Give unto the Lord glory and strength. Psalm 29 The glory of God's government in the natural world John Mitchell, D. D. This psalm has been explained, but without sufficient reason, as telling of the power and progress of the Gospel in the latter days. But it is intended to represent the majesty of God, the aids we may expect from Him, and the homage we ought to render to Him. It begins with a summons to the chiefs of the nations, especially the chiefs of Israel, to "give Unto the Lord glory and strength," that is, the glory of all their victories; and to do this in the holy sanctuary — worship and praise Him there. There comes the description of the thunder which is declared to be the voice of God, as it rolls and resounds through the vast expanse on high. Beneath its deep-toned peals and reverberations, all living nature shrinks and trembles. It "breaketh the cedars"; the thunderbolt which in a moment rends and shatters the Strongest trees, such as were the cedars; or the tempest, which overwhelms and lays them prostrate in a moment. The earthquake is next described. "He maketh Lebanon and Sirion also to skip like a calf." That is, the Mamir mountains are shaken and made, as it were, to dance, so that the cedars whirl as the plaything of a child. Not the thunder or the tempest would accomplish this, but the earthquake, which shakes the solid fabric of the globe, and tells so emphatically of the majesty and power of God. The lightning blaze is told of next. The voice of the Lord divides the flames of fire, bidding them either shine under the whole heaven, or retire into its chamber, so that all becomes dark again. He gives to the coruscations of the lightning its beautiful forms and tints, or causes it to descend from the sky in one continuous stream. The wondrous accompaniments of the giving of the law at Sinai — the wilderness of Kadesh — are referred to next ( Psalm 68:7-8 ). The last circumstance introduced seems to be derived from the effect of all. "The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve." In their terror the pains of parturition come upon them prematurely, and the hurricane makes bare the forests, penetrates their thick array, discloses their dark recesses, strips and scatters their leaves, and lays their twining honours low. The beasts of prey are driven forth from their hiding-places, and their covert is concealed no longer.. But over all this wild war, as it seems, God rules, and from all receives homage, and His power is for His people. ( John Mitchell, D. D. ) Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Psalm 29:2 The worship of holiness W. H. Lyon Worship meant at first worth-ship, or the condition of being worthy, as friendship is the condition of being friendly. The best worship is not merely to thank God for what He has done for us, but to show ourselves worthy of this. It is very clear that this is the best kind of worship for us; for it results not in mere words, but in character. We are better for our religion, which cannot always be said of the outward kind; and surely it must be more acceptable to God. You would rather have your boy thank you for what you give him, and recognize your kindness, than not. But you would rather even than this have him use what you give him wisely. As between the boy who thanked you very profusely, and even sincerely, and then spent your money in some degrading way, and the boy who took your money carelessly and without a word, but spent it in a way that made you proud of him, you would surely choose the latter. But what is it that makes us worthy? It is "the beauty of holiness." And what is holiness? Here we have another word that has lost its first and best meaning. Our dictionary tells us that "holy" is the same word, essentially, as heal, hale, whale. A man is physically holy when he is healed, or in health, when he is hale, when he is whole. Holiness is wholeness. No man is holy who is not a whole man; and, to be a whole man, he must care for his body as well as for his soul. "What we shall be it doth not yet appear;" but it is very certain that while we are here, the body is part of the man. Holiness is wholeness; and wholeness means a sound body and a sound soul together. But it means more than that: it means sound judgment, common sense. Good people are the salt of the earth. But it is possible to have too much salt in proportion to your porridge. It would be hard to say that anybody is too good; but it is very certain that many a man's goodness would be worth a great deal more if only he had a little practical judgment to direct it. The world needs its dreamers, its men and women of enthusiasm and ideals; but it needs also the calm, steady balance and ballast of the men and women of common sense. There are other things that one needs to be a whole man, as a warm heart and a strong will, without which he does not fulfil the Divine ideal, and so does not render back the worship that God loves. These are enough to show what is meant, so far, by the worship of wholeness. But we have yet to see that mere individual wholeness is not possible unless the individual recognizes larger wholes than himself, of which he is a part. In the first place, in so far as a man is a body, he is a part of the great whole of matter, or the universe. The man who does not realize that he is so far a part of the world cannot be a whole, cannot be holy. The farmer must put his work into line with the material laws of soil and season; the engineer must put his work into line with the laws of steam, and the physician with the laws of the human frame. If either tries to do otherwise, to set up a world of his own invention or imagination, the great universe calmly sweeps over it and him, as the sea sweeps over the child's house of sand on the beach. Let a man in any way separate himself from this great universe, and he suffers. As a man faints when he shuts himself into a room, away from the atmosphere that clothes the world, so he faints if he shut himself into his own life and interests. Just as the value of his land grows, though he may do absolutely nothing to it himself, simply because other people come and settle near him, and make a city about him, so his life grows, though he may not try to cultivate it at all, simply because other people are about him, and with him day by day. There are things that a man can do better in solitude than in society. There are necessities that sometimes drive individuals away from their fellows. There are circumstances that sometimes compel men and women to live destitute of the companionship which makes life rich and deep for others. But, though there may be a gain on one side, there is loss on others. There is about the recluse something less than human. The great currents of thought and emotion that sweep through society and keep hearts and minds fresh, as the breezes keep the air fresh, are lost by the recluse. It is a great mistake for those who are in grief or misfortune to shut themselves away either from the fresh air of nature or the fresh air of human companionship. Health is wholeness with nature and with man. To-day, human sympathies are broadening out with the spread of commerce; and, as it slowly dawns upon us that the good of the world is the good of every nation, so into our hearts comes a thrill of pity and desire to help, when we hear of the suffering of any part of this variegated human race. This is the beauty of holiness that is the best worship. In old days, when the sacrifice was not of the soul, but of the body, it was counted an unworthy thing to bring to the altar of God a bullock that had spot or blemish. To-day, it is not a one-sided any more than a stained manhood that makes a man worthy of the Divine love. It must be a whole man, body, mind, heart, will, and soul, all rounded and complete, at one with the world of nature and the world of man, — that is the acceptable offering. ( W. H. Lyon ) In holy attire D. B. Williams. Do we really worship God? I. We worship God in the beauty of holiness when worship is characterized by REALITY. We should act with the same propriety, feel as much awe, dread of vulgarity, entering the old meeting house, as into the court and presence of an earthly king. As much? Yea, how much morel II. We worship God in the beauty of holiness when our worship is characterized by RECOLLECTION. Let the soul withdraw its faculties from men and time and affairs, come face to face with God and His righteousness, His truth, and His love. Bring by the process of recollection, as Miss Havergal says, your sins for cleansing, your uninterpretable heart, the cares from which you cannot flee, griefs you cannot utter, the joys of love, and the life you would no longer know as your own. III. We worship God in the beauty of holiness when our worship is characterized by RECEPTIVITY. The open souls are not sent empty away. IV. We worship God in the beauty of holiness when our worship is characterized by RESPONSIVENESS. I mean, carrying the ideals, impressions, determinations of the sanctuary back into the world and allowing them to mould our temper, habits and sentiments in the labours and recreations of life. If worship be true, character shall grow in strength and gentleness, and influences shall stream from us, bearing no tardy fruits, to our fellow-men. ( D. B. Williams. ) The voice of the Lord is upon the waters. Psalm 29:3, 4 The voice of Jehovah upon the waters Joseph Irons. The very pathway of the Lord's people is said to be "through the waters"; and they are a people "that do business in deep waters." How Israel, how Peter, found the truth of our text. But when passing through deep waters we are more inclined — and it is a crying evil — to listen to the roar of the waves than to the voice of my precious Christ. I. AFFLICTIONS ARE COMPARED TO "WATERS," "billows, .... deep waters." And these may come upon the Church at large through hatred of the truth by Papists, Arminians and Socinians and others. And upon private persons, through temporal trials and persecutions. But these are other waters, blessed ones, such as told of in Ezekiel 47 . II. THE LORD'S VOICE ON THESE WATERS. It is an overruling and comforting voice, in waters of affliction: of conviction, comfort and direction, in the waters of the sanctuary. III. THE ATTENTION DEMANDED TO SUCH A VOICE. Listen for it more than to any other whether persecutor or preacher. Supernatural joy comes from listening to the Lord's voice. Have you all heard it? If not, may it awaken you now. ( Joseph Irons. ) The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The majestic voice All God's works praise Him, but there are some which praise Him more than others. There are some of His doings upon which there seems to be graven in larger letters than usual the name of God. Such as the lofty mountains, the thunders and lightnings. The old and universal belief was, that the thunder was the voice of God. But there are spiritual voices of God, and of these we would speak. Samuel on his bed heard it. Saul at his conversion. And God often speaks to man by the Holy Spirit. And the voice of God is ever full of majesty. It is so — I. ESSENTIALLY; it must be so. Think whose voice it is. How God's voice is full of majesty because — 1. It is true. 2. Commanding. 3. Very powerful. "Let there be light, and there was light." 4. And because God's voice is His Word, and His Word was His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. II. ALWAYS. God's voice, like man's, has various tones, but it is always full of majesty. 1. Let the tone be what it may, whether harsh as in threatening, or sweet as when consoling, or august as when commanding. "Speak to the children of Israel, that they go forward." And at the Resurrection of the dead, and at the Judgment Day. 2. And in all the different degrees of its loudness. Some calls of God are loud, others gentle but all majestic. 3. And in all its mediums. The meanness of a speaker for God does not hinder this. III. IN ITS EFFECTS. 1. It is a breaking voice. "The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars." The proudest and most stubborn sinner is broken before Him. 2. Moving. "He maketh them (the mountains) also to skip like a calf." No mountain of error, falsity, or sin can stand unmoved when He speaks. 3. Dividing. "Divideth the flames of fire." Where God's Word is faithfully preached it is ever a dividing power. 4. Shaking "shaketh the wilderness." God's Word does this in men's hearts. 5. Bringing forth — "maketh the hinds to calve." So God's Word makes the soul bring forth holy desire and joy, and whatever a man has in him it has to come forth. 6. Discovering — "discovereth the forests." Hypocrites hide, but God discovers them. Oh, listen to His voice bidding you believe and be saved. ( C. H. Spurgeon . ) The Voice of the Lord James Parsons. This sacred poem from which our text is taken, is one of the most elevated and sublime to which the poetry of inspiration itself has given birth. But the words are capable of other than their primary application. I. CONSIDER THE MODES IN WHICH GOD SPEAKS TO MAN. 1. Through Nature — see this psalm, 2. Through the dispensations and in the government of Providence. 3. Through His revealed truth, and — 4. Chief of all, through His Son. II. THE ATTRIBUTES BY WHICH THESE COMMUNICATIONS ARE PROMINENTLY DISTINGUISHED — Power and Majesty. Consider — 1. The glory of His nature from whom they proceed. 2. The contents of the communications themselves. They speak of the Divine perfections and chiefly of God's method of redeeming sinful man. 3. The issues in which attention to, or neglect of, these communications is to terminate. They are identified with the destinies of man's deathless soul. III. THE TRIBUTE WHICH THESE COMMUNICATIONS MADE BY GOD TO MAN IMPERATIVELY REQUIRE. 1. Faith. 2. Gratitude. 3. Prayer for ourselves and for our fellow-men. How, then, shall you who are despising these communications of God answer it in the great day of Judgment? Oh, come to Jesus now. ( James Parsons. ) In His temple doth every one speak of His glory. Psalm 29:9 Nature's should of praise A. M. Mackay, B. A. "In His temple everything saith Glory!" The temple of which the psalmist here speaks is the temple of Nature. He believed that every object in the visible universe was engaged in singing paeans of praise to its Creator — "fire and hail." Too many of us lack almost entirely this sixth sense, "the vision and the faculty divine;" we hear scarce a whisper of this great shout of praise that goes up from all creation. But in what sense does everything in Nature cry, Glory! In what sense does the material universe sing the praises of God? It does so, I doubt not, directly. For God's pleasure all things are and were created, and doubtless the incense which arises from Nature's altars, the songs which are chanted in her leafy aisles, the perfume of her flowers, the beauty of her landscapes, are as grateful to the Creator as man's acts of worship. "The trees clap their hands, and She little hills rejoice together before the Lord." But there is another sense in which natural objects praise God, and it is this we shall meditate upon; they awaken gratitude in the heart of man and thus transmute themselves into conscious praise. Man's soul is the great organ upon which Nature plays her anthems of praise; the five senses are the keys; and through the medium of this instrument every created thing in God's Temple crieth, Glory! I. NATURE INCITES MAN TO PRAISE BY HER BEAUTY, Think of one or two of those myriad appeals to our admiration which Nature makes, and which, for the most part, go unregarded. 1. Reflect how God's glory reacheth unto the clouds. The clouds, perhaps more than all other objects in Nature, teach us the immanence of God, teach us how His presence may penetrate and transfigure even what is most commonplace and familiar. For what are clouds? When they rest on the surface of the earth they are just choking fogs and clinging mists disfiguring everything they touch. But raise them away into the purer strata of the air to which they rightly belong; let the wind churn them into flakes of snow, and the moon pierce them with its silver arrows; and the sun suffuse them with its golden ardours; let them become the womb of the lightning and the chariot of the storm — and they present such visions of glory as can be seen nowhere else. Thus God would teach us that evil is but good in its wrong place, and that the fogs and mists of earth's sins and sorrows are the substance out of which God will weave hereafter golden visions of ethereal beauty. 2. Think what praise we owe God for the loveliness of all watery forms with which He has robed and adorned the earth, and of which clouds are but a part. The brooklet seeks the river, and the river empties itself into the sea, and the sea sends aloft its multitude of clouds, and the clouds form themselves anew on the face of the earth. That which is part of a stagnant ditch to-day may be a radiant dewdrop tomorrow, and what is now a peaceful pool may anon be a part of the stormy ocean which writhes its white fingers in the shrouds of sinking ships. But whether in forms of sublimity or of tenderness, how varied is its loveliness, and how varied are the notes of praise it should educe from man. Think of it as the iceberg and the glacier; as the snow that robes the mountain, and the hoar-frost that bejewels the branches; as the foam ball upon the torrent and the dewdrop on the rose; as the cataract spanned by the rainbow, and the crystal pool, the mirror of the woods 1 And then, perceiving how beautiful these things are in themselves, and what a throb of gratitude they awaken in the heart of him who feels their beauty, you will be impelled to link the gratitude of conscious and unconscious nature together, and to cry with the psalmist, "All Thy works praise Thee, O God, and Thy saints give thanks unto Thee." 3. Whether we gaze downward at our feet, where God has covered the earth with a carpet of emerald, and embroidered it with flowers, and, lest we should weary of their colours, has decreed that they shall bloom and fade, and be succeeded by others, month by month, and season by season; or visit those mountain regions which are, as an eminent writer has said, "the great cathedrals of the earth, with their gates of rock, pavements of cloud, choirs of stream and stone, altars of snow, and vaults of purple traversed by the continual stars"; whether it be the lichen which softens the scarred ruin or the forest which clothes a mountain side which engages our attention; the insect which flutters its hour of sunshine and is gone, or the star whose light takes a thousand years to bridge the space between it and us — alike, if we have indeed ears to hear, shall we be impelled to confess that everything in God's temple crieth, "Glory!" — alike we shall declare with the psalmist, "Thou, Lord, hast made me glad through Thy works, and I will rejoice in giving praise for the operation of Thy hands." II. NATURE INCITES US TO PRAISE BY HER BOUNTY. The beauty of those natural objects of which I have spoken appeals to our higher nature, but our lower nature also needs ministering to. "Man shall not live by bread alone," but without bread he cannot live at all. And, therefore, Nature awakens our gratitude by her material as well as her spiritual gifts. The clouds not only delight the eye; they are, as a psalmist calls them, "the river of God," and rain plenteousness on the earth. The flowers of the field do not merely charm us by their loveliness, they yield up to us their colours and their perfumes; they serve us with their seeds and their fibres; they give us medicine to heal our sickness. The oak, the pine, the cedar, and the ash are not only types of strength and gracefulness; they yield timber for the ships and rafters for the homestead. The mountains serve not only to sanctify and delight the human heart by their sublimity, they help to make the earth habitable by purifying the air and giving birth to the rivers; without them the ground would become stagnant morass and the atmosphere would breathe pestilence. The mighty ocean, which is, in calm, as a waving veil of iridescent colours, and in storm — The mirror where th' Almighty's form Glasses itself in tempests, is also the helper of man, bearing on its bosom the argosies of many nations, and in its depths the harvest of the sea, without which the harvest of the land would be insufficient for our needs. All nature thus ministers to us — The whole is either our cupboard of food, Or cabinet of pleasure, And, moreover, nothing is too insignificant to be serviceable. Says Dr. Macmillan: "Even the hoary lichen on the dusky rock, that has drunk ill all the hues of the spectrum and made no sign, yields, when artificially treated, its hidden store of colour, and produces a violet and golden hue not unworthy of the fairest garden flower." III. NATURE INCITES TO PRAISE BY THE MORAL QUALITIES SHE EDUCES IN MAN. This is Nature's chief glory, her highest honour, that she is the instrument by which God educates human souls and fits them for their immortal destiny, For we are placed here under the discipline of Nature, and she is a severe task-mistress, from whom nothing is to be had for the mere asking. Nature exacts laborious toil in exchange for all her gifts. She hides her pearls in the depths of the sea, her gold in the sands of the river or the crevices of the rocks; she buries the metals, man's most useful allies, and the coal to smelt those metals, deep down in the heart of the earth; she secretes her balms and her subtle essences where even the cunning chemist can scarce track them. Her most powerful forces, such as electricity, are ever the most elusive and the hardest to be subdued. Everything man extorts from Nature he must win, not only by the sweat of his brow, but by the sweat of his brain. He wrestles with her for her blessing as Jacob wrestled with the angel at Penuel, till almost he seems crippled with the strain. But the conflict proves at last that as a prince he has power with God and has prevailed; he wins the blessing, and, lo! it is not only corn and oil and wine, but rich endowments of mind and heart as well. Think about it, and you will see that almost all the highest moral qualities of our race — patience, endurance, forethought, courage, mutual helpfulness — are the outcome of the necessity to work which Nature lays upon us. ( A. M. Mackay, B. A. ) Glory! glory! glory! T. Spurgeon. I. The statement of this verse holds good when we consider THE TEMPLE OF THE UNIVERSE. In it everything says, Glory! The whole universe is, to the devout mind, as one huge sanctuary in which all things show forth the praise of their Creator. Incline your ears to listen, open your hearts to catch the sweet sounds, as flowers, and clouds, and beasts, and birds, rocks, hills and trees, declare that God is worthy to be praised! We must not let them sing alone. We'll take our key from them, and say, Glory, too. II. IN THE TEMPLE AT JERUSALEM everything saith, Glory. I know that when this psalm was written the wondrous pile on Zion's hill had not been commenced. But it was already in David's heart to build it, and, for aught I know, some of the plans of the sacred premises were by this time in his hands. With a prophet's eye he foresaw the building of that holy Temple — its grace, and its grandeur. As Abraham saw Christ's day and was glad, so David, with a seer's vision, perceived the temple crowning Mount Moriah, and said of it, "In His temple everything saith, Glory." III. We may refer this also to OUR BLESSED SAVIOUR, for Jesus called His body the Temple of God. I sometimes think that David, who already foresaw his greater Son, may have thought of Jesus when he said, "Everything in His Temple saith, Glory." A greater than the temple is here. Study Christ's life, and you will find that He lived to God's glory from first to last. At His birth the angels sang, "Glory to God in the highest." In His boyhood He must be about His Father's business, and all through life He did always the things that pleased Him. Everything about Christ, God's Temple, said, Glory: every word was to the praise of the Father, every work glorified Him upon the earth, every grace and characteristic reflected the glory of God the Father, for Christ was the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His Person. "Twas when He came to die that His body, broken for our sakes, said, Glory! loudest and most emphatically. IV. Is CHRIST'S CHURCH EVERYTHING SAYS, GLORY. Oh, to get out of the set-Hess of our proprieties. "Everything in His temple saith, Glory." V. This brings me to a still more personal matter, viz. THE TEMPLES OF OUR PERSONS. "Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost?" Does everything in the temple say, Glory? Are all your powers devoted to the service of God? Are all the wondrous influences that you exercise employed to the praise of Jesus? Is the royal standard flying over every gate of Mansoul? Does it float above the citadel? Do our highest faculties of thought, and memory, and affection, and imagination, pay to God the homage that is due unto His Name? "The chief end of man is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him for ever." Oh, for this full consecration, this entire surrender. VI. Let me remind you of THE HEAVENLY TEMPLE to which, as the years fly past, we are hastening on. Oh, for a peep into the land of light. John helps us, for it was his privilege to gaze right into the Glory. There His servants serve Him day and night in His Temple. There the hearts of the redeemed sing out His praise, like the voice of many waters. ( T. Spurgeon. ) The Lord sitteth upon the flood; yea, the Lord sitteth King for ever: Psalm 29:10 God's throne upon the flood; or, Divine control F. Tucker, B. A. There is a well-known line of an English poet, which tells us to "look through Nature up to Nature's God." And not a few of our national poets have nobly done this. But the Bible is the supreme example. Its writers did not refuse to look at Nature; they were ever doing so. I. That THE COURSE OF EVENTS ON EARTH IS FULL OF CHANGES. Calm today, storm to-morrow. II. BUT "JEHOVAH SITS UPON THE FLOOD." The changes of human life do not disturb Him. Yet more, He controls them all, "He sitteth King for ever." Natural science shows how the smallest and seemingly most insignificant events are all guided by law. Nothing is arbitrary or of chance. God watches over and controls them all. 1. Scripture asserts this. There may be seasons when His people seem to be forsaken so that their enemies ask exultingly, "Where is now their God?" And yet, even then, the answer is, "Our God is in the heavens; He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased." 2. Fulfilled prophecies confirm it. For example, the Advent of Christ. That was predicted seven hundred years before He came, and that He should be born at Bethlehem. 3. The continuance of true religion in spite of all opposition. III. THE MANNER IN WHICH EVENTS ARE OVERRULED. 1. By general laws. See the illustration of the text, "the flood." That obeys the law of its nature. Now one of God's general laws is this — that sin is always followed by suffering — and another is — that generation shall be followed by generation: wicked men are removed to make way for better. 2. By special interposition. See the miracles. IV. LESSONS. 1. Let the Church of Christ be comforted. 2. Also each individual Christian. ( F. Tucker, B. A. ) King at the flood J. H. Jowett, M. A. The king is revealed in the time of the flood. Smaller personalities appear kingly when the waters are smooth; they disappear at the flood. Military officers are very much alike when they are on the parade ground; their genius and quality are revealed on the battlefield. The captain of the boat and the landsmen seem equally efficient when the boat glides over still waters, and the days pass in a long picnic, and games are played on the deck; but when the whirlwind awakes, and the boat staggers like a drunken man, the king is seen enthroned! I will measure and judge any one who seeks the throne of my life by his demeanour and worth amid my crises. Among all the candidates for honour and homage I will yield the crown of my obedience to the one who proves to be king at the flood. Let us look round upon two or three men who have come to one of life's emergencies, and who are in need of a sovereign helper. 1. "I am come unto deep waters where the floods overflow me." What is the character of this man's crisis? "Iniquities prevail against me." He is the victim of unclean desire. The inner rooms of the spirit, the holy place, is defiled. He is unable to contemplate the beautiful and to love it. The floods of carnality overflow him. Or perhaps the victim is overborne by the spirit of envy which too frequently manifest itself in deceit and treachery, or he is possessed by the passion of jealousy which makes him a conspirator against his neighbour's good. Whatever may be the type of the man's besetment, the flood is at the gate, and he is overpowered by the invasion of its unclean deeps. What shall we say to him? One would perhaps advise him that the secret of his redemption will consist in "plain living and high thinking." But the counsel is worthless. We are advising a man who is overborne by appetite to control the appetite, and suggesting that a man who is the victim of his own thought should order it in beautiful regularity. How fares it if we call in the Lord Himself? The Master's speech is full of healing confidence and hope. He speaks of a clean heart and a right spirit. He not only unfolds an ideal, but He offers the power by which it can be realized. The unclean channels are flushed and cleansed, and all the powers in the life are quickened and revived. 2. "Save me, O Lord! for the waters are come into my soul." What is the type of this man's sorrow? It is a flood of trouble, perhaps arising from common circumstances such as we are familiar with in our own life.(1) Here is a case of slow cancer. The growth is eating its way, but, oh, so slowly! Day after day, and night after night, the wolf gnaws at the vitals. Let us speak to the victim. What shall we say to her? Matthew Arnold once said: — "In poetry our race will find an ever sure and surer stay." What kind of poetry can we give to the cancer-ridden? If God be gone and the Man of Nazareth is only a pleasing fiction, and immortality only a winsome dream, whatever we offer will be only as dead ashes; gravel where the soul is pining for bread. Let us call in the Lord God. The very thought of His appearing is comforting. "What I do thou knowest not now." "When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee."(2) Here are a father and mother whose son is in the far country. Their hopes are blighted, their ambition is overthrown. They are overwhelmed, and the waters have come into their souls. What says the world about their child? "He is too far gone; .... he is a hopeless case; .... he is too old to mend; .... there is no remedy for a bad heart." The world has no ministry to offer in the time of the flood. Let us call in the Lord God. Here is His speech: "What man of you having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine and go after that which is lost until he find it?" What a hopeful and uplifting word to speak to a broken-hearted father! 3. All Thy waves and Thy billows have gone over me." "The sorrows of death compass me." This type of overwhelming sorrow is one of the most familiar sights in the common way. Here is a beautiful wedded, life. The early intimacy was like a spring day. The wedding was only the welding of ties already sanctified. The home was a haunt of love and peace. Then a storm came, and the billows rolled against the little sanctuary. The sorrows of death compassed it, and the wife is gone I Now, leave God outside, and let us go inside. What shall we say to the bereaved husband? Shall we tell him that "other friends remain," that "loss is common to the race"? Let us call in Jesus. "Thy brother shall rise again." "I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am there ye shall be also." "There remaineth therefore a rest for the people of God." "Weeping may endure for a night, but-joy cometh in the morning." "He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." Who is King? "The Lord sat as King at the flood." ( J. H. Jowett, M. A. ) A turbulent scene and a tranquil God Homilist. This psalm shows the influence of Godliness upon the intellectual faculties, the social sympathies, and the religious instincts of human nature. The text gives us: — I. A

Benson Commentary Psalm 29:1 A Psalm of David. Give unto the LORD, O ye mighty, give unto the LORD glory and strength. Psalm 29:1-2 . Give unto the Lord, ye mighty — Hebrew, ??? ???? , benee eelim, ye sons of the mighty, or of gods: ye potentates and rulers of the earth. To these he addresses his speech, 1st, Because they are very apt to forget and contemn God, and insolently to assume a kind of deity to themselves: and, 2d, Because their conviction and conversion were likely to have a great and powerful influence upon their people, and therefore it was much for the honour of God that they should acknowledge his divine majesty, and do homage to him. Give unto the Lord — By an humble and thankful acknowledgment; for in any other way we can give nothing to God; glory and strength — That is, the glory of his strength or power, which is the attribute set forth in this Psalm; or, his glorious strength. Give unto the Lord — It is repeated a third time, perhaps to intimate that great men are very backward to this duty, and are hardly persuaded to practise it; and, on account of its great consequence to the interest of the kingdom of God among men, that they should comply with it; the glory due to his name — That is, the honour which he deserves and claims, namely, to prefer him before all other gods, and to forsake all others, and to own him as the Almighty, and only true God. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness — In worshipping the Lord we ought to have an eye to his beauty; to adore him, not only as infinitely awful, and therefore to be feared above all beings, but as infinitely amiable, and therefore to be loved and delighted in above all; especially we must have an eye to the beauty of his holiness, which the angels particularly celebrate in their praises, Revelation 4:8 . Some, however, prefer rendering the words, the beauty of the sanctuary, for ???? , kodesh, is often put for the sanctuary, or holy place, as ???? ?????? , kodesh kodeshim, is for the holy of holies, or most holy. Thus the temple is termed, Isaiah 64:11 , God’s holy and beautiful house. The chief beauty of the sanctuary was the exact agreement of the worship there performed with the divine appointment, the pattern shown in the mount. Now, in this holy place, says the psalmist, worship Jehovah; here, and only here, will he accept your prayers, praises, and oblations. So he exhorts them to turn proselytes to the Jewish religion; which was their duty and interest. Or he speaks of the manner of worship. We must be holy in all our religious performances, that is, devoted to God, and to his will and glory. There is a beauty in holiness, and it is that which puts an acceptable beauty upon all the acts of worship. Psalm 29:2 Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness. Psalm 29:3 The voice of the LORD is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the LORD is upon many waters. Psalm 29:3 . The voice of the Lord — That is, thunder, frequently so called; is upon the waters — Upon the seas, where its noise spreads far and wide, and is very terrible; or rather above the clouds, which are sometimes called waters, as Genesis 1:7 ; Psalm 18:11 , because they are of a watery substance, and frequently much water is contained in them. And this circumstance is noticed here as being of considerable importance to magnify the divine power, which displays itself in these superior regions, which are far above the reach of all earthly potentates, and from whence he can easily and unavoidably smite all that dwell upon the earth, and will not submit to him. The Lord is upon many waters — Upon the clouds, in which there are sometimes vast treasures of water, and upon which God is said to sit and ride, Psalm 18:10-11 ; Psalm 104:3 . Psalm 29:4 The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty. Psalm 29:4-6 . The voice of the Lord is full of majesty — Is a very awful and evident proof of God’s glorious majesty. Breaketh the cedars — By lightning, vulgarly called thunderbolts; which have torn asunder and destroyed trees and towers. The cedars of Lebanon — A place famous for strong and lofty cedars. He maketh them also — The cedars last mentioned; to skip like a calf — For, being broken by the lightning, the fragments of them are suddenly and violently hurled about hither and thither; Lebanon also, and Sirion — A high mountain beyond Jordan, joining to Lebanon: and these mountains may here be understood, either, 1st, Properly, and so they are said to skip and leap, both here and Psalm 114:4 , by a poetical hyberbole, very usual both in Scripture and other authors; or, 2d, Metonymically, being put for the trees or people of them, as the wilderness is to be understood, Psalm 29:8 ; and as the earth, by the same figure, is frequently put for the inhabitants of it; like a young unicorn — Hebrew reem: see Numbers 23:22 ; Psalm 22:21 . Psalm 29:5 The voice of the LORD breaketh the cedars; yea, the LORD breaketh the cedars of Lebanon. Psalm 29:6 He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn. Psalm 29:7 The voice of the LORD divideth the flames of fire. Psalm 29:7-8 . Divideth the flames of fire — That is, casteth out many flashes of lightning. The Hebrew, ??? , chatzeb, signifies hews, or cuts up, divides, or distributes. “So the thunder, or voice of the Lord, is said to send forth the lightning; which is, indeed, the precursor of the thunder; the cause, and not the effect of it. The thunder, however, or voice of the Lord, is here, with great beauty and propriety, considered as that which commands and distributes the lightning.” Shaketh the wilderness — That is, either the trees, or rather, the beasts of the wilderness, by a metonymy, as before. Compare this with the next verse; the wilderness of Kadesh — Which he mentions as an eminent wilderness, vast and terrible, and well known to the Israelites, Numbers 20:1 ; Numbers 20:16 , wherein, possibly, they had seen some such effects of thunder as are here mentioned. Psalm 29:8 The voice of the LORD shaketh the wilderness; the LORD shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh. Psalm 29:9 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. Psalm 29:9 . Maketh the hinds to calve — Through the terror which it causeth, which hastens parturition in these and some other creatures. But he names hinds, because they usually bring forth their young with difficulty. See note on Job 39:1 . And discovereth the forests — Hebrew ???? Š, jechesoph, maketh bare, &c., either of their trees, which it breaks and strips of their leaves; or of the beasts, which it forces to run into their dens. And, or but, in his temple doth every one speak, &c. — Having shown the terrible effects of God’s power in other places, he now shows the blessed privilege of God’s people, that are praising and glorifying God, and receiving the comfortable influences of his grace in his temple, when the world are trembling under the tokens of his displeasure. By this he secretly invites and persuades the Gentiles, for their own safety and comfort, to own the true God, and to worship him in his sanctuary, as he exhorted, Psalm 29:2 . Or, therefore in his temple, that is, because of these, and such like discoveries of God’s excellent majesty and power, his people fear, praise, and adore him in his temple. Psalm 29:10 The LORD sitteth upon the flood; yea, the LORD sitteth King for ever. Psalm 29:10 . The Lord sitteth upon the flood — He moderates and rules the most abundant and violent effusions of waters which are sometimes poured from the clouds, and fall upon the earth, where they cause inundations which would do much mischief if God did not prevent it. And this may be mentioned as another reason why God’s people praised and worshipped him in his temple; because, as he sendeth terrible tempests, thunders, lightnings, and floods, so he restrains and overrules them. But most interpreters refer this to Noah’s flood, to which the word ???? , mabbul, here used, is elsewhere appropriated. And so the words may be rendered, The Lord sat upon the deluge; namely, in Noah’s time, when, it is probable, those vehement and unceasing rains were accompanied with terrible thunders. Bishop Hare thus paraphrases the verse, “This is the same God who, in Noah’s flood, sat as judge, and sent that destruction upon the earth.” And so the psalmist, having spoken of the manifestation of God’s power in storms and tempests in general, takes an occasion to go back to that ancient and most dreadful example of that kind, in which the divine power was most eminently seen. And, having mentioned that instance, he adds, that as God had showed himself to be the King and the Judge of the world at that time, so he doth still sit, and will sit as King for ever, sending such tempests as it pleases him to send. And therefore his people have great reason to worship and serve him. Psalm 29:11 The LORD will give strength unto his people; the LORD will bless his people with peace. Psalm 29:11 . The Lord will give strength unto his people — To support and preserve them in the most dreadful storms and commotions, whether of the earth or its inhabitants; and, consequently, in all other dangers, and against all their enemies. He will strengthen and fortify them against every evil work, and furnish them for every good work: out of weakness they shall be made strong; nay, he will perfect strength in their weakness. He will bless his people with peace — Though now he sees fit to exercise them with some troubles. He will encourage them in his service, and give them to find by experience that the work of righteousness is peace, and that great peace have they that love his law, and walk according to it. Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary Psalm 29:1 A Psalm of David. Give unto the LORD, O ye mighty, give unto the LORD glory and strength. Psalm 29:1-11 THE core of this psalm is the magnificent description of the thunderstorm rolling over the whole length of the land. That picture is framed by two verses of introduction and two of conclusion, which are connected, inasmuch as the one deals with the "glory to God in the highest" which is the echo of the tempest in angels’ praises, and the other with the "peace on earth" in which its thunders die away. The invocation in Psalm 29:1-2 is addressed to angels, whatever may be the exact rendering of the remarkable title by which they are summoned in Psalm 29:1 . It is all but unique, and the only other instance of its use { Psalm 89:6 } establishes its meaning, since "holy ones" is there given as synonymous in the verses preceding and following. The most probable explanation of the peculiar phrase ( B’ne Elim ) is that of Gesenius, Ewald, Delitzsch, and Riehm in his edition of Hupfeld’s Commentary: that it is a double plural, both members of the compound phrase being inflected. Similarly "mighty men of valour" { 1 Chronicles 7:5 } has the second noun in the plural. This seems more probable than the rendering "sons of the gods." The psalmist summons these lofty beings to "give" glory and strength to Jehovah; that is, to ascribe to Him the attributes manifested in His acts, or, as Psalm 29:2 puts it, "the glory of His name," i.e ., belonging to His character as thus revealed. The worship of earth is regarded as a type of that of heaven, and as here, so there, they who bow before Him are to be clothed in "holy attire." The thought underlying this ringing summons is that even angels learn the character of God from the exhibitions of His power in the Creation, and as they sang together for joy at first, still attend its manifestations with adoration. The contrast of their praise with the tumult and terror on earth, while the thunder growls in the sky, is surely not unintended. It suggests the different aspects of God’s dread deeds as seen by them and by men, and carries a tacit lesson true of all calamities and convulsions. The thundercloud hangs boding in its piled blue blackness to those who from beneath watch the slow crumbling away of its torn edges and the ominous movements in its sullen heart or hear the crashes from its depths, but, seen from above, it is transfigured by the light that falls on its upper surface; and it stretches placid before the throne, like the sea of glass mingled with fire. Whatever may be earth’s terror, heaven’s echo of God’s thunders is praise. Then the storm bursts. We can hear it rolling in the short periods, mostly uniform in structure and grouped in verses of two clauses each, the second of which echoes the first, like the long-drawn roll that pauses, slackens, and yet persists. Seven times "the voice of Jehovah" is heard, like the apocalyptic "seven thunders before the throne." The poet’s eye travels with the swift tempest, and his picture is full of motion, sweeping from the waters above the firmament to earth and from the northern boundary of the land to the far south. First we hear the mutterings in the sky ( Psalm 29:3 ). If we understood "the waters" as meaning the Mediterranean, we should have the picture of the storm working up from the sea; but it is better to take the expression as referring to the super-terrestrial reservoirs or the rain flood stored in the thunderclouds. Up there the peals roll before their fury shakes the earth. It was not enough in the poet’s mind to call the thunder the voice of Jehovah, but it must be brought into still closer connection with Him by the plain statement that it is He who "thunders" and who rides on the storm clouds as they hurry across the sky. To catch tones of a Divine voice, full of power and majesty’, in a noise so entirely explicable as a thunderclap, is, no doubt, unscientific; but the Hebrew contemplation of nature is occupied with another set of ideas than scientific, and is entirely unaffected by these. The psalmist had no notion of the physical cause of thunder, but there is no reason why a man who can make as much electricity as he wants by the grinding of a dynamo and then use it to carry his trivial messages should not repeat the psalmist’s devout assertion. We can assimilate all that physicists can tell us, and then, passing into another region, can hear Jehovah speaking in thunder. The psalm begins where science leaves off. While the psalmist speaks the swift tempest has come down with a roar and a crash on the northern mountains, and Lebanon and "Sirion" (a Sidonian name for Hermon) reel, and the firm-boled, stately cedars are shivered. The structure of the verses already noticed, in which the second clause reduplicates, with some specialising, the thought of the first, makes it probable that in Psalm 29:6 a the mountains, and not the cedars, are meant by "them." The trees are broken; the mountains shake. An emendation has been proposed, by which "Lebanon" should be transferred from Psalm 29:5 to Psalm 29:6 and substituted for "them" so as to bring out this meaning more smoothly, but the roughness of putting the pronoun in the first clause and the nouns to which it refers in the second is not so considerable as to require the change. The image of the mountains "skipping" sounds exaggerated to Western ears, but is not infrequent in Scripture, and in the present instance is simply a strong way of expressing the violence of the storm, which seems even to shake the steadfast mountains that keep guard over the furthest borders of the land. Nor are we to forget that here there may be some hint of a parable in nature. The heights are thunder smitten; the valleys are safe. "The day of the Lord shall be upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up, and upon all the high mountains." { Isaiah 2:13-14 } The two-claused verses are interrupted by one of a single clause ( Psalm 29:7 ), the brevity of which vividly suggests the suddenness and speed of the flash: "The voice of Jehovah cleaves [or, hews out] fire flames." The thunder is conceived of as the principal phenomenon and as creating the lightning, as if it hewed out the flash from the dark mass of cloud. A corrected accentuation of this short verse divides it into three parts, per haps representing the triple zigzag; but in any case the one solitary, sudden fork, blazing fiercely for a moment and then swallowed up in the gloom, is marvellously given. It is further to be noted that this single lightning gleam parts the description of the storm into two, the former part painting it as in the north, the latter as in the extreme south. It has swept over the whole length of the land, while we have been watching the flash. Now it is rolling over the wide plain of the southern desert. The precise position of Kadesh is keenly debated, but it was certainly in the eastern part of the desert region on the southern border. It, too, shakes, low lying as it is; and far and wide over its uninhabited levels the tempest rages, its effects there are variously understood. The parallelism of clauses and the fact that nowhere else in the picture is animal life introduced give great probability to the very slight alteration required in Psalm 29:9 a, - in order to yield the rendering "pierces the oaks" (Cheyne), in stead of "makes the hinds calve" which harmonises admirably with the next clause: but, on the other hand, the premature dropping of the young of wild animals from fear is said to be an authentic fact, and gives a defensible trait to the picture, which is perhaps none the less striking for the introduction of one small piece of animated nature. In any case the next clause paints the dishevelled forest trees, with scarred bark, broken boughs, and strewn leaves, after the fierce roar and flash, wind and rain, have swept over them. The southern border must have been very unlike its present self, or the poet’s thoughts must have travelled eastwards, among the oaks on the other side of the Arabah, if the local colouring of Psalm 29:9 is correct. While tumult of storm and crash of thunder have been raging and rolling below, the singer hears "a deeper voice across the storm," the songs of the "sons of God" in the temple palace above, chanting the praise to which he had summoned them. "In His temple everyone is saying, Glory!" That is the issue of all storms. The clear eyes of the angels see, and their "loud uplifted trumpets" celebrate, the lustrous self-manifestation of Jehovah, who rides upon the storm, and makes the rush of the thunder minister to the fruitfulness of earth. But what of the effects down here? The concluding strophe ( Psalm 29:10-11 ) tells. Its general sense is clear, though the first clause of Psalm 29:10 is ambiguous. The source of the difficulty in rendering is twofold. The preposition may mean "for"- i.e. , in order to bring about-or, according to some, "on," or "above," or "at." The word rendered "flood" is only used elsewhere in reference to the Noachic deluge, and here has the definite article, which is most naturally explained as fixing the reference to that event; but it has been objected that the allusion would be farfetched and out of place, and therefore the rendering "rain storm" has been suggested. In the absence of any instance of the word’s being used for anything but the Deluge, it is safest to retain that meaning here. There must, however, be combined with that rendering an allusion to the torrents of thunder rain, which closed the thunderstorm. These could scarcely be omitted. They remind the singer of the downpour that drowned the world, and his thought is that just as Jehovah "sat"- i.e ., solemnly took His place as King and Judge-in order to execute that act of retribution, so, in all subsequent smaller acts of an analogous nature, He "will sit enthroned forever." The supremacy of Jehovah over all transient tempests and the judicial punitive nature of these are the thoughts which the storm has left with him. It has rolled away; God, who sent it, remains throned above nature and floods: they are His ministers. And all ends with a sweet, calm word, assuring Jehovah’s people of a share in the "strength" which spoke in the thunder, and, better still, of peace. That close is like the brightness of the glistening earth, with freshened air, and birds venturing to sing once more, and a sky of deeper blue, and the spent clouds low and harmless on the horizon. Beethoven has given the same contrast between storm and after calm in the music of the Pastoral Symphony. Faith can listen to the wildest crashing thunder in quiet confidence that angels are saying, "Glory!" as each peal rolls, and that when the last, low mutterings are hushed, earth will smile the brighter, and deeper peace will fall on trusting hearts. The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.