with their uniform
structure, the pause between, and the recurrence of the same initial
words, we hear the successive peals, the silence that parts them, and
the monotony of their unvaried sound. Thrice we have the reverberation
rolling through the sky or among the hills, imitated by clauses which
repeat previous ones, as indicated by the italics, and one forked flame
blazes out in the brief, lightning-like sentence, "The voice of Jehovah
(is) hewing flashes of fire," which wonderfully gives the impression of
their streaming fiercely forth, as if cloven from some solid block of
fire, their swift course, and their instantaneous extinction.

The range and effects of the storm, too, are vividly painted. It is
first "on the waters," which may possibly mean the Mediterranean, but
more probably, "the waters that are above the firmament," and so depicts
the clouds as gathering high in air. Then it comes down with a crash on
the northern mountains, splintering the gnarled cedars, and making
Lebanon rock with all its woods--leaping across the deep valley of
Coelo-Syria, and smiting Hermon (for which Sirion is a Sidonian name),
the crest of the Anti Lebanon, till it reels. Onward it sweeps--or
rather, perhaps, it is all around the psalmist; and even while he hears
the voice rolling from the furthest north, the extreme south echoes the
roar. The awful voice shakes[E] the wilderness, as it booms across its
level surface. As far south as Kadesh (probably Petra) the tremor
spreads, and away in the forests of Edom the wild creatures in their
terror slip their calves, and the oaks are scathed and stripped of their
leafy honours. And all the while, like a mighty diapason sounding on
through the tumult, the voice of the sons of God in the heavenly temple
is heard proclaiming "Glory!"

[E] Delitzsch would render "whirls in circles"--a picturesque allusion
to the sand pillars which accompany storms in the desert.

The psalm closes with lofty words of confidence, built on the story of
the past, as well as on the contemplation of the present. "Jehovah sat
throned for (_i.e._, to send on earth) the flood" which once drowned
the world of old. "Jehovah will sit throned, a King for ever." That
ancient judgment spoke of His power over all the forces of nature, in
their most terrible form. So now and for ever, all are His servants, and
effect His purposes. Then, as the tempest rolls away, spent and
transient, the sunshine streams out anew from