Psalms 29:9

Yahweh’s voice makes the deer calve, and strips the forests bare. In his temple everything says, “Glory!”

World English Bible
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Other translations

WEBBE

The LORD’s voice makes the deer calve, and strips the forests bare. In his temple everything says, “Glory!”

BSB

The voice of the LORD twists the oaks and strips the forests bare. And in His temple all cry, “Glory!”

KJV

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.

ASV

The voice of Jehovah maketh the hinds to calve, And strippeth the forests bare: And in his temple everything saith, Glory.

BBE

At the voice of the Lord the roes give birth, the leaves are taken from the trees: in his Temple everything says, Glory.

Original Hebrew

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The early church

"The Voice of the Lord perfecting the stags" [Psalm 29:9]. For the Voice of the Lord has first perfected them that overcame and repelled the envenomed tongues. "And will reveal the woods." And then will He reveal to them the darknesses of the Divine books, and the shadowy depths of the mysteries, where they feed with freedom. "And in His temple does every man speak of His glory." And in His Church all born again to an eternal hope praise God, each for His own gift, which He has received from the Holy Spirit.
Augustine of Hippo · d. 430Expositions on the Psalms

Commentary

Spurgeon · Verse 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 recesses

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 everyone 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.

Read Spurgeon on Psalm 29 →

Cross-references

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Topics

Cross-references: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. Hebrew and Greek data from STEPBible.org (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0. Library: sources.