View Psalms 29 in the note window.
It is probable David wrote this psalm, during a storm of thunder,
lightning, and rain; as that he wrote the eighth in a moon - shining
night, and the nineteenth in a sun - shining morning.
He calls on the great to give glory to God, ver. 1, 2.
Observes his power in thunder and lightning, Ver. 3 - 9.
His dominion over the world and care over the church, ver. 10, 11.
A psalm of David.
1: Ye - Ye potentates and rulers of the earth. Glory - By an humble
and thankful acknowledgment of it.
2: Give, &c. - The honour which he deserves: own him as the Almighty,
and the only true God. Holiness - Or, in his holy and beautiful house.
3: The waters - Above in the clouds, which are called waters,(Ge 1:7,Ps 18:11). The Divine power displays itself in those
high places, which are 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, (Ps 18:10,11,104:3).
5: Lebanon - A place famous for strong and lofty cedars.
6: Them - The cedars; which being broken by the thunder, the parts of
them are suddenly and violently hurled hither and thither. Sirion - An
high mountain beyond Jordan joining to Lebanon. Lebanon and
Sirion are said to skip or leap, both here, and (Ps 114:4),
by a poetical hyperbole.
7: The flames - The lightnings.
8: Kadesh - An eminent wilderness, vast and terrible, and well known
to the Israelites, and wherein possibly they had seen, and observed some
such effects of thunder.
9: To calve - Through the terror it causes, which hastens the birth.
He names the hinds, because they bring forth their young with difficulty,(Job 39:1,2).
Discovereth - Heb. 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.
10: The flood - The most violent waters, which sometimes fall from
the clouds upon the earth. These are fitly mentioned, as being many
times the companions of great thunders. And this may be alleged as
another reason, why God's people praised him in his temple, because 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.
