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Psalm 29[a]

The Lord of Majesty Acclaimed as King of the World

A psalm of David.

I

Give to the Lord, you sons of God,[b]
    give to the Lord glory and might;
Give to the Lord the glory due his name.
    Bow down before the Lord’s holy splendor!(A)

II

The voice of the Lord[c] is over the waters;
    the God of glory thunders,
    the Lord, over the mighty waters.

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Footnotes

  1. Psalm 29 The hymn invites the members of the heavenly court to acknowledge God’s supremacy by ascribing glory and might to God alone (Ps 29:1–2a, 9b). Divine glory and might are dramatically visible in the storm (Ps 29:3–9a). The storm apparently comes from the Mediterranean onto the coast of Syria-Palestine and then moves inland. In Ps 29:10 the divine beings acclaim God’s eternal kingship. The Psalm concludes with a prayer that God will impart the power just displayed to the Israelite king and through the king to Israel.
  2. 29:1 Sons of God: members of the heavenly court who served Israel’s God in a variety of capacities.
  3. 29:3 The voice of the Lord: the sevenfold repetition of the phrase imitates the sound of crashing thunder and may allude to God’s primordial slaying of Leviathan, the seven-headed sea monster of Canaanite mythology.