Psalms 18:4-25

⁴The bands of death encompassed me, and torrents of Belial made me afraid.

⁵The bands of Sheol surrounded me, the cords of death encountered me.

⁶In my distress I called upon Jehovah, and I cried out to my God; he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, into his ears.

⁷Then the earth shook and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains trembled and shook, because he was wroth.

⁸There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals burned forth from it.

⁹And he bowed the heavens, and came down; and darkness was under his feet.

¹⁰And he rode upon a cherub and did fly; yea, he flew fast upon the wings of the wind.

¹¹He made darkness his secret place, his tent round about him: darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.

¹²From the brightness before him his thick clouds passed forth: hail and coals of fire.

¹³And Jehovah thundered in the heavens, and the Most High uttered his voice: hail and coals of fire.

¹⁴And he sent his arrows, and scattered mine enemies; and he shot forth lightnings, and discomfited them.

¹⁵And the beds of the waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were uncovered at thy rebuke, Jehovah, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.

¹⁶He reached forth from above, he took me, he drew me out of great waters:

¹⁷He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them that hated me; for they were mightier than I.

¹⁸They encountered me in the day of my calamity, but Jehovah was my stay.

¹⁹And he brought me forth into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.

²⁰Jehovah hath rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.

²¹For I have kept the ways of Jehovah, and have not wickedly departed from my God.

²²For all his ordinances were before me, and I did not put away his statutes from me;

²³And I was upright with him, and kept myself from mine iniquity.

²⁴And Jehovah hath recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.

²⁵With the gracious thou dost shew thyself gracious; with the upright man thou dost shew thyself upright;