Psalm 18
The full text of Psalm 18 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
For the choirmaster. Of David, the servant of the LORD, who addressed 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. He said:.
1 I love you, O LORD, my strength.
2 The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
3 I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised,
and I am saved from my enemies.
4 The cords of death encompassed me;
the torrents of destruction assailed me;
5 the cords of Sheol entangled me;
the snares of death confronted me.
6 In my distress I called upon the LORD;
to my God I cried for help.
From his temple he heard my voice,
and my cry to him reached his ears.
7 Then the earth reeled and rocked;
the foundations of the mountains trembled
and quaked, because he was angry.
8 Smoke went up from his nostrils,
and devouring fire from his mouth;
glowing coals blazed forth from him.
9 He bowed the heavens and came down;
thick darkness was under his feet.
10 He rode on a cherub and flew;
he soared on the wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him,
thick clouds dark with water.
12 Out of the brightness before him
hailstones and coals of fire broke through his clouds.
13 The LORD thundered in the heavens,
and the Most High uttered his voice,
hailstones and coals of fire.
14 And he sent out his arrows and scattered them;
he flashed forth lightnings and routed them.
15 Then the channels of the sea were seen,
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 sent from on high, he took me;
he drew me out of many waters.
17 He rescued me from my strong enemy
and from those who hated me,
for they were too mighty for me.
18 They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
but the LORD was my support.
19 He brought me out into a broad place;
he rescued me, because he delighted in me.
20 The LORD dealt with me according to my righteousness;
according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me.
21 For I have kept the ways of the LORD,
and have not wickedly departed from my God.
22 For all his rules were before me,
and his statutes I did not put away from me.
23 I was blameless before him,
and I kept myself from my guilt.
24 So the LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.
25 With the faithful you show yourself faithful;
with the blameless man you show yourself blameless;
26 with the purified you show yourself pure;
and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous.
27 For you save a humble people,
but the haughty eyes you bring down.
28 For it is you who light my lamp;
the LORD my God lightens my darkness.
29 For by you I can run against a troop,
and by my God I can leap over a wall.
30 This God—his way is perfect;
the word of the LORD proves true;
he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.
31 For who is God, but the LORD?
And who is a rock, except our God?—
32 the God who equipped me with strength
and made my way blameless.
33 He made my feet like the feet of a deer
and set me secure on the heights.
34 He trains my hands for war,
so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
35 You have given me the shield of your salvation,
and your right hand supported me,
and your gentleness made me great.
36 You gave a wide place for my steps under me,
and my feet did not slip.
37 I pursued my enemies and overtook them,
and did not turn back till they were consumed.
38 I thrust them through, so that they were not able to rise;
they fell under my feet.
39 For you equipped me with strength for the battle;
you made those who rise against me sink under me.
40 You made my enemies turn their backs to me,
and those who hated me I destroyed.
41 They cried for help, but there was none to save;
they cried to the LORD, but he did not answer them.
42 I beat them fine as dust before the wind;
I cast them out like the mire of the streets.
43 You delivered me from strife with the people;
you made me the head of the nations;
a people I had not known served me.
44 As soon as they heard of me they obeyed me;
foreigners came cringing to me.
45 Foreigners lost heart
and came trembling out of their fortresses.
46 The LORD lives, and blessed be my rock,
and exalted be the God of my salvation—
47 the God who gave me vengeance
and subdued peoples under me,
48 who delivered me from my enemies;
yes, you exalted me above those who rose against me;
you rescued me from the man of violence.
49 For this I will praise you, O LORD, among the nations,
and sing to your name.
50 Great salvation he brings to his king,
and shows steadfast love to his anointed,
to David and his offspring forever.
Translation notes (12)
- Psalm 18:1a The Hebrew word 'erhamka is a unique verb meaning, "I am moved with deep compassion/love toward you."
- Psalm 18:2a Two distinct Hebrew words stand behind "rock": sela (סֶלַע), 'crag' or 'cliff', and tsur (צוּר), 'rock mass', the second occurrence here. The phrase qeren yishi, 'horn of my salvation', draws on the horn of a powerful animal as an ancient image of strength; the idiom recurs in Hannah's song and in Zechariah's prophecy in Luke 1:69.
- Psalm 18:5a Sheol (שְׁאוֹל) is the Hebrew name for the realm of the dead, the shadowy underworld to which all the deceased descend; it is retained untranslated because no English word matches its scope. The King James tradition rendered it 'hell' here, but the psalmist depicts not a place of punishment but death itself, imagined as a hunter binding its prey with cords and snares.
- Psalm 18:8a Hebrew 'aph ('אף') means both 'nostril' and 'anger', linking this image to the divine wrath of the previous verse; smoke rising from the nostrils is a bodily picture of burning anger. The verse belongs to a storm theophany portraying the LORD as a divine warrior, imagery paralleled in 2 Samuel 22:9, where this psalm recurs almost verbatim.
- Psalm 18:10a Kerub (כְּרוּב) here denotes the winged creature on which the Lord rides, imagery of a divine chariot-throne developed further in Ezekiel 1 and 10. The verb translated 'soared', yede', suggests the swoop of a bird of prey; the parallel in 2 Samuel 22:11 reads yera', 'he was seen', a variation of a single similar Hebrew letter.
- Psalm 18:15a The Masoretic Text of Psalm 18 reads afikei mayim, 'channels of waters'; the parallel poem in 2 Samuel 22:16 reads afikei yam, 'channels of the sea', the reading followed here. The exposure of the seabed by the blast of the divine nostrils recalls Exodus 15:8, where at the blast of God's nostrils the waters piled up, casting the psalmist's rescue as a new sea-deliverance.
- Psalm 18:20a The claim rests on tsedeq ('righteousness') and bor ('cleanness'), terms of covenant loyalty rather than sinless perfection; the following verse defines them as keeping the ways of the LORD. As royal language (this psalm parallels 2 Samuel 22), it asserts the king's faithfulness to his covenant obligations, on which God's deliverance was conditioned.
- Psalm 18:26a The Hebrew sets ʿiqqesh (עִקֵּשׁ), 'crooked', against tithpattal (תִּתְפַּתָּל), a reflexive form of pathal, 'to twist', creating a wordplay in which God meets the twisted with twisting. The parallel text in 2 Samuel 22:27 shows a slightly different verb form, but the sense is the same: God outmaneuvers the devious rather than becoming devious himself.
- Psalm 18:35a This can also be translated as "your condescension/humility" (anvatekha), referring to God stooping to lift up.
- Psalm 18:43a The parallel text in 2 Samuel 22:44 reads 'strife with my people' and tishmereni, 'you kept me', where this psalm has am, 'people', without the suffix and tesimeni, 'you set me'. The two forms of the poem preserve slight differences in the Masoretic Text, and the psalm's wording extends the king's rule over foreign nations who had not previously known him.
- Psalm 18:49a Paul quotes this verse in Romans 15:9, following the Septuagint, as scriptural warrant that the Gentiles glorify God for his mercy. The Hebrew goyim, 'nations', is the standard term for the peoples outside Israel, so David's vow of praise among them anticipates worship extending beyond Israel.
- Psalm 18:50a Hebrew magdil, 'he makes great', underlies 'great salvation he brings'; the parallel in 2 Samuel 22:51 reads migdol, 'tower of salvation'. The verse pairs chesed, 'steadfast love', with mashiach, 'anointed one', recalling the covenant of 2 Samuel 7, in which the LORD promises to establish David's offspring forever.
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