Psalm 29 has lifted up our eyes to the heavens to behold not weather but the glory of God in the storm and the ear-bleeding thunders of Yahweh’s voice. But you cannot really have thunder without lightning. The one necessarily comes with the other. Yahweh thunders for a fifth time, and fire hews the heavens. Few things are more awe-inspiring than lightning. Its flashes crack the sky as if it is pottery. The electric bolts, colored with white, yellow, and pink, make your hair stand up. At a distance, lightning unleashes shocks down your spine. While up close, the high-voltage arrow injects you with a cardiac arrhythmia. The frightful amperage scares the life out of you. Hence, the sixth thunder of the Lord dropping its electric bombs gives the shakes to the wild. The natural places of Kadesh suffer a panic attack at the tempest of God. This is not an earthquake from below, the shift of tectonic plates, but one from above, as the horrific booms of the Lord convulse the very land under your feet.
In fact, so terrifying is this cloudburst that Yahweh’s seventh thunder sends the deer into labor. We know that stress and panic can induce pre-mature labor in a woman, and presumably it is the same for deer, for all the pregnant Bambi’s get caught in the lightning and thunder, and they start popping out fawns. In one sense, the storm of God is a very natural thing, but the divine power within the tempest makes the rest of nature do the most unnatural things. The does go into early labor. Mountains skip like goats. The resilient forests of cedar, adorned with evergreen armor, are stripped bare. So loud is Yahweh’s thunder it blows the clothes off the trees. Typically, it is fire that undresses a tree down to a wooden skeleton, but here, the gale-force thunder of heaven does it. And such is the thunderstorm of our God.
This is the hymn to the glory of Yahweh as it is revealed in the typhoons of nature. Surely, to interpret this thunderstorm as mere weather is a shallow and impoverished understanding. Only the spiritually deaf could feel the decibels of God and not hear his mighty voice. Though so dreadful and harrowing is this heavenly squall, the last thing you want is to be caught in it. Watch it, yes! To be in it, no way. And the Lord provided the perfect perch for a safe viewing, his temple (v. 9). All in the temple cry, “Glory!”
As noted, from Jerusalem, you can watch storms rolling in and assault the northern mountains. So as the superstorm rages outside, those in God’s temple watch safely in awe. They hear the thunder; they witness the lightning; and the proper response is to cry glory to God. Here, the human congregation joins in harmony with the celestial choir. “Glory, Hallelujah, to Yahweh the Lord of Thunders, the God of lightning!” None of the astounding wonders of the storm belong to some fake god, like Baal, but they are the sole mastery and prerogative of Yahweh, the God of glory. The congregation of the temple, angelic and human, magnify the Lord as the eternal king. He reigns forever. He sits enthroned over the flood.
The word for flood here is the same one for the flood that Noah survived. In fact, in Genesis 7, these flood waters referred specifically to the celestial sea above the firmament. The ancients thought there was a heavenly ocean on top of the sky. And in the flood, God opened the windows of heaven to deluge the earth. So here, Yahweh is enthroned above this celestial reservoir, which indicates the highest heaven. It publishes the supreme kingship of the Lord, who reigns from the loftiest throne, who sits upon the preeminent throne. Nothing is above God, but all are beneath him, subject to his omnipotent justice and sovereignty.
Moreover, where the splendor of God’s majesty has all of creation shaking in its socks, such terror does not tremble his people. Instead, the surpassing might of the Everlasting King imparts strength to his people. The covenant children of the Lord are filled with courage, vigor, and victory. When you experience a massive thunderstorm, it can make you cower in anxiety, or it can fuel you with energy and boldness. Well, nature itself and all its hostile forces suffer a panic attack from the Lord’s sevenfold thunder, but the saints of his covenant love are energized with brave gratitude and bold adoration, for the gracious gift of strength is accompanied with the blessing of peace. May the Lord bless his people with peace. To have victory without peace is a half-baked cake, gooey and gross. Our Lord, though, does not serve us half-cooked blessings.
Thus, this raging theophanic storm assuages your heart with peace, and peace is the bounty that all is well. Peace enjoys the favor and mercy of the Lord without the possibility of wrath. God’s peace publishes the end of condemnation and the eternal bliss of harmony and affection with the Lord. As Psalm 29 enables us to look at the sky and see the Glory of God, it does this for our comfort and assurance.
If one had to guess, this harrowing tempest of Divine thunders would scare and condemn us—and it does to the chaotic sea and the arrogant rebellion of idolatrous mountains. But for those within the sanctuary of the temple, the unassailably mighty Yahweh blesses us with strength and peace. By the special revelation of Psalm 29, we are enabled to read natural revelation, the powerful thunderstorm, in a way that leads us to the gospel. For, this combination of all-powerful thunder and soul-calming peace manifests itself especially in the work of Christ.
First, despite the humility of the incarnation, Jesus is the Son of God. Christ is equal to the Father and Spirit in power and glory. Hence, Jesus rebuked the raging sea with a word. He banished the denizens of evil with an utterance. He stripped the fig tree with a curse. And having bagged the victory of the resurrection, Jesus is coming again to judge the world in the full glory of his limitless power. Nearly every miracle and wonder that Jesus performed, he did so with a Word. Jesus was not a cheap magician with wands and enchantments, but with simple words he bound the strong man and laid waste to evil. By the wonders of Jesus’ words, divine thunder was heard in heaven.
Yet, secondly, where our Lord subdued evil, he came to win salvific peace for his people. Peace is the fruit of reconciliation. And in the work of Christ, the Father lovingly reconciled you to himself. The calm of forgiveness, the security of justification, the safety of adoption, this is Jesus’ victory for your everlasting peace. The wrath of the Lamb will return to judge this fallen world, but his second coming will be peace and life for you all of grace.
Therefore, the scary storm watching of Psalm 29 has its goal as your comfort and joy. As you know all too well, we live in a scary world. The anxiety of evil, danger, and sin is real. If stranded outside the sanctuary of Christ, we would be like a sapling in a tornado, stripped and uprooted. But this is not where Jesus leaves you. Rather, your Savior has brought you to himself; he shields you with his grace and power; he defends you with his thunder and lightning. His promise assures you of his imperishable mercy. Christ’s fidelity envelops you with a love that never lets you go. In the refuge of the gospel, we are able to endure and watch the storms of life in the safe embrace of Christ. Having the free and everlasting peace of Christ, may we joyfully enter the harmony of Psalm 29. Let us join the angels to ascribe glory to the name of God. May we get outdoors and witness the inclement storms of heaven. With the wisdom of the ancients, let us gaze at the sky and not see weather but glory. In the thunders of the Lord, may we stand in the temple of worship and cry, “Glory! Glory be to the Father; Glory be to the Son, and Glory to the Spirit, now and forever.”
©Zach Keele. All Rights Reserved.
You can find the whole series here.
RESOURCES
- Subscribe To The Heidelblog!
- Download the HeidelApp on Apple App Store or Google Play
- Browse the Heidelshop!
- The Heidelblog Resource Page
- Heidelmedia Resources
- The Ecumenical Creeds
- The Reformed Confessions
- The Heidelberg Catechism
- Recovering the Reformed Confession (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2008)
- Why I Am A Christian
- The Heidelberg Catechism: A Historical, Theological, & Pastoral Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2025)
- What Must A Christian Believe?
- Heidelblog Contributors
- Saturday Psalm Series
- Support Heidelmedia: use the donate button or send a check to:
Heidelberg Reformation Association
1637 E. Valley Parkway #391
Escondido CA 92027
USA
The HRA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization
Zach Keele
Rev. Zachary Keele grew up on a ranch in a small town named Crawford, Colorado. He attended Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania and received his Master of Divinity from Westminster Seminary California. He has served as the pastor of Escondido OPC since 2006.
More by Zach Keele ›