Psalm 29:11: “The Lord will give strength to His people and the Lord will bless His people with peace.”
In both cases where David says: The Lord he is using the name Jehovah (YHWH). When David uses the name Jehovah (YHWH) he is doing so to express his intimacy with God. In fact throughout this whole Psalm David is invoking the name Jehovah (YHWH). This is a Psalm of worship and in his worship he is expressing the greatness of God. In this expression of God’s greatness he concludes by bringing all of this to a personal level. This great, powerful and mighty God will give his people strength and will bless them with peace.
The Lord will give strength. The word strength is oz which I have discussed in earlier studies. This not only means to make physically strong but also to make one courageous. The word before strength is nathan which means to give or impart. God will impart courage to his people.
Who are his people? The word that is rendered for people here is interesting. David uses the word amam. This word basically means to be hidden or concealed. It also is used to express the idea of having something in common. When used for people it is referring to a kindred. Indeed the word is spelled Ayin, Mem and Final Mem. The Ayin” represents inner reflection. The Mem represents revealed knowledge of God and the Final Mem represents the hidden knowledge of God. His people are those who incorporate into themselves the revealed and hidden knowledge of God. A perfect example of this revealed and hidden knowledge is our salvation through Jesus Christ.
For many the first reaction in reading that God gives strength to his people is that David is referring to the Jewish people. Clearly David’s use of the word amam shows that he is referring to not only the Jewish people but anyone who receives the revealed and hidden knowledge of God which culminates in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ.
So if we are in Christ Jesus we are promised by God Jehovah to receive physical strength as well as courage to face whatever life will throw at us. Not only that He will bless us with peace. The word bless is baruch which has a variety of meanings but in the context of this verse it has the idea of impartation. The Lord will impart peace to His people. Peace is shalom. Shalom has a wide range of meaning. It involves not only a feeling of rest, but healing, protection, and shelter.
There is one rather unusual grammatical oddity here. The lack of a conjunction. The word and is not in the Hebrew text in this verse. Hebrew loves it’s conjunctions. Where we would say in English: “I will go to church to pray, sing, worship, fellowship and praise God.” In Hebrew you would say: “I will go to church to pray and sing and worship and fellowship and praise God.” David’s lack of the conjunction as well as the multiple use of the name Jehovah suggest that David is putting great emphasis on the fact that true courage and peace comes from Jehovah alone. Jesus put it nicely when He said “My peace I give unto you, not that the world gives, give I unto you.” There is a peace you can get from the world, but it is not the peace of God.
A good example of David not practicing what he preaches is that we find that in the later years of his life he calls for a census. He is facing threats from the Assyrians and it has him worried. Rather than rest on the courage and peace given by Jehovah, he conducts a census to see how big an army he can raise. Rather than really seek the courage and peace of God, he sought peace and courage in the natural world. Somehow just trusting in God was not enough, he also needed to know just how big an army he could raise, then he could feel some peace. Of course we all know how God felt about that and what happened to David as a result of seeking this courage and peace in the natural realm. Poor David, if only he would have practiced what he preached in Psalms 29:11.
But then, who am I to throw rocks at David, when I end up doing the same thing.
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