8 Then the earth swayed and trembled,

The foundations of the heavens shook

And swayed to and fro, because He was wroth.

9 Smoke ascended in His nose,

And fire out of His mouth devoured,

Red-hot coals burned out of Him.

10 And He bowed the heavens and came down,

And cloudy darkness under His feet.

Jehovah came down from heaven to save His servant, as He had formerly come down upon Sinai to conclude His covenant with Israel in the midst of terrible natural phenomena, which proclaimed the wrath of the Almighty. The theophany under which David depicts the deliverance he had experienced, had its type in the miraculous phenomenon which accompanied the descent of God upon Sinai, and which suggested, as in the song of Deborah (Judges 5:4-5), the idea of a terrible storm. It is true that the deliverance of David was not actually attended by any such extraordinary natural phenomena; but the saving hand of God from heaven was so obviously manifested, that the deliverance experienced by him could be poetically described as a miraculous interposition on the part of God. When the Lord rises up from His heavenly temple to come down upon the earth to judgment, the whole world trembles at the fierceness of His wrath. Not only does the earth tremble, but the foundations of the heavens shake: the whole universe is moved. In the psalm we have "the foundations of the hills" instead of "the foundations of the heavens," - a weaker expression, signifying the earth to its deepest foundations. The Hithpael יתגּעשׁ, lit., to sway itself, expresses the idea of continuous swaying to and fro. לו חרה כּי, "for it (sc., wrath) burned to him," it flamed up like a fire; cf. Deuteronomy 32:22; Deuteronomy 29:19. "Smoke," the forerunner of fire, "ascended in His nose." The figurative idea is that of snorting or violent breathing, which indicates the rising of wrath. Smoke is followed by fire, which devours out of the mouth, i.e., bursts forth devouring or consuming all that opposes it. The expression is strengthened still further by the parallel: "red-hot coals come out of Him," i.e., the flame of red-hot coals pours out of Him as out of a glowing furnace (cf. Genesis 15:17). This description is based entirely upon Exodus 19:18, where the Lord comes down upon Sinai in smoke and fire. We are not to picture to ourselves flashes of lightning; for all these phenomena are merely the forerunners of the appearance of God in the clouds, which is described in 2 Samuel 22:10, "He bowed the heavens" to come down. ערפל, which is frequently connected with ענן, signifies cloudy darkness, or dark clouds. The substratum of this description is the fact that in a severe storm the heavens seem to sink down upon the earth with their dark clouds. The Lord draws near riding upon black thunder-clouds, "that the wicked may not behold His serene countenance, but only the terrible signs of His fierce wrath and punishment" (J. H. Michaelis).

2 Samuel 22:15 Parallel Commentaries

arrows

Deuteronomy 32:23 I will heap mischiefs on them; I will spend my arrows on them.

Joshua 10:10 And the LORD discomfited them before Israel, and slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon...

Psalm 7:12,13 If he turn not, he will whet his sword; he has bent his bow, and made it ready...

Psalm 18:14 Yes, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightning, and discomfited them.

Psalm 45:5 Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies; whereby the people fall under you.

Psalm 144:6,7 Cast forth lightning, and scatter them: shoot out your arrows, and destroy them...

Habakkuk 3:11 The sun and moon stood still in their habitation: at the light of your arrows they went, and at the shining of your glittering spear.