| Geneva Study Bible There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and {e} fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it. (e) He shows how horrible God's judgments will be to the wicked. Wesley's Notes 18:8 There went, and c. - All these seem to be figurative expressions, denoting the greatness of his anger. King James Translators' Notes out of his nostrils: Heb. by his, etc Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary 8. smoke out . his nostrils-bitter in His wrath (compare Ps 74:1). by it-that is, the fire (Ex 19:18). Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 18:1-19 The first words, I will love thee, O Lord, my strength, are the scope and contents of the psalm. Those that truly love God, may triumph in him as their Rock and Refuge, and may with confidence call upon him. It is good for us to observe all the circumstances of a mercy which magnify the power of God and his goodness to us in it. David was a praying man, and God was found a prayer-hearing God. If we pray as he did, we shall speed as he did. God's manifestation of his presence is very fully described, ver. 7-15. Little appeared of man, but much of God, in these deliverances. It is not possible to apply to the history of the son of Jesse those awful, majestic, and stupendous words which are used through this description of the Divine manifestation. Every part of so solemn a scene of terrors tells us, a greater than David is here. God will not only deliver his people out of their troubles in due time, but he will bear them up under their troubles in the mean time. Can we meditate on ver. 18, without directing one thought to Gethsemane and Calvary? Can we forget that it was in the hour of Christ's deepest calamity, when Judas betrayed, when his friends forsook, when the multitude derided him, and the smiles of his Father's love were withheld, that the powers of darkness prevented him? The sorrows of death surrounded him, in his distress he prayed, Heb 5:7. God made the earth to shake and tremble, and the rocks to cleave, and brought him out, in his resurrection, because he delighted in him and in his undertaking. | 
