Psalm 29: give God His due
This psalm urges me to make sure that I give God His due: that I respect Him and His commandments. It is meant to intimidate, and if one stops to think about the imagery used here, it is intimidating, and strikingly beautiful. I want to look at some of the images evoked here.
“Yahweh’s voice over the waters, the God of glory thunders; Yahweh over countless waters.” Say you’re in a boat, in the middle of nowhere, and all of a sudden, the air and waters around you shake for the power of a thunderous voice. You hear peals of metallic thunder that could not possibly be reproduced by any sound system today, so powerful you think you’re going be sunk alive under their tremendous impact. That’s God voice!
Or how about this: “Yahweh’s voice shatters cedars, Yahweh shatters cedars of Lebanon, he makes Lebanon skip like a calf, Sirion like a young wild ox.” God’s voice is so strong that the cedars of Lebanon, famed for their stature and thickness, are split like strips of poplar. Can you see it? Can you see the territories of entire countries jumping around wildly when God speaks? That’s power!
“Yahweh’s voice carves out lightning shafts…” Forget the pagan Zeus. God is the only one that can make lightning work for Him. His voice “convulses the desert, Yahweh convulses the desert of Kadesh.” Can you see an entire desert convulsing, shaking, under the power of God’s voice? Wow!
“Yahweh’s voice convulses terebinths, strips forests bare.” The NJB footnotes say terebinths have to do with making “the hinds (calve)”. God’s voice can make cows abort or give birth instantaneously. The power of His voice can level entire forests! Can you see waves of sound wiping out whole forests?
David writes in verse 9, “Yahweh was enthroned for the flood.” The NJB footnotes say this is “the first manifestation of divine justice.” I think I have it right then, when I say that one of God’s inherent characteristics is judgment. So if He was able to flood the entire world to get rid of evildoers, and He can do all of the other things David writes about in this psalm, it stands to reason that it’s well within His power to burn out all of the evildoers when He returns for the final judgment. It’s a scary thought, but it’s tempered by this: “Yahweh will give strength to His people, Yahweh blesses His people with peace.” The good news is that we won’t suffer, but will be strengthened in times of trouble, if we stay with God. We will have peace while deserts convulse and entire countries are shaken up. Thank you, Lord, for watching over your people!
