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In my distress I called out: Lord!
    I cried out to my God.(A)
From his temple he heard my voice;
    my cry to him reached his ears.
[a]The earth rocked and shook;
    the foundations of the mountains trembled;
    they shook as his wrath flared up.(B)
Smoke rose from his nostrils,
    a devouring fire from his mouth;
    it kindled coals into flame.
10 He parted the heavens and came down,
    a dark cloud under his feet.(C)
11 Mounted on a cherub[b] he flew,
    borne along on the wings of the wind.
12 He made darkness his cloak around him;
    his canopy, water-darkened stormclouds.
13 From the gleam before him, his clouds passed,
    hail and coals of fire.(D)
14 The Lord thundered from heaven;
    the Most High made his voice resound.(E)
15 He let fly his arrows[c] and scattered them;
    shot his lightning bolts and dispersed them.(F)

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Footnotes

  1. 18:8–16 God appears in the storm, which in Palestine comes from the west. The introduction to the theophany (Ps 18:8–9) is probably a description of a violent, hot, and dry east-wind storm. In the fall transition period from the rainless summer to the rainy winter such storms regularly precede the rains, cf. Ex 14:21–22.
  2. 18:11 Cherub: a winged creature, derived from myth, in the service of the deity (Gn 3:24; Ex 25:18–20; 37:6–9). Cherubim were the throne bearers of the deity (Ps 80:2; 99:1; 1 Kgs 6:23–28; 8:6–8).
  3. 18:15 Arrows: lightning.

17 The waters saw you, God;
    the waters saw you and lashed about,
    even the deeps of the sea[a] trembled.(A)
18 The clouds poured down their rains;
    the thunderheads rumbled;
    your arrows flashed back and forth.(B)

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Footnotes

  1. 77:17 The deeps of the sea: Heb. tehom; the same word is used in Gn 1:2, where it alludes to the primeval seas which in ancient Semitic cosmography are tamed by God in creation, cf. Ps 74:12–17; 89:12–13 and notes.