Viewing posts from July, 2026

Commentary Roundup: Psalm 29:9b

by James Duguid | July 4, 2026

When the King James Version comes to the first colon of Psalm 29:9, it translates: “The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve.” The Scottish Psalter follows suit with “God’s voice doth make the hinds to calve.” This is certainly an awkward image to conjure up when praising the Lord on a Sunday, but singers of modern psalters may not have this same experience. The Sing Psalms psalter reads the text quite differently as “The LORD causes oaks of the forest to quake,” while others soften the expression, as with the 1912 Psalter's “wild beasts are affrighted.” However, while the Trinity Psalter Hymnal retains the 1912 version, it supplements it with a second version containing “the voice of the LORD makes the deer to give birth.” And the Covenanters stay on the old paths, as the Book of Psalms for Singing has “The voice of the LORD makes the deer twist in labor,” while the Book of Psalms for Worship has “The Lord's voice induces the deer to give birth.”