To the chief musician, a psalm of David, the servant of the LORD, who spoke to the LORD the words of this song on the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul: And he said,
18
📚✭I will love you, O LORD,my strength.
2 📚The LORD is my rock✭,
and my fortress,
and my deliverer;
my God, my strength in
whom I will trust,
my shield, and the horn
of my salvation,
and my high refuge.
3 📚✭I will call to the LORD,
who is worthy to
be praised;
so I will be saved
from my enemies.
4 📚✭The sorrows of death
surrounded me,
and the floods of ungodliness
made me afraid.
5 📚The sorrows of hell✭
surrounded me;
the snares of death
confronted me.
6 📚In my distress
I called to the LORD,
and cried out to my God.
He heard my voice
from his temple,
and my cry came before him,
into his ears.
7 📚✭Then the earth shook
and trembled;
also the foundations
of the hills moved
and were shaken,
because he was angry.
8 📚✭A smoke went up out
of his nostrils,
and devouring fire out
of his mouth.
Coals were kindled by it.
9 📚✭He bowed the heavens also,
and came down,
and darkness was under
his feet.
10 📚And he rode on a cherub✭
and flew;
yes, he flew on the wings
of the wind.
11 📚✭He made darkness
his secret place.
His canopy around him
was dark waters
and thick clouds
of the skies.
12 📚From the brightness that was
before him his thick clouds
passed with hailstones
and coals of fire.
13 📚The LORD also thundered
in the heavens,
and the Most High uttered
his voice,
hailstones and coals
of fire✭.
14 📚He sent out his arrows
and scattered them,
and he shot out lightning flashes
and routed them.
15 📚Then the channels
of waters were seen,
and the foundations
of the world were uncovered
at your rebuke,
O LORD, at the blast of breath
from your nostrils.
16 📚✭He stretched down
from above,
he took hold of me,
he drew me out of
many waters.
17 📚He delivered me from
my strong enemy,
and from those
who hated me;
for they were too strong
for me.
18 📚✭They confronted me
in the day of my calamity;
but the LORD was my support.
19 📚✭He also brought me out
into a broad place;
he delivered me,
because he delighted in me.
20 📚✭The LORD rewarded me
according to my
righteousness;
according to the cleanness
of my hands he has repaid me.
21 📚For I have kept the ways
of the LORD,
and have not wickedly departed
from my God.
22 📚For all his judgments were
before me,
and I did not put away
his statutes from me.
23 📚✭I was also upright before him,
and I kept myself from my sin.
24 📚Therefore the LORD has repaid me
according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness
of my hands in his sight.
25 📚✭With the merciful you will show
yourself merciful;
with an upright man you will show
yourself upright;
26 📚With the pure you will show
yourself pure;
and with the twisters✭ you will show
yourself able to twist.
27 📚✭For you will save lowly people;
but will bring down haughty looks.
28 📚For you will make my lamp✭
give light;
the LORD my God will enlighten✭
my darkness.
29 📚For by you I have run
through a troop,
and by my God I have leaped
over a wall.
30 📚✭As for God,
his way is perfect.
The word of the Lord is tested
and proven.
He is a shield to all
those who trust in him.
31 📚✭For who is God
except the LORD?
Or who is a rock✭
except our God?
32 📚✭It is God who arms me
with strength,
and makes my way perfect.
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 can bend
a bow of bronze.
35 📚✭You have also given me
the shield of your salvation,
and your right hand has
held me up,
and your gentleness has
made me great.
36 📚You have enlarged
my path under me,
so that my feet did not slip.
37 📚✭I have pursued my enemies
and overtaken them.
I did not turn back until
they were consumed.
38 📚I have wounded them
so that they were not able
to rise.
They are fallen under my feet.
39 📚For you have armed me
with strength to the battle.
You have subdued under me
those who rose up against me.
40 📚You have also given me
the necks of my enemies,
so that I might destroy
those who hate me.
41 📚They cried out,
but there was no one to
save them; to the LORD,
but he did not answer them.
42 📚Then I beat them as fine as
the dust before the wind.
I hurled them out like dirt
in the streets.
43 📚✭You have delivered me from the strivings
of the people;
and you have made me
the head of the nations.
A people whom I have
not known will serve me.
44 📚As soon as they hear of me,
they obey me;
the foreigners submit
themselves to me.
45 📚The foreigners fade away,
and frightened come
from their strongholds.
46 📚✭The LORD lives!
Blessed be my rock!
Let the God of my salvation
be exalted!
47 📚It is God who
avenges me,
and subdues the peoples
under me.
48 📚He delivers me
from my enemies,
and you lift me up
above those who rise up
against me.
You have delivered me
from the violent man.
49 📚Therefore I will give thanks
to you,
O LORD, among the nations,
and sing praises to
your name.
50 📚✭He gives great deliverance
to his king,
and shows mercy
to his anointed,
to David, and to his offspring
forever.