Psalm 18:title–15

For the choir director; by David, the servant of the Lord. He sang this song to the Lord when the Lord rescued him from all his enemies, especially from Saul. He said, 

¹I love you, O Lord, my strength. 

²The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my Savior, 

my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, 

my shield, and the strength of my salvation, 

my stronghold. 

³The Lord should be praised. 

I called on him, and I was saved from my enemies. 

⁴The ropes of death had become tangled around me. 

The torrents of destruction had overwhelmed me. 

⁵The ropes of the grave had surrounded me. 

The clutches of death had confronted me. 

⁶I called on the Lord in my distress. 

I cried to my God for help. 

He heard my voice from his temple, 

and my cry for help reached his ears. 

⁷Then the earth shook and quaked. 

Even the foundations of the mountains trembled. 

They shook violently because he was angry. 

⁸Smoke went up from his nostrils, 

and a raging fire came out of his mouth. 

Glowing coals flared up from it. 

⁹He spread apart the heavens 

and came down with a dark cloud under his feet. 

¹⁰He rode on one of the angels^bas he flew, 

and he soared on the wings of the wind. 

¹¹He made the darkness his hiding place, 

the dark rain clouds his covering. 

¹²Out of the brightness in front of him, 

those rain clouds passed by with hailstones and lightning. 

¹³The Lord thundered in the heavens. 

The Most High made his voice heard with hailstones and lightning. 

¹⁴He shot his arrows and scattered them. 

He flashed streaks of lightning and threw them into confusion. 

¹⁵Then the ocean floor could be seen. 

The foundations of the earth were laid bare 

at your stern warning, O Lord, 

at the blast of the breath from your nostrils.