There is movement in Psalm 29, and the movement is not only the movement God causes. It is also the movement God makes as He comes to His people and the movement the Psalmist makes as he calls people to worship.
It all begins with heaven. The “mighty ones” are heavenly beings (see 89:5-7) who are called on to give God His due and bow down before him – not, at this point, because of His power, but because of his glory and holiness, the “splendor of his holiness.” The call to praise follows the Lord from heaven to earth, to the sea to Lebanon in the north country where the voice of God splinters the great cedars like a tornado. It (the call to praise) and the Lord move south past Mount Hermon (“Sirion”) all the way to the desert of Kadesh and in the wake of God’s coming to His temple, everything is laid bare. Those who have gathered for worship can only cry “holy!”
An old hymn reads: “O I want to see Him, look upon His face.”
But no one, experiencing the personal presence of God, expresses such a desire. He is far too supreme and matchless for that. He does, in fact, render those privileged to enter His presence virtually speechless with the exception of that one word: “holy!”
This is not just any God. In a world filled with deities and the mindsets that give them praise, the psalmist is plain: this is Israel’s God, The Lord, mentioned specifically seventeen times in the poem.
Though the movement of God brings upheaval and destruction wherever He goes and by His simple presence, God’s people are not disturbed. He brings them peace. It is the same peace Jesus exhibited asleep in the stern of a boat in the midst of a violent sea – so violent that his disciples despaired of life. It is the peace that fills all who recognize the glory of God, who belong to Him, and rejoice in His presence.