Commonplace –
“The voice of the Lord is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the Lord is upon many waters” (Psalm 29:3).
Psalm 29 is a meditation on God’s might and glory as it is exhibited through natural weather events. In it, David draws us back to the beginning, when the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. David stresses in verse 3 that God is upon many waters; God is present in this very moment just like He was at the beginning of the world. We are able to readily observe this through changes in the weather.
David repeatedly stresses “the voice of the Lord” throughout Psalm 29 (v. 3, 5, 7, 8 and 9). He is using His voice to make things happen:
- break the cedars (v.5),
- cause the cedars to skip like a calf, like a young unicorn (v.6),
- dividing the flames of fire (v.7),
- shaking the wilderness (v.8),
- making the cows give birth (v.9),
- discovering the forest (v.9).
One cannot help thinking of God’s voice as the wind, which comes to us in many forms: soft and gentle, loud and aggressive. Again, we are reminded of the old testament, when God spoke to Elijah in 1 Kings 19:11-12. First, God sent a great and strong wind that broke apart the rocks of the mountain. Then, God sent an earthquake. Next, God sent a fire. Finally, God came to Elijah in a “still small voice” (1 Kings 19:13). How often in life do we walk around seemingly in control only to be confronted with our frail humanity by some incredible weather event, which exposes how little control we actually possess.
Matthew Henry provides some worthwhile insight into Psalm 29.
“It is the probable conjecture of some very good interpreters that David penned this psalm upon occasion, and just at the time, of a great storm of thunder, lightning, and rain, as the eighth psalm was his meditation in a moon-light night and the nineteenth in a sunny morning” (274).
David, too, was reminded of the power of God through the medium of the weather.
Works Cited
Henry, Matthew. “Psalm 29.” Matthew Henry’s Commentary On the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition. Volume 3 and Volume 6, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., March 1996.
Holy Bible: Giant Print with Study Aids. Dugan Publishers, Inc., 1984.
© 2025 Angela Hormberg
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