Psalm 18:1-19

Thanksgiving for Deliverance

18¹ I will give you my love, O Lord, my strength. ² The Lord is my Rock, my walled town, and my saviour; my God, my Rock, in him will I put my faith; my breastplate, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. ³ I will send up my cry to the Lord, who is to be praised; so will I be made safe from those who are against me. ⁴ The cords of death were round me, and the seas of evil put me in fear. ⁵ The cords of hell were round me: the nets of death came on me. ⁶ In my trouble my voice went up to the Lord, and my cry to my God: my voice came to his hearing in his holy Temple, and my prayer came before him, even into his ears. ⁷ Then trouble and shock came on the earth; and the bases of the mountains were moved and shaking, because he was angry. ⁸ There went up a smoke from his nose, and a fire of destruction from his mouth: flames were lighted by it. ⁹ The heavens were bent, so that he might come down; and it was dark under his feet. ¹⁰ And he went in flight through the air, seated on a storm-cloud: going quickly on the wings of the wind. ¹¹ He made the dark his secret place; his tent round him was the dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. ¹² Before his shining light his dark clouds went past, raining ice and fire. ¹³ The Lord made thunder in the heavens, and the voice of the Highest was sounding out: a rain of ice and fire. ¹⁴ He sent out his arrows, driving them in all directions; by his flames of fire they were troubled. ¹⁵ Then the deep beds of the waters were seen, and the bases of the world were uncovered, because of your words of wrath, O Lord, because of the breath from your mouth. ¹⁶ He sent from on high, he took me, pulling me out of great waters. ¹⁷ He made me free from my strong hater, and from those who were against me, because they were stronger than I. ¹⁸ They came on me in the day of my trouble; but the Lord was my support. ¹⁹ He took me out into a wide place; he was my saviour because he had delight in me.