Then the earth shook and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains trembled and shook, because he was wroth.
The cry of verse 6 gets an answer, and the answer is an earthquake. Who is crying, why does the earth shake, and has this already happened or is it still to come?
(Note: the writers use older Bible translations. These print God's covenant name as "Jehovah," where the ESV has "the LORD.")
One writer calls that cry the great principle of the psalm, and points to the One who makes it perfectly:
The great principle developed — and it is a precious one — is the cry to a trusted God in distress, which He surely hears. Of this Christ is the example, as elsewhere. "This poor man cried, and Jehovah heard him." Only here it is not, as in Psalm 34, tender compassion towards the suffering poor; but the interest that Jehovah takes in a suffering Christ, who has walked in perfect obedience to the law.
The shaking is God's reply, and He replies for all who cry to Him:
His deliverance is God's answer to His cry. The earth then shakes. As the place of assembly shook at the voice of the church in Jerusalem (Acts 4). For the judge of all the earth will avenge His own elect who cry to Him. The Spirit of His mouth and the brightness of His coming will do this (vv. 8, 12; 2 Thess. 2:8).
One writer traces this shaking through Israel's history, David's life, and the empty tomb — and explains why verse 7 speaks of mountains:
It first describes the coming in of Jehovah, in response to His cry, to destroy the power of evil (vv. 4-19). This was verified at the Red Sea, which the psalm clearly refers to. It was verified in the deliverance of David from his enemies, which gave the occasion for it. Above all it was verified in the resurrection of Christ, the basis and perfect example of all deliverance. It will, however, be fulfilled in the events themselves when He establishes His kingdom in the coming day. Also, as a prophecy of that time, this psalm has the earth especially in view. So verse 7 puts "the mountains" where 2 Samuel 22 has "heaven." It is Jehovah stepping in with heavenly power to vindicate His King on earth.
The verse gives the reason for the shaking: God was angry. One writer links that anger to real earthquakes at the cross and the tomb, and to what God held back afterwards:
At the very time of the death of the Lord Jesus there was an earthquake (Matt. 27:51) which spoke deeply to the heart of the centurion and no doubt to many others. At His resurrection on the first day of the week, there was another "great earthquake" (Matt. 28:2). … Man had done all he could in persecuting and killing the Lord Jesus. Now God in His sovereign power steps in to show man how powerless he really is. … His anger smoked greatly against those who had killed His Son. He expressed this at the time, yet He did not bring on them the judgment they deserved. He has waited patiently for men to be brought to repentance.
Those earthquakes were real, but the psalm describes far more. One writer marks what has been shown and what has not:
A sample and specimen of what is described here was given when the angel of Jehovah came down. The earth quaked. The guards at the grave — which had held until then the body of the now awakened Christ — shook and were as dead with fear (Matt. 28). The same mighty power had been felt earlier, when the rocks tore and the graves opened as Jesus gave up His spirit (Matt. 27). But beyond these, nothing more has yet been shown of the terrible majesty of Messiah's God that the eye of nature can perceive.
One day everyone will see the full display. One writer connects the psalm's shaking earth with the Lord's return in person:
But when Jehovah comes in this way, in the person of the Messiah, He comes with power and great glory. The earth will acknowledge the presence of her rightful Lord. So the mountain on which He will stand splits down the middle. As we read in the psalm, "Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked, because He was angry" (Psalm 18:7). So it will be again on that great day.
One writer draws out what this means for anyone facing something too strong for them:
When circumstances are too strong for us, they should have one effect only: to make us realise the presence of God. We see in Psalm 18 how God answers the distress of His people. He rises, and everything crumbles in His presence: the full fulfilment of this Psalm will show it.
- Cry — It starts with a voice. Distress goes up to a trusted God, and Christ makes that cry perfectly.
- Answer — The shaking is God's reply. He rises, and what was too strong for His people crumbles in His presence.
- Anger — The foundations move "because He was angry." God showed that anger at the cross. He still holds back full judgment and waits for people to repent.
- Sample — The quakes at the death and resurrection of Jesus were a specimen of this power, not its full display.
- Day — The full display is still ahead. The Lord will come in person, and the earth will own her rightful Lord.
There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured coals burned forth from it.
David has just cried out to God from the grip of death. What comes next is a storm. Smoke, fire and burning coals pour out of God Himself. The picture raises two questions. What does such violent language say about God? And what event is large enough to match it?
The fire does not come out of nowhere. It answers a cry.
Psalm 18 is of the deepest interest for its interpretation. It presents the sufferings of Christ as the centre of all the deliverance of Israel. His cry there called out upon Israel all the favour of God in power... The great principle developed — and it is a precious one — is the cry to a trusted God in distress, which He surely hears.
One writer reads the shaking and the fire from God's mouth as God's answer to Christ's cry, and as the way He avenges His people.
This is Messiah's praise for deliverance or resurrection... His deliverance is God's answer to His cry. The earth then shakes. As the place of assembly shook at the voice of the church in Jerusalem. (Acts 4) For the judge of all the earth will avenge His own elect that cry to Him. The Spirit of His mouth and the brightness of His coming will do this. (verses 8, 12; 2 Thessalonians 2:8)
The same smoke once covered Sinai and shut people out of God's sanctuary.
"The sanctuary was filled with smoke." Wrath fills that sanctuary, so man is shut out and cannot get in. Sinai too was all smoke. "Smoke went up from his nostrils." Scripture uses this again and again as a figure of consuming fire, the opposite of grace that clears transgressions away.
Another writer traces the same fire to God's holiness, and hears it carried into the world by preaching:
These verses remind us how God stepped in for Israel when they came out of Egypt, and how He will one day step in to judge the world. But they bear directly on what He did after the death of the Lord Jesus, when He raised Him from among the dead. This is the fire of God's holiness, expressed by His word — the word His disciples preached with zeal after His resurrection. "He bowed the heavens and came down" in great compassion and power, though a veil really did hide His presence, so that unbelievers did not see it.
The storm has already had visible instalments — the earth shaking at the cross, and again at the tomb. The full shaking is still ahead.
This is a magnificent celebration of the glory and almighty majesty of the God of the Lord Jesus Christ, shown when He raised Him from the dead in answer to His cry (Ephesians 1:17, 19, 20)... God gave a first instalment and sample of what is described here. The angel of Jehovah came down, the earth quaked, and the guards of the grave that had held the body of the now awakened Christ shook and became like dead men from fear (Matthew 28). An earlier sign of the same mighty power came when the rocks split and the graves opened, as Jesus gave up His spirit after His last loud cry (Matthew 27)... But beyond these, nature's eye has yet seen no further display of the terrible majesty of Messiah's God. The shaking of both earth and heaven that this passage speaks of has not yet happened (Hebrews 12:26-27). When it comes, judgment on the enemies of Jehovah's Christ will follow, and none will resist or escape it (verse 14).
Read that way, the empty tomb itself serves notice on the world:
Smoke and devouring fire belong above all to the judgment, yet the resurrection of Christ is itself a warning of coming judgment (John 16:9-11).
The verse sits inside a family of passages that all sing of God coming out to save.
We find the same in Psalm 18:8-20, but there it deals with the enemies of the last days... So all these passages, like Habakkuk's prayer, sing of how God stepped in to save His people in the past. That past rescue is a pledge of the deliverance in the last days.
That is why the psalm tells David's own escape in language far larger than his life:
David's rescue from Saul is told here in a style that shows another and far greater deliverance in view through it.
- Cry — The smoke and fire answer a cry from distress. A trusted God hears.
- Fire — Smoke from the nostrils is a fixed picture of consuming judgment. It is the opposite of grace, which clears wrongdoing away.
- Mouth — Fire from His mouth means He destroys by a word (2 Thessalonians 2:8).
- Sample — The earth quaking at the cross and at the empty tomb is a first instalment of this majesty, already given.
- Pledge — Every past rescue, David's included, comes in oversized language. Each one guarantees the final deliverance still ahead.
And he bowed the heavens, and came down; and darkness was under his feet.
God leaves heaven itself and stoops to earth, with cloud and gloom beneath His feet. Commentators read this descent as far larger than the rescue of one man, and they differ over which coming of God it describes.
This coming down is an answer. One writer traces the whole scene back to a voice raised in trouble.
Psalm 18 is of the deepest interest for what it means. It presents the sufferings of Christ as the centre of all the deliverance of Israel. His cry there called out upon Israel all the favour of God in power. The great principle it develops — and it is a precious one — is the cry to a trusted God in distress, which He surely hears. Of this Christ is the example, as elsewhere.
To bow the heavens is to bend them low. The picture belongs to a group of three verses where earth and sky both react to God.
The first three show us God as the Almighty, the earth and the heavens bearing witness to His power alike. The earth trembles before Him down to the foundations of the hills. His wrath is a consuming fire. The heavens bow under Him as He comes down. Nature's witness to His presence is easy to grasp and simple in itself, yet it still has lessons for us that would serve us well if we learned them better. Creation is not only a mirror of divine perfections: His power runs all through it, and it is sensitive to His slightest movement.
One writer hears two very different arrivals in this stooping down, and fills in what the second one will look like.
Bowing the heavens and coming down is perfectly true of the Son of God who once came in gracious childhood. But this is prophetic too of His coming down to Israel in the time of their deepest need. He comes in judgment against their enemies. He touches the mountains (a picture of higher authorities) and makes them smoke. He flashes like lightning to scatter them, and brings destruction by the arrows of His swift judgment.
The One who comes is not seen. Another writer takes the gloom beneath His feet as a statement about who can and cannot recognise God at work.
"He bowed the heavens and came down." Bowing the heavens speaks of the great voluntary humbling of the Lord of glory. He came to earth in lowly grace at His first coming, but He will also come in solemn judgment at the end of the tribulation. "Thick darkness was under His feet" tells us the character of His judgment: the eyes of the ungodly do not see it.
Why would God cover Himself when He acts in judgment?
Yet in judgment God is hidden more than displayed: it is His "strange work." So He makes the darkness His hiding place. Darkness is His opposite, since He is love and light. Yet He uses it as His tent, and He is in it without being it. Judgment, where it comes, is at its most awful a separation from Him, from the Light — though it is not only that. From these thick clouds the light flashes out, hailstones and coals of fire; for God is displayed even in the judgment that separates from Him.
Writers do not settle on one event. Some tie the descent to the empty tomb, and see only a sample of it so far.
Verses 7-19 are a sublime celebration of the glory and almighty majesty of the God of the Lord Jesus Christ. He showed that majesty when He raised Jesus from the dead in answer to His cry. A first instalment and sample of what is described here came at the tomb. The angel of the Lord came down, the earth quaked, and the guards of the grave that had held the body of the now awakened Christ shook and became like dead men with fear. But beyond this there has still been no further display, visible to the eye of nature, of the terrible majesty of Messiah's God.
Others point the passage forward, and read the past rescue as a guarantee of a later one.
We find the same coming of the Lord in Psalm 18:8-20, but there it concerns the enemies of the last days in particular. All these passages sing of God's past intervention to save His people as a pledge of the deliverance in the last days.
- Cry. The descent is an answer, not an accident. A cry of distress trusted God, and God moved.
- Came down. Bowing the heavens shows a God who bends His own dwelling to reach the earth. Creation is sensitive to His slightest movement.
- Concealed. Thick darkness under His feet means the ungodly do not see the judgment they are living through. Hiding is His "strange work."
- Contrary. He is light, yet uses darkness as His tent — and even out of those clouds the light flashes and He is displayed.
- Coming. Commentators differ on the event. Some read the resurrection of Christ, some His first coming in lowly grace, some the rescue of Israel still to come. What has happened so far is only a sample.
And he rode upon a cherub and did fly; yea, he flew fast upon the wings of the wind.
David's song celebrates a rescue. At its centre God Himself moves — He comes down riding a cherub, carried on the wind. The picture raises questions. What is a cherub? Why does God appear this way? Whose rescue is finally in view?
The psalm opens with David hemmed in by enemies and crying to God.
In Psalm 18 David celebrates his rescue from all his enemies, especially from Saul. God heard his prayer and appeared from His holy temple to deliver him. The earth trembled as its Maker came out to rescue the one He loved. David here pictures the true King, who bore all the hatred of ungodly men. "He rode on a cherub and flew; He came swiftly on the wings of the wind." It is as though the King eternal left His place in His sanctuary for a time, and appeared to judge His enemies. Riding on a cherub and flying seems to explain a phrase used of the mercy seat: 1 Chronicles 28:18 speaks of the chariot of the cherubim, spreading their wings over the ark. Here the throne suggests the chariot on which the Lord rides, the cherubim bearing Him on in unstoppable power throughout His creation.
The cherub is not decoration. It runs from the first book of the Bible to the last with a settled meaning.
The cherub appears first in Eden and last in the closing book of the New Testament. All the way through it is tied to divine government — the throne of God ruling over the earth. The ark and mercy seat are still this throne in relation to Israel. The cherubim there are made of one piece with the mercy seat, and their faces look to the place where the atoning blood is sprinkled before God. God was said to dwell between the cherubim, and they express the righteousness of the throne in action. Their fourfold character — lion, ox, the face of a man, and flying eagle — represents power, patient service, intelligence, and yet a way of working no one can trace. So riding on the cherub here shows judicial action, and "the wings of the wind" combine the speed and power of the storm blast.
The cherubim that carry God out in judgment are the same ones that bend over the ark's golden lid, the place of sprinkled blood.
In Ezekiel they form part of the chariot-throne where the glory of the Lord sat when He came to judge Jerusalem. So in Psalm 18:10 "He rode on a cherub and flew," when He executed judgments on behalf of His anointed. Here too we see the responsibility of man in the tablets of stone that were in the ark. That responsibility is upheld according to the judicial estimate of God's righteousness in the holiest place. We can say it has been perfectly met in Christ — the mercy seat on which the glory of God now rests.
Commentators read this storm scene as reaching back to Israel's escape from Egypt and forward to Christ.
These verses take us back to the deliverance God worked at the Red Sea. There we learn the first great result of Christ entering into the sufferings of God's people. The psalm describes the judgment on Pharaoh and his army with magnificent figures drawn from nature in upheaval — earthquakes, fire, wind, thick clouds, hail and lightning.
The forward look ties the shaking earth to a specific morning.
Here the psalm celebrates the glory and almighty majesty of the God of the Lord Jesus Christ. He showed that majesty when He raised Jesus from the dead in answer to His cry. A sample and pledge of this came when the angel of the Lord came down. The earth quaked, and the guards of the grave shook and became like dead men with fear. Until that moment the grave had held the body of the now awakened Christ. But beyond these, nature's eye has so far seen no further display of the terrible majesty of Messiah's God.
Speed and concealment stand side by side in this scene.
These verses point to the way God will yet intervene in judging the world. But they bear directly on His intervention after the death of the Lord Jesus, when He raised Him from among the dead… Verse 10 is figurative. Cherubim are connected with the government of God, swift in action, as "the wings of the wind" shows. Darkness is made His secret place, with His canopy of dark waters and thick clouds. This stresses that no one can trace His dealings.
- Throne. The cherub always belongs to God's government — His throne ruling over the earth. Riding one means judicial action, not travel.
- Throne answered. The same cherubim look down on the mercy seat and the sprinkled blood. What God's righteousness needs has been perfectly met in Christ.
- Throne in motion. The King leaves His sanctuary and comes out for the one He loves. The wings of the wind add the speed and power of a storm blast.
- Throne veiled. Darkness is His secret place — His dealings stay unsearchable even as He acts.
- Throne coming. The Red Sea and the earthquake at the tomb are only samples. The full display of that majesty is still ahead.