In serene contrast to the God-inspired convulsion of nature, God's glorious royal throne is established eternally. Like us, our ancestors knew God through the natural world, its cycles and its violence. Fear of God, as the Book of Proverbs reminds us, is the beginning of wisdom. Disaster, as the machzor reminds us, is an ever-present possibility. But Psalm 29 refuses to use the royal metaphor for the forces of destruction.
Kingship means the responsibility of protecting the nation.
Psalm 29 closes with the assurance that, in times requiring strength, God will grant it, and in orderly times God will bless the people with peace. G-d, when inspiring storm, volcano, earthquake, is acting powerfully but not as King, responsible for human beings. As the prophet Elijah discovers in his final vision, not all that derives from God is a path to God. People are not meant to find God in the earthquake, the whirlwind or the fire. Elijah finds God in the low whispering voice of conscience.