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.
For the leader. Of David, the servant of the Lord, who recited the words of this song to the Lord after the Lord had saved him from the power of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He said: I love you, 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.
The Lord is my rock, my fortress, deliverer, my God, my rock, where I take refuge, my shield, my defender, my tower.
3 Praising, I will call upon the Lord. And I will be saved from my enemies.
Worthy of praise is the Lord whom I call on, he rescues me from all my foes.
4 The sorrows of death surrounded me, and the torrents of iniquity dismayed me.
The waves of death broke about me, fearful floods of chaos.
Sheol threw cords around me, snares of death came to meet 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 distress I cried to the Lord, and shouted for help to my God; in his temple he heard my voice, into his ears came my cry.
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 shook and quaked, mountains trembled to their foundations, and quaked because of his wrath.
8 A smoke ascended by his wrath, and a fire flared up from his face: coals were kindled by it.
Smoke went up from his nostrils, devouring fire from his mouth, coals were kindled by it.
9 He bent the heavens, and they descended. And darkness was under his feet.
Then he bent the sky and came down, thick darkness was under his feet.
10 And he ascended upon the cherubim, and he flew: he flew upon the feathers of the winds.
He rode on a cherub and flew, darting on wings of wind,
11 And he set darkness as his hiding place, with his tabernacle all around him: dark waters in the clouds of the air.
with his screen of darkness about him, in thick dark clouds of water.
12 At the brightness that was before his sight, the clouds crossed by, with hail and coals of fire.
At the radiance before him there passed 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 thundered from heaven, the Most High uttered his voice.
14 And he sent forth his arrows and scattered them. He multiplied lightnings, and he set them in disarray.
He shot his arrows and scattered them, flashed lightnings, and routed 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.
The channels of the sea were revealed, the world was laid bare to its base, at your rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.
16 He sent from on high, and he accepted me. And he took me up, out of many waters.
He stretched from on high, he seized me, drew me up from the mighty waters,
17 He rescued me from my strongest enemies, and from those who hated me. For they had been too strong for me.
and saved me from those who hated me – fierce foes, too mighty for me.
18 They intercepted me in the day of my affliction, and the Lord became my protector.
In my day of distress they assailed me, but the Lord proved my support.
19 And he led me out, into a wide place. He accomplished my salvation, because he willed me.
To a spacious place he brought me, and, for love of me, he saved 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 repays my innocence, he rewards my cleanness of hands.
21 For I have preserved the ways of the Lord, and I have not behaved impiously before my God.
For I kept the ways of the Lord, nor have wickedly strayed from my God.
22 For all his judgments are in my sight, and his justice, I have not pushed away from me.
His commandments were all before me, his statutes I put not away.
23 And I will be immaculate together with him, and I will keep myself from my iniquity.
And I was blameless before him, guarding myself from sin.
24 And the Lord will reward me according to my justice and according to the purity of my hands before his eyes.
So the Lord repaid my innocence, my cleanness of hands in his sight.
25 With the holy, you will be holy, and with the innocent, you will be innocent,
With the loyal you are loyal, and with the blameless blameless.
26 and with the elect, you will be elect, and with the perverse, you will be perverse.
With the pure you show yourself pure, but shrewd with the devious.
27 For you will save the humble people, but you will bring down the eyes of the arrogant.
For the lowly people you save, but haughty eyes you abase.
28 For you illuminate my lamp, O Lord. My God, enlighten my darkness.
You are my lamp, Lord, my God who enlightens my darkness.
29 For in you, I will be delivered from temptation; and with my God, I will climb over a wall.
With you I can storm a rampart, with my God I can leap a wall.
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.
As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is pure. He is shield to all who take refuge in him.
31 For who is God, except the Lord? And who is God, except our God?
For who is God but the Lord? And who is a rock but our God?
32 It is God who has wrapped me with virtue and made my way immaculate.
The God who arms me with strength, who cleared and smoothed my way.
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 hinds’ feet, and set me up on the heights.
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 how to fight, and my arms how to bend a bronze bow.
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.
The shield of your help you gave me, your right hand supports me, you stoop down to make me great.
36 You have expanded my footsteps under me, and my tracks have not been weakened.
In your strength I took giant strides, and my feet never slipped.
37 I will pursue my enemies and apprehend them. And I will not turn back until they have failed.
So I chased the foe till I caught them, and turned not, till I made an end of them.
38 I will break them, and they will not be able to stand. They will fall under my feet.
I smashed them, they could not rise, they fell beneath my feet.
39 And you have wrapped me with virtue for the battle. And those rising up against me, you have subdued under me.
You did arm me with strength for war, you did bow my assailants beneath me.
40 And you have given the back of my enemies to me, and you have destroyed those who hated me.
You made my foes turn their back to me, and those who did hate me I finished.
41 They cried out, but there was none to save them, to the Lord, but he did not heed them.
They cried for help, but none saved them; to the Lord, 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 like dust of the market-place, stamped them like mud of the streets.
43 You will rescue me from the contradictions of the people. You will set me at the head of the Gentiles.
From the strife of the peoples you saved me, you made me head of the nations, peoples I knew not did serve me.
44 A people I did not know has served me. As soon as their ears heard, they were obedient to me.
On the instant they hear, they obey me, foreigners come to me cringing.
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.
Foreigners lose courage, and come out of their strongholds trembling.
46 The Lord lives, and blessed is my God, and may the God of my salvation be exalted:
The Lord is alive! Blest be my rock! Exalted be God, my protector!
47 O God, who vindicates me and who subdues the people under me, my liberator from my enraged enemies.
The God who gave me revenge, and brought down nations beneath me,
48 And you will exalt me above those who rise up against me. From the iniquitous man, you will rescue me.
who saved me from angry foes, and set me above my assailants, safe from the violent.
49 Because of this, O Lord, I will confess to you among the nations, and I will compose a psalm to your name:
For this I will praise you among the nations, making music, O Lord, to your name:
50 magnifying the salvation of his king, and showing mercy to David, his Christ, and to his offspring, even for all time.
for great triumphs he grants to his king, and faithful love he shows his anointed, to David and his seed evermore.
