9 At the voice of the Lord the roes give birth, the leaves are taken from the trees: in his Temple everything says, Glory.
Do you go after food for the she-lion, or get meat so that the young lions may have enough, When they are stretched out in their holes, and are waiting in the brushwood? Who gives in the evening the meat he is searching for, when his young ones are crying to God; when the young lions with loud noise go wandering after their food?
Lord, your house has been dear to me, and the resting-place of your glory.
For this cause we will have no fear, even though the earth is changed, and though the mountains are moved in the heart of the sea; Though its waters are sounding and troubled, and though the mountains are shaking with their violent motion. (Selah.) There is a river whose streams make glad the resting-place of God, the holy place of the tents of the Most High. God has taken his place in her; she will not be moved: he will come to her help at the dawn of morning.
Our thoughts were of your mercy, O God, while we were in your Temple.
To see your power and your glory, as I have seen you in the holy place.
Let the Lord be praised. O you servants of the Lord, give praise to the name of the Lord. You who are in the house of the Lord, and in the open spaces of the house of our God,
For evil was burning like a fire; the blackberries and thorns were burned up; the thick woods took fire, rolling up in dark clouds of smoke.
And he will put an end to the glory of his woods and of his planted fields, soul and body together; and it will be as when a man is wasted by disease. And the rest of the trees of his wood will be small in number, so that a child may put them down in writing.
Son of man, let your face be turned to the south, let your words be dropped to the south, and be a prophet against the woodland of the South; And say to the woodland of the South, Give ear to the words of the Lord: this is what the Lord has said: See, I will have a fire lighted in you, for the destruction of every green tree in you and every dry tree: the flaming flame will not be put out, and all faces from the south to the north will be burned by it. And all flesh will see that I the Lord have had it lighted: it will not be put out.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Psalms 29
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."