in the ANE worldview, the most turbulent, violent, untamable force known to humanity rests in submission beneath the feet of God. Wilson captures well the psalmist’s awareness of Yahweh’s reign in verse 10: “This exercise of divine authority and control over the chaotic forces threatening to undo creation and human existence established once and for all that Yahweh is the cohesive power that holds the universe together.”200
With this declaration of God’s universal reign, the psalm ends as quickly as the storm began, and the result is precisely what one expects once the storm passes—peace. Reardon observes that most of the psalm is loud and active, but decidedly peaceful at the end.201 Calmness occurs once the whipping winds, torrential rains, blinding lightening and booming thunder of a violent storm has ended. Psalm 29 ends with this sense of peace, but it is more than simply the absence of the thunderstorm. The Hebrew concept of peace (shalom) is wholeness, harmony, and completeness.202 In the context of Ps 29, Yahweh is the provider and sustainer of his people; he gives the refreshing rains for their crops, herds, and livelihood. As I noted earlier, the LXX superscript to this psalm associates it with the final day of the Feast of Tabernacles, which was in part an agricultural feast that celebrated Yahweh as the one who quenched the dry and thirsty land. The final verse of the psalm, then, commemorates the provisions of God who sends the rains and meets the needs of his people.
The last line of the psalm may be a prayer (“May the LORD bless his people with peace”), or it may be a declaration: (“The LORD blesses his people with peace”).203 Either way, this verse is the psalm’s pinnacle polemic against Baal worship: Yahweh, not Baal, provides for Israel, and the strength of Yahweh, not Baal, is manifested in the storm and imparts strength to Israel. The larger ANE cosmic themes of the psalm reach down to a practical level in verse 11 where God’s glory and strength bring peace upon Israel. Mays notes that the very power that creates the universe “offers the people of God the coherence and constancy of shalom.”204 Similarly, Dietrich Bonhoeffer affirms the psalm’s practical import: “Psalm 29 lets us wonder at the frightful power of God in the thunder, and yet its goal lies in the power, the blessing, and the peace which God sends to his people.”205 Thus, Ps 29 ends with a summons to Yahweh, who harnessed the chaotic waters of creation and the flood, and who manifests his glory in the storm, to channel his power toward Israel for its wholeness and wellbeing.
Christology
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