He bowed the heavens also, and came down. Thick darkness was under his feet.
Parallel translations
- KJV He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under his feet.
- BSB He parted the heavens and came down with dark clouds beneath His feet.
- NKJV He bowed the heavens also, and came down With darkness under His feet.
- NASB He also bowed the heavens down low, and came down With thick darkness under His feet.
- NLT He opened the heavens and came down; dark storm clouds were beneath his feet.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God parts the heavens and descends with thick darkness beneath his feet. It matters because it pictures God himself coming down to rescue his servant.
Overview
David envisions Yahweh bowing the heavens and coming down, with dark storm clouds beneath his feet. The picture conveys both God's transcendence and his nearness in acting to save. That the exalted God stoops to deliver his people anticipates the ultimate condescension of God coming down in the incarnation of Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Ps 144:5–15Part your heavens, Yahweh, and come down. Touch the mountains, and they will smoke.
- 2 Sam 22:10He bowed the heavens also, and came down. Thick darkness was under his feet.
- 2 Pet 3:10But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.
- Deut 33:26“There is no one like God, Jeshurun, who rides on the heavens for your help, in his excellency on the skies.
- Matt 24:29But immediately after the oppression of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken;
- Heb 12:26whose voice shook the earth then, but now he has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.”
- Rev 20:11I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. There was found no place for them.
- Mark 15:33When the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.
- John 13:7Jesus answered him, “You don’t know what I am doing now, but you will understand later.”
- Joel 3:16Yahweh will roar from Zion, and thunder from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth will shake; but Yahweh will be a refuge to his people, and a stronghold to the children of Israel.
- Deut 5:22–23Yahweh spoke these words to all your assembly on the mountain out of the middle of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice. He added no more. He wrote them on two stone tablets, and gave them to me.
- Isa 51:6Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look on the earth beneath; for the heavens will vanish away like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a garment; and its inhabitants will die in the same way: but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will not be abolished.
- Ps 68:4Sing to God! Sing praises to his name! Extol him who rides on the clouds: to Yah, his name! Rejoice before him!
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 18:9 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.