I. (29:1–2) Call to Ascribe Glory to the Lord. The psalm begins by urging the “heavenly beings” to “ascribe to the Lord glory and strength”—that is, to acknowledge that these things are true of God and that he deserves admiration for them. The word “ascribe” occurs three times, each one taking the idea a step further than the previous occurrence. The whole stanza culminates in verse 2 (“Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness”).

The “heavenly beings” (v. 1) are literally the “sons of God” or the “sons of might” (ESV mg.). The Hebrew is benê-ʼelim, which elsewhere appears only at 89:6.250 In either case it refers to the “heavenly beings,” whom we have come to call “angels” (cf. 8:5; comment on 8:3–8).251

The expression rendered “in the splendor of holiness” could also be taken as “in holy attire” (ESV mg.). The ESV text is more likely, implying “for the splendor of God’s holiness” (cf. 96:9; 1 Chron. 16:29).252

II. (29:3–9) The Voice of the Lord in a Thunderstorm. In these verses are six descriptions of “the voice of the Lord,” of which the thunderstorm is an emblem.

The song portrays in vivid and imaginative poetry a magnificent storm coming eastward from the Mediterranean (“over the waters”), making landfall to the north, in the mountains of Lebanon, and heading south to sweep through Israel, from Sirion (another name for Mount Hermon; Deut. 3:9) in the northern end to Kadesh at the southern end. This thunderstorm “breaks the cedars,” even the impressive “cedars of Lebanon” (probably with lightning, as in “flashes forth flames of fire”; 29:7).253 The storm makes Lebanon and Sirion “skip,” probably imagining the loud thunder making the very land beneath jump; that is, it “shakes the wilderness” (v. 8).254 So dreadfully loud is the thunder that it “makes the deer” go into labor and “give birth,”255 and its lightning and mighty wind “strips the forest bare.”

As the faithful worship in the temple in Jerusalem, they see the awesome power of the storm. From that power they realize that “the voice of the Lord” is even more “powerful” and even more “full of majesty” than the thunderstorm that represents it; hence their responsive cry, “Glory!” (which joins the heavenly host in obeying v. 1).256

III. (29:10–11) The Lord Enthroned. This stanza moves from the temple, God’s earthly throne, to God’s universal enthronement over all his creation.

God “sits enthroned” in the temple (cf. 9:11; 22:3; 1 Sam. 4:4; 2 Sam. 6:2) and is “king forever” over his people (cf. comment on 5:1–3), but two factors show that the psalm is moving from what we may call God’s local kingship (over his people) to his universal kingship over all creation. First, we have just followed a storm from the sea to landfall in Lebanon and down into Israel; God’s voice exceeds this storm in power and thus in universality. Second, the term “the flood” (Ps. 29:10; Hb. mabbul) appears elsewhere only of Noah’s flood (Gen. 6:17), and the definite article here (the flood) probably points to “the well-known flood.” Perhaps the connection is that the storm and its flash-floods come as reminders of the great flood.257 This, then, leads to the startling claim of the biblical writers (and scandalous in their world) that the deity who rules them is the maker of heaven and earth, whom all mankind should honor (as the angels do).

Another principle comes into view: God’s power, unlike that of the storm, makes distinctions between God’s people and the rest of humankind. Hence the prayer for God to “give strength” (echo of v. 1) “to his people” and “bless his people with peace,” which requires that they be true to him always. The strength that God has in himself, by which he successfully rules his whole creation, ensures that his blessing will be effectual.258