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ps18.8
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1993-04-19
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EXPOSITION.
"_There went up a smoke out of his nostrils_." A violent
oriental method of expressing fierce wrath. Since the breath from
the nostrils is heated by strong emotion, the figure portrays the
Almighty Deliverer as pouring forth smoke in the heat of his
wrath and the impetuousness of his zeal. Nothing makes God so
angry as an injury done to his children. He that toucheth you
toucheth the apple of mine eye. God is not subject to the
passions which govern his creatures, but acting as he does with
all the energy and speed of one who is angry, he is here aptly
set forth in poetic imagery suitable to human understandings. The
opening of his lips is sufficient to destroy his enemies; "_and
fire out of his mouth devoured_." This fire was no temporary one
but steady and lasting; "_Coals were kindled by it_." The whole
passage is intended to depict God's descent to the help of his
child, attended by earthquake and tempest: at the majesty of his
appearing the earth rocks, the clouds gather like smoke, and the
lightning as flaming fire devours, setting the world on a blaze.
What grandeur of description is here! Bishop Mant very admirably
rhymes the verse thus:--
"Smoke from his heated nostrils came,
And from his mouth devouring flame;
Hot burning coals announced his ire,
And flashes of careering fire."
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.
Verse 8.--"_There went up a smoke out of his nostrils_,"
_aph âshân âlâh_ <0639> <06227> <05927>. Or there _ascended into
his nose_, as the words, literally rendered, signify. The
ancients placed the seat of anger in the nose, or nostrils;
because when it grows warm and violent, it discovers itself, as
it were, by a heated vehement breath, that proceeds from
them.--^Samuel Chandler, D.D., F.R. and A.S.S., 1766.
Verses 8-19.--David calls the full force of poetical
imagery to aid, to describe in a becoming manner the marvels of
his deliverances. He means to say that they were as manifest as
the signs of heaven and earth, as sudden and powerful as the
phenomena in the kingdom of nature surprise terrified mortals.
_Deliverance_ being his theme, he might have taken the figure
from the _peaceable_ phenomena of the heavens. But since man
heeds heaven more in _anger_ than in _blessing_, and regards God
more when he descends on earth in the _storm_ than in the
_rainbow_, David describes the blessed condescension of God by
the figure of a tempest. In order to thoroughly appreciate the
beauty and truthfulness of this figure, we should endeavour to
realise the full power of an Oriental storm, as it is described
in #Ps 29|. Solitary lightning precedes the discharge--this is
meant by the _coals_ in verse #8|: the clouds approach the
mountain summits--_the heavens bow_, as verse #9| has it; the
storm shakes its pinions; enwrapped in thick clouds as in a tent,
God descends to the earth; hail (not unfrequently attending
Eastern storms) and lightning issue from the black clouds,
through the dissolving layers of which is seen the fiery
splendour which hides the Lord of nature. He speaks, and thunder
is his voice; he shoots, and flashes of lightning are his arrows.
At his rebuke, and at the blast of his breath the earth
recedes--the sea foams up, and its beds are seen--the land
bursts, and the foundations of the world are discovered. And lo!
an arm of deliverance issues forth from the black clouds, and the
destructive fire grasps the wretched one who had cried out from
the depths, pulls him forth, and delivers him from all his
enemies! Yes, the hand of the Lord has done marvellous things in
the life of David. But the _eye of faith_ alone could perceive in
them all the hand of God. Thousands whose experiences of the
delivering hand of God are not less signal than those of David,
stop short at the powers of nature, and instead of bending the
knee before the All-merciful God, content themselves to express
with cold hearts their admiration of the changes of the destiny
of man.--^Augustus F. Tholuck, D.D., Ph.D. 1856.