21]], cf. Psa 110:3.[1]
A revelation of the power of God is near at hand. The heavenly spirits are to prepare themselves for it with all the outward display of which they are capable. If Psa 28:2 were a summons to the church on earth, or, as in Psa 96:9, to the dwellers upon the earth, then there ought to be some expression to indicate the change in the parties addressed; it is, therefore, in Psa 28:2 as in Psa 28:1, directed to the priests of the heavenly היכל. In the Apocalypse, also, the songs of praise and trumpeting of the angels precede the judgments of God.
Verses 3-9
Now follows the description of the revelation of God's power, which is the ground of the summons, and is to be the subject-matter of their praise. The All-glorious One makes Himself heard in the language (Rev 10:3.) of the thunder, and reveals Himself in the storm. There are fifteen lines, which naturally arrange themselves into three five-line strophes. The chief matter with the poet, however, is the sevenfold קול ה. Although קול is sometimes used almost as an ejaculatory “Hark!” (Gen 4:10; Isa 52:8), this must not, with Ewald (§286, f), be applied to the קול ה of the Psalm before us, the theme of which is the voice of God, who announced Himself from heaven - a voice which moves the world. The dull sounding קול serves not merely to denote the thunder of the storm, but even the thunder of the earthquake, the roar of the tempest, and in general, every low, dull, rumbling sound, by which God makes Himself audible to the world, and more especially from the wrathful side of His doxa. The waters in Psa 29:3 are not the lower waters. Then the question arises what are they? Were the waters of the Mediterranean intended, they would be more definitely denoted in such a vivid description. It is, however, far more appropriate to the commencement of this description to understand them to mean the mass of water gathered together in the thick, black storm-clouds (vid., Psa 18:12; Jer 10:13). The rumbling[2]
- ↑ The reading proposed in B. Berachoth 30b בּחרדּת (with holy trembling) has never been a various reading; nor has בּחצרת, after which the lxx renders it ἐν αὐλῇ ἁγίᾳ αὐτοῦ.
- ↑ The simple rendering of קול by “voice” has been retained in the text of the Psalm, as in the Authorised Version. The word, however, which Dr. Delitzsch uses is Gedröhn, the best English equivalent of which is a “rumbling.” - Tr.
