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Psalms 29:10

in Psalms 29

The LORD sits enthroned over the flood; the LORD is enthroned as King forever.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

Jehovah sat as King at the Flood; Yea, Jehovah sitteth as King for ever.

KJV

The Lord sitteth upon the flood; yea, the Lord sitteth King for ever.

This verse in Psalms 29

Commentary

16 notes on this verse

A commentator

Basil of Caesarea

HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 13:8 (PS 29) · Written before 379.

God sits in the soul that shines from its washing, as if he were making it a throne for himself.

This site's exposition

sits enthroned over the flood

on Psalms 29:10-11

The word for flood here is mabbul, used elsewhere only of Noah's flood in Genesis. The LORD sits enthroned over that water as King forever. The voice that breaks cedars gives His people strength and peace.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers5 voices

A commentator

Arnobius the Younger

COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 29 · Written before 460.

proposed

The Lord lives in the flood, that is, in water that washes away faults, and in that same water, the King sits forever. There he gives strength to the people, the ones believing him. He blesses his people in peace.

A commentator

Augustine of Hippo

Exposition on Psalm 29 · Written before 430.

proposed

"The Lord inhabites the deluge" [Psalm 29:10]. The Lord therefore first inhabites the deluge of this world in His Saints, kept safely in the Church, as in the ark. "And the Lord shall sit a King for ever." And afterward He will sit reigning in them for ever.

A commentator

Augustine of Hippo

LETTER 187:38 · Written before 430.

proposed

Therefore, God dwells in each one singly as in his temples, and in all of them gathered together as in his temple. As long as this temple, like the ark of Noah, is tempest-tossed in this world, the words of the psalm are verified: "The Lord dwells in the flood," although, if we consider the many people of the faithful of all races whom the Apocalypse describes under the name of waters, they can also be appropriately meant by "the Lord dwells in the flood." But the psalm goes on: "And the Lord shall sit as king forever," doubtless in that very temple of his, established in eternal life after the tempest of this world. Thus, God, who is everywhere present and everywhere wholly present, does not dwell everywhere but only in his temple, to which, by his grace, he is kind and gracious, but in his indwelling he is received more fully by some, less by others.

A commentator

Arnobius the Younger

COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 29 · Written before 460.

proposed

The Lord lives in the flood, that is, in water that washes away faults, and in that same water, the King sits forever. There he gives strength to the people, the ones believing him. He blesses his people in peace.

A commentator

Theodoret of Cyrus

COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 29:9 · Written before 458.

proposed

He will build a world that is inundated with the torrent of iniquity, will restore it and will make it a new creation. Hence blessed Paul also cries aloud, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation."
9 more voices on this verse

The Medieval Church2 voices

A commentator

Pseudo-Athanasius

EXPOSITION ON PSALM 29

proposed

God dwells in the flood, that is, in the multitude of those who believed in Christ, who [as it says in the next verse] gives power to his people and blesses it in peace. For we are strengthened in Christ, who also gave us his …

A commentator

Thomas Aquinas

Exposition on the Psalms of David · Written before 1274.

proposed

"The Lord." Here he treats of the hoped-for benefits. And first he recalls the power of the benefactor. Second, he sets forth the hoped-for benefits, at "The Lord will give strength to his people." In the Hebrew it reads, "The Lord sat enthroned at the …

The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

The administration of his kingdom is consonant to his counsels from eternity and pursuant to his designs for eternity. (3.) In the kingdom of grace. Here his glory shines most brightly, [1.] In the adorations he receives from the subjects of that kingdom (

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens

A commentator

John Wesley

1703–1791

Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)

proposed

The flood - The most violent waters, which sometimes fall from the clouds upon the earth. These are fitly mentioned, as being many times the companions of great thunders.
The Lord sitteth upon the flood,....

The Nineteenth Century4 voices

A commentator

Charles Spurgeon

1834–1892

The Treasury of David, Vol. 2 (1870)

The Lord sitteth upon the flood. Flood follows tempest, but Jehovah is ready for the emergency. No deluge can undermine the foundation of his throne. He is calm and unmoved, however much the deep may roar and be troubled: his government rules the most unstable and boisterous of created things. Far out on the wild waste of waters, Jehovah "plants his footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm, " Yea, the Lord sitteth King for ever. Jesus has the government upon his shoulders eternally: our interests in the most stormy times are safe in his hands.

A commentator

Charles Spurgeon

1834–1892

The Treasury of David, Vol. 2 (1870)

proposed

The Lord sitteth upon the flood. Flood follows tempest, but Jehovah is ready for the emergency. No deluge can undermine the foundation of his throne. He is calm and unmoved, however much the deep may roar and be troubled: his government rules the most unstable and boisterous of created things. Far out on the wild waste of waters, Jehovah "plants his footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm, " Yea, the Lord sitteth King for ever. Jesus has the government upon his shoulders eternally: our interests in the most stormy times are safe in his hands.

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

The Lord sitteth upon the flood - יהוה למבול ישב Jehovah lammabbul yasheb, “Jehovah sat upon the deluge.” It was Jehovah that commanded those waters to be upon the earth. He directed the storm; and is here represented, after all the confusion and tempest, as sitting on the floods, appeasing the fury of the jarring elements; and reducing all things, by his governing influence, to regularity and order. Sitteth king for ever - He governs universal nature; whatsoever he wills he does, in the heavens above, in the earth beneath, and in all deep places. Every phenomenon is under his government and control. There is something very like this in Virgil’s description of Neptune appeasing the storm raised by Juno for the destruction of the fleet of Aeneas. See at the end of this Psalm.
The Lord sitteth upon the flood - God is enthroned upon the flood, or presides over it. The obvious meaning is, that God is enthroned upon the storm, or presides over that which produces such consternation. It is not undirected; it is not the result of chance or fate; it is not produced by mere physical laws; it is not without restraint - without a ruler - for Yahweh presides over all, and all this may be regarded as his throne. Compare the notes at Psa 18:7-11. See also Psa 97:2. The word used here is commonly applied to the deluge in the time of Noah, but there would be an obvious unfitness in supposing here that the mind of the psalmist referred to that, or that the course of thought would be directed to that, and it is most natural, therefore, to suppose that the reference is to the floods above - the vast reservoirs of waters in the clouds, pouring down, amidst the fury of the tempest, floods of rain upon the earth. The Lord sitteth King for ever - This is an appropriate close of the entire description; this is a thought which tends to make the mind calm and confiding when the winds howl and the thunder rolls; this accords with the leading purpose of the psalm - the call upon the sons of the mighty Psa 29:1 to ascribe strength and glory to God. From all the terrors of the storm; from all that is fearful, on the waters, in the forests, on the hills, when it would seem as if everything would be swept away - the mind turns calmly to the thought that God is enthroned upon the clouds; that He presides over all that produces this widespread alarm and commotion, and that He will reign forever and ever.

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

The Lord sat [enthroned] at the flood alone in His greatness, and now also, the Lord sits alone forever, “but the idols will completely pass away,” (as in Isa.:18), yet to His people He will give strength and a blessing of peace.
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on Psalms 29:10:1, via Sefaria, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 3 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

7 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • יְ֭הוָהYahweh

    yahwehH3068 →6520 times

  • לַמַּבּ֣וּלto the flood

    lamabulH3999 →

  • יָשָׁ֑בhe sat

    yashavH3427 →1079 times

  • וַיֵּ֥שֶׁבand he sat

    vaiyeshevH3427 →1079 times

  • יְ֝הוָ֗הYahweh

    yahwehH3068 →6520 times

  • מֶ֣לֶךְking

    melekhH4428 →2525 times

  • לְעוֹלָֽם׃for ever

    leolamH5769 →438 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    1 Timothy 1:17

    Now to the King eternal, immortal, and invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

    it leads to

    • Ephesians 3:20–21

      Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us,

    • Jude 1:25

      to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord before all time, and now, and for all eternity. Amen.

    • 1 Timothy 6:15–16

      which the blessed and only Sovereign One—the King of kings and Lord of lords—will bring about in His own time.

    • Revelation 17:14

      They will make war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will triumph over them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and He will be accompanied by His called and chosen…

    • Revelation 19:1

      After this I heard a sound like the roar of a great multitude in heaven, shouting: “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God!

  • Through

    Genesis 6:17

    And behold, I will bring floodwaters upon the earth to destroy every creature under the heavens that has the breath of life. Everything on the earth will perish.

    it leads to

    • 2 Peter 2:5

      if He did not spare the ancient world when He brought the flood on its ungodly people, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, among the eight;

    • Genesis 7:4

      For seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living thing I have made.”

    • Genesis 7:21–23

      And every living thing that moved upon the earth perished—birds, livestock, animals, every creature that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind.

Where this verse is studied

About Psalms

Summer Landscape, Thunder looms. Lars Hertervig, 1856. National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design. Public domain.
Summer Landscape, Thunder looms. Lars Hertervig, 1856. National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design. Public domain.
This page draws on 14 works. Open the list of works

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Arnobius the Younger, COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 29; Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 29; Augustine of Hippo, LETTER 187:38; Basil of Caesarea, HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 13:8 (PS 29); Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 2; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Psalms; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Pseudo-Athanasius, EXPOSITION ON PSALM 29; Theodoret of Cyrus, COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 29:9 and Thomas Aquinas, Exposition on the Psalms of David.