Voice of Lord

I’ve noted before that the word “voice” appears seven times in Psalm 29. That suggests a link with creation, and we can see a general creation sequence in the Psalm:

Days 1-2: In Genesis, the Spirit hovers over the waters, and then the Lord divides the waters above and below by His voice and puts a firmament between. In the Psalm, the voice of Yahweh is on the waters (vv. 2-3).

Day 3: In Genesis 1, Yahweh divides the waters to form land and sea, and makes certain plants spring from the ground. In the Psalm, the Lord’s voice breaks the cedars (v. 4).

Days 5-6: In Genesis 1, the Lord makes swarming things in the sea and in the sky on Day 5, and land creatures on Day 6. In the Psalm, the Lord makes the land skip and jump like calves and oxen (v. 6), and the voice of Yahweh makes deer to calve (v. 9).

Days 6-7: At the end of the Psalm Yahweh, having spoken, sits enthroned as King (Sabbath), and He is King over His people, redeemed children of Adam (vv. 10-11). 

Not every day is distinct, and there is no clear reference to Day 4 (though v. 7 appears to refer to lightning, light in the sky). But in its overall movement the Psalm is tracking with the creation week.

Much of what happens in the Psalm, though, is destructive rather than creative. Yahweh thunders; He breaks cedars with His voice; His voices makes Lebanon and Sirion move around – an earthquake; He strips the forest bare. Yahweh’s voice is the voice of creation and of decreation.

Fittingly, the last word of the Psalm is “peace.” Both the creative and destructive work of Yahweh’s sevenfold move toward one end, shalom, the shalom of eternal shabbat.