this Psalm is meant to express the glory of God as heard in the pealing
thunder, and seen in an equinoctial tornado. Just as the eighth Psalm is
to be read by moonlight, when the stars are bright, as the nineteenth
needs the rays of the rising sun to bring out its beauty, so this can be
best rehearsed beneath the black wing of tempest, by the glare of the
lightning, or amid that dubious dusk which heralds the war of elements.
The verses march to the tune of thunderbolts. God is everywhere
conspicuous, and all the earth is hushed by the majesty of his presence.
The word of God in the law and gospel is here also depicted in its
majesty of power. True ministers are sons of thunder, and the voice of
God in Christ Jesus is full of majesty. Thus we have God’s works and
God’s word joined together: let no man put them asunder by a false idea
that theology and science can by any possibility oppose each other. We
may, perhaps, by a prophetic glance, behold in this Psalm the dread
tempests of the latter days, and the security of the elect people._
DIVISION.—_The first two verses are a call to adoration. From 3 to 10
the path of the tempest is traced, the attributes of God’s word are
rehearsed, and God magnified in all the terrible grandeur of his power;
and the last verse sweetly closes the scene with the assurance that the
omnipotent Jehovah will give both strength and peace to his people. Let
heaven and earth pass away, the Lord will surely bless his people._
EXPOSITION.
Give unto the LORD, O ye mighty, give unto the LORD glory and
strength.
2 Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD
in the beauty of holiness.
1. “_Give_,” _i.e._, ascribe. Neither men nor angels can confer anything
upon Jehovah, but they should recognise his glory and might, and ascribe
it to him in their songs and in their hearts. “_Unto the Lord_,” and
unto him alone, must honour be given. Natural causes, as men call them,
are God in action, and we must not ascribe power to them, but to the
infinite Invisible who is the true source of all. “_O ye mighty._” Ye
great ones of earth and of heaven, kings and angels, join in rendering
worship to the blessed and only Potentate; ye lords among men need thus
to be reminded, for ye often fail where humbler men are ardent; but fail
no longer, bow your heads at once, and loyally do homage to the King of
kings. How frequently do grandees and potentates think it beneath them
to fear the Lord; but, when they have been led to extol Jehovah, their
piety has been the greatest jewel in their crowns. “_Give unto the Lord
glory and strength_,” both of which men are too apt to claim for
themselves, although they are the exclusive prerogatives of the
self-existent God. Let crowns and swords acknowledge their dependence
upon God. Not to your arms, O kings, give ye the glory, nor look for
strength to your host of warriors, for all your pomp is but as a fading
flower, and your might is as a shadow which declineth. When shall the
day arrive when kings and princes shall count it their delight to
glorify their God? “All worship be to God only,” let this be emblazoned
on every coat of arms.
2. “_Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name._” A third time the
admonition is given, for men are backward in glorifying God, and
especially great men, who are often too much swollen with their own
glory to spare time to give God his rightful praise, although nothing
more is asked of them than is most just and right. Surely men should not
need so much pressing to give what is due, especially when the payment
is so pleasant. Unbelief and distrust, complaining and murmuring, rob
God of his honour; in this respect, even the saints fail to give due
glory to their King. “_Worship the Lord_,” bow before him with devout
homage and sacred awe, and let your worship be such as he appoints. Of
old, worship was cumbered with ceremonial, and men gathered around one
dedicated building, whose solemn pomp was emblematic of “_the beauty of
holiness_;” but now our worship is spiritual, and the architecture of
the house and the garments of the worshippers are matters of no
importance; the spiritual beauty of inward purity and outward holiness
being far more precious in the eyes of our thrice holy God. O for grace
ever to worship with holy motives and in a holy manner, as becometh
saints! The call to worship in these two verses chimes in with the loud
pealing thunder, which is the church bell of the universe ringing kings
and angels, and all the sons of earth to their devotions.
3 The voice of the LORD _is_ upon the waters: the God of glory
thundereth: the Lord _is_ upon 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 breaketh the cedars; yea, the LORD breaketh
the cedars of Lebanon.
6 He maketh them also to skip like a calf, Lebanon and Sirion like a
young unicorn.
7 The voice of the LORD divideth the flames of fire.
8 The voice of the LORD shaketh the wilderness; the LORD shaketh the
wilderness of Kadesh.
9 The voice of the LORD maketh the hinds to calve, and discovereth
the forests: and in his temple doth every one speak of _his_ glory.
10 The LORD sitteth upon the flood; yea, the LORD sitteth King for
ever.
3. “_The voice of the Lord is upon the waters._” The thunder is not only
poetically but instructively called “the voice of God,” since it peals
from on high; it surpasses all other sounds, it inspires awe, it is
entirely independent of man, and has been used on some occasions as the
grand accompaniment of God’s speech to Adam’s sons. There is peculiar
terror in a tempest at sea, when deep calleth unto deep, and the raging
sea echoes to the angry sky. No sight more alarming than the flash of
lightning around the mast of the ship; and no sound more calculated to
inspire a reverent awe than the roar of the storm. The children of
heaven have often enjoyed the tumult with humble joy peculiar to the
saints, and even those who know not God have been forced into unwilling
reverence while the storm has lasted. “_The God of glory thundereth._”
Thunder is in truth no mere electric phenomenon, but is caused by the
interposition of God himself. Even the old heathen spake of Jupiter
Tonans; but our modern wise men will have us believe in laws and forces,
and anything or nothing so that they may be rid of God. Electricity of
itself can do nothing, it must be called and sent upon its errand; and
until the almighty Lord commissions it, its bolt of fire is inert and
powerless. As well might a rock of granite, or a bar of iron fly in the
midst of heaven, as the lightning go without being sent by the great
First Cause. “_The Lord is upon many waters._” Still the Psalmist’s ear
hears no voice but that of Jehovah, resounding from the multitudinous
and dark waters of the upper ocean of clouds, and echoing from the
innumerable billows of the storm-tossed sea below. The waters above and
beneath the firmament are astonished at the eternal voice. When the holy
Spirit makes the divine promise to be heard above the many waters of our
soul’s trouble, then is God as glorious in the spiritual world as in the
universe of matter. Above us and beneath us all is the peace of God when
he gives us quiet.
4. “_The voice of the Lord is powerful._” An irresistible power attends
the lightning of which the thunder is the report. In an instant, when
the Lord wills it, the force of electricity produces amazing results. A
writer upon this subject, speaks of these results as including a light
of the intensity of the sun in his strength, a heat capable of fusing
the compactest metals, a force in a moment paralysing the muscles of the
most powerful animals; a power suspending the all-pervading gravity of
the earth, and an energy capable of decomposing and recomposing the
closest affinities of the most intimate combinations. Well does Thompson
speak of “the unconquerable lightning,” for it is the chief of the ways
of God in physical forces, and none can measure its power.
As the voice of God in nature is so powerful, so is it in grace; the
reader will do well to draw a parallel, and he will find much in the
gospel, which may be illustrated by the thunder of the Lord in the
tempest. His voice, whether in nature or revelation, shakes both earth
and heaven; see that ye refuse not him that speaketh. If his voice be
thus mighty, what must his hand be! beware lest ye provoke a blow. “_The
voice of the Lord, is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of
majesty._” The King of kings speaks like a king. As when a lion roareth,
all the beasts of the forest are still, so is the earth hushed and mute
while Jehovah thundereth marvellously.
“Tis listening fear and dumb amazement all.”
As for the written word of God, its majesty is apparent both in its
style, its matter, and its power over the human mind; blessed be God, it
is the majesty of mercy wielding a silver sceptre; of such majesty the
word of our salvation is _full_ to overflowing.
5. “_The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars._”
“Black from the stroke above, the smouldering pine
Stands a sad shatter’d trunk.”
Noble trees fall prostrate beneath the mysterious bolt, or stand in
desolation as mementoes of its power. Lebanon itself is not secure, high
as it stands, and ancient as are its venerable woods: “_Yea, the Lord
breaketh the cedars of Lebanon._” The greatest and most venerable of
trees or men, may not reckon upon immunity when the Lord is abroad in
his wrath. The gospel of Jesus has a like dominion over the most
inaccessible of mortals; and when the Lord sends the word, it breaks
hearts far stouter than the cedars.
6. “_He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a
young unicorn._” Not only the trees, but the mountains themselves move
as though they frisked and leaped like young bulls or antelopes. As our
own poets would mention hills and valleys known to them, so the Psalmist
hears the crash and roar among the ranges of Libanus, and depicts the
tumult in graphic terms. Thus sings one of our own countrymen:—
“Amid Carnarvon’s mountains rages loud
The repercussive roar: with mighty crash
Into the flashing deep, from the rude rocks
Of Penmaen Mawr, heap’d hideous to the sky.
Tumble the smitten cliffs; and Snowdon’s peak,
Dissolving, instant yields his wintry load.
Far seen, the heights of heathy Cheviot blaze,
And Thulè bellows through her utmost isles.”
The glorious gospel of the blessed God has more than equal power over
the rocky obduracy and mountainous pride of man. The voice of our dying
Lord rent the rocks and opened the graves: his living voice still works
the like wonders. Glory be to his name, the hills of our sins leap into
his grave, and are buried in the red sea of his blood, when the voice of
his intercession is heard.
7. “_The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire._” As when sparks
fly from the anvil by blows of a ponderous hammer, so the lightning
attends the thundering strokes of Jehovah.
“At first heard solemn o’er the verge of heaven,
The tempest growls; but as it nearer comes,
And rolls its awful burden on the wind,
The lightnings flash a larger curve, and more
The noise astounds: till overhead a sheet
Of livid flame discloses wide; then shuts
And opens wider; shuts and opens still
Expansive, wrapping ether in a blaze.”
The thunder seems to divide one flash from another, interposing its
deepening roar between the flash which precedes it and the next. That
the flashes are truly flames of fire is witnessed by their frequently
falling upon houses, churches, etc., and wrapping them in a blaze. How
easily could the Lord destroy his rebellious creatures with his hot
thunderbolts! how gracious is the hand which spares such great
offenders, when to crush them would be so easy!
Flames of fire attend the voice of God in the gospel, illuminating and
melting the hearts of men; by these he consumes our lusts and kindles in
us a holy flame of ever-inspiring love and holiness. Pentecost is a
suggestive commentary upon this verse.
8. As the storm travelled, it burst over the desert. “_The voice of the
Lord shaketh the wilderness; the Lord shaketh the wilderness of
Kadesh._” God courts not the applause of men—his grandest deeds are
wrought where man’s inquisitive glance is all unknown. Where no sound of
man was heard, the voice of God was terribly distinct. The vast and
silent plains trembled with affright. Silence did homage to the Almighty
voice. Low lying plains must hear the voice of God as well as lofty
mountains; the poor as well as the mighty must acknowledge the glory of
the Lord. Solitary and barren places are to be gladdened by the gospel’s
heavenly sound. What a shaking and overturning power there is in the
word of God! even the conservative desert quivers into progress when God
decrees it.
9. “_The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve_,” those timid
creatures, in deadly fear of the tempest, drop their burdens in an
untimely manner. Perhaps a better reading is, “the oaks to tremble,”
especially as this agrees with the next sentence, _and_ “_discovereth
the forests_.” The dense shades of the forest are lit up with the lurid
glare of the lightning, and even the darkest recesses are for a moment
laid bare.
“The gloomy woods
Start at the flash, and from their deep recess
Wide-flaming out, their trembling inmates shake.”
Our first parents sought a refuge among the trees, but the voice of the
Lord soon found them out, and made their hearts to tremble. There is no
concealment from the fire-glance of the Almighty—one flash of his angry
eye turns midnight into noon. The gospel has a like revealing power in
dark hearts, in a moment it lights up every dark recess of the heart’s
ungodliness, and bids the soul tremble before the Lord.
“_In his temple doth every one speak of his glory._” Those who were
worshipping in the temple, were led to speak of the greatness of Jehovah
as they heard the repeated thunder-claps. The whole world is also a
temple for God, and when he rides abroad upon the wings of the wind, all
things are vocal in his praise. We too, the redeemed of the Lord, who
are living temples for his Spirit, as we see the wonders of his power in
creation, and feel them in grace, unite to magnify his name. No tongue
may be dumb in God’s temple when his glory is the theme. The original
appears to have the force of “every one crieth Glory,” as though all
things were moved by a sense of God’s majesty to shout in ecstasy,
“Glory, glory.” Here is a good precedent for our Methodist friends and
for the Gogoniants of the zealous Welsh.
10. “_The Lord sitteth upon the flood._” Flood follows tempest, but
Jehovah is ready for the emergency. No deluge can undermine the
foundation of his throne. He is calm and unmoved, however much the deep
may roar and be troubled: his government rules the most unstable and
boisterous of created things. Far out on the wild waste of waters,
Jehovah “plants his footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm,”
“_Yea, the Lord sitteth King for ever._” Jesus has the government upon
his shoulders eternally: our interests in the most stormy times are safe
in his hands. Satan is not king, but Jehovah Jesus is; therefore let us
worship him, and rejoice evermore.
11 The Lord will give strength unto his people; the Lord will bless
his people with peace.
Power was displayed in the hurricane whose course this Psalm so grandly
pictures; and now, in the cool calm after the storm, that power is
promised to be the strength of the chosen. He who wings the unerring
bolt, will give to his redeemed the wings of eagles; he who shakes the
earth with his voice, will terrify the enemies of his saints, and give
his children peace. Why are we weak when we have divine strength to flee
to? Why are we troubled when the Lord’s own peace is ours? Jesus the
mighty God is our peace—what a blessing is this to-day! What a blessing
it will be to us in that day of the Lord which will be in darkness and
not light to the ungodly!
Dear reader, is not this a noble Psalm to be sung in stormy weather? Can
you sing amid the thunder? Will you be able to sing when the last
thunders are let loose, and Jesus judges quick and dead? If you are a
believer, the last verse is your heritage, and surely that will set you
singing.
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.
_Whole Psalm._—In this Psalm, the strength of Jehovah is celebrated; and
the exemplification of it is evidently taken from a thunder-storm in
Lebanon. The Psalm seems to be addressed to the angels. See Psalm
lxxxix. 7. It thus begins:—
“Render unto Jehovah, ye sons of the mighty,
Render unto Jehovah glory and strength;
Render to Jehovah the glory of his name;
Bow down to Jehovah in the majesty of holiness!”
Immediately follows the description of the thunder-storm, in which it
does not seem fanciful to observe the historical progression which is
usual on such occasions. The first lines seem to describe only the noise
of the thunder, the description growing more intense as the rumbling
draws nearer.
“The voice of Jehovah is above the waters;
The God of glory thundereth
Jehovah is louder than many waters,
The voice of Jehovah in strength,
The voice of Jehovah in majesty!”
But now the effects become visible; the storm has descended on the
mountains and forests:—
“The voice of Jehovah shivers the cedars,
Even shivers Jehovah the cedars of Lebanon;
And makes them to skip, like a calf;
Lebanon and Sirion, like a young buffalo,
The voice of Jehovah forketh the lightning’s flash!”
From the mountains the storm sweeps down into the plains, where,
however, its effects are not so fearful as on the mountains—
“The voice of Jehovah causeth the desert to tremble—
The voice of Jehovah causeth to tremble the desert of Kadesh—
The voice of Jehovah causeth the oaks to tremble,
And lays bare the forests!
Therefore, in his temple every one speaks of his glory.”
The description of the swollen torrents closes the scene—
“Jehovah upon the rain-torrent sitteth.
Yea, sitteth Jehovah a king for ever.”
And the moral or application of the whole is—
“Jehovah to his people will give strength.
Jehovah will bless his people with peace.”
_Robert Murray M’Cheyne_, 1813-1843.
_Whole Psalm._—There is no phenomenon in nature so awful as a
thunder-storm, and almost every poet from Homer and Virgil down to Dante
and Milton, or rather down to Grahame and Pollok, has described it. In
the Bible, too, we have a thunder-storm, the twenty-ninth Psalm—the
description of a tempest, which, rising from the Mediterranean, and
travelling by Lebanon and along the inland mountains, reaches Jerusalem,
and sends the people into the temple-porticoes for refuge; and, besides
those touches of terror in which the geographical progress of the
tornado is described, it derives a sacred vitality and power from the
presence of Jehovah in each successive peal.—_James Hamilton, D.D., in
“The Literary Attractions of the Bible,”_ 1849.
_Whole Psalm._—A glorious Psalm of praise sung during a tempest, the
majesty of which shakes universal nature, so much so that the greatness
of the power of the Lord is felt by all in heaven and on earth. This
Lord is the God of his people, who blesses them with strength and peace.
To rightly appreciate the feelings of the bard, one ought to realise an
Oriental storm, especially in the mountainous regions of Palestine,
which, accompanied by the terrific echoes of the encircling mountains,
by torrents of rain-like waterspouts, often scatters terror on man and
beast, destruction on cities and fields. Wilson, the traveller,
describes such a tempest in the neighbourhood of Baalbek: “I was
overtaken by a storm, as if the floodgates of heaven had burst; it came
on in a moment, and raged with a power which suggested the end of the
world. Solemn darkness covered the earth: the rain descended in
torrents, and sweeping down the mountain side, became by the fearful
power of the storm transmuted into thick clouds of fog.” Compare also
our Lord’s parable, taken from life, in Matt. vii. 27.—_Augustus F.
Tholuck_, _in loc._
_Verse 1.—“Give unto the Lord.” Give, give, give._ This showeth how
unwilling such are usually to give God his right, or to suffer a word of
exhortation to this purpose.—_John Trapp._
_Verse 1.—“O ye mighty.”_ The Septuagint renders it, _O ye sons of
rams!_ These bell-wethers should not cast their noses into the air, and
carry their crest the higher, because the shepherd hath bestowed a bell
upon them, more than upon the rest of the flock.—_John Trapp._
_Verses 1, 2._—There are three _gives_ in these two verses:—_“Give unto
the Lord, give unto the Lord, give unto the Lord the glory that is due
unto his name.”_ Glory is God’s right, and he stands upon his right; and
this the sincere Christian knows, and therefore he gives him his right,
he gives him the honour and the glory that is due unto his name. But
pray do not mistake me. I do not say that such as are really sincere do
actually eye the glory of Christ in all their actions. Oh, no! This is a
happiness desirable on earth, but shall never be attained till we come
to heaven. Bye and base ends and aims will be still ready to creep into
the best hearts, but all sincere hearts sigh and groan under them. They
complain to God of them, and they cry out for justice, justice upon
them; and it is the earnest desire and daily endeavours of their souls
to be rid of them; and therefore they shall not be imputed to them, nor
keep good things from them. But now take a sincere Christian in his
ordinary, usual, and habitual course, and you shall find that his aims
and ends in all his actions and undertakings are to glorify God, to
exalt God, and to lift up God in the world. If the hypocrite did in good
earnest aim at the glory of God in what he does, then the glory of God
would swallow up his bye-aims and carnal ends, as Aaron’s rod swallowed
up the magicians’ rods. Exod. vii. 10-12. Look, as the sun puts out the
light of the fire, so the glory of God, where it is aimed at, will put
out and consume all bye and base ends. This is most certain, that which
is a man’s great end, that will work out all other ends. He that sets up
the glory of God as his chief end, will find that his chief end will by
degrees eat out all low and base ends. Look, as Pharaoh’s lean kine ate
up the fat (Gen. xli. 4), so the glory of God will eat up all those fat
and worldly ends that crowd in upon the soul in religious work. Where
the glory of God is kept up as a man’s greatest end, there all bye and
base ends will be kept at an under.—_Thomas Brooks._
_Verse 2.—“Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name.”_ Which yet
you cannot do, for his name is above all praise (Psalm cxlviii. 13); but
you must aim at it. The Rabbins observe that God’s holy name is
mentioned eighteen several times in this Psalm; that great men
especially may give him the honour of his name, that they may stand in
awe and not sin, that they may bring presents to him who ought to be
feared, and those also the very best of the best, since he is a great
king, and standeth much upon his seniority. Mal. i. 14.—_John Trapp._
_Verse 2.—“Worship the Lord.”_ If any should ask, Why is the Lord to be
worshipped? Why must he have such high honours from those that are high?
What doth he in the world that calls for such adoration? David answereth
meteorologically as well as theologically, he answers from the clouds
(verses 3, 4), “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;” as if he had said,
Although the Lord Jesus Christ will not set up an outward, pompous,
political kingdom, such as that of Cyrus, Alexander, etc., yet by the
ministry of the gospel he will erect a spiritual kingdom, and gather to
himself a church that shall abide for ever, out of all the nations of
the earth; for the gospel shall be carried and preached, to not only the
people of Israel, the Jews, but to the Gentiles, all the world over,
that the minds of men may be enlightened, awakened, and moved with that
unheard of doctrine of salvation by Christ, which had been hid from ages
and generations.—_Joseph Caryl._