Clouds and darkness. — Comp. Psalms 18:10-12. The imagery in the first instance is borrowed from the Theophany at Sinai. (Exodus 19:9; Exodus 19:16; Exodus 20:21; Deuteronomy 4:11; Deuteronomy 5:22-23.)
Are the habitation. — Better, are the foundation, or pillars. (See margin.) This reappears from Psalms 89:14, but the connection with “clouds and darkness” is peculiar to this poet, and is striking. The immediate effect on the Hebrew mind, of the awful manifestation of the Divine power in nature, is not fear, but a sublime sense of safety in the established right and truth of God. They knew that it is one and the same power
“Which makes the darkness and the light,
And dwells not in the light alone,
But in the darkness and the cloud,
As over Sinai’s peaks of old,
While Israel made them gods of gold,
Although the trumpet blew so loud.”
TENNYSON: In Memoriam.