The Psalmist Calls On The Angelic Hosts To Bear Witness To The Glory Of YHWH As Revealed In A Devastating Storm (Psalms 29:1-2).
‘Ascribe to YHWH, O you sons of heavenly ones (or ‘of mighty ones' or ‘of God'),
Ascribe to YHWH glory and strength.
Ascribe to YHWH the glory due to his name,
Worship YHWH in holy array.
The Psalmist commences by calling on the mighty heavenly host, ‘the sons of heavenly ones', to behold the storm and ascribe glory and strength to YHWH, and to worship Him in their holy array (their holy garments for beauty - compare Exodus 28:2). For he feels that even to them this mighty storm must surely indicate something of the glory and strength of YHWH, and reveal Him as fitting of all honour, and as having power over all things (compare Psalms 29:10).
‘O you sons of heavenly ones (bene elim - compare Psalms 89:6; and also Job 38:7 where we have bene elohim).' Compare for this the bene ha-elohim of Job 1:6; Job 2:1; Genesis 6:2 where we must render ‘sons of God'. Whether the lack of article and lack of ‘h' justifies the different translation is a moot point, for the form is poetical. But the question is not of too much importance because whichever way we translate these are not seen as literally ‘sons of God' but as a class of ‘God-like' beings (‘sons of --' indicates ‘being like, being followers of') compare Psalms 89:6-7; Psalms 97:7 c. And yet they too ascribe strength and glory to YHWH and worship Him in their devastatingly beautiful and holy garments. They are a class apart from men, but still worshippers of YHWH.
‘The beauty of holiness.' This is a possible translation, and there are a number of alternative suggestions as to its meaning:
1) That ‘the beauty' refers to their gorgeous clothing which sets them apart as God's servants, compare similarly ‘the beauty of holiness (holy beauty)' in 2 Chronicles 20:21, and the garments for beauty in Exodus 28:2.
2) That ‘the beauty' refers to God in the beauty of His holiness.
3) That the heavenly court are seen as wholly dedicated as servants to God, which is seen as making them truly ‘beautiful' in their behaviour and attitude.
4) That the moral holiness of these heavenly beings is in itself their beauty.
There may in fact be a combination of thought in that Heaven is a place of holy beauty both because God is there and because of the angels who do His bidding. Here it may well indicate distinctive character (holiness - set apartness) in contrast to man.
The whole idea is that these glorious beings all worship YHWH and ascribe glory to Him, and that they can hardly help doing so in the face of this mighty storm with its primordial connections going to the very heart of creation. It is not just a question of very bad weather or even the majesty of the storm. It is a seeing in the mighty storm all the forces of nature that lie behind it, forces which God has under control, and which are the result of the way He created the world. As such they had once been let loose at the Flood, and the thought behind it is that if God were not reigning over it then the whole universe would go into reversal. Compare Colossians 1:17 where Jesus is described in terms of ‘He is before all things, and by Him all things hold together'.