2 Samuel 22:11

he rode upon a cherub As the Shechinah, or mystic Presence of God in the cloud of glory, rested over the Cherubim which were upon the "Mercy-seat" or covering of the Ark (ch. 2 Samuel 6:2), so in this Theophany God is represented "riding upon a Cherub," as the living throne on which He traverses space.

The Cherubim appear in Scripture (a) as the guardians of Paradise (Genesis 3:24): (b) as sculptured or wrought figures in the Tabernacle and Temple (Exodus 25:17-20; Exodus 26:1, &c.): (c) in prophetic visions as the attendants of God (Ezekiel 10:1 ff; cp. Ezekiel 1; Isaiah 6; Revelation 4). The Cherubim of the Tabernacle and Temple seem to have been winged human figures, representing the angelic attendants who minister in God's Presence: those of Ezekiel's vision appear as composite figures (Ezekiel 10:20-21), symbolical perhaps of all the powers of nature, which wait upon God and fulfil His Will.

was seen The true reading is that preserved in Psalms 18:10, did fly, a peculiar word used of the swooping of an eagle (Deuteronomy 28:49; Jeremiah 48:40; Jeremiah 49:22). The consonants of the two words are so nearly alike (וידא וירא), that the rarer word would be easily altered into the more common one. For "the wings of the wind" cp. Psalms 104:3.