I read Psalm 29 and the accompanying prayer on Psalm 29 from the Scottish Psalter of 1595 the other day during my daily devotionals. The contents of both of these writings are applicable to what I have recently shared in my first and second posts. The Reformation Study Bible has this to say about Psalm 29:
“A hymn to God the king, the psalm falls into three strophes (Introduction to Hebrew Poetry): a call to worship (vv. 1, 2), a description of the Lord’s theophanic presence in a thunderstorm (vv. 3–9), and an affirmation of the Lord’s kingship (vv. 10, 11). The psalm uses themes that were current in the religions of the nations surrounding ancient Israel: the power behind storms (vv. 3–9) and the victor over floodwaters (vv. 10, 11). The psalmist counters these religions by taking the praises they claimed for their false gods and ascribing them to the Lord. The picture of God as king, enthroned over the vanquished floodwaters, is one of many indications that the psalm was used to celebrate a divinely given victory in battle.”
R. C. Sproul, ed., The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) (Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust, 2015), 860.
The surrounding nations ascribed glory to and worshiped false gods for the wonder, power, and majesty that they witnessed and experienced in nature. It was obvious that there was something greater than themselves due to the natural revelation that they had received. The problem is that natural revelation only leads to idolatry apart from the special revelation that we receive from God through His prophets and apostles. Paul speaks to this issue at length in Romans 1-2. I would encourage you to study what the Apostle Paul is conveying in those chapters but I will summarize it briefly.
Paul is saying that all people inherently know that there is a God and that He deserves to be worshipped simply by what they witness and experience in nature. That said, all people, apart from Christ, choose to suppress that truth in unrighteousness and worship idols instead of God. In other words, natural revelation gives spiritually dead people (which is everyone who is not in Christ) enough information and understanding to condemn them. However, it does not give them enough information and understanding for them to come to a saving knowledge of God. This comes only through special revelation from God, as delivered by the prophets and apostles, and by the gift of faith by which a person is enabled to receive and believe it.
David, having received special revelation from God, is able to offer a correct understanding of and right response to nature. This would have stood in stark contrast to the pagan understanding of his day and the idolatry that resulted from it. Psalm 29 offers correction to anyone who would believe that anyone or anything other than Yahweh has dominion over nature. David understood that the one and only true God, Yahweh, has dominion over nature because of the special revelation that he had received through the prophets. Read David’s words:
A Psalm of David.
29 Give unto the Lord, O you mighty ones,
Give unto the Lord glory and strength.
2 Give unto the Lord the glory due to His name;
Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.3 The voice of the Lord is over the waters;
The God of glory thunders;
The Lord is 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,
Yes, the Lord splinters the cedars of Lebanon.
6 He makes them also skip like a calf,
Lebanon and Sirion like a young wild ox.
7 The voice of the Lord divides the 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 everyone says, “Glory!”10 The Lord sat enthroned at the Flood,
And the Lord sits as King forever.
11 The Lord will give strength to His people;
The Lord will bless His people with peace.
Just like in David’s day, our understanding of all that we see, read, hear, touch, smell, taste, feel… in short, all that we experience…must be brought into submission to God’s word. We are to renew our minds and take every thought captive to obey Christ. We must rightly divide the word of truth lest we suppress the truth in our unrighteousness and end up worshipping the created rather than the Creator. Again, theology and doctrine matter! May this prayer (inspired by Psalm 29) from the Scottish Psalter of 1595 express the desire and prayer of everyone who professes Christ Jesus as Savior:
MIGHTY LORD, to whom all glory and honour do justly appertain, since it hath pleased thee to make us understand thy will by thy holy Word, grant likewise that we may receive the same with all reverence, and that we might have a feeling of the force and strength thereof that thereby we may be reformed in all holiness of life, that in the end we may enjoy the heritage promised to all them, that are adopted in thy well-beloved Son, Christ Jesus. Amen.
Garland and Pendants 