Psalms 18:7

18:1-19 The first words, I will love thee, O Lord, my strength, are the scope and contents of the psalm. Those that truly love God, may triumph in him as their Rock and Refuge, and may with confidence call upon him. It is good for us to observe all the circumstances of a mercy which magnify the power of God and his goodness to us in it. David was a praying man, and God was found a prayer-hearing God. If we pray as he did, we shall speed as he did. God's manifestation of his presence is very fully described, ver. 7-15. Little appeared of man, but much of God, in these deliverances. It is not possible to apply to the history of the son of Jesse those awful, majestic, and stupendous words which are used through this description of the Divine manifestation. Every part of so solemn a scene of terrors tells us, a greater than David is here. God will not only deliver his people out of their troubles in due time, but he will bear them up under their troubles in the mean time. Can we meditate on ver. 18, without directing one thought to Gethsemane and Calvary? Can we forget that it was in the hour of Christ's deepest calamity, when Judas betrayed, when his friends forsook, when the multitude derided him, and the smiles of his Father's love were withheld, that the powers of darkness prevented him? The sorrows of death surrounded him, in his distress he prayed, Heb 5:7.

(7) The earth shook. —The sudden burst of the storm is the Divine answer to the sufferer’s prayer. For similar manifestations comp. Psalm 68:7-8 ; Psalm 77:14-20 ; Amos 9:5 ; Micah 1:3 ; Habakkuk 3:4 ; but here the colours are more vivid, and the language more intense. In fact, the whole realm of poetry cannot show a finer feeling for nature in her wrath. We first hear the rumbling of the earth, probably earthquake preceding the storm (for volcanic phenomena of Palestine see Stanley’s Sinai and Palestine, 124), or possibly only its distant threatening. Comp. “Earth groans as if beneath a heavy load.” BYRON. Foundations also of the hills.—In Sam., “of the heavens”—i.e., the hills, called also “the pillars of heaven” (Job 26:11).

Verse 7. - Then the earth shook and trembled ; or, quailed and quaked (Kay, who thus expresses the assonance of the Hebrew vat-tig'ash vat-tir ash ). The psalmist must not be understood literally. He does not mean that the deliverance came by earthquake, storm, and thunder, but describes the discomfiture and dismay of his opponents by a series of highly poetical images. In these he, no doubt, follows nature closely, and probably describes what he had seen, heard, and felt. The foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken. In violent earthquakes, the earth seems to rock to its foundations; mountain ranges are sometimes actually elevated to a height of several feet; rocks topple down; and occasionally there are earth-slips of enormous dimensions. Because he was wroth. God's anger against the psalmist's enemies produced the entire disturbance which he is describing. Psalm 18:7

Then God appeared on my behalf in a miraculous and glorious manner, and with the great terror and confusion of all mine enemies, which is here compared to an earthquake. The earthquake was so deep and violent, that it overthrew whole mountains by the roots; whereby he designs his lofty and potent enemies; such being oft compared to mountains, as Psalm 46:2,3 144:5 Isaiah 41:15 , &c.

7 . The paronomasia of the original in the first line might be preserved by rendering, Then the earth did shake and quake. the foundations &c.] Render: And the foundations of the mountains trembled. The strong mountains were shaken to their very bases. Cp. Isaiah 24:18 ; Habakkuk 3:6 . The text in 2 Sam. has “the foundations of heaven;” heaven as well as earth trembled. Its ‘foundations’ may be the mountains on which the vault of heaven seems to rest: cp. “the pillars of heaven” ( Job 26:11 ): or more probably the universe is spoken of as a vast building, without any idea of applying the details of the metaphor precisely. because he was wroth ] The coming of Jehovah for the deliverance of His servant is necessarily a coming for the judgment of His enemies; and ‘wrath’ is that attribute of God’s character which moves Him to judgment. Cp. Revelation 6:16-17 . 7–15 . Forthwith David’s prayer is answered by the Advent of Jehovah for the discomfiture of his enemies. He manifests Himself in earthquake and storm. The majestic though terrible phenomena of nature are the expression of His presence. Nature in its stern and awful aspect is a revelation of His judicial wrath. We may call this an ‘ideal’ description of a Theophany; for though it is possible that David refers to some occasion when his enemies were scattered by the breaking of a terrible storm (cp.

Joshua 10:11 ; Jdg 5:20 f.; 1 Samuel 7:10 ), we have no record of such an event having actually happened in his life; and in any case the picture is intended to serve as a description of God’s providential interposition for his deliverance in general, and not upon any single occasion. His power was exerted as really and truly as if all these extraordinary natural phenomena had visibly attested His Advent. Compare the accounts of the Exodus and the Giving of the Law. See Exodus 19:16-18 ; Jdg 5:4-5 ; Psalm 68:7-8 ; Psalm 77:16-18 : and cp. Psalm 50:2 ff., Psalm 97:2 ff., Psalms 114; Isaiah 29:6 ; Isaiah 30:27 ff; Isaiah 64:1 ff; Habakkuk 3:3 ff. Psalms 29 should be compared as illustrating David’s sense of the grandeur and significance of natural phenomena. The earthquake ( Psalm 18:7 ); the distant lightnings ( Psalm 18:8 ); the gathering darkness of the storm ( Psalm 18:9-11 ); the final outburst of its full fury ( Psalm 18:12-15 ); are pictured in regular succession.

Then the earth shook and trembled - The description which follows here is one of the most sublime that is to be found in any language. It is taken from the fury of the storm and tempest, when all the elements are in commotion; when God seems to go forth in the greatness of his majesty and the terror of his power, to prostrate everything before him. We are not to regard this as descriptive of anything which literally occurred, but rather as expressive of the fact of the divine interposition, as if he thus came forth in the greatness of his power. There is no improbability indeed in supposing that in some of the dangerous periods of David's life, when surrounded by enemies, or even when in the midst of a battle, a furious tempest may have occurred that seemed to be a special divine interposition in his behalf, but we have no distinct record of such an event, and it is not necessary to suppose that such an event occurred in order to a correct understanding of the passage. All that is needful is to regard this as a representation of the mighty interposition of God; to suppose that his intervention was as direct, as manifest, and as sublime, as if he had thus interposed. There are frequent references in the Scriptures to such storms and tempests as illustrative of the majesty, the power, and the glory of God, and of the manner in which he interposes on behalf of his people.

See Psalm 144:5-7 ; Psalm 46:6-8 ; Psalm 29:1-11 ; Job 37:21-24 ; Job 38:1 ; Nahum 1:3 ; and particularly Habakkuk 3:3-16 . The description in Habakkuk strongly resembles the passage before us, and both were drawn doubtless from an actual observation of the fury of a tempest. The foundations also of the hills moved - The mountains seemed to rock on their foundations. In the corresponding place in 2 Samuel 22:8 the expression is, "The foundations of heaven moved and shook;" that is, that on which the heavens seem to rest was agitated. Many suppose that the expression refers to the mountains as if they bore up the heavens; but DeWette more properly supposes that the reference is to the heavens as a building or an edifice resting on foundations. Why the change was made in revising the psalm from the "foundations of the heavens" to the "foundations of the hills," it is impossible now to determine. Because he was wroth - literally," Because it was inflamed (or enkindled) to him;" that is, because he was angry. Anger is often compared to a raging flame, because it seems to consume everything before it. Hence, we speak of it as "heated," as "burning." So we say of one that he is "inflamed by passion." The expression here is sublime in the highest degree. God seemed to be angry, and hence, he came forth in this awful manner, and the very earth trembled before him.