Psalm 18

¹And David sang this song to the Lord on the day the Lord had delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.

²He said: “The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer.

¹¹being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have full endurance and patience, and joyfully

¹⁹We love because He first loved us.

¹In that day you will say: “O Lord, I will praise You. Although You were angry with me, Your anger has turned away, and You have comforted me.

²Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. For the Lord God is my strength and my song, and He also has become my salvation.”

¹³I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

¹I love the Lord, for He has heard my voice—my appeal for mercy.

²Because He has inclined His ear to me, I will call on Him as long as I live.

²He is my steadfast love and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer. He is my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.

⁷My salvation and my honor rest on God, my strong rock; my refuge is in God.

¹⁰The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.

¹⁴May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.

²I will say to the Lord, “You are my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”

²He alone is my rock and my salvation. He is my fortress; I will never be shaken.

¹⁵When he calls out to Me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him.

⁷¹salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us,

³¹What then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

³²He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, freely give us all things?

⁸Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts before Him. God is our refuge. Selah

⁴I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised; so shall I be saved from my enemies.

³Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; His greatness is unsearchable.

³The ropes of death entangled me; the anguish of Sheol overcame me; I was confronted by trouble and sorrow.

⁹Indeed, we felt we were under the sentence of death, in order that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God, who raises the dead.

²⁴When Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but that instead a riot was breaking out, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “You bear the responsibility.”

²⁵All the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!”

³³He took with Him Peter, James, and John, and began to be deeply troubled and distressed.

³⁴Then He said to them, “My soul is consumed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch.”

¹²Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.

¹³They open their jaws against me like lions that roar and maul.

³He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Like one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.

⁴Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows; yet we considered Him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.

¹³For great is Your loving devotion to me; You have delivered me from the depths of Sheol.

¹⁵From my youth I was afflicted and near death. I have borne Your terrors; I am in despair.

¹⁶Your wrath has swept over me; Your terrors have destroyed me.

³For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol.

⁴I am counted among those descending to the Pit. I am like a man without strength.

²⁴But God raised Him from the dead, releasing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep Him in its grip.

¹²For surely no man knows his time: Like fish caught in a cruel net or birds trapped in a snare, so men are ensnared in an evil time that suddenly falls upon them.

³The ropes of death entangled me; the anguish of Sheol overcame me; I was confronted by trouble and sorrow.

¹⁵Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.”

⁷In my distress I called upon the Lord; I cried out to my God. And from His temple He heard my voice, and my cry for help reached His ears.

¹⁵The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are inclined to their cry.

¹A song of ascents. Out of the depths I cry to You, O Lord!

²O Lord, hear my voice; let Your ears be attentive to my plea for mercy.

¹A song of ascents. In my distress I cried to the Lord, and He answered me.

⁴One thing I have asked of the Lord; this is what I desire: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and seek Him in His temple.

⁵For in the day of trouble He will hide me in His shelter; He will conceal me under the cover of His tent; He will set me high upon a rock.

³¹After they had prayed, their meeting place was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

⁷O God, when You went out before Your people, when You marched through the wasteland, Selah

⁸the earth shook and the heavens poured down rain before God, the One on Sinai, before God, the God of Israel.

¹⁹In My zeal and fiery rage I proclaim that on that day there will be a great earthquake in the land of Israel.

²⁰The fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the beasts of the field, every creature that crawls upon the ground, and all mankind on the face of the earth will tremble at My presence. The mountains will be thrown down, the cliffs will collapse, and every wall will fall to the ground.

²⁴I looked at the mountains, and behold, they were quaking; all the hills were swaying.

²⁵About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.

²⁶Suddenly a strong earthquake shook the foundations of the prison. At once all the doors flew open and everyone’s chains came loose.

⁴O Lord, when You went out from Seir, when You marched from the land of Edom, the earth trembled, the heavens poured out rain, and the clouds poured down water.

⁹You will place them in a fiery furnace at the time of Your appearing. In His wrath the Lord will engulf them, and the fire will consume them.

⁶On the wicked He will rain down fiery coals and sulfur; a scorching wind will be their portion.

⁵The mountains quake before Him, and the hills melt away; the earth trembles at His presence—the world and all its dwellers.

⁶Who can withstand His indignation? Who can endure His burning anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; even rocks are shattered before Him.

²So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died in the presence of the Lord.

⁵Part Your heavens, O Lord, and come down; touch the mountains, that they may smoke.

⁶Flash forth Your lightning and scatter them; shoot Your arrows and rout them.

³⁵And fire came forth from the Lord and consumed the 250 men who were offering the incense.

⁵Part Your heavens, O Lord, and come down; touch the mountains, that they may smoke.

⁶Flash forth Your lightning and scatter them; shoot Your arrows and rout them.

²⁶“There is none like the God of Jeshurun, who rides the heavens to your aid, and the clouds in His majesty.

¹⁰But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and its works will be laid bare.

¹⁰He parted the heavens and came down with dark clouds beneath His feet.

²²The Lord spoke these commandments in a loud voice to your whole assembly out of the fire, the cloud, and the deep darkness on the mountain; He added nothing more. And He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.

²³And when you heard the voice out of the darkness while the mountain was blazing with fire, all the heads of your tribes and your elders approached me,

³³From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land.

³laying the beams of His chambers in the waters above, making the clouds His chariot, walking on the wings of the wind.

¹¹He mounted a cherub and flew; He soared on the wings of the wind.

¹²He made darkness a canopy around Him, a gathering of water and thick clouds.

¹The Lord reigns; let the nations tremble! He is enthroned above the cherubim; let the earth quake!

²⁰These were the living creatures I had seen beneath the God of Israel by the River Kebar, and I knew that they were cherubim.

²¹Each had four faces and four wings, with what looked like human hands under their wings.

¹For the choirmaster. To the tune of “The Lilies of the Covenant.” A Psalm of Asaph. Hear us, O Shepherd of Israel, who leads Joseph like a flock; You who sit enthroned between the cherubim, shine forth

⁵and within it was the form of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: They had a human form,

⁶but each had four faces and four wings.

¹¹You came near and stood at the base of the mountain, a mountain blazing with fire to the heavens, with black clouds and deep darkness.

²Clouds and darkness surround Him; righteousness and justice are His throne’s foundation.

²a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like the dawn overspreading the mountains a great and strong army appears, such as never was of old, nor will ever be in ages to come.

⁷You called out in distress, and I rescued you; I answered you from the cloud of thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah

¹He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

⁵For in the day of trouble He will hide me in His shelter; He will conceal me under the cover of His tent; He will set me high upon a rock.

¹¹As they fled before Israel along the descent from Beth-horon to Azekah, the Lord cast down on them large hailstones from the sky, and more of them were killed by the hailstones than by the swords of the Israelites.

²¹And great hailstones weighing almost a hundred pounds each rained down on them from above. And men cursed God for the plague of hail, because it was so horrendous.

⁵While Peter was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him!”

²³So Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and lightning struck the earth. So the Lord rained down hail upon the land of Egypt.

²⁴The hail fell and the lightning continued flashing through it. The hail was so severe that nothing like it had ever been seen in all the land of Egypt from the time it became a nation.

²There He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.

¹³From the brightness of His presence coals of fire blazed forth.

¹⁴The Lord thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded.

⁷At Your rebuke the waters fled; at the sound of Your thunder they hurried away—

¹⁰As the Philistines drew near to fight against Israel, Samuel was offering up the burnt offering. But that day the Lord thundered loudly against the Philistines and threw them into such confusion that they fled before Israel.

¹⁰May burning coals fall on them; may they be thrown into the fire, into the miry pits, never to rise again.

³The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders; the Lord is heard over many waters.

⁴The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is majestic.

⁵Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it to the earth; and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.

¹⁸When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sounding of the ram’s horn, and the mountain enveloped in smoke, they trembled and stood at a distance.

⁶Flash forth Your lightning and scatter them; shoot Your arrows and rout them.

¹¹Sun and moon stood still in their places at the flash of Your flying arrows, at the brightness of Your shining spear.

⁸God brought him out of Egypt with strength like a wild ox, to devour hostile nations and crush their bones, to pierce them with arrows.

⁴For the arrows of the Almighty have pierced me; my spirit drinks in their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me.

¹⁰And the Lord threw them into confusion before Israel, who defeated them in a great slaughter at Gibeon, pursued them along the ascent to Beth-horon, and struck them down as far as Azekah and Makkedah.

²³I will heap disasters upon them; I will spend My arrows against them.

⁹He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up; He led them through the depths as through a desert.

⁸At the blast of Your nostrils the waters piled up; like a wall the currents stood firm; the depths congealed in the heart of the sea.

⁹By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of His anger they are consumed.

⁶At Your rebuke, O God of Jacob, both horse and rider lie stunned.

²Hear, O mountains, the Lord’s indictment, you enduring foundations of the earth. For the Lord has a case against His people, and He will argue it against Israel:

¹⁶The channels of the sea appeared, and the foundations of the world were exposed at the rebuke of the Lord, at the blast of the breath of His nostrils.

¹⁷He reached down from on high and took hold of me; He drew me out of deep waters.

⁷Reach down from on high; set me free and rescue me from the deep waters, from the grasp of foreigners,

³He reaches down from heaven and saves me; He rebukes those who trample me. Selah God sends forth His loving devotion and His truth.

⁵The waters engulfed me to take my life; the watery depths closed around me; the seaweed wrapped around my head.

⁶To the roots of the mountains I descended; the earth beneath me barred me in forever! But You raised my life from the pit, O Lord my God!

⁴³You have delivered me from the strife of the people; You have made me the head of nations; a people I had not known shall serve me.

⁶Therefore let all the godly pray to You while You may be found. Surely when great waters rise, they will not come near.

¹⁴Now since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity, so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil,

¹⁵and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

⁹His anger has torn me and opposed me; He gnashes His teeth at me. My adversary pierces me with His eyes.

¹⁰All my bones will exclaim, “Who is like You, O Lord, who delivers the afflicted from the aggressor, the poor and needy from the robber?”

⁶Listen to my cry, for I am brought quite low. Rescue me from my pursuers, for they are too strong for me.

⁴Those who hate me without cause outnumber the hairs of my head; many are those who would destroy me—my enemies for no reason. Though I did not steal, I must repay.

⁵You know my folly, O God, and my guilt is not hidden from You.

¹⁰Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.

¹¹Put on the full armor of God, so that you can make your stand against the devil’s schemes.

¹⁰Because of the violence against your brother Jacob, you will be covered with shame and cut off forever.

¹¹On the day you stood aloof while strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gate and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were just like one of them.

¹¹The Lord of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

¹⁷I will scatter them before the enemy like the east wind. I will show them My back and not My face in the day of their calamity.”

³⁵Vengeance is Mine; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; for their day of disaster is near, and their doom is coming quickly.”

¹⁶But I will sing of Your strength and proclaim Your loving devotion in the morning. For You are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble.

¹⁵but I am fiercely angry with the nations that are at ease. For I was a little angry, but they have added to the calamity.’

⁵In my distress I called to the Lord, and He answered and set me free.

⁸You have not delivered me to the enemy; You have set my feet in the open.

³⁶You broaden the path beneath me so that my ankles do not give way.

¹⁶Indeed, He drew you from the jaws of distress to a spacious and broad place, to a table full of richness.

²He lifted me up from the pit of despair, out of the miry clay; He set my feet upon a rock, and made my footsteps firm.

¹⁸He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from foes too mighty for me.

¹⁹They confronted me in my day of calamity, but the Lord was my support.

⁴He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear deceitfully.

⁴so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

⁸He who plants and he who waters are one in purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.

¹¹Then men will say, “There is surely a reward for the righteous! There is surely a God who judges the earth!”

³⁰He will deliver even one who is not innocent, rescuing him through the cleanness of your hands.”

¹⁸The wicked man earns an empty wage, but he who sows righteousness reaps a true reward.

¹⁰²I have not departed from Your ordinances, for You Yourself have taught me.

¹Of David. Vindicate me, O Lord! For I have walked with integrity; I have trusted in the Lord without wavering.

¹⁶In this hope, I strive always to maintain a clear conscience before God and man.

⁴As for the deeds of men—by the word of Your lips I have avoided the ways of the violent.

¹⁹They went out from us, but they did not belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But their departure made it clear that none of them belonged to us.

³²Now therefore, my sons, listen to me, for blessed are those who keep my ways.

¹³With my lips I proclaim all the judgments of Your mouth.

¹¹²I have inclined my heart to perform Your statutes, even to the very end.

³⁰I have chosen the way of truth; I have set Your ordinances before me.

¹¹⁷Uphold me, and I will be saved, that I may always regard Your statutes.

¹²⁸Therefore I admire all Your precepts and hate every false way.

¹⁴Afterward, Jesus found the man at the temple and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you.”

⁸If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than to have two hands and two feet and be thrown into the eternal fire.

⁹And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.

²⁹If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

³⁰And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to depart into hell.

²⁷Turn away from evil and do good, so that you will abide forever.

¹⁷I know, my God, that You test the heart and delight in uprightness. All these things I have given willingly and with an upright heart, and now I have seen Your people who are present here giving joyfully and willingly to You.

²³May the Lord repay every man for his righteousness and faithfulness. For the Lord delivered you into my hand today, but I would not extend my hand against the Lord’s anointed.

⁷For the Lord is righteous; He loves justice. The upright will see His face.

⁴¹Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward.

⁴²And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is My disciple, truly I tell you, he will never lose his reward.”

¹²May the Lord repay your work, and may you receive a rich reward from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have taken refuge.”

²³May the Lord repay every man for his righteousness and faithfulness. For the Lord delivered you into my hand today, but I would not extend my hand against the Lord’s anointed.

¹⁶Men swear by someone greater than themselves, and their oath serves as a confirmation to end all argument.

⁶After all, it is only right for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you,

⁷and to grant relief to you who are oppressed and to us as well. This will take place when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels

⁷Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

¹²and loving devotion to You, O Lord. For You will repay each man according to his deeds.

³³Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had on you?’

³⁴In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should repay all that he owed.

³²then may You hear from heaven and act. May You judge Your servants, condemning the wicked man by bringing down on his own head what he has done, and justifying the righteous man by rewarding him according to his righteousness.

¹⁷They refused to listen and failed to remember the wonders You performed among them. They stiffened their necks and appointed a leader to return them to their bondage in Egypt. But You are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in loving devotion, and You did not forsake them.

²⁵Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ Hear now, O house of Israel: Is it My way that is unjust? Is it not your ways that are unjust?

²⁶If a righteous man turns from his righteousness and practices iniquity, he will die for this. He will die because of the iniquity he has committed.

³⁴He mocks the mockers, but gives grace to the humble.

²³And if in spite of these things you do not accept My discipline, but continue to walk in hostility toward Me,

²⁴then I will act with hostility toward you, and I will strike you sevenfold for your sins.

¹³For judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

²⁷But if in spite of all this you do not obey Me, but continue to walk in hostility toward Me,

²⁸then I will walk in fury against you, and I, even I, will punish you sevenfold for your sins.

¹⁷The cursing that he loved, may it fall on him; the blessing in which he refused to delight, may it be far from him.

¹⁸The cursing that he wore like a coat, may it soak into his body like water, and into his bones like oil.

⁴Or do you disregard the riches of His kindness, tolerance, and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you to repentance?

⁵But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

²Has not My hand made all these things? And so they came into being,” declares the Lord. “This is the one I will esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, who trembles at My word.

¹⁵For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in a high and holy place, and with the oppressed and humble in spirit, to restore the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the contrite.

⁵Listen, my beloved brothers: Has not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom He promised those who love Him?

²⁸You save an afflicted people, but Your eyes are on the haughty to bring them down.

⁵Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret, I will put to silence; the one with haughty eyes and a proud heart, I will not endure.

⁹The expression on their faces testifies against them, and like Sodom they flaunt their sin; they do not conceal it. Woe to them, for they have brought disaster upon themselves.

²⁹For You, O Lord, are my lamp; the Lord lights up my darkness.

³when His lamp shone above my head, and by His light I walked through the darkness,

¹⁶I will lead the blind by a way they did not know; I will guide them on unfamiliar paths. I will turn darkness into light before them and rough places into level ground. These things I will do for them, and I will not forsake them.

¹⁶the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.”

⁷⁹to shine on those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”

⁹But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

³⁰For in You I can charge an army; with my God I can scale a wall.

¹⁰Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.

¹¹Put on the full armor of God, so that you can make your stand against the devil’s schemes.

⁹But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me.

¹⁰That is why, for the sake of Christ, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

²¹To the one who overcomes, I will grant the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.

¹⁵And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

¹⁰But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace to me was not in vain. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

⁴He is the Rock, His work is perfect; all His ways are just. A God of faithfulness without injustice, righteous and upright is He.

⁵Every word of God is flawless; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.

³¹As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is flawless. He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him.

¹¹For the Lord God is a sun and a shield; the Lord gives grace and glory; He withholds no good thing from those who walk with integrity.

¹²O Lord of Hosts, how blessed is the man who trusts in You!

⁶The words of the Lord are flawless, like silver refined in a furnace, like gold purified sevenfold.

³and they sang the song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb: “Great and wonderful are Your works, O Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the nations!

³¹For their rock is not like our Rock, even our enemies concede.

⁸O Lord, there is none like You among the gods, nor any works like Yours.

⁵I am the Lord, and there is no other; there is no God but Me. I will equip you for battle, though you have not known Me,

³²For who is God besides the Lord? And who is the Rock except our God?

³⁹See now that I am He; there is no God besides Me. I bring death and I give life; I wound and I heal, and there is no one who can deliver from My hand.

²There is no one holy like the Lord. Indeed, there is no one besides You! And there is no Rock like our God.

⁵I am the Lord, and there is no other; there is no God but Me. I will equip you for battle, though you have not known Me,

⁵Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim that anything comes from us, but our competence comes from God.

³³God is my strong fortress, and He makes my way clear.

⁷The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart rejoices, and I give thanks to Him with my song.

²I will say to the Lord, “You are my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”

¹The Lord reigns! He is robed in majesty; the Lord has clothed and armed Himself with strength. The world indeed is firmly established; it cannot be moved.

¹⁹God the Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like those of a deer; He makes me walk upon the heights! For the choirmaster. With stringed instruments.

¹³He made him ride on the heights of the land and fed him the produce of the field. He nourished him with honey from the rock and oil from the flinty crag,

²⁹Blessed are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord? He is the shield that protects you, the sword in which you boast. Your enemies will cower before you, and you shall trample their high places.”

¹⁸The three sons of Zeruiah were there: Joab, Abishai, and Asahel. Now Asahel was fleet of foot like a wild gazelle,

¹⁴The Lord thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded.

¹Of David. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.

⁹He makes wars to cease throughout the earth; He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; He burns the shields in the fire.

¹This is what the Lord says to Cyrus His anointed, whose right hand I have grasped to subdue nations before him, to disarm kings, to open the doors before him, so that the gates will not be shut:

⁶a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, and a strength to those who repel the onslaught at the gate.

³⁶You have given me Your shield of salvation, and Your gentleness exalts me.

³⁵This is what the Lord of Hosts says: “Behold, I will shatter Elam’s bow, the mainstay of their might.

³⁶You have given me Your shield of salvation, and Your gentleness exalts me.

¹⁷But the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peace-loving, gentle, accommodating, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and sincere.

¹⁸Peacemakers who sow in peace reap the fruit of righteousness.

⁷The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart rejoices, and I give thanks to Him with my song.

²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

²³gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

¹Now by the mildness and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you—I, Paul, who am humble when face to face with you, but bold when away.

²⁹Blessed are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord? He is the shield that protects you, the sword in which you boast. Your enemies will cower before you, and you shall trample their high places.”

¹²When you walk, your steps will not be impeded; when you run, you will not stumble.

³⁷You broaden the path beneath me so that my ankles do not give way.

¹⁶Indeed, He drew you from the jaws of distress to a spacious and broad place, to a table full of richness.

¹For the choirmaster. With stringed instruments. A Psalm of David. Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved my distress; show me grace and hear my prayer.

⁵⁰But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished!

⁷His vigorous stride is shortened, and his own schemes trip him up.

¹⁰Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush Him and to cause Him to suffer; and when His soul is made a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand.

¹¹After the anguish of His soul, He will see the light of life and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant will justify many, and He will bear their iniquities.

⁵Through You we repel our foes; through Your name we trample our enemies.

²⁰But the wicked and enemies of the Lord will perish like the glory of the fields. They will vanish; like smoke they will fade away.

³When my enemies retreat, they stumble and perish before You.

¹Who is this coming from Edom, from Bozrah with crimson-stained garments? Who is this robed in splendor, marching in the greatness of His strength? “It is I, proclaiming vindication, mighty to save.”

²Why are Your clothes red, and Your garments like one who treads the winepress?

¹⁹Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies assembled to wage war against the One seated on the horse, and against His army.

²⁰But the beast was captured along with the false prophet, who on its behalf had performed signs deceiving those who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. Both the beast and the false prophet were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur.

¹²There the evildoers lie fallen, thrown down and unable to rise.

¹Some time later, the king of the Ammonites died and was succeeded by his son Hanun.

²And David said, “I will show kindness to Hanun son of Nahash, just as his father showed kindness to me.” So David sent some of his servants to console Hanun concerning his father. But when they arrived in the land of the Ammonites,

¹Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, “Here we are, your own flesh and blood.

²Even in times past, while Saul was king over us, you were the one who led Israel out and brought them back. And to you the Lord said, ‘You will shepherd My people Israel, and you will be ruler over them.’”

¹⁵Once again the Philistines waged war against Israel, and David and his servants went down and fought against the Philistines. But David became exhausted.

¹⁶Then Ishbi-benob, a descendant of Rapha, whose bronze spear weighed three hundred shekels and who was bearing a new sword, resolved to kill David.

⁷There the people of Israel were defeated by David’s servants, and the slaughter was great that day—twenty thousand men.

⁸The battle spread over the whole countryside, and that day the forest devoured more people than the sword.

⁴⁹Then David reached into his bag, took out a stone, and slung it, striking the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground.

⁵⁰Thus David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him.

⁴⁰You have armed me with strength for battle; You have subdued my foes beneath me.

⁴¹You have made my enemies retreat before me; I destroyed those who hated me.

³²It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way clear.

²⁵For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.

²⁶The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

¹⁴This is what the Lord says: “The products of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush, along with the Sabeans, men of stature, will come over to you and will be yours; they will trudge behind you; they will come over in chains and bow down to you. They will confess to you: ‘God is indeed with you, and there is no other; there is no other God.’”

²²And God put everything under His feet and made Him head over everything for the church,

²¹Evil will slay the wicked, and the haters of the righteous will be condemned.

¹²For You will put them to flight when Your bow is trained upon them.

²³He will bring upon them their own iniquity and destroy them for their wickedness. The Lord our God will destroy them.

²⁸Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will earnestly seek me, but will not find me.

⁹Will God hear his cry when distress comes upon him?

¹⁵When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you multiply your prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood.

²²Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you to pieces, with no one to rescue you:

¹²There they cry out, but He does not answer, because of the pride of evil men.

¹³Surely God does not listen to empty pleas, and the Almighty does not take note of it.

⁴²They looked, but there was no one to save them—to the Lord, but He did not answer.

⁴³I ground them as the dust of the earth; I crushed and trampled them like mud in the streets.

⁶I will send him against a godless nation; I will dispatch him against a people destined for My rage, to take spoils and seize plunder, and to trample them down like clay in the streets.

¹⁵Behold, I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff.

¹⁶You will winnow them, and a wind will carry them away; a gale will scatter them. But you will rejoice in the Lord; you will glory in the Holy One of Israel.

⁵They will be like mighty men in battle, trampling the enemy in the mire of the streets. They will fight because the Lord is with them, and they will put the horsemen to shame.

⁷Jehoahaz had no army left, except fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and ten thousand foot soldiers, because the king of Aram had destroyed them and made them like the dust at threshing.

²Who has aroused one from the east and called him to his feet in righteousness? He hands nations over to him and subdues kings before him. He turns them to dust with his sword, to windblown chaff with his bow.

¹⁰For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain. But Moab will be trampled in his place as straw is trodden into the dung pile.

⁵Surely you will summon a nation you do not know, and nations who do not know you will run to you. For the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, has bestowed glory on you.”

¹Now the war between the house of Saul and the house of David was protracted. And David grew stronger and stronger, while the house of Saul grew weaker and weaker.

¹⁵so He will sprinkle many nations. Kings will shut their mouths because of Him. For they will see what they have not been told, and they will understand what they have not heard.

¹⁰Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

⁹And all the people throughout the tribes of Israel were arguing, “The king rescued us from the hand of our enemies and delivered us from the hand of the Philistines, but now he has fled the land because of Absalom.

²²And God put everything under His feet and made Him head over everything for the church,

³Say to God, “How awesome are Your deeds! So great is Your power that Your enemies cower before You.

¹⁵Those who hate the Lord would feign obedience, and their doom would last forever.

⁴⁴You have delivered me from the strife of my people; You have preserved me as the head of nations; a people I had not known shall serve me.

⁴⁵Foreigners cower before me; when they hear me, they obey me.

²⁹Blessed are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord? He is the shield that protects you, the sword in which you boast. Your enemies will cower before you, and you shall trample their high places.”

³⁰Rebuke the beast in the reeds, the herd of bulls among the calves of the nations, until it submits, bringing bars of silver. Scatter the nations who delight in war.

⁸The Lord has sworn by His right hand and by His mighty arm: “Never again will I give your grain to your enemies for food, nor will foreigners drink the new wine for which you have toiled.

¹⁷They will lick the dust like a snake, like reptiles slithering on the ground. They will come trembling from their strongholds in the presence of the Lord our God; they will tremble in fear of You.

¹¹For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its flower falls and its beauty is lost. So too, the rich man will fade away in the midst of his pursuits.

¹⁶And they said to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the One seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.

⁴The earth mourns and withers; the world languishes and fades; the exalted of the earth waste away.

⁴⁷The Lord lives, and blessed be my Rock! And may God, the Rock of my salvation, be exalted—

²The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer. My God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

⁵Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; may Your glory cover all the earth.

¹⁸the Living One. I was dead, and behold, now I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of Death and of Hades.

¹⁹In a little while the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you also will live.

⁴⁷and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!

³He subdues nations beneath us, and peoples under our feet.

¹⁹Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but leave room for God’s wrath. For it is written: “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, says the Lord.”

²He is my steadfast love and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer. He is my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.

²The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and full of wrath. The Lord takes vengeance on His foes and reserves wrath for His enemies.

⁴⁸the God who avenges me and brings down nations beneath me,

³⁵Vengeance is Mine; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; for their day of disaster is near, and their doom is coming quickly.”

¹¹May no slanderer be established in the land; may calamity hunt down the man of violence.

¹⁴The arrogant rise against me, O God; a band of ruthless men seeks my life; they have no regard for You.

⁴Guard me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked. Keep me safe from men of violence who scheme to make me stumble.

¹For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. Rescue me, O Lord, from evil men. Protect me from men of violence,

¹For the choirmaster. To the tune of “Do Not Destroy.” A Miktam of David, when Saul sent men to watch David’s house in order to kill him. Deliver me from my enemies, O my God; protect me from those who rise against me.

²Deliver me from workers of iniquity, and save me from men of bloodshed.

¹⁶His trouble recoils on himself, and his violence falls on his own head.

⁹so that the Gentiles may glorify God for His mercy. As it is written: “Therefore I will praise You among the Gentiles; I will sing hymns to Your name.”

⁵⁰Therefore I will praise You, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing praises to Your name.

⁵¹Great salvation He brings to His king. He shows loving devotion to His anointed, to David and his descendants forever.”

⁴All the kings of the earth will give You thanks, O Lord, when they hear the words of Your mouth.

¹A song. A Psalm of David. My heart is steadfast, O God; I will sing and make music with all my being.

¹²that my heart may sing Your praises and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks forever.

¹³I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who made the good confession in His testimony before Pontius Pilate:

¹⁰to Him who gives victory to kings, who frees His servant David from the deadly sword.

¹⁰For the sake of Your servant David, do not reject Your anointed one.

¹³He will build a house for My Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

³You said, “I have made a covenant with My chosen one, I have sworn to David My servant:

⁴‘I will establish your offspring forever and build up your throne for all generations.’” Selah

²⁹For God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable.

³¹Behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus.

³²He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David,