Psalms 18

¹ I feel deep passion for You, O Yahweh, my Steadfastness, ² O Yahweh, my Crag and my Fastness and my Deliverance! My El, my Rock! I take refuge in Him, My Shield and the Horn of my salvation, my Impregnable Retreat! ³ The One being praised! I call on Yahweh, And I am being saved from my enemies. ⁴ The cables of death have enveloped me, And the torrents of decadence, they frighten me. ⁵ The cables of the unseen, they surrounded me; The traps of death have confronted me. ⁶ In my distress I called on Yahweh, And to my Elohim I implored. From His temple He heard my voice, And my imploring before Him, it came to His ears. ⁷ Then the earth reeled and quaked, And the foundations of the mountains, they were disturbed, And they reeled, for His anger grew hot. ⁸ Smoke ascended from His nostrils, And fire that devours from His mouth; Flashing embers blazed forth from Him. ⁹ He stretched out the heavens and descended, And murkiness was beneath His feet. ¹⁰ He rode on a cherub and flew; So He swooped down on the wings of the wind. ¹¹ He set darkness as His concealment round about Him; His booth was the darkness of waters, the thick clouds of the skies. ¹² Out of the brightness in front of Him His thick clouds passed With hail and flashing embers of fire. ¹³ Then Yahweh thundered from the heavens, And the Supreme, He gave forth His voice With hail and flashing embers of fire. ¹⁴ He sent off His arrows, with which He scattered them, And He multiplied bolts of lightning, with which He discomfited them. ¹⁵ So the channels of water were made to appear, And the foundations of the habitance were revealed, By Your rebuke, O Yahweh, By the breath of the wind of Your nostrils. ¹⁶ He sent from the height; He took me; He removed me from many waters; ¹⁷ He rescued me from my strong enemy And from those hating me; For they were tougher than I. ¹⁸ They confronted me in the day of my calamity, Yet Yahweh became my Stay. ¹⁹ He brought me forth into a wide place; He liberated me, for He has delighted in me. ²⁰ Yahweh requited me according to my righteousness; According to the purity of my hands He recompensed me. ²¹ For I have kept the ways of Yahweh, And I have not been wicked by turning from my Elohim. ²² For all His judgments have been in front of me, And I have not put away His statutes from me. ²³ I have become flawless before Him; Let me keep myself from my depravity. ²⁴ Yahweh recompensed me according to my righteousness, According to the purity of my hands in front of His eyes. ²⁵ With the benign one You show Yourself benign, And with a flawless master You show Yourself flawless; ²⁶ With the purified one You show Yourself pure, But with the perverse one You show Yourself cunning. ²⁷ For You Yourself shall save the humbled people, But You shall abase those whose eyes are exalted. ²⁸ Indeed You Yourself shall light up my lamp, O Yahweh; My Elohim, He shall brighten my darkness, ²⁹ So that by You I may run over a stone dike, And by my Elohim I may leap a barricade. ³⁰ The One, El, His way is flawless; The word of Yahweh is refined; He is a Shield to all who are taking refuge in Him. ³¹ For is there any Eloah apart from Yahweh? And is there any Rock except our Elohim? ³² He is the One, El, the One belting me with valor, And He spreads flawlessness on my way, ³³ The One poising my feet like hinds', And on my high-places He causes me to stand. ³⁴ He is the One teaching my hands for the battle, So that my arms may manage a bow of bronze. ³⁵ You gave to me the shield of Your salvation; Your right hand, it braced me, And Your help made me great. ³⁶ You widened my steps beneath me, So that my limbs have not tottered. ³⁷ I pursued my enemies and overtook them, And I did not return until they were finished. ³⁸ I transfixed them, and they were not able to rise. They fell beneath my feet. ³⁹ You belted me with valor for the battle; You bowed beneath me those rising against me. ⁴⁰ As for my enemies, You gave to me the scruff of their necks, And those hating me, I effaced them. ⁴¹ They implored, yet there was no salvation; They called to Yahweh, yet He would not answer them. ⁴² I reduced them to powder like the soil before the face of the wind; Like the mud of the streets I pulverized them. ⁴³ You delivered me from the disputes of the people; You placed me at the head of the nations. A people I had not known, they serve me; ⁴⁴ As soon as the ear is hearing they hearken to me. The sons of the foreigner, they cower before me; ⁴⁵ The sons of the foreigner, they disintegrate, And they come cringing from their enclosures. ⁴⁶ Alive is Yahweh, and being blessed is my Rock; Let the Elohim of my salvation be exalted. ⁴⁷ He is the One, El, Who is rendering vengeance for me, And He subdues the peoples under me, ⁴⁸ The One delivering me from my enemies. Indeed from those rising against me have You safely set me high; From the man of violence have You rescued me. ⁴⁹ Therefore, I shall acclaim You among the nations, O Yahweh, And to Your Name shall I make melody. ⁵⁰ He is the One magnifying the salvations of His king, And showing benignity to His anointed, To David, and to his seed for the eon.