Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 18

To the Chief Musician. [A Psalm] of David the servant of the Lord, who spoke the words of this song to the Lord on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. And he said:

¹ I love You fervently and devotedly, O Lord, my Strength.

² The Lord is my Rock, my Fortress, and my Deliverer; my God, my keen and firm Strength in Whom I will trust and take refuge, my Shield, and the Horn of my salvation, my High Tower.^(A)

³ I will call upon the Lord, Who is to be praised; so shall I be saved from my enemies.^(B)

⁴ The cords or bands of death surrounded me, and the streams of ungodliness and the torrents of ruin terrified me.

⁵ The cords of Sheol (the place of the dead) surrounded me; the snares of death confronted and came upon me.

⁶ In my distress [when seemingly closed in] I called upon the Lord and cried to my God; He heard my voice out of His temple (heavenly dwelling place), and my cry came before Him, into His [very] ears.

⁷ Then the earth quaked and rocked, the foundations also of the mountains trembled; they moved and were shaken because He was indignant and angry.

⁸ There went up smoke from His nostrils; and lightning out of His mouth devoured; coals were kindled by it.

⁹ He bowed the heavens also and came down; and thick darkness was under His feet.

¹⁰ And He rode upon a cherub [a storm] and flew [swiftly]; yes, He sped on with the wings of the wind.

¹¹ He made darkness His secret hiding place; as His pavilion (His canopy) round about Him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.

¹² Out of the brightness before Him there broke forth through His thick clouds hailstones and coals of fire.

¹³ The Lord also thundered from the heavens, and the Most High uttered His voice, amid hailstones and coals of fire.

¹⁴ And He sent out His arrows and scattered them; and He flashed forth lightnings and put them to rout.

¹⁵ Then the beds of the sea appeared and the foundations of the world were laid bare at Your rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of Your nostrils.

¹⁶ He reached from on high, He took me; He drew me out of many waters.

¹⁷ He delivered me from my strong enemy and from those who hated and abhorred me, for they were too strong for me.

¹⁸ They confronted and came upon me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my stay and support.

¹⁹ He brought me forth also into a large place; He was delivering me because He was pleased with me and delighted in me.

¹¹ In the year 600 of Noah’s life, in the seventeenth day of the second month, that same day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up and burst forth, and the windows and floodgates of the heavens were opened.

¹² And it rained upon the earth forty days and forty nights.

¹³ On the very same day Noah and Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, went into the ark,

¹⁴ They and every [wild] beast according to its kind, all the livestock according to their kinds, every moving thing that creeps on the land according to its kind, and every fowl according to its kind, every winged thing of every sort.

¹⁵ And they went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there were the breath and spirit of life.

¹⁶ And they that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded [Noah]; and the Lord shut him in and closed [the door] round about him.

¹⁷ The flood [that is, the downpour of rain] was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased and bore up the ark, and it was lifted [high] above the land.

¹⁸ And the waters became mighty and increased greatly upon the land, and the ark went [gently floating] upon the surface of the waters.

¹⁹ And the waters prevailed so exceedingly and were so mighty upon the earth that all the high hills under the whole sky were covered.

²⁰ [In fact] the waters became fifteen cubits higher, as the high hills were covered.

²¹ And all flesh ceased to breathe that moved upon the earth—fowls and birds, [tame] animals, [wild] beasts, all swarming and creeping things that swarm and creep upon the land, and all mankind.

²² Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils were the breath and spirit of life died.

²³ God destroyed (blotted out) every living thing that was upon the face of the earth; man and animals and the creeping things and the birds of the heavens were destroyed (blotted out) from the land. Only Noah remained alive, and those who were with him in the ark.^(A)

²⁴ And the waters prevailed [mightily] upon the earth or land 150 days (five months).

8 And God [earnestly] remembered Noah and every living thing and all the animals that were with him in the ark; and God made a wind blow over the land, and the waters sank down and abated.

² Also the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the gushing rain from the sky was checked,

³ And the waters receded from the land continually. At the end of 150 days the waters had diminished.

⁴ On the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat [in Armenia].

⁵ And the waters continued to diminish until the tenth month; on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the high hills were seen.

⁴ For God did not [even] spare angels that sinned, but cast them into hell, delivering them to be kept there in pits of gloom till the judgment and their doom.

⁵ And He spared not the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven other persons, when He brought a flood upon the world of ungodly [people].^(A)

⁶ And He condemned to ruin and extinction the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, reducing them to ashes [and thus] set them forth as an example to those who would be ungodly;^(B)

⁷ And He rescued righteous Lot, greatly worn out and distressed by the wanton ways of the ungodly and lawless—^(C)

⁸ For that just man, living [there] among them, tortured his righteous soul every day with what he saw and heard of [their] unlawful and wicked deeds—

⁹ Now if [all these things are true, then be sure] the Lord knows how to rescue the godly out of temptations and trials, and how to keep the ungodly under chastisement until the day of judgment and doom,

¹⁰ And particularly those who walk after the flesh and indulge in the lust of polluting passion and scorn and despise authority. Presumptuous [and] daring [self-willed and self-loving creatures]! They scoff at and revile dignitaries (glorious ones) without trembling,