Psalms
Psalms 18
For the end. By David, the Lord’s servant. He spoke the words of this song to the Lord on the day the Lord rescued him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul, and he said:
1 I will love you, Lord, my strength.
2 The Lord is my firm support, my refuge, and the one who rescues me. My God is my helper, and I will trust in him. He is my defender, the horn of my rescue, and my supporter.
3 I will call upon the Lord with praise, and I will be saved from my enemies.
4 The pains of death surrounded me, and torrents of lawlessness greatly troubled me.
5 The pains of Hades surrounded me; the traps of death came upon me first.
6 In my affliction I called upon the Lord and cried to my God. He heard my voice from his holy temple, and my cry before him will enter his ears.
7 Then the earth shook and trembled. The foundations of the mountains were troubled and shaken because God was angry with them.
8 Smoke rose in his anger, and fire blazed from his presence; coals were kindled by it.
9 He bent heaven down and descended, with thick darkness beneath his feet.
10 He mounted the cherubim and flew; he flew on the wings of winds.
11 He made darkness his hiding place. His tent surrounded him: dark water in the clouds of the air.
12 At the brightness before him, the clouds passed by with hail and coals of fire.
13 The Lord thundered from heaven, and the Most High gave forth his voice.
14 He sent out arrows and scattered them; he multiplied lightning and threw them into confusion.
15 The springs of water appeared, and the foundations of the world were uncovered at your rebuke, Lord, at the blast of the breath of your anger.
16 He sent from on high and took me; he drew me to himself out of many waters.
17 He will rescue me from my powerful enemies and from those who hate me, because they were stronger than I was.
18 They came upon me first on the day of my suffering, but the Lord became my support.
19 He brought me out into a wide place. He will rescue me because he wanted me. [He will rescue me from my powerful enemies and from those who hate me.]
20 The Lord will repay me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he will repay me.
21 For I guarded the Lord’s ways and did not act ungodly by departing from my God.
22 All his judgments were before me, and I did not put his rules away from me.
23 I will be without blemish with him and will guard myself from my lawlessness.
24 The Lord will repay me according to my righteousness and according to the cleanness of my hands before his eyes.
25 With a holy person you will be holy, and with an innocent man you will be innocent.
26 With a chosen person you will be chosen, and with someone crooked you will deal crookedly.
27 You will save a lowly people and humble the eyes of the proud.
28 You will light my lamp, Lord; my God, you will light my darkness.
29 By you I will be rescued from a raiding party, and by my God I will cross over a wall.
30 As for my God, his way is without blemish. The Lord’s words have been refined by fire. He is a defender of all who trust in him.
31 Who is God except the Lord? Who is God except our God?
32 God is the one who wraps me in power and has made my way without blemish.
33 He makes my feet like a deer’s feet and sets me on the heights.
34 He teaches my hands for war, and you made my arms a bronze bow.
35 You gave me the safeguard of my rescue. Your right hand supported me, and your discipline set me upright to the end. Your discipline itself will teach me.
36 You widened my steps beneath me, and my footprints did not weaken.
37 I will pursue my enemies and catch them. I will not turn back until they are gone.
38 I will crush them, and they will not be able to stand; they will fall beneath my feet.
39 You wrapped me in power for war and tripped everyone who rose against me beneath me.
40 You made my enemies turn their backs to me, and you destroyed those who hated me.
41 They cried out, but no one saved them. They cried to the Lord, but he did not hear them.
42 I will grind them like dust before the wind and wear them smooth like mud in the streets.
43 You will rescue me from the people’s disputes and appoint me as head of nations. A people I did not know served me.
44 At the hearing of the ear they obeyed me; foreign sons lied to me.
45 Foreign sons grew old and limped away from their paths.
46 The Lord lives! Blessed is my God! May the God of my rescue be exalted!
47 He is the God who gives me vengeance and subjected peoples beneath me.
48 He rescues me from my angry enemies. You will raise me above those who rise against me and rescue me from an unjust man.
49 Therefore I will give thanks to you among the nations, Lord, and make music to your name.
50 He magnifies the rescues of his king and shows mercy to his anointed one, to David and his offspring forever.