds, in which there are vast treasures of water, and upon which God is said to sit or ride.

Shared glory—the thunder-voice over the waters is the God of glory, not a rival force. Let high places above every earthly reach teach who thunders. Adore; do not explain the voice away.

Calvin: he selects works that prove the world is governed by God's power and that awaken the torpid, dragging them humbly to adore. Not the gentle sun or soft rain, but thunders and violent tempests that smite hearts with dread. God speaks in all creatures, yet here the loud sounds rouse from lethargy those who cast off thought of God.

Hear the voice that humbles stubborn recklessness; let storm awaken worship, not mere meteorology.

The LORD’s voice is powerful. The LORD’s voice is full of majesty. Twin lines refuse a thin god: power and majesty meet in one voice.

Do not split force from glory. The same LORD who thunders is majestic; tremble and ascribe. Power without majesty would terrify without worship; majesty without power would be empty praise.

Calvin: thrice he repeats that God's voice is heard in great and violent tempests, and adds that it is full of power and majesty. The language subdues by fear the obstinacy that will not yield otherwise.

Powerful and majestic name the one voice. Let dread serve reverence; refuse a philosophy that separates the noise from the Lord who speaks.

The LORD’s voice breaks the cedars. Yes, the LORD breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon. Wesley: Lebanon—A place famous for strong and lofty cedars. What men prize as strength splits at his voice.

Lebanon's pride falls when the LORD speaks. Do not trust the tallest supports of earth. Glory still belongs to the breaker of cedars, not to the trees.

Calvin: to subdue stubbornness he shows God terrible in every word. He rebukes the madness of the proud who swell with presumption yet hearken not to God's voice in thunders that rend the air and overthrow the loftiest trees. What a monstrous thing that irrational creation trembles while men alone are unmoved!

Cedars of Lebanon name the highest earthly strength broken by the LORD. Let created height teach humility; do not weave veils of secondary causes that hide God's hand.

He makes them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young, wild ox. Wesley: Them—The cedars; broken by the thunder, their parts are suddenly and violently hurled hither and thither. Sirion—An high mountain beyond Jordan joining to Lebanon. Lebanon and Sirion skip by a poetical hyperbole.

Mountains named as leaping show the storm's reach under God's hand. Hyperbole serves worship, not disbelief. Sirion and Lebanon move at his bidding.

Calvin: a highly poetical figure with hyperbole—Lebanon skips like a calf, Sirion like a unicorn, one of the swiftest animals. He alludes to thunder that seems almost to shake mountains to their foundations. Philosophers who fix contemplation on nature and turn it from God weave veils lest they acknowledge his hand.

Skipping mountains magnify the voice, not cancel it. Refuse a learning that stops at mediate causes and never approaches God.

The LORD’s voice strikes with flashes of lightning. Wesley: The flames—The lightnings. Voice and fire belong together in the theophany.

Shared glory—lightning is the LORD's flashing voice, not a random spark. Fear and wonder meet; ascribe the flames to him who speaks.

Calvin: the Lord striketh out flames of fire when vapours, struck as with his hammer, burst forth into lightnings and thunderbolts. Proximate causes may be studied profitably if they lead to the Author of Nature; nothing is more preposterous than to be stopped by them from approaching God.

Flames of fire are the LORD's voice made visible. Let shrewdness raise the heart to heaven so the voice penetrates, not merely a confused noise.

The voice shakes the wilderness. The LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. Wesley: Kadesh—An eminent wilderness, vast and terrible, and well known to the Israelites, wherein possibly they had seen some such effects of thunder.

Even empty, feared places shake at his voice. Memory of Kadesh can catechize: the LORD reaches the waste as well as Lebanon. Let known deserts remind you who shakes them.

Calvin: he names Lebanon, Hermon, and the wilderness of Kadesh because these places were best known to the Jews. Wildernesses dreadful of themselves are more so when filled with thunders, hail, and storms. The voice that makes the wilderness tremble is meant to move hearts that remain unmoved.

Kadesh shaken is localized glory, not local folklore alone. Hear the same LORD in the places your people know; let familiar geography preach his power.

The LORD’s voice makes the deer calve and strips the forests bare; in his temple everything says, “Glory!” Wesley: To calve—Through the terror it causes, which hastens the birth. Discovereth—Maketh bare of its trees, which it breaks or strips of their leaves. Glory—Having shewed the terrible effects of God's power in other places, he now shews the blessed privilege of God's people, that are praising God in his temple, when the rest of the world are trembling under the tokens of his displeasure.

Terror outside and "Glory!" inside belong to one LORD. The temple company praises while the forests strip and the world trembles. Seek that privilege: worship, not only weather-watching.

Calvin: it is worse than irrational that men are not moved at God's voice when it so influences wild beasts; unusual works that compel beasts should teach wisdom. In his temple every one speaketh of his praise: God's voice fills the world, yet his glory is celebrated only in his church, where he speaks intelligibly and gently allures the faithful. The doctrine of salvation alone cheers hearts and opens mouths in his praises by revealing his grace.

"Glory!" is the church's answer when creation shakes. Thunder alone leaves many deaf or fleeing; the fatherly word in his temple teaches how to praise aright.

The LORD sat enthroned at the Flood. Yes, the LORD sits as King forever. Wesley: The flood—The most violent waters, which sometimes fall from the clouds upon the earth, companions of great thunders. As he sends terrible tempests and thunders, so he also restrains and over-rules them. Sitteth—He doth sit, and will sit as king for ever, sending such tempests when it pleaseth him.

Enthronement over the flood means rule, not panic. The same King who sends also restrains. Forever names lasting reign; tempests do not unseat him.

Calvin: some see allusion to the flood that drowned the world and testified that he is judge; he agrees in part but extends the sense—floods that still threaten destruction are controlled by providence so that he alone governs all things at all times. For explanation he adds: God sits King for ever.

Judgment and ongoing rule meet; when elements seem confounded, trust the King who moderates from his throne.

May the LORD will give strength to his people. The LORD will bless his people with peace! The psalm that began with ascribing glory ends in prayer for the people: strength and peace from the same LORD whose voice shook the earth.

Care for the church crowns the theophany. Ask strength and peace for his people, not private immunity from every storm. The God of glory is also the blesser of his own.

Calvin: though God exhibits visible power to the whole world, he exerts it peculiarly for his elect. He describes him differently here—not as one who overwhelms with dread, but as one who upholds, cherishes, and strengthens. Strength means the whole condition of life depending on grace; he blesses with peace those treated liberally so that nothing is wanting to complete happiness. Stand in awe of his majesty, yet hope from him all necessary to prosperity; his infinite power is an invincible fortress.

Strength and peace for his people after the storm-voice. Awe and hope belong together; the elect are cherished by the same Lord the world only hears in thunder.