8. Shook and trembled. Verses 8-16 contain a strikingly beautiful and impressive picture of God. The passage is unsurpassed in sublimity and solemnity in its description of the might and power of God. The picture is one of a terrible storm and earthquake, accompanied by dense smoke and darkness, the outbursts of lightning and deafening peals of thunder, revealing to David the personal presence of God. Undoubtedly the picture came as a result of personal experience, when to David, out in the open, exposed to the elements, and perhaps battling for his very life against his foes, was revealed the nearness of God in the salvation He brings to His own. The scene is reminiscent of the terrors accompanying the solemn giving of the law on Sinai (Ex. 19:16-18).
Because he was wroth. By a figure of speech the dreadful shaking of the earth and the terrible commotions in heaven are pictured as the result of the awful wrath of God.
