Psalms for Real Life
BRANDEN OBRERO
8/24/2025
How applicable are psalms? Can they be relevant to specific ministry situations, or are they best used to facilitate personal prayer or provide insight on the psalm’s author? Psalms are most relevant to specific situations if one can faithfully understand a psalm through its fulfillment in Christ. I hope to illustrate this with the following example.
Can a person’s view of God’s power shape his life? Psalm 29 helps answer this question and is applicable to a situation of mine. I have a friend, Chris, whom I have mentored over the years. Recently, I was able to catch up with him, and I noticed he had become more apathetic and routine in his Christian life. Chris expressed less awe of God and enthusiasm for Scripture than he used to, and he displayed a more critical, judgmental attitude towards debatable biblical topics, such as ecclesiastical structure. Chris relayed recent difficulties in his life, including workplace limitations and frustrations in relationships, which have caused him to question God’s plan for him. I believe my friend’s recent life difficulties have precipitated his current apathetic, routine, and critical disposition. The issue facing me was how to best encourage Chris, from Scripture, to regain a worshipful disposition towards God and have peace despite life circumstances. Psalm 29 applies to this situation by displaying that an understanding of God’s power warrants worship of God and that God is the source of strength and peace for his people.
The superscription of Psalm 29 attributes it to David. In assessing psalms, we must consider “[h]ow did this psalm function in the worship of Old Testament Israel?”[1] Psalm 29 is “a hymn of praise to God”[2] where God’s power is displayed in a thunderstorm.[3] Psalm 29:1-2 opens with a call for “heavenly beings” (Ps 29:1 ESV) to ascribe glory to and worship God, which includes “[acknowledging] that glory and strength belong only to the Lord and to none other.”[4] Psalm 29:3-9 reveals that the reason for this call to worship is “the LORD’s omnipotent control of nature by his word.”[5] These verses describe “a tremendous thunderstorm that sweeps across the land”[6] and each part of the storm’s journey is due to “the voice of the LORD.”[7] Verses 3-4 describe the start of the storm; verses 5-7 describe the power of the storm; and verses 8-9 describe the passing and wake of the storm.[8] Psalm 29 ends with an encouragement for God’s people because of God’s displayed power. God is “enthroned as king forever” (Ps 29:10 ESV), and he is the source of strength and peace for his people (Ps 29:11).
Psalm 29 vividly demonstrates that an understanding of God’s power warrants worship of God. Every part of the storm’s journey in this psalm is attributed to the LORD’s voice; God’s power is over the storm.[9] Though there is no evidence this psalm was a revision of a Canaanite hymn,[10] the storm’s path goes through the Canaanite lands of “Lebanon…and Sirion” (Ps 29:6 ESV). Therefore, it appears plausible that this psalm “deliberately sets Yahweh over Baal, the storm-god widely worshipped in Syria-Palestine”[11] and contrasts God’s strength with the weakness of Baal.[12] Although the initial call to praise God for his power in Psalm 29:1-2 is given to angels, the call is nevertheless instructive for all creation, all people.[13] How could God’s display of power over an awe-inspiring thunderstorm not elicit worship from the lips of his people?
Psalm 29’s implied law is that God’s people should behold God’s power and worship him. The concept that God’s actions warrant praise of God is reaffirmed throughout Scripture (Ps 150:1-2; Isa 25:1-3; Heb 13:12-15). This implication rebukes my friend Chris whose focus has fallen from beholding God’s power to being fixated on his own life circumstances. Chris’s apathetic, critical disposition reveals a heart not beholding the power of God, as he has expressed skepticism of God’s plans rather than worship. Chris has failed to praise God for his power and actions, as every Christian does at many points in their lives. However, Jesus Christ perfectly did this on our behalf. Jesus, as God the Son, is the worthy object of the praise enjoined by this psalm. Nonetheless, Jesus repeatedly praised the Father throughout his earthly life (Matt 11:25; 26:30; Luke 10:21). Despite trying life circumstances including his impending death, Jesus always deferred to the Father’s will (Matt 26:36-44) and remained sinless (2 Cor 5:20-21; Heb 4:15; 1 John 3:5). Jesus, God the Son, perfectly praised God the Father in his earthly life. Therefore, when every Christian, including Chris, fails to praise God as they should; they can find comfort knowing Jesus did so perfectly on their behalf, and it is Jesus’ perfect righteousness which has been credited to them in God’s sight (2 Cor 5:21; Rom 3:21-22).
Psalm 29 also teaches that, as an extension of God’s power, God is the source of strength and peace for his people (Ps 29:11). Psalm 29:3-9 describes God’s power over a thunderstorm.[14] However, the psalmist broadens his description of God’s power in verse 10. Not only is God’s power over a local thunderstorm, his power was also “over the flood” (Ps 29:10 ESV). The word translated “flood” was only used elsewhere of Noah’s flood.[15] There is a crescendo here: not only is God’s power over the local thunderstorm (Ps 29:3-9), but he was also “over the flood” (Ps 29:10 ESV), and he is “enthroned as king forever” (Ps 29:10 ESV). Verse 11 seems like the only fitting conclusion to such statements on God’s power: God is the source of strength and peace for his people (Ps 29:11). Ross says it well, “just as the LORD can command the storm to die out in the wilderness, he can give peace to his people.”[16]
The implication that God is the source of strength and peace for his people (Ps 29:11) is relevant for my situation as it rebukes Chris’s discontentment in life. Chris’s frustrations with work and relationships have precipitated his apathetic, critical disposition. He appears to have let life circumstances strip him of his joy and peace in God. Since Psalm 29 connects God’s peace to his people with an understanding of God’s power, Chris’s current lack of peace in life is plausibly a result of a deficient view of God’s power – over both physical storms and the metaphorical storms of one’s life. Whenever Chris, or any Christian, loses the experience of peace in his life; he must remember the true, lasting peace he already has through the person and work of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the fulfillment of the power of God bringing peace to God’s people, as described in Psalm 29. Jesus displayed power over storms in his earthly life (Matt 8:23-27; 14:22-33; Mark 4:35-41), triumphed in power on the cross (Col 2:13-15), and is “the radiance of the glory of God” (Heb 1:3 ESV). Jesus is the source of true, eternal peace for every Christian by means of reconciliation with God through his work on the cross and subsequent resurrection (Eph 2:14-16; John 14:27; Col 3:13-15). When Chris fails to rest in the peace God supplies, he must refix his gaze on the power of God, supremely expressed at the cross of Christ, which is the source of his true peace in life.
Can a person’s view of God’s power shape his life? Psalm 29 makes clear that an understanding of God’s power should elicit worship of God and that God is the source of strength and peace for his people. When one fails to worship God or have peace in this life, a deficient view of God’s power could be the cause. This is relevant for my friend Chris who has let life difficulties result in his apathetic, routine, and critical disposition. Psalm 29 invites Chris to refocus his attention on God’s power, regain a worshipful disposition, and find peace in life. When Chris fails to worship God and find peace in God’s power, he can find comfort knowing that Jesus did perfectly praise the Father in life on his behalf and he already has true, eternal peace through Jesus’ triumph on the cross and subsequent resurrection.
As I hope has been displayed by the preceding example, psalms are relevant to specific ministry situations. However, they must be understood through their fulfillment in Christ. If one fails to do this, he risks moralizing a psalm and feigning a connection to modern hearers. Let us strive to apply the richness of psalms to our own lives and situations through understanding their fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Notes
[1] Longman III and Dillard, An Introduction to the Old Testament, 244.
[2] C. John Collins, study notes in ESV Study Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 972.
[3] Allen P. Ross, A Commentary on the Psalms: Volume 1 (1-41) (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic, 2011), 654.
[4] Nancy DeClaissé-Walford, Rolf A. Jacobson, and Beth Laneel Tanner, The Book of Psalms, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2014), 306-07, ProQuest Ebook Central.
[5] Ross, Psalms, 657.
[6] Ross, Psalms, 658.
[7] Ross, Psalms, 658.
[8] Ross, Psalms, 658-60.
[9] Ross, Psalms, 658.
[10] Ross, Psalms, 653.
[11] Collins, study notes in ESV Study Bible, 972.
[12] Peter C. Craigie and Marvin E. Tate, Psalms 1-50, Word Biblical Commentary 19, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2004), 348-49, ProQuest Ebook Central.
[13] Ross, Psalms, 662.
[14] Ross, Psalms, 658.
[15] Craigie and Tate, Psalms 1-50, 353.
[16] Ross, Psalms, 662.