Psalms 18
David praises the Lord for delivering him from his enemies and Saul, calling him his strength, refuge, and liberator. He describes the Lord's power and wrath, saying the earth shook and the foundations of the mountains were disturbed when he was angry. David credits the Lord for rescuing him from his enemies and setting him in a wide place, and says the Lord will reward him according to his justice and purity of hands. He also acknowledges the Lord's power to save the humble and bring down the arrogant, and says the Lord has given him strength and protection for battle.
Unto the end. For David, the servant of the Lord, who spoke the words of this canticle to the Lord, in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. And he said: I will love you, O Lord my strength.The Lord is my firmament, my refuge, and my liberator. My God is my helper, and I hope in him: my protector, and the horn of my salvation, and my supportPraising, I will call upon the Lord. And I will be saved from my enemiesThe sorrows of death surrounded me, and the torrents of iniquity dismayed meThe sorrows of Hell encompassed me, and the snares of death intercepted meIn my tribulation, I called upon the Lord, and I cried out to my God. And he listened to my voice from his holy temple. And my cry in his presence entered into his earsThe earth was shaken, and it trembled. The foundations of the mountains were disturbed, and they were shaken, because he was angry with themA smoke ascended by his wrath, and a fire flared up from his face: coals were kindled by itHe bent the heavens, and they descended. And darkness was under his feetAnd he ascended upon the cherubim, and he flew: he flew upon the feathers of the windsAnd he set darkness as his hiding place, with his tabernacle all around him: dark waters in the clouds of the airAt the brightness that was before his sight, the clouds crossed by, with hail and coals of fireAnd the Lord thundered from heaven, and the Most High uttered his voice: hail and coals of fireAnd he sent forth his arrows and scattered them. He multiplied lightnings, and he set them in disarrayThen the fountains of waters appeared, and the foundations of the world were revealed, by your rebuke, O Lord, by the inspiration of the Spirit of your wrathHe sent from on high, and he accepted me. And he took me up, out of many watersHe rescued me from my strongest enemies, and from those who hated me. For they had been too strong for meThey intercepted me in the day of my affliction, and the Lord became my protectorAnd he led me out, into a wide place. He accomplished my salvation, because he willed meAnd the Lord will reward me according to my justice, and he will repay me according to the purity of my handsFor I have preserved the ways of the Lord, and I have not behaved impiously before my GodFor all his judgments are in my sight, and his justice, I have not pushed away from meAnd I will be immaculate together with him, and I will keep myself from my iniquityAnd the Lord will reward me according to my justice and according to the purity of my hands before his eyesWith the holy, you will be holy, and with the innocent, you will be innocentand with the elect, you will be elect, and with the perverse, you will be perverseFor you will save the humble people, but you will bring down the eyes of the arrogantFor you illuminate my lamp, O Lord. My God, enlighten my darknessFor in you, I will be delivered from temptation; and with my God, I will climb over a wallAs for my God, his way is undefiled. The eloquence of the Lord has been examined by fire. He is the protector of all who hope in himFor who is God, except the Lord? And who is God, except our GodIt is God who has wrapped me with virtue and made my way immaculateIt is he who has perfected my feet, like the feet of deer, and who stations me upon the heightsIt is he who trains my hands for battle. And you have set my arms like a bow of brassAnd you have given me the protection of your salvation. And your right hand sustains me. And your discipline has corrected me unto the end. And your discipline itself will teach meYou have expanded my footsteps under me, and my tracks have not been weakenedI will pursue my enemies and apprehend them. And I will not turn back until they have failedI will break them, and they will not be able to stand. They will fall under my feetAnd you have wrapped me with virtue for the battle. And those rising up against me, you have subdued under meAnd you have given the back of my enemies to me, and you have destroyed those who hated meThey cried out, but there was none to save them, to the Lord, but he did not heed themAnd I will crush them into dust before the face of the wind, so that I will obliterate them like the mud in the streetsYou will rescue me from the contradictions of the people. You will set me at the head of the GentilesA people I did not know has served me. As soon as their ears heard, they were obedient to meThe sons of foreigners have been deceitful to me, the sons of foreigners have grown weak with time, and they have wavered from their pathsThe Lord lives, and blessed is my God, and may the God of my salvation be exaltedO God, who vindicates me and who subdues the people under me, my liberator from my enraged enemiesAnd you will exalt me above those who rise up against me. From the iniquitous man, you will rescue meBecause of this, O Lord, I will confess to you among the nations, and I will compose a psalm to your namemagnifying the salvation of his king, and showing mercy to David, his Christ, and to his offspring, even for all time
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