Psalm 29:2

Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(2) In the beauty of holiness.—Better, in holy attire; an image borrowed from the splendid vestments of the priests and Levites (2Chronicles 20:21; Psalm 110:3). So the presences that attend the courts of heaven are bidden to be robed in their most magnificent attire, as for a high and sacred ceremony.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

29:1-11 Exhortation to give glory to God. - The mighty and honourable of the earth are especially bound to honour and worship him; but, alas, few attempt to worship him in the beauty of holiness. When we come before him as the Redeemer of sinners, in repentance faith, and love, he will accept our defective services, pardon the sin that cleaves to them, and approve of that measure of holiness which the Holy Spirit enables us to exercise. We have here the nature of religious worship; it is giving to the Lord the glory due to his name. We must be holy in all our religious services, devoted to God, and to his will and glory. There is a beauty in holiness, and that puts beauty upon all acts of worship. The psalmist here sets forth God's dominion in the kingdom of nature. In the thunder, and lightning, and storm, we may see and hear his glory. Let our hearts be thereby filled with great, and high, and honourable thoughts of God, in the holy adoring of whom, the power of godliness so much consists. O Lord our God, thou art very great! The power of the lightning equals the terror of the thunder. The fear caused by these effects of the Divine power, should remind us of the mighty power of God, of man's weakness, and of the defenceless and desperate condition of the wicked in the day of judgment. But the effects of the Divine word upon the souls of men, under the power of the Holy Spirit, are far greater than those of thunder storms in the nature world. Thereby the stoutest are made to tremble, the proudest are cast down, the secrets of the heart are brought to light, sinners are converted, the savage, sensual, and unclean, become harmless, gentle, and pure. If we have heard God's voice, and have fled for refuge to the hope set before us, let us remember that children need not fear their Father's voice, when he speaks in anger to his enemies. While those tremble who are without shelter, let those who abide in his appointed refuge bless him for their security, looking forward to the day of judgment without dismay, safe as Noah in the ark.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name - Margin: "the honor of his name." The honor of His name is that which is due to it, or which properly belongs to it. The "name" is put here, as it often is, for God Himself; and the meaning is, "Ascribe to God the honor that is properly his due." This is a claim addressed to the angels; it is a claim certainly not less binding on people. It is practically a call upon all creatures in the universe to ascribe due honor to God.

Worship the Lord - This exhortation is made particularly in view of the manifestations of His power in the storm. The idea is, that one who is capable of putting forth such power as is displayed in a tempest, has a claim to adoration and praise.

In the beauty of holiness - Margin, "in his glorious sanctuary." The Hebrew phrase would properly mean "holy beauty." Some have supposed that it means "in holy adorning," or in such consecrated vestments as were worn by priests in the sacred services of the sanctuary, or when they came into the presence of Yahweh. So DeWette understands it. But the more probable interpretation is that which refers it to the state of the heart - the "internal" ornament - with which we should approach God - to a holy and pure state of mind - that beauty or appropriateness of the soul which consists in holiness or purity. Of this the external clothing of the priesthood was itself but an emblem, and this is that which God desires in those who approach Him in an act of worship. It may be added that there is no "beauty" like this; that there is no external comeliness, no charm of person or complexion, no adorning of costly robes, that can be compared with this. It is this which God seeks, and with this He will be pleased, whether under a less or more attractive external form; whether under rich and costly raiment, or under the plain and decent clothing of poverty.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2. name—as (Ps 5:11; 8:1).

beauty of holiness—the loveliness of a spiritual worship, of which the perceptible beauty of the sanctuary worship was but a type.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The glory due unto his name, i.e. the honour which he deserves; which is to prefer him before all other gods, and to forsake all others, and to own him as the Almighty, and the only true God.

In the beauty of holiness; or, of the sanctuary, which is commonly called by this name; in his holy and beautiful house, as it is called, Isaiah 64:11, the only place where he will receive worship. So he exhorts them to turn proselytes to the Jewish religion; which was their duty and interest.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Give unto the Lord the glory due to his name,.... Or "the glory of his name" (x): which is suitable to his nature, agreeable to his perfections, and which belongs unto him on account of his works;

worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; the Lord is only to be worshipped, and not any creature, angels or men; not Jehovah the Father only, who is to be worshipped in spirit and in truth; but the Son of God, and the Holy Ghost also, being of the same nature, and possessed of the same perfections; and that with both internal and external worship; and in true holiness, in which there is a real beauty: holiness is the beauty of God himself, he is glorious in it; it is the beauty of angels, it makes them so glorious as they are; and it is the beauty of saints, it is what makes them like unto Christ, and by which they are partakers of the divine nature; and in the exercise of holy graces, and in the discharge of holy duties, should they worship the Lord; unless this is to be understood of the place of worship, the sanctuary, or holy place in the tabernacle; or rather the church of God, which holiness becomes; but the former sense seems best.

(x) "gloriam nominis ejus", Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius, Michaelis.

Geneva Study Bible

Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

2. the glory due unto his name] Lit. the glory of his name, particularising the general idea of glory in Psalm 29:1. The glory of his name is His glory as He reveals Himself in the world (Psalm 5:11 note); here, as the context shews, especially in Nature.

in the beauty of holiness] Suggestive as this rendering is, it can hardly be right; and the true sense is that given in R.V. marg., in holy array. Cp. Psalm 96:9 (= 1 Chronicles 16:29); 2 Chronicles 20:21 (R.V. marg.); Psalm 110:3. The ideas of earth are transferred to heaven. As the priests in the earthly temple were clothed in “holy garments for glory and for beauty” (Exodus 28:2), so even the ministrants in the heavenly temple must be arrayed befittingly.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 2. - Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his Name (comp. Psalm 96:8); literally, the glory of his Name; i.e. the glory properly belonging to it. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness (comp. Psalm 96:9). This is generally explained as an exhortation to worship God in beautiful vestments, or with all the accessories of a beautiful ceremonial; but Dr. Alexander rightly questions whether the Beauty inherent in holiness itself is not meant. The apostle speaks of "the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit" (1 Peter 3:4). And in goodness and holiness of every kind there is a sweetness and grace which may well be called "beauty," seeing that it has a close analogy with the beautiful in external nature and in art. The Greeks expressed physical beauty and moral perfection by one and the same term - τὸ καλόν. Psalm 29:2

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The opening strophe calls upon the celestial spirits to praise Jahve; for a revelation of divine glory is in preparation, which, in its first movements, they are accounted worthy to behold, for the roots of everything that takes place in this world are in the invisible world. It is not the mighty of the earth, who are called in Psalm 82:6 בּני עליון, but the angels, who are elsewhere called בּני אלהים (e.g., Job 2:1), that are here, as in Psalm 89:7, called בּני אלים. Since אלים never means God, like אלהים (so that it could be rendered sons of the deity), but gods, Exodus 15:11, Daniel 9:36, the expression בּני אלים must be translated as a double plural from בּן־אל, after the analogy of בּתּי כלאים, Isaiah 42:22, from בּית כּלא (Ges. 108, 3), "sons of God," not "sons of gods." They, the God-begotten, i.e., created in the image of God, who form with God their Father as it were one family (vid., Genesis S. 1212), are here called upon to give unto God glory and might (the primary passage is Deuteronomy 32:3), i.e., to render back to Him cheerfully and joyously in a laudatory recognition, as it were by an echo, His glory and might, which are revealed and to be revealed in the created world, and to give unto Him the glory of His name, i.e., to praise His glorious name (Psalm 72:19) according its deserts. הבוּ in all three instances has the accent on the ultima according to rule (cf. on the other hand, Job 6:22). הדרת קדשׁ is holy vestments, splendid festal attire, 2 Chronicles 20:21, cf. Psalm 110:3.

(Note: 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.)

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 Psalm 28:2 were a summons to the church on earth, or, as in Psalm 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 Psalm 28:2 as in Psalm 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.