More of Psalm 18

7. The earth trembled and quaked, the foundations of the mountains shook; they trembled because He was angry.
8. Smoke rose from his nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it.
9. The Lord parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet.
10. He mounted the cherabim and flew; he soared on the wings of the wind.
11. He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him-the dark rain clouds of the sky.
12. Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced, with hailstones and bolts of lightning.
13. The Lord thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded.
14. He shot his arrows and scattered the enemies, great bolts of lightning and routed them.
15. The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at your rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of breath of your nostrils.


Having decided to spare any reader my thoughts, interpretations or applications of meditating on this passage, I do note that this appears a very straight-forward description of the Almighty coming to the rescue in a personal battle for one He loves. He does not have angels or others doing his work, he has more than enough from his own abilities to accomplish it. His very anger explodes. He has light and fire within with which to make earthquakes or lightnings. Clouds march towards the battle (advance-as a military term) and lightning becomes his arrows. At the very end, the last verse seems out of place.

I wondered whether he was thinking back to when the Lord had worked for Moses and the children of Israel, but it does not mention them. However, I decided it had more to do with the reaction of something that had occurred previously. God's first reaction is fuming anger which causes the earth to quake. While it goes on to speak of what he does for David's deliverance, a later effect of an earthquake is a tsunami, or rearrangement of waters. (The possibility of the opening of the reed sea for Moses has been explained as a plausible aftereffect of an earthquake, according to some scientists quoted on tv.) Therefore the verse is there for a reason. God acts and the results continue though we may not see them for awhile.

Reminding the reader that his own study should be more than just a peripheral reading. Observation of what words are used is followed by interpretation. What connotations do these words have to oneself, one's language and culture? The application of how one can/should use these to better serve the Lord, obey or correct one's life, follows. Any special words that need further study can be pursued with a word study using a concordance, dictionary, or topical index. If a specific word is not used in a passage but it relates to the subject, a concordance will not bring it up but a topical index will. However, the concordance is the best place to start.

Also, a good study Bible such as a Ryrie's or any other that is labelled a study Bible, will have footnotes with explanations as well as introductions to each book, outlines of the book, etc. It should be noted that these comments reflect the theological slant of the writer and do not necessarily have the authority of Scripture to back them up. (For example, many of the study Bibles have a pretribulation slant, and sometimes a dispensational view. If you do not know those terms, do not worry about them, just note that notes should be taken with a grain of salt, and reflect only a man's opinion.) Maps at the end are standard for most any version as well. And most Bibles have reference columns that point one to other verses in the Bible that are similar, usually these are noted by alphabetic footnotes rather than numerical. They can be on the sides, in the middle, or at the bottom of the page. I have noticed that some Korans hold similar study helps, so this should not be hard to follow.

Meditations can be different than a Bible study. Perhaps more leftbrained than right, it allows one to soak up rather than analyze the Scripture. I have found that memorizing forces me to concentrate more on the words used, so that more things jump out at me. Repeating them to myself after I have stored it may bring new considerations to mind that never occurred to me when I was first examining the passage. And it also brings people or applications to me to pray over as I claim the Scriptures for living.