Matthew 8: 23-27 shows us the power of the voice of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him.And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep. Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. So, the men marveled, saying, “Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”
The story immediately following illustrates the same point. Jesus also commanded demons and they could do nothing other than obey.
The disciples were amazed at his power but should have been equally amazed at the power of that voice as manifested in the rising of the storm. They should have heard his voice in the wind and rain, in the waves and violence all around them. They failed altogether to do so, and so were afraid. This is the point that Psalm 29 makes.
- The Power of the Lord’s Voice Inspires a Summons to Worship (vv. 1-2)
David says three times in the first two verses, Give unto the Lord… The first time he indicates who is to give, the second time what they are to give, and the third time why they are to give.
The term sons of the mighty could also be translated sons of God. It is exactly the same phrase in Psalm 89:6: For who in the heavens can be compared to the Lord? Who among the sons of the mighty can be likened to the Lord?
It is similar to the expression found in Genesis 6:4: There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
We find the same term also in Job 1:6: Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satanalso came among them.
In Job 2:1: Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord.
and in Job 38:6,7: To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy?
It’s pretty clear that in Job the term refers to the angels. Its meaning in Genesis 6 is in dispute, but, given the Scriptural teaching that angels neither marry nor are given in marriage, we should take it there as referring to men. In Psalm 89 it refers to angels. Since it refers to angels in every place except Genesis 6, we take it as referring to angels here also. It is a term of honor, a term that ascribes a power and glory to the angels. David addresses them specifically because they stand closest to God, are the highest among God’s creatures, and have glory greater than any others.
Even they must tremble before the majesty of Yahweh’s voice. They are to give to him glory and strength. They must acknowledge him by their words and by their reverence towards him to be the God of all glory and of all strength. They are to ascribe all glory seen, and all strength shown, to him, even that glory and strength that belong to themselves.
They are to ascribe glory and strength to him because it is already his. They must give him the glory of his name. The name Yahweh is important in this psalm. David uses it eighteen times in 11 verses. The emphasis does not fall here on the idea of his covenant faithfulness, but on what he is in himself. He is the I Am. Before the mountains were brought forth, Or ever You had formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God (Ps 90:2).
And again, Before Abraham was, I am (Jn 8:58).
He is the eternal one, uncreated, whose years will have no end. He is the unchangeable one, from age to age the same. And he is the self-sufficient one, who relies on no creature for his existence, his well-being, his glory, happiness or purposes. He is very glorious in himself, and it is the duty of all his creatures, not just of the angels, to ascribe to him the glory that belongs to him.
So, David summons the sons of God to worship. They are not great in comparison with Yahweh. They are creatures who are dependent on him, and whose might and glory are creaturely manifestations of the might and glory of the Lord who created them. They must bend the knee and humble themselves in the beauty of holiness.
That phrase occurs several other times in the Old Testament. In 1 Chronicles 16:29, after David had finished his preparations for the building and service of the temple, he wrote these words:
Give to the LORD, O families of the peoples, Give to the LORD glory and strength. Give to the LORD the glory due His name; Bring an offering, and come before Him. Oh, worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness!
Psalm 96 contains a quotation of this passage. In 2 Chronicles 20:20-21, as the people were going out to fight against Moab, Ammon and Edom, Jehoshaphat appointed those who should sing to the Lord, and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying: “Praise the Lord, for His mercy endures forever.
The term is broad. The Lord himself is holy, and beautiful in his holiness. That’s what 2 Chronicles 20 means when it talks about praising the beauty of holiness. It means praising the beauty of that holiness which belongs to the Lord. But when the Lord came to dwell in his temple, he sanctified that place and made it also beautiful in holiness. He consecrated to himself a priesthood which was beautiful in holiness and brought into his house his people whom he made beautiful in holiness. Holiness is fitting to his house. So, these sons of God, drawn by the beauty of holiness, are to worship the holy Lord, in his holy dwelling and among his holy people.
2. The Power of the Lord’s Voice Raises a Great Storm (vv. 3-9)
This section of the psalm has three sub-sections of five lines each – verses 3-4, verses 5-7, and verses 8-9. One of the features of these verses is that their parallelisms go from general to specific. Thus, in verse 3 David first mentions waters, and then great waters. Probably great waters is a reference to the Mediterranean Sea, as in Isaiah 23:2,3: Be still, you inhabitants of the coastland, You merchants of Sidon, Whom those who cross the sea have filled. And on great waters the grain of Shihor, The harvest of the River, is her revenue; And she is a marketplace for the nations.
Also, in Ezekiel 26:19, God says to the city of Tyre:
When I make you a desolate city, like cities that are not inhabited, when I bring the deep upon you, and great waters cover you,then I will bring you down with those who descend into the Pit.
In verse 5 he goes from cedars to cedars of Lebanon. In verse 6 from calf to young wild ox. In verse 8 from wilderness to wilderness of Kadesh. The more general reference is not to a separate thing but is simply a way of leading up to the more precise identification in the second term. In three of these four verses David also says first the voice of the Lord, and then the Lord. Thus,
The voice of the Lord is over the waters… The Lord is over great waters… The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars. The Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon... The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness. The Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
This careful arrangement of the material drives the point home in a powerful way. We get a sense of the power of the Lord’s voice.
The location also changes. First, we hear the Lord’s voice over the great waters. In verses 5-7 the scene changes and we see its effects in Lebanon to the north of the land of Israel. In verses 8-9 we move to the wilderness of Kadesh to the south and east of Israel. It was from Kadesh that Moses sent the twelve spies into Canaan. We end finally in the temple at Jerusalem.
But the whole section is tied together by the description of a powerful thunderstorm. The storm forms over the Mediterranean Sea. There the God of glory thunders.
The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is very majestic.
We can translate more literally, and thus capture the conciseness of the Hebrew:
The voice of the Lord in power, The voice of the Lord in majesty.
Then the storm moves into Lebanon, and it is awesome in its power there. The cedars of Lebanon are very large conifers that grow up to about 130 feet tall with trunks up to 8 feet in diameter. But the voice of the Lord shatters them. Lebanon and Sirion are mountains in the land of Lebanon, but the voice of the Lord makes them skip like a young wild ox. The scene in Lebanon closes with a reference to the lightning that accompanies this great storm: the voice of the Lord divides flames of fire. We get a picture of great flashes of lightning branching and dividing all over the sky and striking the trees and the earth in multiple places. The storm is very violent and causes great damage.
Finally, we see the storm in the wilderness of Kadesh. Its power is still very great. It shakes the ground, makes the deer give birth through their great terror, and strips the forests bare of leaves. The same word appears three times in verses 8-9a. It’s difficult to find an English word that has the same range of meaning as the Hebrew, but to get a sense of it we could translate:
The voice of the Lord convulses the wilderness. The Lord convulses the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord makes the deer convulse (i.e. in birth pangs).
In the very last verse of the section the scene changes yet again to the temple in Jerusalem. Worshippers gather there, and as they hear the thunder of the Lord’s voice and witness the power of that voice all around them, they cry, “Glory!” They recognize in the storm the revelation of the glory of the Lord, and give him the glory of his name, as he commanded them to do in verse 1.
3. The Power of the Lord’s Voice Gives the Lord’s People No Reason to Be Afraid (vv. 10-11)
Think now what you have here: thunder, lightning and a trembling earth, shattered trees, a forest stripped bare, and deer giving birth prematurely because of terror. These are signs not only of the power of the Lord, but also of his anger. They foretell his coming in judgment.
Think also of the regions mentioned: the Great Sea, Lebanon (a land to the north of Israel) and Kadesh (a land to the south and east of Israel). All around Israel then there is tumultuous violence caused by the power and majesty of the Lord’s voice. But we do not see that violence in Israel. In Jerusalem there is peace.
The last section of the psalm begins with an historical reference. This is very striking. Up to this point in the psalm David has been talking about the present, what is happening right now. Suddenly he switches to the past tense and begins to talk about the flood of Noah’s day. The Hebrew word used here always refers to the great flood. What is the point?
The point is that David will not have all this awesome power of the Lord’s voice terrify the people of the Lord. It is true that that voice is very terrible, is over great waters, and causes tumult all around. It is equally true that all this tumult is meant to remind us of coming judgment. But David says here, as it were, “Do not be afraid. Yahweh also presided over the great waters of the flood, much greater and more terrible than the present great waters. In that flood he kept Noah and his family safe and accomplished his purpose. He is able to do so today also.”
“Furthermore,” he says, “Yahweh is enthroned forever. He was king then. He is king now. He will continue to be king forever. Do not be afraid.”
Yahweh, the eternal, unchangeable and self-sufficient God, gives his strength to his people. The same strength that shatters the cedars of Lebanon, shakes the wilderness and strips the forests bare is in you. The cedars of Lebanon may break, but you will not. The earth itself may tremble and writhe, but you need not. He will shake all that can be shaken, so that only those things that cannot be shaken will remain. You are among the things that cannot be shaken.
The voice of Yahweh will convulse all things, but it will bless you and give you peace. You are safe in the hands of the mighty Lord.