Psalms 29:4

Psa 29:4 The voice of the LORD [is] powerful; the voice of the LORD [is] full of majesty.

Ver. 4. The voice of the Lord is powerful] So that it shaketh heaven and earth, Heb 12:26. Cogitent ergo principes quantum infra Deum subsidant, &c. (Validum est et vehemens tonitru. Vat. Beza). Let those that think themselves some great business consider God’s infinite power, putting forth itself in thunders and tempests, and they will soon be crest fallen.

The voice of the Lord is full of majesty] Heb. in majesty; it is magnificent and immutable, though some fools have attempted to imitate it (as a certain king of Egypt, and Caligula, the emperor), by certain engines and devices.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Psa 29:4-6. The voice of the Lord is full of majesty — Is a very awful and evident proof of God’s glorious majesty. Breaketh the cedars — By lightning, vulgarly called thunderbolts; which have torn asunder and destroyed trees and towers. The cedars of Lebanon — A place famous for strong and lofty cedars. He maketh them also — The cedars last mentioned; to skip like a calf — For, being broken by the lightning, the fragments of them are suddenly and violently hurled about hither and thither; Lebanon also, and Sirion — A high mountain beyond Jordan, joining to Lebanon: and these mountains may here be understood, either, 1st, Properly, and so they are said to skip and leap, both here and Psa 114:4, by a poetical hyberbole, very usual both in Scripture and other authors; or, 2d, Metonymically, being put for the trees or people of them, as the wilderness is to be understood, Psa 29:8; and as the earth, by the same figure, is frequently put for the inhabitants of it; like a young unicorn — Hebrew reem: see Num 23:22; Psa 22:21.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

4. (Psa 29:4) The voice of Jehovah in power! The voice of Jehovah in majesty! The exclamations, as in Psa 29:3, may be converted into propositions by supplying either the past or present tense of the verb to be. "The voice of Jehovah is (or was) in power." In power, in majesty, i.e. invested with these attributes, a stronger expression than the corresponding adjectives strong and majestic, would be, and certainly more natural and consonant to usage than the construction which makes in a mere sign of that in which something else consists. It is, indeed, little short of nonsense to affirm that the voice of God consists in power, consists in majesty, whereas there is truth as well as beauty in describing it as clothed or invested with those qualities.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

powerful . . . majesty--literally, "in power, in majesty."

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(4) Powerful; full of majesty.—Better literally, as in LXX. and Vulg., in might, in majesty.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

4. is powerful … is full of majesty] Lit. is with power … is with majesty.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The voice of the Lord is powerful,.... Or "with power" (a); as thunder, in the effect of it, shows; and so is the Gospel, when it comes, not in word only, but is attended with the power of God to the conversion and salvation of souls; it is then quick and powerful, Heb 4:12; and the word of Christ personal, when here on earth, was with power, Luk 4:32;

the voice of the Lord is full of majesty; Christ, in his state of humiliation, spake and taught as one having authority; and now, in the ministration of his Gospel by his servants, he goes forth with glory and majesty, Psa 45:3.

(a) "in potentia", Pagninus, Montanus; "cum potentia", Cocceius, Michaelis; "with able power", Ainsworth.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The voice of the Lord is powerful - Margin, as in Hebrew: “in power.” That is, is mighty; or, has strength. Allusion may be made to what seems to be the effect of thunder in prostrating trees, or tearing off their limbs, or it may be merely to the loud sound of the thunder.

Is full of majesty - Margin, as in Hebrew, “in majesty.” That is, it is grand, sublime, overpowering.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Is an evident proof of God’s glorious majesty.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 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 most compact 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.

"It is 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.

Ver. 4. The voice of the Lord. These vehement repetitions resemble a series of thunderclaps; one seems to hear the dread artillery of heaven firing volley after volley, while peal on peal the echo follows the sound. C. H. S.

Ver. 4. The voice of the Lord is powerful. I would render unto God the glory due unto his name, for the admirable change which he has wrought in my heart. There was nothing to be found in me but an impious hardness and inveterate disorder. From this helpless state he changed me into a new man and made resplendent the glory of his name and the power of his grace. He alone can work such prodigies. Unbelievers who refuse to acknowledge the hand of God in creation must surely in this case admit that "this is the finger of God." Yes, great God, chaos knows not how to resist thee, it hears thy voice obediently, but the obdurate heart repels thee, and thy mighty voice too often calls to it in vain. Thou art not so great and wonderful in creating worlds out of nothing as thou art when thou dost command a rebel heart to arise from its abyss of sin, and to run in the ways of thy commandments. To disperse a chaos of crime and ignorance by the majesty of thy word, to shed light on the direst darkness, and by the Holy Ghost to establish harmonious order where all was confusion, manifests in far greater measure thine omnipotence than the calling forth of heavenly laws and celestial suns from the first chaos. J. B. Massillon.

Ver. 4. O may the evangelical "Boanerges" so cause the glorious sound of the gospel to be heard under the whole heaven, that the world may again be made sensible thereof; before that voice of the Son of Man, which hath so often called sinners to repentance, shall call them to judgment. George Horne.

Ver. 4. Where the word of a king is, there is power, but what imperial voice shall be likened unto the majestic thunder of the Lord? C. H. S.

Ver. 4. Power and majesty of the gospel. Illustrate by succeeding verses.

Ver. 4. (last clause). "The majestic voice." See Spurgeon's Sermons, No. 87.

Psalms 29:5*

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The voice of the Lord is powerful; literally, in power, or with power (LXX, en iscui ). The voice of the Lord is full of majesty; literally, in majesty, or with majesty. Two somewhat distant crashes, each louder than the preceding one, are thought to be represented the storm sweeping on, and gradually drawing nearer and more near.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The voice of the Lord is in strength At the time of the giving of the Torah, He moderated His voice according to the strength of Israel, as it is said (Exod. 19:19): “and God would answer him with a voice,” with Moses’ voice.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.