In the beauty of holiness - בהדרת קדש behadrath kodesh, "the beautiful garments of holiness." Let the priests and Levites put on their best and cleanest apparel; and let the whole service be conducted in such a way as to be no dishonor to the Divine Majesty. The Vulgate and others read, In the palace of his holiness. Let all go to the temple, and return thanks to God for their preservation during this dreadful storm. See on [Psa 29:9] (note).
Verse 3
The voice of the Lord - Thunder, so called, [Exo 9:23], [Exo 9:28], [Exo 9:29]; [Job 37:4]; [Psa 18:13]; [Isa 30:30]. On this subject see the note on [Job 37:4], where there is a particular description of the nature and generation of thunder; and of the lightning, clap, rain, and other phenomena which accompany it.
Upon many waters - The clouds, which Moses calls the waters which are above the firmament.
Verse 4
Is powerful - There is no agent in universal nature so powerful as the electric fluid. It destroys life, tears castles and towers to pieces, rends the strongest oaks, and cleaves the most solid rocks: universal animate nature is awed and terrified by it. To several of these effects the psalmist here refers; and for the illustration of the whole I must refer to the above notes on Job.
Full of majesty - No sound in nature is so tremendous and majestic as that of thunder; it is the most fit to represent the voice of God.
Verse 5
Breaketh the cedars - Very tall trees attract the lightning from the clouds, by which they are often torn to pieces. Woods and forests give dreadful proof of this after a thunderstorm.
Verse 7
Divideth the flames of fire - The forked zigzag lightning is the cause of thunder; and in a thunder-storm these liahtnings are variously dispersed, smiting houses, towers, trees, men, and cattle, in different places.
Verse 8
The wilderness of Kadesh - This was on the frontiers of Idumea and Paran. There may be a reference to some terrible thunder-storm and earthquake which had occurred in that place.
Verse 9
Maketh the hinds to calve - Strikes terror through all the tribes of animals; which sometimes occasions those which are pregnant to cast their young. This, I believe, to be the whole that is meant by the text. I meddle not with the fables which have been published on this subject both by ancients and moderns.
Discovereth the forests - Makes them sometimes evident in the darliest night, by the sudden flash; and often by setting them on fire.
And in his temple - Does this refer to the effect which a dreadful thunder-storm often produces? Multitudes run to places of worship as asylums in order to find safety, and pray to God. See on [Psa 29:2] (note).
Verse 10
The Lord sitteth upon the flood - יהוה למבול ישב Jehovah lammabbul yasheb, "Jehovah sat upon the deluge." It was Jehovah that commanded those waters to be upon the earth. He directed the storm; and is here represented, after all the confusion and tempest, as sitting on the floods, appeasing the fury of the jarring elements; and reducing all things, by his governing influence, to regularity and order.
Sitteth king for ever - He governs universal nature; whatsoever he wills he does, in the heavens above, in the earth beneath, and in all deep places. Every phenomenon is under his government and control. There is something very like this in Virgil's description of Neptune appeasing the storm raised by Juno for the destruction of the fleet of Aeneas. See at the end of this Psalm.
Verse 11
The Lord will give strength - Prosperity in our secular affairs; success in our enterprises; and his blessing upon our fields and cattle.
The Lord will bless his people with peace - Give them victory over their enemies, and cause the nations to be at peace with them; so that they shall enjoy uninterrupted prosperity. The plentiful rain which God has now sent is a foretaste of his future blessings and abundant mercies.
In the note on [Psa 29:10] I have referred to the following description taken from Virgil. Did he borrow some of the chief ideas in it from the 29th Psalm? The reader will observe several coincidences.
Interea magno misceri murmure pontum,
Emissamque hyemem sensit Neptunus, et imis
Stagna refusa vadis: graviter commotus, et alto
Prospiciens, summa placidum caput extulit unda.
Disjectam Aeneae toto videt aequore classem,
Fluctibus oppressos Troas, coelique ruina.
Eurum ad se zephyrumque vocat: dehinc talia fatur
Sic ait: et dicto citius tumida aequora placat,
Collectasque fugat nubes, solemque reducit.
Cymothoe simul, et Triton adnixus acuto
Detrudunt naves scopulo; levat ipse tridenti;
Et vastas aperit syrtes, et temperat aequor,
Atque rotis summas levibus perlabitur undas.
Sic cunctus pelagi cecidit fragor, aequora postquam
Prospiciens genitor, caeloque invectus aperto,
Flectit equos, curruque volans dat lora secundo.
Aen. lib. i., ver. 124. "Mean time, imperial Neptune heard the sound
Of raging billows breaking on the ground.
Displeased, and fearing for his watery reign,
He rears his awful head above the main,
Serene in majesty; then rolled his eyes