Psalm 18:1-24

Thanksgiving for Deliverance

18¹ I love you, Yahweh, my strength. ² Yahweh 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. ³ I call on Yahweh, who is worthy to be praised;
and I am saved from my enemies. ⁴ The cords of death surrounded me.
The floods of ungodliness made me afraid. ⁵ The cords of Sheol were around me.
The snares of death came on me. ⁶ In my distress I called on Yahweh,
and cried to my God.
He heard my voice out of his temple.
My cry before him came into his ears. ⁷ Then the earth shook and trembled.
The foundations also of the mountains quaked and were shaken,
because he was angry. ⁸ Smoke went out of his nostrils.
Consuming fire came out of his mouth.
Coals were kindled by it. ⁹ He bowed the heavens also, and came down.
Thick darkness was under his feet. ¹⁰ He rode on a cherub, and flew.
Yes, he soared on the wings of the wind. ¹¹ He made darkness his hiding place, his pavilion around him,
darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies. ¹² At the brightness before him his thick clouds passed,
hailstones and coals of fire. ¹³ Yahweh also thundered in the sky.
The Most High uttered his voice:
hailstones and coals of fire. ¹⁴ He sent out his arrows, and scattered them;
Yes, great lightning bolts, and routed them. ¹⁵ Then the channels of waters appeared.
The foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke, Yahweh,
at the blast of the breath of your nostrils. ¹⁶ He sent from on high.
He took me.
He drew me out of many waters. ¹⁷ He delivered me from my strong enemy,
from those who hated me; for they were too mighty for me. ¹⁸ They came on me in the day of my calamity,
but Yahweh was my support. ¹⁹ He brought me forth also into a large place.
He delivered me, because he delighted in me.

²⁰ Yahweh has rewarded me according to my righteousness.
According to the cleanness of my hands has he recompensed me. ²¹ For I have kept the ways of Yahweh,
and have not wickedly departed from my God. ²² For all his ordinances were before me.
I didn’t put away his statutes from me. ²³ I was also blameless with him.
I kept myself from my iniquity. ²⁴ Therefore Yahweh has rewarded me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight.