Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 18:7

"Then the earth shook and trembled; The foundations also of the mountains quaked And were shaken, because he was wroth." — Psalms 18:7 (ASV)

The earth shook. —The sudden burst of the storm is the Divine answer to the sufferer’s prayer. For similar manifestations, compare Psalms 68:7-8; Psalms 77:14–20; Amos 9:5; Micah 1:3; Habakkuk 3:4; but here the colours are more vivid, and the language more intense.

In fact, the whole realm of poetry cannot show a finer feeling for nature in her wrath. We first hear the rumbling of the earth, probably an earthquake preceding the storm (for volcanic phenomena of Palestine, see Stanley’s Sinai and Palestine, page 124), or possibly only its distant threatening. Compare.

“Earth groans as if beneath a heavy load.”

BYRON.

Foundations also of the hills. —In 2 Samuel, it reads “of the heavens”—i.e., the hills, called also the pillars of heaven (Job 26:11).