And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: and he was seen upon the wings of the wind. And he road upon a cherub. A cherub in the Mosaic system is an ideal creature, which combined all the highest powers and properties of animal existences. It was, in fact, a personification of creation; and hence God is said poetically to have rode upon a cherub. The singular is used here in preference to the plural, cherubim, because as earthly kings in authority are represented as riding on some inferior animal, such as a horse, mule, etc., so Yahweh is described as borne, in his descent as a mighty sovereign, through the air by an imaginary being superior to man.
And he was seen upon the wings of the wind. The ancients, when they spoke allegorically of the wind, uniformly represented it as having "wings." It is an image exceedingly natural, and therefore common with all poets. But as used here, it is exegetical of the preceding clause of the verse, although the parallelism is not so complete or well-sustained as in Psalms 18:10, "And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind" (cf. Psalms 68:17; Psalms 104:3). [It may be added that in the psalm the sublimity of the idea is heightened by the use of two separate verbs expressive of flight. In the first hemistich, wayaa`op (H5774), and he did fly as an ordinary bird; but in the second, wayeeraa' (H7200), yea, he did fly, is applied only to describe the rapid impetuosity of birds of prey (Deuteronomy 28:49; Jeremiah 48:40; Jeremiah 49:22).] This figurative representation denotes how quickly, in answer to the prayers of his servant, God came to the deliverance of David.