The God Who Comes Down: Text: Psalm 18:7-15
Introduction: A God Who Intervenes
We live in a sanitized age. Our God, for many modern Christians, is a God of abstract principles, a distant landlord who set the world spinning and now watches from a safe, celestial distance. He is a God of the greeting card, full of pleasant thoughts and gentle breezes. He would never dream of making a scene. But the God of the Bible, the God of David, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is not a deistic abstraction. He is not safe. He is a warrior, and when His people cry out to Him, He comes down.
This passage in Psalm 18 is what theologians call a theophany, which is just a fancy word for an appearance of God. But this is no quiet, mystical vision. This is a divine invasion. This is God showing up in terrifying, world-shaking power to rescue His anointed king. David, surrounded by the "cords of death" and the "torrents of destruction," cried out to his God, and his cry reached the heavenly temple. What follows in our text is the answer. It is God's response to the prayers of His beleaguered saint. And the response is an earthquake, a volcano, and a hurricane all rolled into one.
Our secular, materialist age has no category for this. For them, an earthquake is just tectonic plates shifting. A storm is just a low-pressure system. Everything is explained by impersonal, natural forces. But the Bible pulls back the curtain. It shows us that the natural world is not a closed system. It is God's instrument. The earth, the mountains, the smoke, the fire, the clouds, the wind, the lightning, the thunder, the waters, they are all His servants. He holds the lightning in His hand. He rides the wind. The clouds are the dust of His feet. This is poetry, yes, but it is not fiction. It is a poetic description of a reality far more real than our bland naturalism can comprehend. It reveals the character of the God who rules the world He made.
We must learn to read the world this way. We must learn to see the hand of God not just in the gentle sunrise but in the terrifying storm. For the same God who comes in wrath to judge His enemies is the God who comes in grace to save His people. This passage is a portrait of the divine warrior, roused to anger on behalf of His own. And if you are in Christ, this is your God. This is the God who fights for you.
The Text
Then the earth shook and quaked; And the foundations of the mountains were trembling And were shaken, because He was angry. Smoke went up out of His nostrils, And fire from His mouth devoured; Coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens and came down With thick darkness under His feet. He rode upon a cherub and flew; And He sped upon the wings of the wind. He made darkness His hiding place, His canopy around Him, Darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies. From the brightness before Him passed His thick clouds, Hailstones and coals of fire. Yahweh also thundered in the heavens, And the Most High gave forth His voice, Hailstones and coals of fire. He sent out His arrows, and scattered them, And lightning flashes in abundance, and threw them into confusion. Then the channels of water appeared, And the foundations of the world were laid bare At Your rebuke, O Yahweh, At the blast of the breath of Your nostrils.
(Psalm 18:7-15 LSB)
The Earth Shaken by Divine Anger (v. 7-8)
The first response to David's cry is a violent upheaval of the created order, rooted in the very character of God.
"Then the earth shook and quaked; And the foundations of the mountains were trembling And were shaken, because He was angry." (Psalm 18:7)
Notice the cause and effect. The earth shakes, not because of random geological pressures, but "because He was angry." The created order is not indifferent to the moral state of the universe. It responds to the disposition of its Creator. When God is angry at injustice, at the persecution of His people, the most stable things in creation, the very foundations of the mountains, begin to tremble. This is a fundamental biblical principle. Creation is not a neutral stage on which the drama of redemption unfolds; it is an active participant. It groans under the weight of sin (Romans 8) and it trembles at the presence of a holy God.
Our modern sensibilities are often offended by the idea of divine anger. We want a God who is only and ever nice. But a God who is not angry at evil, a God who is not incensed by the oppression of the righteous, is not a good God. He would be a morally indifferent God, and therefore a monster. God's wrath is not a petty, human tantrum. It is the settled, holy, righteous opposition of His character to all that is evil. It is His love for His people in action. Because He loves David, He is angry at David's enemies. His wrath is the flip side of His love. You cannot have one without the other.
"Smoke went up out of His nostrils, And fire from His mouth devoured; Coals were kindled by it." (Psalm 18:8)
This is bold, anthropomorphic language. It pictures God as a great, fiery dragon or a snorting bull, breathing smoke and fire. This is not meant to be a literal, physical description. It is poetic imagery meant to convey the intensity and terror of God's wrath. The smoke from His nostrils is the visible sign of His burning anger. The devouring fire from His mouth is the destructive power of His judgment. This is the God who is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29). This imagery is designed to strike fear into the hearts of God's enemies and to bring profound comfort to His people. The fire that devours them is the fire that protects us.
The Heavens Bowed (v. 9-11)
God does not remain distant. He personally enters the fray, descending from His heavenly throne in awesome power.
"He bowed the heavens and came down With thick darkness under His feet." (Psalm 18:9)
This is an act of immense condescension and power. The heavens are His dwelling place, but He "bows" them, He bends them, in order to descend to the battlefield of earth. He does not send an angel or a delegate; He comes Himself. The "thick darkness" under His feet is a common feature of theophanies. It signifies His transcendence, His holiness, and the terror of His presence. At Sinai, God descended in a thick cloud (Exodus 19). His holiness is so pure, so overwhelming, that it must be veiled in darkness, lest sinful men be consumed. For His enemies, this darkness is terror and confusion. For His people, it is the shadow of the Almighty, a place of refuge.
"He rode upon a cherub and flew; And He sped upon the wings of the wind." (Psalm 18:10-11)
Here, God is depicted as a celestial king riding His chariot. The cherubim are the high-ranking angelic beings who guard God's holiness and serve His throne. They form His living chariot (Ezekiel 1). The wind is His swift messenger. This imagery conveys the speed and sovereignty of His intervention. When God decides to act, nothing can slow Him down. He is not bound by the limitations of space and time. He arrives instantly and with irresistible force. He makes the darkness His "hiding place," His "canopy." This reinforces the theme of His hiddenness and transcendence even in the midst of His self-revelation. He reveals Himself, but He is never fully comprehended. He acts in the world, but He is never contained by it.
The Storm of Judgment (v. 12-14)
The arrival of God unleashes a divine storm, a barrage of heavenly artillery against the forces of evil.
"From the brightness before Him passed His thick clouds, Hailstones and coals of fire. Yahweh also thundered in the heavens, And the Most High gave forth His voice, Hailstones and coals of fire." (Psalm 18:12-13)
The darkness of the storm clouds cannot contain the sheer "brightness" of God's glory. His glory breaks through the canopy of darkness, and what comes out? "Hailstones and coals of fire." This is not just a weather report. This is holy war. This is the arsenal of heaven being unleashed. The thunder is the very voice of God, the "Most High." When God speaks in judgment, the world hears it as thunder. This is what happened at Sinai (Exodus 19:16), and it is what happened when the Father spoke to the Son in the presence of the crowds (John 12:29). The repetition of "hailstones and coals of fire" emphasizes the relentless nature of the assault. This is God's shock and awe campaign.
"He sent out His arrows, and scattered them, And lightning flashes in abundance, and threw them into confusion." (Psalm 18:14)
The imagery continues. The lightning flashes are God's "arrows." He is the divine archer, and His aim is perfect. He does not miss. The result for His enemies is that they are "scattered" and thrown into "confusion." This is what God does to those who set themselves against His anointed. He breaks their ranks, shatters their plans, and sends them into a panicked rout. He did it to the Egyptians at the Red Sea, He did it to the Canaanites before Joshua, and He does it here for David. God wins His battles not just by overpowering His enemies, but by disorienting them, by turning their strength into chaos.
The World Unmade (v. 15)
The climax of this divine intervention is a de-creation, a laying bare of the very foundations of the world.
"Then the channels of water appeared, And the foundations of the world were laid bare At Your rebuke, O Yahweh, At the blast of the breath of Your nostrils." (Psalm 18:15)
This language deliberately echoes two great acts of God in the Old Testament: Creation and the Exodus. The "channels of water" appearing and the "foundations of the world" being laid bare is a reversal of the created order. It is like God is peeling back the skin of the world to show what lies beneath. But it is also a clear allusion to the parting of the Red Sea. The "blast of the breath of Your nostrils" is the very phrase used in Exodus 15 to describe the strong east wind that drove back the waters. David sees his personal deliverance in the same epic terms as the deliverance of all of Israel from Egypt. His personal history is caught up in the great history of redemption.
The power that saves is the power that judges. The same divine "rebuke" that lays the world bare and terrifies the wicked is the action that carves out a path of salvation for the righteous. The same wind that confused the Egyptian army made a dry road for the Israelites. God's power is one, but its effect depends entirely on which side of His favor you stand.
The God Who Still Comes Down
It is tempting to read this as magnificent but ancient poetry, something that applied to David but has little to do with us. That would be a grave mistake. This is a portrait of how our God acts. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. But the ultimate theophany, the ultimate "coming down," was not in a storm, but in the stable at Bethlehem.
In Jesus Christ, God "bowed the heavens and came down" in a way that surpassed all expectation. He veiled His glory not in thick clouds, but in human flesh. He came not riding on a cherub, but lying in a manger and riding on a donkey. The fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Him bodily.
And on the cross, the full storm of God's wrath against sin, the ultimate "hailstones and coals of fire," was unleashed. But it was not unleashed on us. It was unleashed on Him. He absorbed the full blast. The earth shook, and the sky grew dark when the Son of God was rebuked for our sakes. The foundations were laid bare, and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. He endured the ultimate divine judgment so that we might receive the ultimate divine deliverance.
Therefore, when we are surrounded by the cords of death, when the torrents of destruction assail us, we can cry out to our God. And we know He hears us, because our cry comes to Him through His beloved Son. And He will answer. He will come down. He may not send literal lightning and hailstones, but He will send His power. He will scatter your enemies. He will rebuke the spiritual forces of darkness arrayed against you. He will throw them into confusion. He will lay bare the foundations of their proud rebellion and part the waters for you to walk through on dry ground.
This warrior God is our Father. And at the final day, He will come down one last time. The heavens will be rolled up like a scroll, the elements will melt with fervent heat, and the Lord Jesus will descend with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. For His enemies, it will be the ultimate terror. But for us, who have taken refuge in Him, it will be the ultimate deliverance. He is the God who comes down, and He is coming again for His own.