1 Ascribe to Yahweh, you sons of the mighty, ascribe to Yahweh glory and strength.
2 Ascribe to Yahweh the glory due to his name. Worship Yahweh in holy array.
Free Grace note
Give to Yahweh what is already his. David opens by commanding the sons of the mighty, likely the heavenly beings of God's court, to ascribe to Yahweh glory and strength. Ascribe is a precise word. It does not mean add something to God; it means recognize and declare what is already true of Him. Worship at its root is truth-telling about God. There is also a polemic under the surface. Canaan's neighbors credited the storm to Baal, the thunder god. This psalm takes the storm away from Baal line by line and hands it back to its real Owner. Whatever the nations fear in the thunder, Israel is to name as the voice of Yahweh. That is still the work of worship: taking the things our culture credits to luck, nature, or lesser powers and ascribing them to the living God. Worship in holy array, in the beauty of holiness, is a heart and a gathering ordered around that truth.
3 Yahweh’s voice is on the waters. The God of glory thunders, even Yahweh on many waters.
4 Yahweh’s voice is powerful. Yahweh’s voice is full of majesty.
5 The voice of Yahweh breaks the cedars. Yes, Yahweh breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.
6 He makes them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young, wild ox.
7 Yahweh’s voice strikes with flashes of lightning.
8 Yahweh’s voice shakes the wilderness. Yahweh shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
9 Yahweh’s voice makes the deer calve, and strips the forests bare. In his temple everything says, “Glory!”
10 Yahweh sat enthroned at the Flood. Yes, Yahweh sits as King forever.
11 Yahweh will give strength to his people. Yahweh will bless his people with peace.
Free Grace note
The thunder ends in peace. Seven times the psalm says the voice of Yahweh, and each time the storm does something: it thunders over the waters, breaks the cedars of Lebanon, makes mountains skip like calves, flashes lightning, shakes the wilderness, strips the forests bare. The storm sweeps from the Mediterranean across the great northern mountains and down to the southern desert of Kadesh, the whole land under one voice. And what happens in the temple while creation is being shaken? Everything says, Glory! Then verse 10 lifts the eyes higher still: Yahweh sat enthroned at the Flood, the greatest storm in history, and He sits as King forever. Nothing in the tempest threatens His throne. Now the final line can land with its full weight: Yahweh will give strength to his people; Yahweh will bless his people with peace. The peace is not offered by a mild god who hopes for the best. It comes from the very God whose voice shatters cedars. His power is not the threat to His people; it is the guarantee behind their peace.
The Free Grace Bible App