Bible Commentaries
Wesley's Explanatory Notes
Psalms 29
Ye - Ye potentates and rulers of the earth. Glory - By an humble and thankful acknowledgment of it.
Give, &c. - The honour which he deserves: own him as the Almighty, and the only true God. Holiness - Or, in his holy and beautiful house.
The waters - Above in the clouds, which are called waters, Genesis 1:7 ; Psalm 18:11 . The Divine power displays itself in those high places, which are far above the reach of all earthly potentates. Many - Upon the clouds, in which there are vast treasures of water, and upon which God is said to sit or ride, Psalm 18:10-11 , Psalm 104:3 .
Them - The cedars; which being broken by the thunder, the parts of them are suddenly and violently hurled hither and thither. Sirion - An high mountain beyond Jordan joining to Lebanon. Lebanon and Sirion are said to skip or leap, both here, and Psalm 114:4 , by a poetical hyperbole.
Kadesh - An eminent wilderness, vast and terrible, and well known to the Israelites, and wherein possibly they had seen, and observed some such effects of thunder.
To calve - Through the terror it causes, which hastens the birth. He names the hinds, because they bring forth their young with difficulty, Job 39:1-2 . Discovereth - Heb. maketh bare, of its trees, which it breaks or strips of their leaves. Glory - Having shewed the terrible effects of God's power in other places, he now shews the blessed privilege of God's people, that are praising God in his temple, when the rest of the world are trembling under the tokens of his displeasure.
The flood - The most violent waters, which sometimes fall from the clouds upon the earth. These are fitly mentioned, as being many times the companions of great thunders. And this may be alleged as another reason, why God's people praised him in his temple, because as he sends terrible tempests and thunders, so he also restrains and over - rules them. Sitteth - He doth sit, and will sit as king for ever, sending such tempests when it pleaseth him.
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