2 Samuel 22:11-13 - David's Psalm Of Thanksgiving.

"And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly;

And he was seen upon the wings of the wind.

And he made darkness booths round about him;

Gathering of waters, thickenings of clouds.

Out of the brightness before him

Coals of fire burned."

In 2 Samuel 6:2 Jehovah is described as sitting upon the cherubim; his presence there, called by the rabbins his Shechinah, that is, dwelling, being indicated by a cloud of light. In this psalm the cherub is his chariot, on which he rides forth to judgment. He was seen. There can be little doubt that the right reading is preserved in Psalms 18:10 , where we find a verb signifying the swooping down of a bird of prey upon its quarry ( Deuteronomy 28:49 ; Jeremiah 48:40 ). The two words differ only in the substitution of r for d , and these letters are so similar in Hebrew that they are constantly interchanged. Booths ; made of branches of trees, and forming a temporary abode. So the dark storm clouds are gathered round the Almighty to veil his awful form from sight as he goes forth for judgment. Gathering of waters; probably the right reading, instead of which in the psalm we find "dark waters." The gathering of waters would describe the massing of the rain clouds. The difference here also consists only in one letter. Out of the brightness, which closely surrounds the Deity in the midst of the black mass of the tempest, the lightning flashes forth. This brightness is the Shechinah (see above), to which St. Paul also refers where he says that God's dwelling is in "the unapproachable light" ( 1 Timothy 6:16 ).