Psalms 18:4-40

⁴The snares of death encompassed me; The floods of destruction filled me with dismay;

⁵The snares of the underworld surrounded me, And the nets of death seized upon me.

⁶In my distress I called upon the LORD, And cried unto my God; He heard my voice from his palace, And my cry came before him into his ears.

⁷Then the earth quaked and trembled; The foundations of the mountains rocked and were shaken, Because his wrath was kindled.

⁸A smoke went up from his nostrils, And fire from his mouth devoured; Burning coals shot forth from him.

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

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

¹¹And he made darkness his covering; His pavilion round about him was dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.

¹²At the brightness before him, his thick clouds passed away; Then came hailstones and coals of fire.

¹³The LORD also thundered from heaven, And the Most High uttered his voice, Amid hailstones and coals of fire.

¹⁴He sent forth his arrows, and scattered them; Continual lightnings, and discomfited them.

¹⁵Then the channels of the deep were seen, And the foundations of the earth were laid bare At thy rebuke, O LORD! At the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.

¹⁶He stretched forth his hand from above; he took me, And drew me out of deep waters.

¹⁷He delivered me from my strong enemy; From my adversaries, who were too powerful for me.

¹⁸They fell upon me in the day of my calamity; But the LORD was my stay.

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

²⁰The LORD hath rewarded me according to my righteous; According to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.

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

²²For all his laws were in my sight; I did not put away his statutes from me.

²³I was upright before him, And kept myself from iniquity.

²⁴Therefore hath the LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness, According to the cleanness of my hands before his eyes.

²⁵To the merciful thou showest thyself merciful; To the upright thou showest thyself upright;

²⁶To the pure thou showest thyself pure, And to the perverse thou showest thyself perverse.

²⁷For thou savest the afflicted people, But the haughty countenance thou bringest down.

²⁸Thou causest my lamp to shine; Jehovah, my God, enlighteneth my darkness.

²⁹For through thee I have broken through troops; Through my God I have leaped over walls.

³⁰The ways of God are just and true; His word is pure, tried in the fire; He is a shield to all who put their trust in him.

³¹Who, then, is God, save Jehovah? And who is a rock, save our God?

³²It is God that girded me with strength, And made my way plain.

³³He made my feet like the hind's, And set me in my high places;

³⁴He taught my hands to war, So that my arm bent the bow of brass.

³⁵Thou gavest me the shield of thy protection; Thy right hand held me up, And thy goodness made me great.

³⁶Thou didst make a wide path for my steps, So that my feet did not stumble.

³⁷I pursued my enemies and overtook them, And turned not back till I had destroyed them.

³⁸I smote them, so that they could not rise; They fell under my feet.

³⁹Thou didst gird me with strength for the battle; Thou didst cast down my adversaries under me.

⁴⁰Thou didst cause my enemies to turn their backs, So that I destroyed them that hated me.