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Time after Pentecost · The Holy Trinity (First Sunday after Pentecost) · Year B

Psalm 29

The Voice of the Lord

Snow Storm: Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth, J. M. W. Turner
Snow Storm: Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth, J. M. W. Turner, 1842Tate Britain, London
Turner claimed he had himself lashed to a mast for four hours to watch the storm, which is probably untrue. A critic called it soapsuds and whitewash.The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; the God of glory thunders. Psalm 29 is a storm psalm and this is a storm.J. M. W. TurnerTurner (1775-1851) spent a long career pushing landscape toward light itself, until in his last decades the subject is often barely recoverable from the atmosphere around it.Tate Britain, LondonThe national collection of British art from 1500, on Millbank, including the Turner Bequest of nearly thirty thousand works the artist left to the nation.Tate Britain, London

Overview & Insights

“The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders.” (Psalm 29:3)

In this beautiful psalm of praise, the “voice of the Lord,” the central thrust of Psalm 29, heard in the frightful storm, announces in nature’s accent the lordship of Yahweh, ending in the peaceful lull of the storm. In Psalm 96 (v. 10a) the announcement of the Lord’s reign sends the heavens and the earth and all creation into passionate jubilation.[1] See the sidebar “Psalms of Praise” in the introduction. In both a literary and theological sense, Psalm 29 is beautifully balanced. The call to worship of 29:1–2 is balanced by 29:10–11, the final announcement of God’s enthronement as “King forever,” and from that truth issues forth the blessing of strength and peace for God’s people. The middle part of the psalm (29:3–9) develops the reasons why the Lord should be praised and why he as “King forever” can, by virtue of his enthronement, give strength to his people and bless them with peace.

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Take it further: Psalm 29

Commentary

Background & Word Study

The Church Fathers

Questions preachers ask

What does Psalm 29 celebrate?

A storm psalm: the voice of the Lord thunders in power over the waters and the mountains, and in his temple all cry Glory, for the Lord sits enthroned as king forever.

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