< Psalms 18 >
1 [For the Chief Musician. By David the servant of the LORD, who spoke to the LORD the words of this song in the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. He said, ] I love you, LORD, my strength.
2 The LORD is my Rock, my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my Rock, in whom I take refuge; my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower.
3 I call on the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.
4 The waves of death surrounded me, and the currents of ungodliness overwhelmed me.
5 The cords of Sheol were around me. The snares of death came on me. (Sheol )
6 In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried out to my God. He heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry before him came into his ears.
7 Then the earth shook and trembled. The foundations also of the mountains quaked and were shaken, because he was angry.
8 Smoke went out of his nostrils. Consuming fire came out of his mouth. Coals were kindled by it.
9 He bowed the heavens also, and came down. Thick darkness was under his feet.
10 He rode on a cherub, and flew. Yes, he soared on the wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness his hiding place, his canopy around him thick clouds dark with water.
12 From the brightness before him his thick clouds passed on, with hailstones and coals of fire.
13 The LORD also thundered in the sky. The Most High uttered his voice.
14 And he sent out arrows and scattered them, and he shot lightning bolts and routed them.
15 And the depths of the sea appeared. The foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke, LORD, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.
16 He sent from on high. He took me. He drew me out of many waters.
17 He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me; for they were too mighty for me.
18 They came on me in the day of my calamity, but the LORD was my support.
19 He brought me forth also into a large place. He delivered me, because he delighted in me.
20 The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness. According to the cleanness of my hands has he recompensed me.
21 For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God.
22 For all his ordinances were before me. I did not put away his statutes from me.
23 I was also blameless with him. I kept myself from my iniquity.
24 Therefore the LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight.
25 With the faithful you show yourself faithful. With the innocent you show yourself innocent.
26 With the pure you show yourself pure. And with the crooked you show yourself tortuous.
27 For you will save a humble people, but the eyes of the proud you will bring low.
28 For you light my lamp. The LORD my God lights up my darkness.
29 For by you, I advance through a troop. By my God, I leap over a wall.
30 As for God, his way is perfect. The word of the LORD is pure. He is a shield to all those who take refuge in him.
31 For who is God, except the LORD? Who is a rock, besides our God,
32 the God who girds me with strength, and makes my way blameless?
33 He makes my feet like deer's feet, and sets me on my high places.
34 He teaches my hands to war, so that my arms bend a bow of bronze.
35 You have also given me the shield of your salvation, and your right hand holds me up, and your help has made me great.
36 You have enlarged my steps under me, My feet have not slipped.
37 I pursued my enemies and overtook them, and I did not turn back until they were destroyed.
38 I struck them through, so that they did not rise. They fell beneath my feet.
39 For you have equipped me with strength for the battle. You have subdued under me those who rose up against me.
40 You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me, that I might cut off those who hate me.
41 They cried, but there was none to save; even to the LORD, but he did not answer them.
42 Then I ground them as fine as the dust on the surface of a path. Like the mud in the streets, I trampled them.
43 You have delivered me from the strivings of the people. You have made me the head of the nations. A people whom I have not known shall serve me;
44 as soon as they hear of me they obey me. Foreigners come cringing to me;
45 they are not bound in chains.
46 The LORD lives; and blessed be my rock. Exalted be the God of my salvation,
47 even the God who executes vengeance for me, and subdues peoples under me.
48 He rescues me from my enemies. Yes, you lift me up above those who rise up against me. You deliver me from the violent man.
49 Therefore I will praise you, LORD, among the nations, and will sing praises to your name.
50 He gives great deliverance to his king, and shows loving kindness to his anointed, to David and to his descendants, until forever.
