Psalms 18:7-15 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Then the earth shook, &c.— In this, and the eight following verses, David describes, by the sublimest expressions and grandest terms, the majesty of God, and the awful manner in which he came to his assistance. The representation of the storm, in these verses, must be allowed by all skilful and impartial judges to be truly sublime and noble, and in the genuine spirit of poetry. The majesty of God, and the manner in which he is represented as coming to the aid of his favourite king, surrounded with all the powers of nature as his attendants and ministers, and arming, as it were, heaven and earth to fight his battles, and execute his vengeance, are described in the loftiest and most striking terms. The shaking of the earth, the trembling of the mountains and pillars of heaven; the smoke which drove out of his nostrils; the flames of devouring fire which flashed from his mouth; the heavens bending down to convey him to the battle; his riding upon a cherub, and rapidly flying on the wings of a whirlwind; his concealing his majesty in the thick clouds of heaven; the bursting of the lightnings from the horrid darkness; the uttering his voice in peals of thunder; the storm of fiery hail; the melting of the heavens, and their dissolving into floods of tempestuous rains; the cleaving of the earth, and disclosing the bottom of the hills, and the subterraneous channels or torrents of water, by the very breath of the nostrils of the Almighty;—are all of them circumstances which create admiration, excite a kind of horror, and exceed every thing of this nature that is to be found in any of the remains of heathen antiquity. See Longinus on the Sublime, sect. 9., and Hesiod's description of Jupiter fighting against the Titans, which is one of the grandest things in all pagan antiquity, though, upon comparison, it will be found infinitely short of this description of the Psalmist; throughout the whole of which God is represented as a mighty warrior, going forth to fight the battles of David, and highly incensed at the opposition which his enemies made to his power and authority. When he descended to the engagement, the very heavens bowed down to render his descent more awful; his military tent was substantial darkness; the voice of his thunder was the warlike alarm which sounded to the battle; the chariot in which he rode were the thick clouds of heaven, conducted by cherubs, and carried on by the irresistible force and rapid wings of an impetuous tempest; and the darts and weapons that he employed were thunder-bolts, lightnings, fiery hail, deluging rains, and stormy winds! No wonder that, when God thus arose, all his enemies should be scattered, and those who hated him should flee before him! It does not appear, from any part of David's history, that there was any such storm as is here described, which proved destructive to his enemies, and salutary to himself. There might indeed have been such a one, though there is no particular mention of it; unless it may be thought that something of this nature is intimated in the account given of David's second battle with the Philistines, 2 Samuel 5:23-24. It is undoubted, however, that the storm is represented as real, though David, in describing it, has heightened and embellished it with all the ornaments of poetry: see Chandler, Delaney, and Lowth's 9th Prelection.