Ps. 29 - conclusion

“But / in his temple / everyone is saying / “Glory! – Yhwh sat enthroned / over the flood, - and Yhwh will sit enthroned / as king / forever. – Yhwh will give / protection / to his people; - Yhwh will bless / his people / with peace.” From the chaos swirling on the earth below we are now raised to heaven and Yhwh’s court/Temple. As we will see there are several important contrasts contained in this transition: on the earth Yhwh’s voice rages; in heaven, Yhwh does not speak (except to ‘bless’); on earth, nothing speaks to Yhwh; in heaven, “everyone” ascribes glory to Yhwh; (similarly) on earth, there are no intelligent beings; in heaven, the ‘sons of god’ sing; on earth, all is chaos and destruction; in heaven, there is “peace”; on earth, the flood is a vehicle and tool of Yhwh; in heaven, Yhwh sits ‘enthroned’ above the flood; on earth, there is destruction; in heaven, there is liturgy; on earth, there is utter exposure and vulnerability; in heaven, there is “protection”; on earth there is shame and humiliation; in heaven, there is ‘holy attire’; on earth, everything is in a process of judgment; in heaven, Yhwh “sat enthroned and will set enthroned as king forever”. With this contrast in mind, it is obvious that, here, when Yhwh acts in judgment as Warrior King, the earth is subjected to a state of being that stands as the ‘negative’ of heaven. It is, in the words of the psalm, ‘flooded’; it is un-created. An important element to this is that this ‘war’ of Yhwh is only in service of establishing the same peace and blessing on earth that exists in heaven. In other words, this psalm embodies the ‘glory’ attendant to Yhwh as he delivers Israel from, for example, Egypt; however, this judgment is not “as it should be”. The earth should not be subjected to such violence; rather it has been called forth in the same way that the ‘transgression’ that initiated the original flood called forth Yhwh’s judgment. Revelation will make this very clear when heaven descends to earth, to be established there, like a bride (after the ‘flood’ of fiery-judgment); “thy will be done on earth as it is heaven”.