If Psalm 28 is notable for its quiet celebration of the mercies of God, Psalm 29 is one of the noisiest texts ever written.\u00a0 Its evocation of thunder (“the voice of Yhwh on the waters”), earthquake (“Lebanon skips….Yhwh’s voice makes the wilderness writhe”), and splitting trees could inspire terror and concerns about the character of God.\u00a0 But the Psalmist emphasizes something different: the awe-inspiring nature of God’s interventions in the world.\u00a0 Whether the reader has something to fear depends on which side of the fence he or she sits on.<\/p>\n
As many scholars have noted, the psalm resembles lyrics from Ugarit, the “Canaanite” city on the coast that was destroyed just before Israel became a prominent entity, and whose texts (discovered beginning in 1929) have greatly deepened our understanding of the religion of the entire area.\u00a0 In those texts, Baal, El, Asherah, and other deities figure as sympathetic (usually!) beings, not the foes of the true God.\u00a0 The texts remind us that the religion of Canaan was believed by many people, a fact that the Bible recognizes, but we tend to forget because we have accepted the Bible’s views of that set of religious practices.<\/p>\n
Psalm 29 takes up the older language of theophany (the appearance of God) and transfers it to Yhwh, indicating Israel’s experience of who the true deity is.\u00a0 The psalm also extends that language a bit, moving it from the north (Lebanon, Sirion) to the south (wilderness of Kadesh), thus offering a comprehensively Israelite perspective.\u00a0 By calling on the “sons of El” or “sons of God” (v. 1) to worship Yhwh, the Psalm subordinates all possible rivals to God, thus making a strong theological claim about the unity of the Godhead.\u00a0 (Note: the “sons of El” were a group of beings that were eventually called “angels,” but at the time of the composition of the psalm were thought of as minor deities [compare Ps 82].)\u00a0\u00a0 Yhwh alone can move the world about and reorder it as necessary.<\/p>\n
For those of us living in 2011, a psalm like this offers a needed reminder of two things.\u00a0 One is that God is not simply a nice companion on the journey, or an enabler of whatever our fondest dreams are.\u00a0 God is immensely, incalculably powerful.\u00a0 This power is always used for the good of the creation, but that good may catch us out if we ourselves act contrary to that good end.\u00a0 The second reminder is that sometimes we need a bit of noise in our religion.\u00a0 We need to confess our own wonderment at the work of God.\u00a0 The psalmist imagines his or her hearers crying out in the temple (where presumably the psalm was sung) “glory” (Hebrew: kavod<\/em>), a word expressing their stunned response to the awe-inspiring nature of God’s work among them.\u00a0 Maybe such words expressing our inability to control or manage God would be helpful to us today.\u00a0 More than maybe.\u00a0 Surely.<\/p>\n Ascribe to Yhwh, glory and strength.\u00a0 Now.\u00a0 Today.\u00a0 Here.\u00a0 With me and you.<\/strong> Amen.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If Psalm 28 is notable for its quiet celebration of the mercies of God, Psalm 29 is one of the noisiest texts ever written.\u00a0 Its evocation of thunder (“the voice of Yhwh on the waters”), earthquake (“Lebanon skips….Yhwh’s voice makes the wilderness writhe”), and splitting trees could inspire terror and concerns about the character of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3538,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n