(How to Understand the Kjv Bible) 29 Psalm 29 — Keith Simons

Psalm 29 and the Glory of God

Today's psalm is a psalm about the glory and the majesty and the power of God. We'll be looking at psalm 29. Welcome, my name is Keith Symons, I'm a Bible teacher from England. And in this podcast, we look at psalms verse by verse and word by word to understand their meaning using the King James Version of the Bible.

So the title of psalm 29 is a psalm of David, which probably means that it was written by King David. And the first verse reads, Given to the Lord, O ye mighty, given to the Lord glory and strength. Glory is the splendid and wonderful and beautiful honour that is due to God alone.

And strength refers to his great power. So we might ask, if these things belong to God alone, how is it that the mighty in this verse are told to give them to God? How can you give glory to God when all the glory in heaven and on earth really belongs to him already?

And I think part of the answer is that we as people tend to take glory from God. We tend to take glory from God when we cover up our sins and then pretend that God is not right and that we are right. Or when we argue about whether God's law is right and God's commandments are right.

We're taking from God the glory, the honour that is due to him. And then sometimes people receive glory for themselves, especially kings and important people and great rulers. Well, people are constantly giving them honour.

But that honour doesn't belong to them for themselves. They must give it back to God. So the psalm says, given to the Lord, glory and strength. And you'll see throughout this psalm, Lord is in capital letters referring to the holy name of God, the name of God that the Jewish people don't even pronounce out of respect for God.

The Mighty Called to Honor God

So who is it specifically who's told in this verse to give to the Lord glory and strength? The answer to that question is the mighty, O ye mighty, it says. And who are these mighty ones? If you look at the Hebrew language, it's the sons of the mighty who are being called on to give honour to God.

So who are these mighty ones? Well, this has been discussed by a lot of people, of course, over the years. One answer which some people give is that this must be the great and glorious angels, the rulers of heaven who have such power in the supernatural world and spiritual world.

But their duty, their task at all times is to give honour to God and to use that power for the honour and glory of God. However, the word could mean rulers in this world. It could be calling on those who have power in this world, those who have authority in this world, not to keep for themselves the power that they have, but to use it for God and to give honour to God.

And of course, we all have a duty to give God glory and honour because the glory and honour that God has belongs to him. And it is our duty to give him praise because of his glory and honour. And that is another way in which we give unto the Lord glory and strength.

Worshiping the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness

Verse 2 repeats the same idea. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name. God's name, his holy name, should be something that we respect entirely. God's name describes his character, his perfect character, the God who is so kind and gracious, the God who forgives sins but who judges our evil deeds.

To him, certainly, we all must give the glory due unto his name. To him, we must give honour. To him, we must show respect. The verse continues, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Holiness means separateness.

It means the perfection and the purity that God has. It means the wonder and beauty of his character. And that kind of holiness is something very beautiful. God is perfect. That is wonderful, especially for us in a world where none of us are perfect and nothing around us is perfect.

To think that God is perfect, that is something very, very beautiful. And God isn't perfect in a cruel way or an evil way, like some of the false gods were supposed to be. No, God is perfect in a beautiful way because all that he does is good and right.

Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Some people have pointed out those words could have a different meaning. Maybe the holiness refers to his holy place and in the beauty of his holy place, whether that be God's temple, God's house on earth or more so, his temple, his house in heaven.

The Thunderstorm as a Picture of God's Power

That is a place of true beauty. And we say how pleasant and how wonderful and how good beauty is in this world. Just think of what beauty must mean in heaven itself. So the psalm continues and it continues with the description of the power and glory of God in a thunderstorm.

And I think the idea is that the world seems so quiet when suddenly this thunder and this wind and this rain pouring down and the whole world changes in perhaps in a moment and light is turned to darkness with the power of that thunderstorm.

Well, that gives us a picture of how great God's power is. Sometimes in the Bible, God's used that power. He's used the power of a thunderstorm to defeat enemies who were attacking Israel. And sometimes, of course, the rain falls on Israel in a storm to provide for the needs of God's people.

In Israel, for much of the year, many of the rivers dry up totally. The rain is needed to water the ground so that the crops can grow, so they can be a harvest. So we see that a storm can be judgment in a Bible, but it can also be God's provision for his people.

And of course, when God rescues his people from their enemies, then that thunderstorm is both of those. So verse 3 then starts this picture of the thunderstorm that begins far to the north of Israel and will finish far to the south of Israel in the psalm.

The Voice of the Lord Over the Waters

We'll see that later. Verse 3, the voice of the Lord is upon the waters, that is the waters presumably of the storm. The God of glory thundereth, the sound of the storm, that sudden sound, that energy which seems greater than any energy which we can create on earth.

Reminding us of God's greatness and his power. The Lord is upon many waters. And this repetition of the name of God, the name Lord, it emphasizes this psalm. It draws our attention again and again to the power of God.

But we're now going to start on another repetition, which is the voice of the Lord. God speaks and what power there is in his voice. And some have said, well, this is a thunder. And they've even called this psalm, the psalm of the seven thunders, because seven times it mentions the voice of the Lord.

Well, if God uses thunder, then thunder is powerful. But of course, God's voice is more powerful than any thunder upon earth. God's voice is a voice that transforms heaven and earth, that even in Genesis created heaven and earth.

You can read there that God spoke the word and each thing in turn came into being. So verse four, the voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. Majesty means the authority of a king.

The Lord's Voice Over the Cedars and Mountains

Verse five, the voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars. Yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon. So this journey started on Lebanon, the northern side of Israel, a place of great mountains. And on those mountains grew great and majestic trees of an immense size, the cedars of Lebanon.

Yet the cedars, great as they are, cannot stand before the storm. And so the power of this storm even breaks the cedars as they crash to the ground. Yes, this is truly powerful. But even an ordinary storm can bring down the largest tree.

The voice of the Lord is much more powerful than any storm. Verse six, he maketh them also to skip like a calf, Lebanon and Syrian like a young unicorn. So the cedars are dancing around, skipping like a calf, like a young animal.

In fact, the whole mountain is Lebanon and Syrian. That's an old name for Mount Hermon, the greatest mountain in that region. It jumps around like a young animal. Here it mentions the unicorn. At the time of the King James Version, the unicorn was an animal that was mythical.

It was an animal that people told about in their stories. But the author of this psalm isn't thinking of an imaginary animal, but a real one, a young animal, which dances around and jumps around. And he says in this storm, it seems as if the mountains, it seems as if whole countries are dancing around.

Well, there's a picture going on here of the powerful enemies of Israel, the nations round about Israel that so often opposed God's people and fought against them fiercely. And yet they turned to weakness before the voice of God.

Their power is broken like an immense cedar tree. Or they dance around, they skip around, they lose all their strength. They become like a youngster playing. That their attempts to destroy Israel are no more than someone just playing like a young calf or a young unicorn, even dancing around, skipping around.

God's Voice Over Lightning and the Wilderness

That's what God makes of their attempts to destroy his people, to oppose his people. Verse seven, we see the lightning, the voice of the Lord, defied at the flames of fire, just as lightning comes to the ground it forks apart and shoots at the ground.

The power of God's word is powerful to reach out to every situation, to reach out from the place where God speaks it to wherever on earth needs to hear it, needs to feel that impact, needs to be changed.

And it reaches across Israel. Verse eight, the voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness, which might mean the desert, but it means wild places, wilderness. The Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh. Remember we were talking in verses five and six about Lebanon in the north side of Israel?

Well, Kadesh was a country on the south side of Israel. So this storm has gone right across. It's gone through these wild places with its great power. It's reached even beyond Israel to the south and the enemies round about Israel have experienced just a bit of the glory of God, just a bit of the power that is in his word, his voice.

Verse nine, the voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve. The hinds are the animals which are giving birth to calves. And when the hinds calve, that is when the hinds give birth to calves, to young animals, and it's saying thunder causes them to give birth.

Maybe it means that the shock of it causes them to give birth prematurely, or maybe it means it's God who gives the hinds, the animals, the strength to give birth and discovereth the forests. In other words, uncovers them.

Perhaps that refers to the trees falling down and new trees growing in their place, or them being struck by lightning and the bark stripped off them and dying so that again, new trees come up in their place.

But it's God's great power. God's great power against his enemies causes nations, powerful and evil nations, to be destroyed and new nations to take their place. Maybe that's the word picture here. But the voice of the Lord causes something else as well.

God's Eternal Kingship and the Praise of His People

The end of verse nine, Yes, God's people see what God has done. God's people see the power of God that's been at work amongst them. And they declare, they praise the glory of God. They speak of how wonderful and how splendid and how powerful God is.

So that in God's temple, they're praising God. The Lord sits. In other words, he takes his position. He rules. He rules over the floods of water because God is king forever. And although the floods wash away in a moment of time, the Lord isn't removed from his position.

He is the king. He is the ruler of heaven and of earth. And he will always be the ruler of the heavens and the earth. And when this earth is dissolved and when the heavens flee away and there is a new heaven and a new earth, God will still have his position, ruling as king forever over everything and everyone that there is.

Therefore, nations, foreign nations should respect God. He is the God of the whole world. He is the God of every nation, whether they serve him or not. And the powerful angels, rulers in heaven, should give honour to God because he is the ruler of heaven and they all have their positions of authority and power because of him.

And if they rebel against him, Satan did, or if people rebel against him, as the rulers of many nations do and as the people in many nations do, yet God stands in power and God rules in power. And when their time to rule has finished, God will take away their power because God is looking after his people.

Strength and Peace for God's People

Verse 11, the Lord will give strength unto his people. Yes, God will make his people strong. That was a promise for Israel's people who were loyal to God and who trusted God and who served God. And it's a promise to the people of every nation who are loyal to God and who respect God for who he is.

God will give them the strength they need. And that strength will bring them a wonderful thing because after the violence and the severity and the power of this psalm, the final line is, the Lord will bless his people with peace.

Yes, God has a wonderful gift for his people, a wonderful blessing, a gift of his kindness. And that is peace, contentment, defence from their enemies, the right relationship which they have with him.

God is looking after them. God is providing for them. And so they do not need to fear the cruel enemies who are round about them. They do not need to fear the evil spirits which are working against them in supernatural realms.

No, they need only to look to the Lord because it is the Lord who will bless his people with peace. It is the Lord who will rescue them. It is the Lord who will save them from his enemies and from their enemies.

He will speak his voice. He will declare his word and the enemies will be utterly defeated. In a moment, I'm going to read you the whole psalm but first let me tell you my email address. It's 333kjv at gmail .com.

That's 333kjv at gmail .com. Now here's a whole of Psalm 29. A psalm of David. Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty, give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

The voice of the Lord is upon the waters. The God of glory thundereth. The Lord is upon many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars.

Yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon. He maketh them also to skip like a calf. Lebanon and Syrian like a young unicorn. The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness.

The Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to carve and discovereth the forests. And in his temple doth everyone speak of his glory. The Lord sitteth upon the flood.

Yea, the Lord sitteth king forever. The Lord will give strength unto his people. The Lord will bless his people with peace.