We Are Called to Praise
Psalm 29
Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
2 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.
3 The voice of the Lord is over the waters;
the God of glory thunders,
the Lord, over many waters.
4 The voice of the Lord is powerful;
the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.
5 The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;
the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
6 He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf,
and Sirion like a young wild ox.
7 The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire.
8 The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;
the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
9 The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth
and strips the forests bare,
and in his temple all cry, “Glory!”
10 The Lord sits enthroned over the flood;
the Lord sits enthroned as king forever.
11 May the Lord give strength to his people!
May the Lord bless his people with peace!
Psalm 29 is a song of praise to God that was most likely an ancient hymn, and it fits nicely here after Psalm 28 because there in verse 7 David says, “… my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to [the Lord].” Psalm 29 is that song, and it has three parts:
First, in verses 1–2, there is the command to praise.
Second, in verses 3–9, there is the content of praise.
Third, in verses 10–11, there is the call for blessing.
We’re going to spend a little time looking at each one of these, but before we get started I want to highlight this psalm’s expectation of us as its readers. Anytime we encounter a text, and especially a biblical text, that text is making a request of us. There is something it wants for us. And when it comes to Psalm 29, this psalm doesn’t want our mere reading, but it wants our actual involvement. The words of this psalm press us with an obligation to sing along with convictional agreement. It’s not enough to just read it, we’re supposed to join it.
And the reason I say this here at the start is because as we’re walking through these verses I want you to understand yourself not as a spectator, not even as an audience, but you are a summoned participant. You have a part.
Let’s pray and ask for God’s help:
Father, please send your Spirit now to rule and direct our hearts to receive what you want for us in your word. In the name of Jesus we pray, amen.
1. The Command to Praise (verses 1–2)
The very first thing we see in Psalm 29 is the verb “ascribe” — which is a command that gets repeated three times in these first two verses. These are literally commands to praise God, and it’s not uncommon that we find such a command in the Book of Psalms. But what makes Psalm 29 especially interesting is that the command is directed to “heavenly beings.”
Now I think a human congregation is implied in this psalm. We should imagine David as the spokesperson for a whole church of worshipers, but he begins by addressing these “heavenly beings.” Most translations say “heavenly beings” but the literal phrase here is “sons of God.” That’s one way the Old Testaments describes angels. These are supernatural creatures in the heavenly realm, and that’s who David is talking to! David commands these supernatural creatures to praise Yahweh.
And that might sound a little strange to us, but it’s not strange in the Bible. In case we need a little brush up on angelology, let me just remind you that angels really exist.
There is an unseen, spiritual realm inhabited by angels — both holy angels and fallen angels. Holy angels occupy the heavenly places in presence of God, and they are deployed for work in this world, often as messengers (we see in the Bible).
Angels are similar and distinct from humans. They’re similar in that humans and angels are both creatures. God created us both. But angels are distinct from humans in that they have greater powers than us, but we have greater privileges than them. Paul talks about that in 1 Corinthians 6. He says that we, as the church, the saints, we’re going to judge angels (see 1 Corinthians 6:1–3). The apostle Peter in 1 Peter 1 describes the wonder of the gospel, and he says that it’s something into which “angels long to look” (1 Peter 1:10–12). The idea is that angels have taken an interest in the story of God’s redemption, and they’re sitting on the edge of their seats, leaning in to watch God’s salvation unfolds.
And that is happening right now. In this exact moment, according to Peter, angels are longing to observe the gospel at work. And when we really understand that, like if we can really imagine that in our minds, then I don’t think Psalm 29’s opening is strange at all. In fact, I wonder if we’re the strange ones because we don’t do Psalm 29 verse 1 every time we gather in worship.
See David is about to sing praise to God in Psalm 29, and his call to worship is not just for the church, but it’s for angels, too. He’s commanding angels! Hey, angels, give God praise! Ascribe to Yahweh glory and strength!
And, of course, the reason David does this is because God is worthy of praise, and that means all praise. “Let everything that has breath [— including angels —] praise the Lord!” (Psalm 150:6) Ascribe to the Lord the glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name. Write it out. Recount it out. Speak it out. Sing it out. Think it out. Feel it out. Give to God all the glory that he deserves, and do you have any idea how long that will take? This is why we have eternity, but we don’t wait for eternity. We want to get in on God’s praise right now, everyday, and we can tell the angels to join us.
That’s the first thing we see in verses 1–2, the command to praise God.
2. The Content of Praise (verses 3–9)
The next thing we see is the content of this praise, or this is like the occasion or inspiration of the praise. David gives the command to praise and then he directs our attention to grounds of praise. And in summary, the grounds of our praise is the work of God’s word in this world. That’s what David explains in verse 3–9, and he does it by the metaphor of a thunderstorm.
So right now we’re in the middle of summer, and I love summer. I love the pace. I love the heat. I love the sunshine. And I love a good thunderstorm. I think summer thunderstorms might be the most under-appreciated gifts of nature, especially when they come in the early morning like we had this past Monday. The next time we have one, please don’t ignore it, but try to stop what you’re doing and meditate on it. Think about what’s happening: the rumbling thunder, that sound. It’s amazing! Sometimes it builds slowly. Sometimes it just cracks. Stop and listen to it next time, and think about it. Know that one of the reasons God made that thunder is to help us picture his word’s activity in this world.
And the activity of God’s word is the activity of God. That’s an important theological insight we see in Psalm 29. And before we get into the details here, I want us to see this. Notice the parallel between God’s voice and God himself:
Verse 3 says the voice of the Lord is over the waters, and then it’s “the Lord” is over many waters.
Verse 5: it’s the voice of the Lord that break the cedars, and then it’s “the Lord” who breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
Verse 8: the voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness, “the Lord” shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
So what it said about the voice of Yahweh is said about Yahweh himself, because they are one and the same. The activity of God’s word, his voice, is the execution of his will. He speaks, and he accomplishes. He sends out his word, and it succeeds in the thing for which it was sent (see Isaiah 55:10–11). And this has wondrous implications for Bible reading:
When You Open the Bible
First, we should understand that “God’s word” and “God’s voice” are in the same conceptual family. They both have to do with God’s speech, but we tend to think of a voice as more dynamic and action-packed. Sometimes our idea of words can be sort of stale and boring, but that’s never the case with God’s word. We shouldn’t think that way about the Bible. So it might help you to imagine: when you open your Bible to read God’s word, you’re actually leaning in to hear God’s voice. We open the Bible and God speaks to us. And it is so much God speaking to us that if we disobey what the Bible says, we are disobeying God.
And we might think, Yep, I believe that. But let’s slow down a minute and think about this. Imagine you wake up 6:00 tomorrow morning, the sun is coming up, you pour yourself a cup of coffee, standing in your kitchen, and all of a sudden the voice of God sounds forth and tells you to “in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”
If you heard God say that to you, it’d get your attention, right? If you heard God say that, you would want to do it! And yet God does say that to you every time you read Philippians 2, verse 3! We open the Bible and hear the voice of God.
And if you’re a Christian and you don’t read the Bible, I’m convinced it’s because you just don’t know what the Bible really is. I would never want to guilt you into reading the Bible. I’m just asking, Do you want to hear from God? If you do, give your eyes to his word, which means giving your ears to his voice.
Now look at the power of God’s voice in these verses.
The Power of God’s Voice
The main theme of David’s metaphor is the thundering sovereignty of God’s voice in creation, and the first aspect of creation that’s mentioned is water, which is appropriate. 71 percent of our planet’s surface is water, and so if God is sovereign over this world, that must include sovereignty over water.
And also, in the Bible’s storyline, water plays a significant role as a showcase of God’s power. We see this first at the very beginning, in the act of creation itself, when the world was without form and void, the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters (see Genesis 1:1–2), and over that watery chaos, he made all this.
And then, of course, the prime example of God’s power over water is the flood and the judgment it brought (see Genesis 6:9–8:19) — David mentions the flood in verse 10.
And then also in the Bible there’s the exodus when Israel crossed the Red Sea. God parted the waters for Israel to safely walk through, but as the Egyptians tried to follow them, God made the waters return and it wiped out all of Pharaohs’ soldiers (see Exodus 14:21–29). And there’s no doubt that this scene is meant to communicate the sovereignty of God over water to use it for his purposes.
The Old Testament paints the picture very clearly for us, and Psalm 29 repeats it again: God is over the waters, and his voice is like thunder, powerful and full of majesty.
Action and Response
And there are a couple things going on in these verses. There’s the action of God’s voice in creation, and then there’s the response of creation.
Look at the action in verse 5. Imagine a storm again, but a super forceful storm, because this storm is breaking cedars. Cedars were back then, like they are today, some of the largest trees around, and they make the most reliable lumber, and they smell good. Cedars are kind of like a braggadocios part of creation. They stand tall; they poke their chest out a little bit; and they’re that tree at the party who wears the cologne everybody notices.
And the voice of God breaks them like twigs.
Now skip down to verse 7. Fire is flashing forth from the sky — this is lightening. And in verse 8, the voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness. All the untamed jungles of this world, and the wide open spaces that humans dare to venture, God’s voice makes them tremble. The wind of his word shakes them. And the idea here, like with the cedars, is a message of domination. Yahweh is sovereign over them, from Lebanon and Sirion, which is north of Jerusalem, to Kadesh, which is south. Yahweh is sovereign over it all, and look at the response.
“Lebanon skips like a calf; Sirion like a young wild ox” — this is basically a party, and maybe you thought oxen didn’t like to party, but see, these are young wild oxen. The image is that beneath all the power of God’s voice unleashed upon creation, the earth is as giddy as a puppy! The earth doesn’t shrink back in fear, but it dances in the wake of this power … and perhaps it’s because the earth knows that one day that same power will set it free from its bondage to decay (see Romans 8:21). The earth rejoices at God’s sovereign majesty, and so do his people.
Look at last line in verse 9. In response to the power of God’s voice manifest in creation, in response to the God of glory who thunders, the gathered worshipers of God in his temple all cry “Glory!”
And I love the simplicity of that.
There are moments in life, and many more to come for us, when the majesty of God is so overwhelming that we don’t want to be wordy. We’re not trying to fill the moment with our own speech, because we’re just overcome! I think about Thomas in the Gospel of John Chapter 20, after he places his hand on the side of the risen Jesus, all he can say is “My Lord and my God!” (see John 20:26–29).
That’s all he needed to say.
There are times in life when we encounter the glory of God so overwhelmingly that we just say, “Glory!”
I live for those moments.
The sovereignty of God’s voice in creation, the God of glory who thunders through this world, is for our good. And that’s how Psalm 29 ends.
3. The Call for Blessing (verses 10–11)
David concludes this song of praise by remembering Yahweh’s kingship, and then calling for Yahweh’s blessing on his people.
I think the mention of the flood in verse 10 is a nice bookend to the waters mentioned in verse 3. This word for “flood” here is only used in Genesis 6 about the actual flood, so it affirms for us the message of this psalm. This psalm is indeed about Yahweh’s sovereignty over creation, and therefore, it means that Yahweh is sovereign over every false god that historically been given unjust credit for different aspects of creation. That’s maybe a sub-theme to Psalm 29. See, the Canaanites thought their god had the market on thunder. The Egyptians thought their god ruled the waters. But Psalm 29 repeats what the Bible makes clear: God reigns over it all. He is the king over every aspect of creation; he is the king over the flood; he is the king forever.
And we want his blessing! The blessing of this God! We need his blessing, and so David prays in verse 11, “May Yahweh give strength to his people! May Yahweh bless his people with peace!”
Strength and peace. That is the blessing David asks for. Strength is something you’d want in wartime; peace is no wartime at all — and we need Yahweh to give us both. Strength and peace. The heart of a lion, the heart rate of a lamb. That is the blessing we need, which is our blessing in Jesus.
Seeing the Messiah
This final blessing of strength and peace is fulfilled in the Messiah, and David directs our minds on him in verse 10 with the mention of kingship. Up to this point in the Book of Psalms, references to Yahweh’s kingship have been about the Messiah.
The Messiah is Yahweh’s king set on Zion, his holy hill, Psalm 2; and his reign is universal and eternal, Psalm 21. The Messiah is the King, and Yahweh is the King, and with New Testament clarity we understand that Yes, that’s exactly right. Jesus the Messiah, who is Yahweh, is the king to whom every knee will bow and every tongue confess (see Philippians 2:9–11). Jesus stands forth as the King enthroned forever in verse 10, but we also hear connections to him earlier in this psalm with the mention of God’s voice.
Jesus is God’s voice, God’s word, made flesh, and he was in the beginning with God.
“All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.” (John 1:2–3).
We believe in the “one Lord Jesus Christ through whom are all things and through whom we exist.” (1 Corinthians 8:6)
“For through him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things were created through him and for him.” (Colossians 1:16)
God has “spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. … and who [also] upholds the universe by the word of his power.” (Hebrews 1:1–3)
The Bible shows us that the existence and sustenance of everything is through Jesus, the incarnate Word of God, and the One to whom the inscripturate word of God testifies. So we can’t imagine the thundering sovereignty of God’s voice without imagining the agency of Jesus. That thunder you hear, it’s thunder created through Jesus. That sunrise you see is only a sunrise through Jesus. The ultimate, sovereign difference-maker in creation is Jesus who reigns over all.
Our Strength and Peace
And as for the blessing of strength and peace, who is there who wed together strength and peace better than Jesus?
Jesus, the Lion and the Lamb. Jesus who was fierce in his courage, but tender in his sacrifice. Jesus who was mighty in his victory, but patient in his leading. Jesus who destroyed the works of the devil, but who rescued his church by his blood. Jesus is our strength and peace, and by faith we have him; we are united to him; and we will never be separated from his love. That is the blessing of all who believe.
And in closing I want to speak that blessing over you:
First, if you’re hearing this and you’ve never trusted in Jesus, I invite you to do that. Right now, wherever you are, put your faith in Jesus and his death for you on the cross to save you from your sins. Trust in Jesus, and praise him!
We are called to join the chorus of praise in Psalm 29. We’re called to praise God for his sovereign word, and as we do, may he bless you, church, with the strength and peace of Jesus Christ! May he bless you with strength against the enemy, power over darkness, endurance through hardship! And may he bless you with peace in the storm, joy deeper than the universe, and rest for your weary souls. May God bless you in Jesus’s name, amen!
