Psalm 18

¹I love you, LORD, my strength.

²The 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.

³I call on the LORD, who is worthy to be praised;

and I am saved from my enemies.

⁴The cords of death surrounded me.

The floods of ungodliness made me afraid.

⁵The cords of Sheol were around me.

The snares of death came on me.

⁶In my distress I called on the LORD,

and cried to my God.

He heard my voice out of his temple.

My cry before him came into his ears.

⁷Then the earth shook and trembled.

The foundations also of the mountains quaked and were shaken,

because he was angry.

⁸Smoke went out of his nostrils.

Consuming fire came out of his mouth.

Coals were kindled by it.

⁹He bowed the heavens also, and came down.

Thick darkness was under his feet.

¹⁰He rode on a cherub, and flew.

Yes, he soared on the wings of the wind.

¹¹He made darkness his hiding place, his pavilion around him,

darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.

¹²At the brightness before him his thick clouds passed,

hailstones and coals of fire.

¹³The LORD also thundered in the sky.

The Most High uttered his voice:

hailstones and coals of fire.

¹⁴He sent out his arrows, and scattered them.

He routed them with great lightning bolts.

¹⁵Then the channels of waters appeared.

The foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke, LORD,

at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.

¹⁶He sent from on high.

He took me.

He drew me out of many waters.

¹⁷He delivered me from my strong enemy,

from those who hated me; for they were too mighty for me.

¹⁸They came on me in the day of my calamity,

but the LORD was my support.

¹⁹He brought me out also into a large place.

He delivered me, because he delighted in me.

²⁰The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness.

According to the cleanness of my hands, he has recompensed me.

²¹For I have kept the ways of the LORD,

and have not wickedly departed from my God.

²²For all his ordinances were before me.

I didn’t put away his statutes from me.

²³I was also blameless with him.

I kept myself from my iniquity.

²⁴Therefore the LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness,

according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight.

²⁵With the merciful you will show yourself merciful.

With the perfect man, you will show yourself perfect.

²⁶With the pure, you will show yourself pure.

With the crooked you will show yourself shrewd.

²⁷For you will save the afflicted people,

but the arrogant eyes you will bring down.

²⁸For you will light my lamp, LORD.

My God will light up my darkness.

²⁹For by you, I advance through a troop.

By my God, I leap over a wall.

³⁰As for God, his way is perfect.

The LORD’s word is tried.

He is a shield to all those who take refuge in him.

³¹For who is God, except the LORD?

Who is a rock, besides our God,

³²the God who arms me with strength, and makes my way perfect?

³³He makes my feet like deer’s feet,

and sets me on my high places.

³⁴He teaches my hands to war,

so that my arms bend a bow of bronze.

³⁵You have also given me the shield of your salvation.

Your right hand sustains me.

Your gentleness has made me great.

³⁶You have enlarged my steps under me,

My feet have not slipped.

³⁷I will pursue my enemies, and overtake them.

I won’t turn away until they are consumed.

³⁸I will strike them through, so that they will not be able to rise.

They shall fall under my feet.

³⁹For you have armed me with strength to the battle.

You have subdued under me those who rose up against me.

⁴⁰You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me,

that I might cut off those who hate me.

⁴¹They cried, but there was no one to save;

even to the LORD, but he didn’t answer them.

⁴²Then I beat them small as the dust before the wind.

I cast them out as the mire of the streets.

⁴³You 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.

⁴⁴As soon as they hear of me they shall obey me.

The foreigners shall submit themselves to me.

⁴⁵The foreigners shall fade away,

and shall come trembling out of their strongholds.

⁴⁶The LORD lives! Blessed be my rock.

Exalted be the God of my salvation,

⁴⁷even the God who executes vengeance for me,

and subdues peoples under me.

⁴⁸He rescues me from my enemies.

Yes, you lift me up above those who rise up against me.

You deliver me from the violent man.

⁴⁹Therefore I will give thanks to you, LORD, amongst the nations,

and will sing praises to your name.

⁵⁰He gives great deliverance to his king,

and shows loving kindness to his anointed,

to David and to his offspring, forever more.