Passage
And shake and tremble doth the earth, And foundations of hills are troubled, And they shake--because He hath wrath.
And shake and tremble doth the earth, And foundations of hills are troubled, And they shake--because He hath wrath.
Psalms 18:5 Cords of Sheol have surrounded me, Before me have been snares of death.
Psalms 18:6 In mine adversity I call Jehovah, And unto my God I cry. He heareth from His temple my voice, And My cry before Him cometh into His ears.
Psalms 18:7 And shake and tremble doth the earth, And foundations of hills are troubled, And they shake--because He hath wrath.
Psalms 18:8 Gone up hath smoke by His nostrils, And fire from His mouth consumeth, Coals have been kindled by it.
Psalms 18:9 And He inclineth the heavens, and cometh down, And thick darkness <FI>is<Fi> under His feet.
The verse centers on "shake", "tremble", "doth", "earth", "foundations", "hills", "troubled", and "shake--because". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "shake" and "tremble", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.
The nearby context moves from verse 6's "In mine adversity I call Jehovah And..." into verse 8's "Gone up hath smoke by His nostrils...", so "shake" and "tremble" belong inside that flow. In Psalms context, the local focus is worship, trust, the LORD's kingship, and covenant mercy.
A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "shake" and "tremble" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.