Psalms 18
1 Unto the end. For David, the servant of the Lord, who spoke the words of this canticle to the Lord, in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. And he said: I will love you, O Lord my strength.
I love thee, O LORD, my strength!
2 The Lord is my firmament, my refuge, and my liberator. My God is my helper, and I hope in him: my protector, and the horn of my salvation, and my support.
Jehovah is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I trust; My shield, my strong defence, and my high tower.
3 Praising, I will call upon the Lord. And I will be saved from my enemies.
I called upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, And was delivered from my enemies.
4 The sorrows of death surrounded me, and the torrents of iniquity dismayed me.
The snares of death encompassed me; The floods of destruction filled me with dismay;
The snares of the underworld surrounded me, And the nets of death seized upon me. (Sheol h7585)
6 In my tribulation, I called upon the Lord, and I cried out to my God. And he listened to my voice from his holy temple. And my cry in his presence entered into his ears.
In my distress I called upon the LORD, And cried unto my God; He heard my voice from his palace, And my cry came before him into his ears.
7 The earth was shaken, and it trembled. The foundations of the mountains were disturbed, and they were shaken, because he was angry with them.
Then the earth quaked and trembled; The foundations of the mountains rocked and were shaken, Because his wrath was kindled.
8 A smoke ascended by his wrath, and a fire flared up from his face: coals were kindled by it.
A smoke went up from his nostrils, And fire from his mouth devoured; Burning coals shot forth from him.
9 He bent the heavens, and they descended. And darkness was under his feet.
He bowed the heavens, and came down; And darkness was under his feet;
10 And he ascended upon the cherubim, and he flew: he flew upon the feathers of the winds.
And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly; Yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind.
11 And he set darkness as his hiding place, with his tabernacle all around him: dark waters in the clouds of the air.
And he made darkness his covering; His pavilion round about him was dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.
12 At the brightness that was before his sight, the clouds crossed by, with hail and coals of fire.
At the brightness before him, his thick clouds passed away; Then came hailstones and coals of fire.
13 And the Lord thundered from heaven, and the Most High uttered his voice: hail and coals of fire.
The LORD also thundered from heaven, And the Most High uttered his voice, Amid hailstones and coals of fire.
14 And he sent forth his arrows and scattered them. He multiplied lightnings, and he set them in disarray.
He sent forth his arrows, and scattered them; Continual lightnings, and discomfited them.
15 Then the fountains of waters appeared, and the foundations of the world were revealed, by your rebuke, O Lord, by the inspiration of the Spirit of your wrath.
Then the channels of the deep were seen, And the foundations of the earth were laid bare At thy rebuke, O LORD! At the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.
16 He sent from on high, and he accepted me. And he took me up, out of many waters.
He stretched forth his hand from above; he took me, And drew me out of deep waters.
17 He rescued me from my strongest enemies, and from those who hated me. For they had been too strong for me.
He delivered me from my strong enemy; From my adversaries, who were too powerful for me.
18 They intercepted me in the day of my affliction, and the Lord became my protector.
They fell upon me in the day of my calamity; But the LORD was my stay.
19 And he led me out, into a wide place. He accomplished my salvation, because he willed me.
He brought me forth into a large place; He delivered me, because he delighted in me.
20 And the Lord will reward me according to my justice, and he will repay me according to the purity of my hands.
The LORD hath rewarded me according to my righteous; According to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.
21 For I have preserved the ways of the Lord, and I have not behaved impiously before my God.
For I have kept the ways of the LORD, And have not wickedly departed from my God.
22 For all his judgments are in my sight, and his justice, I have not pushed away from me.
For all his laws were in my sight; I did not put away his statutes from me.
23 And I will be immaculate together with him, and I will keep myself from my iniquity.
I was upright before him, And kept myself from iniquity.
24 And the Lord will reward me according to my justice and according to the purity of my hands before his eyes.
Therefore hath the LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness, According to the cleanness of my hands before his eyes.
25 With the holy, you will be holy, and with the innocent, you will be innocent,
To the merciful thou showest thyself merciful; To the upright thou showest thyself upright;
26 and with the elect, you will be elect, and with the perverse, you will be perverse.
To the pure thou showest thyself pure, And to the perverse thou showest thyself perverse.
27 For you will save the humble people, but you will bring down the eyes of the arrogant.
For thou savest the afflicted people, But the haughty countenance thou bringest down.
28 For you illuminate my lamp, O Lord. My God, enlighten my darkness.
Thou causest my lamp to shine; Jehovah, my God, enlighteneth my darkness.
29 For in you, I will be delivered from temptation; and with my God, I will climb over a wall.
For through thee I have broken through troops; Through my God I have leaped over walls.
30 As for my God, his way is undefiled. The eloquence of the Lord has been examined by fire. He is the protector of all who hope in him.
The ways of God are just and true; His word is pure, tried in the fire; He is a shield to all who put their trust in him.
31 For who is God, except the Lord? And who is God, except our God?
Who, then, is God, save Jehovah? And who is a rock, save our God?
32 It is God who has wrapped me with virtue and made my way immaculate.
It is God that girded me with strength, And made my way plain.
33 It is he who has perfected my feet, like the feet of deer, and who stations me upon the heights.
He made my feet like the hind's, And set me in my high places;
34 It is he who trains my hands for battle. And you have set my arms like a bow of brass.
He taught my hands to war, So that my arm bent the bow of brass.
35 And you have given me the protection of your salvation. And your right hand sustains me. And your discipline has corrected me unto the end. And your discipline itself will teach me.
Thou gavest me the shield of thy protection; Thy right hand held me up, And thy goodness made me great.
36 You have expanded my footsteps under me, and my tracks have not been weakened.
Thou didst make a wide path for my steps, So that my feet did not stumble.
37 I will pursue my enemies and apprehend them. And I will not turn back until they have failed.
I pursued my enemies and overtook them, And turned not back till I had destroyed them.
38 I will break them, and they will not be able to stand. They will fall under my feet.
I smote them, so that they could not rise; They fell under my feet.
39 And you have wrapped me with virtue for the battle. And those rising up against me, you have subdued under me.
Thou didst gird me with strength for the battle; Thou didst cast down my adversaries under me.
40 And you have given the back of my enemies to me, and you have destroyed those who hated me.
Thou didst cause my enemies to turn their backs, So that I destroyed them that hated me.
41 They cried out, but there was none to save them, to the Lord, but he did not heed them.
They cried, but there was none to help; To Jehovah, but he answered them not.
42 And I will crush them into dust before the face of the wind, so that I will obliterate them like the mud in the streets.
I beat them small, like dust before the wind; I cast them out as the dirt of the streets.
43 You will rescue me from the contradictions of the people. You will set me at the head of the Gentiles.
Thou hast delivered me from the assaults of the nations; Thou hast made me the head of the kingdoms. Nations whom I knew not serve me;
44 A people I did not know has served me. As soon as their ears heard, they were obedient to me.
They who have only heard of me obey me; Yea, men of a strange land submit themselves to me;
45 The sons of foreigners have been deceitful to me, the sons of foreigners have grown weak with time, and they have wavered from their paths.
Men of a strange land fade away, like a leaf, And come trembling from their strongholds.
46 The Lord lives, and blessed is my God, and may the God of my salvation be exalted:
Jehovah is the living God; blessed be my rock; Exalted be the God of my salvation!
47 O God, who vindicates me and who subdues the people under me, my liberator from my enraged enemies.
It is God who hath given me vengeance, And subdued the nations under me;
48 And you will exalt me above those who rise up against me. From the iniquitous man, you will rescue me.
He delivered me from my enemies; Yea, thou hast lifted me up above my adversaries; Thou hast saved me from the violent man!
49 Because of this, O Lord, I will confess to you among the nations, and I will compose a psalm to your name:
Therefore I will give thanks to thee, O LORD! among the nations, And sing praises to thy name.
50 magnifying the salvation of his king, and showing mercy to David, his Christ, and to his offspring, even for all time.
Great deliverance giveth he to his king, And showeth mercy to his anointed, —To David and to his posterity for ever.
