In the previous part of the psalm, we saw King David praising Hashem from a place of success - "With praises I call upon Hashem." Yet success is not always continuous, and there were also difficult periods. From here onward, David transitions to discussing the second mode of Providence: when dire troubles befall him and he is in need of prayer. Throughout the chapter, we will see how the Malbim portrays two kinds of salvation: salvation through natural means, which is entirely temporary and localized, rolling one trouble into the next, and miraculous salvation brought about in the merit of good deeds - after which affliction will not rise a second time.
אֲפָפוּנִי חֶבְלֵי־מָוֶת וְנַחֲלֵי בְלִיַּעַל יְבַעֲתוּנִי׃ - The pangs of death encompassed me, and the torrents of wicked men terrified me.
Afafuni ("encompassed me") means they surrounded me. The Malbim explains that this derives from the word pe'ah (edge or side): they attack me from every side, from every direction. On one hand, the pangs of death surround me, and on the other, "the torrents of wicked men" terrify me - enemies surging against me like a raging river. Thus, I was surrounded from all sides.
חֶבְלֵי שְׁאוֹל סְבָבוּנִי קִדְּמוּנִי מוֹקְשֵׁי מָוֶת׃ - The cords of Sheol encircled me; the snares of death confronted me.
Here he goes further and describes an even direr state: no longer merely the pangs of death, but the cords of Sheol encircle me. "Sheol" is always an expression for the grave, as if to say, I am already on the verge of being buried, after "the snares of death confronted me." As the Malbim explains, the snares of death are the causes of death - an ensnaring trap that has already brought me to the brink of death. It is as if they have already killed me, and now all that remains is to bury me.
One could add here by way of allusion: David uttered this song on the day Hashem delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul (Shaul). Thus, do not read merely chevlei Sheol ("cords of the grave"), but chevlei Shaul - Saul's troops, his battalions and legions that were already surrounding me. This fits Rashi's commentary on the "Rock of Divisions" (Sela Hamachlekos), where Saul's men surrounded David from every direction and closed in on all sides. "The troops of Saul encircled me," and then "the snares of death confronted me" - a situation where natural escape was no longer possible.
At that very moment David said: "I said in my haste, all men are deceptive." What does "in my haste" mean? Our Sages explain: when he was fleeing in haste from Saul and was certain that this was the end. He said to himself: But Samuel anointed me as king! If so, all mankind - even Samuel - is deceptive. He made a promise, he anointed me king, yet here it comes to nothing and has no continuation. "Deceptive" (kozev) - like a deceitful brook (nachal achzav) whose waters run dry midstream.
בַּצַּר־לִי אֶקְרָא יְהֹוָה וְאֶל־אֱלֹהַי אֲשַׁוֵּעַ יִשְׁמַע מֵהֵיכָלוֹ קוֹלִי וְשַׁוְעָתִי לְפָנָיו תָּבוֹא בְאׇזְנָיו׃ - In my distress I called upon Hashem, and to my God I cried out; He heard my voice from His sanctuary, and my cry came before Him, into His ears.
When I find myself in a state where "the pangs of death encompassed me," I call upon Hashem from within distress, and "to my God I cried out" - crying out to Him for salvation, and through prayer Hashem hastens to deliver me. Notice the distinction: earlier it was "With praises I call upon Hashem," an expression of praise; whereas here it is prayer, born of the urgent need for salvation.
The Malbim is precise with the terminology: ekra ("I call") is an invocation in the sense of turning to Hashem, whereas ashava ("I cry out") specifically denotes a cry for salvation. Therefore, crying out is directed specifically "to my God" (el Elokai) - for as we explained, "my God" expresses the individual Divine providence unique to me. Furthermore, "and my cry came before Him" adds to "He heard my voice": hearing can occur from afar, but for the cry to come before Him means that it is accepted by Him and He comes to save - an expression of far greater closeness.
Here, the Malbim introduces a foundational framework that will guide us throughout the psalm. The poet depicts Hashem's salvation arriving through natural means, in the course of nature. However, when salvation operates through nature, it is not a complete deliverance: he prays, Hashem rescues him from distress - yet the salvation itself precipitates a new trouble. He cries out again, and Hashem sends another natural salvation that rescues him from the second trouble only to give birth to a third, and so on.
This is the imagery painted here: Initially, enemies surrounded and besieged him. He cried out to Hashem - and the earth trembled and opened its mouth, swallowing his enemies alive into the depths of the earth. He was saved! But an earthquake triggers volcanoes that spew fire and brimstone, and what was pent up inside erupts outward. Thus, the salvation of the earth opening brought a new catastrophe: spreading lava and fire. He cried out again, and Hashem sent an extinguisher - torrential rain. Yet the rain came with heavy storm clouds, and with the clouds came terrifying lightning and thunder that endangered him. He cried out again, and Hashem commanded the clouds to burst and pour out their water so that the terror of thunder would cease. But the bursting of clouds creates a cloudburst, and the rain that extinguished the fire turned into a raging torrent that swept him away. He cried out once more - and Hashem drew him out of many waters. This is the core of the imagery, and from here we proceed to the verse-by-verse commentary.
וַתִּגְעַשׁ וַתִּרְעַשׁ הָאָרֶץ וּמוֹסְדֵי הָרִים יִרְגָּזוּ וַיִּתְגָּעֲשׁוּ כִּי־חָרָה לוֹ׃ - Then the earth quaked and trembled; the foundations of the mountains shook and convulse, because He was incensed.
This refers to the earthquake with which Hashem shook the earth to swallow his enemies alive into the depths. "The foundations of the mountains shook" - it is the way of towering mountains during an earthquake to open their vents, and as they churn, wrath and fury, boiling lava and smoke, pour forth from them. All this occurred "because He was incensed" - His burning wrath and blazing anger were revealed through the earthquake, causing actual fire to erupt.
The Malbim notes the ascending scale of these terms: rogez ("shaking") is the gentlest tremor; ga'ash ("raging" or "churning") is a more forceful movement; and ra'ash ("quaking") is greater still - a tremor at its highest intensity. Therefore, the verse says, vatiga'ash vatir'ash: first it churned, and then it reached the state of a full earthquake.
עָלָה עָשָׁן בְּאַפּוֹ וְאֵשׁ־מִפִּיו תֹּאכֵל גֶּחָלִים בָּעֲרוּ מִמֶּנּוּ׃ - Smoke went up in His nostrils, and a devouring fire out of His mouth; coals flamed forth from Him.
Now he describes the mountain that began spewing fire and brimstone in the wake of the earthquake. The volcanic mountain pours out fire, and smoke rises from it on the day of the quake. Because this reflects, as it were, Hashem's wrath, it is portrayed as though smoke rises from His nostrils and Divine fury blazes in the heart of the mountain. The devouring blaze is like fire issuing from His mouth, until "coals flamed forth from Him" - the lava hurled outward like burning embers emerging, as it were, from before the Holy One, Blessed be He.
וַיֵּט שָׁמַיִם וַיֵּרַד וַעֲרָפֶל תַּחַת רַגְלָיו׃ וַיִּרְכַּב עַל־כְּרוּב וַיָּעֹף וַיֵּדֶא עַל־כַּנְפֵי־רוּחַ׃ - He bent the heavens and came down, with thick darkness beneath His feet. He rode upon a cherub and flew; He soared on the wings of the wind.
Here he returns to "In my distress I called upon Hashem, and He heard my voice from His Sanctuary." The Malbim explains that this verse serves as a recurring headline across all the coming verses: with every new distress - "In my distress I called upon Hashem." Now I find myself in a new distress; burning coals pursue me, a volcano threatens me, and therefore once again, "In my distress I called upon Hashem," and Hashem hears my voice, bends the heavens, and descends to save me.
And how? Since these two elements - earth and fire inside the depths of the ground - rage and seek to swallow and destroy everything, Hashem prepared salvation through the other two elements: wind and water. "And thick fog was beneath His feet" - fog always denotes moisture, water. "And He rode upon a cherub and flew, and soared upon the wings of the wind" - the wind carries the clouds to extinguish the fire, as it is written: "Who makes clouds His chariot, Who walks upon the wings of the wind."
יָשֶׁת־חֹשֶׁךְ סִתְרוֹ סְבִיבוֹתָיו סֻכָּתוֹ חֶשְׁכַת־מַיִם עָבֵי שְׁחָקִים׃ - He made darkness His concealment, His sukkah around Him, a darkness of water, thick clouds of the skies.
The darkness in which Hashem is, as it were, concealed, the darkness surrounding His sukkah, here becomes "a darkness of water, thick clouds of the skies." The clouds gather through the wind until the earth turns dark from the density of the cloud cover - just as we witness in heavy overcast, where in the middle of the day it seems as though the sun has set. And these waters extinguish the fire and the burning coals spewing from the mountain; and here, salvation is attained.
The Radak notes that in Shmuel (II 22:12), the text reads not cheshkat mayim ("darkness of water") but chashrat mayim, meaning the gathering and binding together of clouds - as in the Targum's rendering of chishureihem, related to wheel spokes or binding hoops (chishukim). Both explanations are true: the clouds bind and interlock with one another, and as a result of their dense clustering, darkness forms. Chashrat and cheshkat are simply two facets of the exact same phenomenon.
Yet this salvation brings about a new distress: the clouds grew dark and laden with flammable elements and combustible materials, such as brimstone and saltpeter. Saltpeter is potassium nitrate, which serves as an oxidizer in mixtures such as gunpowder and fuel. When there is a collision between clouds, between negative charges and negative charges, or positive and positive, an explosion occurs and immense fire bursts forth - "electricity," in the Malbim's terminology, the lightning that flashes out. A single lightning bolt holds enough energy to run a power station supplying electricity to an entire city - we cannot capture it, but this illustrates the immense magnitude involved. Thus, he was plunged into a new and grave danger: the clouds harbored tremendous fire within them.
מִנֹּגַהּ נֶגְדּוֹ עָבָיו עָבְרוּ בָּרָד וְגַחֲלֵי־אֵשׁ׃ וַיַּרְעֵם בַּשָּׁמַיִם יְהֹוָה וְעֶלְיוֹן יִתֵּן קֹלוֹ בָּרָד וְגַחֲלֵי־אֵשׁ׃ - Out of the brightness before Him, His thick clouds passed with hail and coals of fire. Hashem thundered in the heavens, and the Most High uttered His voice: hail and coals of fire.
Out of "His secret place of darkness," a halo of brightness (nogah) forms opposite the light of Hashem. The Malbim explains in several places that nogah corresponds to what we understand by the term today: when one does not see the light source itself, but rather the luminescence radiating from it - such as when the moon itself is hidden, but the clouds surrounding it glow brightly. Nogah is diffuse glow emanating from the light, rather than the intrinsic light source itself.
And from this glow, fire and lightning are generated: "His thick clouds passed with hail and coals of fire." The clouds discharge hail from the extreme cold, once the electrical fire has escaped and expanded from the vapors, and coals of fire from the stirring of heat. The fire and the cold explode against one another, producing mighty thunders and lightnings, until "Hashem thundered in the heavens." Where silence had been restored on earth from the terrestrial fire, thunder now erupts in the heavens: the very clouds that came to extinguish the blaze below create an immense uproar above. I was saved from the fire here on earth by the water up there, yet the water up there now generates a new fire threatening to incinerate.
וַיִּשְׁלַח חִצָּיו וַיְפִיצֵם וּבְרָקִים רָב וַיְהֻמֵּם׃ - And He sent forth His arrows and scattered them, and shot out lightnings and confounded them.
And once again, according to that same overarching headline - "In my distress I called upon Hashem," and "He heard my voice from His Sanctuary." And what happens now? "He sent forth His arrows and scattered them": Hashem sends forth His figurative arrows, causing the thunder itself to shatter the clouds. Through the multitude of thunders and lightnings, the clouds scatter and dump their water below, until the cloud dissipates and has no moisture left. These arrows are the lightning bolts - "and shot out lightnings and confounded them," meaning that through an abundance of lightning He threw them into panic, and the thunders and lightnings ceased. All of these salvations unfold through natural causes, and from this distress, too, I was delivered.
וַיֵּרָאוּ אֲפִיקֵי מַיִם וַיִּגָּלוּ מוֹסְדוֹת תֵּבֵל מִגַּעֲרָתְךָ יְהֹוָה מִנִּשְׁמַת רוּחַ אַפֶּךָ׃ - Then the channels of water were seen, and the foundations of the world were uncovered, at Your rebuke, Hashem, from the blast of the breath of Your nostrils.
Did complete salvation arrive here? No. Out of this salvation, a new trouble developed: the clouds burst, water poured down in a tremendous torrent until "the channels of water were seen" - the riverbeds and streams deepened under the massive deluge. "And the foundations of the world were uncovered" - during a flood, things hidden deep within the earth are exposed; the foundations of the world from the six days of Creation, when the entire world was water, and only afterward did vapors rise to the heavens, to the firmament and the clouds - these are now revealed once again as the clouds release their waters onto the dry land.
And by whose power? "At Your rebuke, Hashem." Just as in the beginning, "You covered it with the deep as with a garment... at Your rebuke they fled" - that Hashem rebuked the waters and they fled to their designated gathering places, the seas and rivers - so now, as it were, He rebuked them again, and the waters cover the earth like a flood. "From the blast of the breath of Your nostrils" - because You burst the clouds, the earth is inundated by a mighty torrent, and David is swept away in a swirling current of water, battered by powerful waves.
יִשְׁלַח מִמָּרוֹם יִקָּחֵנִי יַמְשֵׁנִי מִמַּיִם רַבִּים׃ - He sent from on high, He took me; He drew me out of many waters.
Even from the water's waves threatening to drown him, he had to cry out to Hashem, and again under that same heading: "In my distress I called upon Hashem... and He heard my voice from His Temple" - Hashem hears all my crying and saves. "He sent from on high, He took me" - I was already deep in the water, and Hashem reached out and drew me out from those many waters.
יַצִּילֵנִי מֵאֹיְבִי עָז וּמִשֹּׂנְאַי כִּי־אָמְצוּ מִמֶּנִּי׃ יְקַדְּמוּנִי בְיוֹם־אֵידִי וַיְהִי־יְהֹוָה לְמִשְׁעָן לִי׃ - He delivered me from my strong enemy and from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. They confronted me on the day of my calamity, but Hashem was a support to me.
Yet the enemies still did not let go of me: seeing me drowning in the water, and noticing the path by which I might emerge, they lay in wait for me at the exit to trap me and strike me down the moment I come out. From this too Hashem delivers me. "They confronted me on the day of my calamity" - the day of my calamity (eidi) means the day of my ruin, and some interpret it as the day of my wandering; they wait to strike me down as I emerge from the river and drown me again. And who saves? "But Hashem was a support to me" - Hashem is my support, and through His providence I was saved from the enemies lying in ambush even after having already been saved from the waters.
The Malbim notes a precise distinction between an oyeiv (enemy) and a sonei (one who hates): an oyeiv is greater than a sonei, for one who hates often does not actively seek harm, but merely harbors hatred in his heart, whereas an enemy actively seeks ways to do harm. Another difference: the term sin'ah (hatred) also applies to abstract concepts - "one who hates unjust gain" (sonei vatza), "one who hates rebuke" (sonei tochachat) - whereas "an enemy of unjust gain" does not exist in our language. Therefore, David says here that Hashem delivers him from the fierce enemy who seeks to cause harm and inflict physical injury, and adds that Hashem also protects him from those who hate him, whose malice is hidden in their hearts and not as overt - "and from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me."
וַיּוֹצִיאֵנִי לַמֶּרְחָב יְחַלְּצֵנִי כִּי־חָפֵץ־בִּי׃ - He brought me out into a broad place; He delivered me, because He delighted in me.
Ibn Ezra notes that this is the antithesis of the earlier verse: "In my distress (batzar li, literally, in my narrow straits) I called upon Hashem" - I called out because the place was narrow, and now Hashem has brought me out into a broad place. And the Malbim explains: He brought me out to a place where they could not intercept me as I emerged from the water. For had I come out at a narrow passage, they were waiting there to attack me the moment I stepped out; but Hashem brought me out into an open expanse where they could not impede me, and as I emerged, "He delivered me" from their hands so they could neither seize me nor harm me. And why all this? "Because He delighted in me" - because Hashem desired me, He saved me from all these troubles.
יִגְמְלֵנִי יְהֹוָה כְּצִדְקִי כְּבֹר יָדַי יָשִׁיב לִי׃ - Hashem rewards me according to my righteousness; according to the purity of my hands He recompenses me.
Up to this point, David described the first mode: Hashem saves him through his prayer and outcrying, and the salvation comes through natural means. The disadvantage of natural salvation became clear in all the examples we have seen: if the goal is to rout the enemies, an earthquake is brought, but the earthquake triggers an adverse chain reaction of volcanoes spewing fire, and a new harm is created. Natural salvation is localized and temporary, and sometimes it directly gives birth to a different harm, so that one goes from one trouble to the next, crying out anew each time, "In my distress I called upon Hashem": Master of the Universe, rescue me from this new trouble.
And here he moves to the second mode: salvation by way of miracle and wonder, which comes by virtue of good deeds. When salvation comes solely through the power of prayer and outcry - even someone who is not necessarily upright, if he cries out, Hashem saves him, but the salvation is natural. However, when Hashem saves a person in the merit of his good deeds, the salvation is miraculous, above the laws of nature, and then "affliction shall not rise up twice" (often cited by its Hebrew acronym, lo tikpatz). Up to now, we saw that not merely twice, but seven times he went from one trouble into the next - because the salvation was natural. But a miraculous salvation is a wondrous deliverance that leaves no trouble in its wake.
And when does this occur? When "Hashem rewards me according to my righteousness; according to the purity of my hands He recompenses me" - when recompense is granted according to one's good deeds. And what does one merit then? "The God Who girds me with strength," "Who makes my feet like hinds' feet" - all of these are already supernatural matters, salvations of one who ascends upon the high places of the clouds. Not as before, where one emerges from a salvation only to enter a new trouble, but rather a complete, absolute salvation.
In this part of the psalm, David describes the second mode of Providence: troubles surrounding him on every side to the very gates of death and Sheol, and a cry emerging from within them - "In my distress I called upon Hashem," a verse that serves as a recurring heading for all the verses that follow. The Malbim depicts a chain of seven natural salvations, each of which gives birth to the next trouble: an earthquake that swallows the enemies and awakens volcanoes; clouds and wind that extinguish the fire and bring lightning and thunder; the bursting of the clouds that quiets the thunder and brings a flood; and the pulling of David from the waters, only for enemies to await him as he emerges - culminating in "He brought me forth also into a large place; He delivered me, because He delighted in me." Such is the nature of natural salvation: localized and temporary. But when "Hashem rewards me according to my righteousness," in the merit of good deeds, the salvation is miraculous and wondrous, and then affliction shall not arise twice.