Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
The Lord will give strength - Prosperity in our secular affairs; success in our enterprises; and his blessing upon our fields and cattle.
The Lord will bless his people with peace - Give them victory over their enemies, and cause the nations to be at peace with them; so that they shall enjoy uninterrupted prosperity. The plentiful rain which God has now sent is a foretaste of his future blessings and abundant mercies.
In the note on Psalms 29:10 I have referred to the following description taken from Virgil. Did he borrow some of the chief ideas in it from the 29th Psalm? The reader will observe several coincidences.
Interea magno misceri murmure pontum,
Emissamque hyemem sensit Neptunus, et imis
Stagna refusa vadis: graviter commotus, et alto
Prospiciens, summa placidum caput extulit unda.
Disjectam Aeneae toto videt aequore classem,
Fluctibus oppressos Troas, coelique ruina.
Eurum AD se zephyrumque vocat: dehinc talia fatur
Sic ait: et dicto citius tumida aequora placat,
Collectasque fugat nubes, solemque reducit.
Cymothoe simul, et Triton adnixus acuto
Detrudunt naves scopulo; levat ipse tridenti;
Et vastas aperit syrtes, et temperat aequor,
Atque rotis summas levibus perlabitur undas.
Sic cunctus pelagi cecidit fragor, aequora postquam
Prospiciens genitor, caeloque invectus aperto,
Flectit equos, curruque volans dat lora secundo .
Aen. lib. i., ver. 124.
"Mean time, imperial Neptune heard the sound
Of raging billows breaking on the ground.
Displeased, and fearing for his watery reign,
He rears his awful head above the main,
Serene in majesty; then rolled his eyes
Around the space of earth, of seas, and skies.
He saw the Trojan fleet dispersed, distressed,
By stormy winds and wintry heaven oppressed.
He summoned Eurus and the Western Blast,
And first an angry glance on both he cast;
Then thus rebuked.
He spoke; and while he spoke, he soothed the sea,
Dispelled the darkness, and restored the day.
Cymothoe, Triton, and the sea-green train
Of beauteous nymphs, and daughters of the main,
Clear from the rocks the vessels with their hands;
The god himself with ready trident stands,
And opes the deep, and spreads the moving sands;
Then heaves them off the shoals: where' er he guides
His finny coursers, and in triumph rides,
The waves unruffle, and the sea subsides.
So when the father of the flood appears,
And o' er the seas his sovereign trident rears,
Their fury fails: he skims the liquid plains
High on his chariot; and with loosened reins,
Majestic moves along, and awful peace maintains.
Dryden.
Our God, Jehovah, sitteth upon the flood: yea, Jehovah sitteth King for ever.
The heathen god is drawn by his sea-horse, and assisted in his work by subaltern deities: Jehovah sits on the flood an everlasting Governor, ruling all things by his will, maintaining order, and dispensing strength and peace to his people. The description of the Roman poet is fine; that of the Hebrew poet, majestic and sublime.
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