Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 18
Unfailing Kindness to David
And to His Descendant Forever
(2 Samuel 22)
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For the choir director.
By David, the servant of the Lord, who spoke the words of this song to the Lord on the day when the Lord had delivered him from the grasp of all his enemies, even from the grasp of Saul.
Praise to the Rock of Salvation
1 Then he said:
I love you, O Lord, my strength.
2 The Lord is my rocky cliff, my stronghold, and my deliverer.
My God is my rock. I take refuge in him.
He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my high fortress.
3 I call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise,
and I am saved from my enemies.
David’s Uprightness as a Basis for God’s Judgment
20 The Lord has dealt with me according to my righteousness.
According to the cleanness of my hands he has repaid me,
21 for I have kept the ways of the Lord.
I have not done evil and departed from my God.
22 So all his just decrees remain before me,
and I have not turned his statutes away from me.
23 I have been blameless with him.
I have kept myself from guilt.
24 The Lord has repaid me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.
God’s Uprightness as a Basis for His Judgment
25 To the merciful you reveal yourself as merciful.
To the blameless person you reveal yourself as blameless.
26 To the pure you reveal yourself as pure,
but to the crooked you reveal yourself as crafty.
27 For you save humble people,
but you bring low the eyes of the arrogant.
28 Yes, you light my lamp, O Lord.
My God turns my darkness to light.
29 For with you I can charge against a battalion,
and with my God I can jump over a wall.
God Equips David for Victory
30 This God—his way is blameless.
The speech of the Lord is pure.
He is a shield for all who take refuge in him.
31 For who is God besides the Lord?
And who is the Rock except our God?
32 This God wraps me with strength
and makes my way perfect.[a]
18 You failed to remember the Rock who conceived you.
You forgot the God who gave you birth.
19 The Lord saw this and rejected them,
because his sons and daughters had provoked him.
20 So the Lord said:[a]
I will hide my face from them,
until I see what their final condition will be,
because they are a twisted generation,
children who cannot be trusted.
28 For they are a nation that never takes advice,
and they understand nothing.
29 If only they had been wise,
they would have comprehended this.
They would have understood
what the final outcome would be.
30 How could one pursue a thousand,
and two chase away ten thousand,
unless their Rock had sold them,
and the Lord had handed them over?
31 Yes, their rock is not like our Rock,
as our enemies themselves recognize.
32 For their vine grows from the vine of Sodom
and from the fields of Gomorrah.
Their grapes are poison grapes.
They have bitter clusters.
33 Their wine is burning snake venom
and the deadly poison of cobras.
34 Do I not have all this stored up with me?
Is this not sealed up in my storehouses?
35 To me belongs vengeance and repayment.
It will come at the time when their foot slips.
Indeed, the day of their disaster is near,
and their impending doom is coming quickly.
36 Yes, the Lord will judge his people,
but he will change his course of action toward his servants
when he sees that their strength is exhausted,
and that there are none left, either as prisoners or still free.
37 Then he will say:
Where are their gods,
the rock in which they sought refuge,
38 the gods that ate the fat of their sacrifices
and drank the wine of their drink offerings?
Let them rise up and help you.
Let them be a shelter over you.
39 Now see that I, only I, am he,
and there is not a god comparable to me.
I put to death and I make alive.
I wound and I heal.
There is no one who can deliver out of my hand.
33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable are his judgments
and how untraceable his ways!
34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his adviser?”[a]
35 “Or who has first given to God
that he will be repaid?”[b]
36 For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.