This psalm celebrates a victory. Enthusiasm, fervor, gratitude: God has shaken the universe to come to my help.
1* ① 2I love you, O Lord, my strength.
3The Lord is my rock, my fortress,
my deliverer and my God.
He is the rock in whom I take refuge.
He is my shield, my powerful savior, my stronghold.
4I call on the Lord, who is worthy of praise: he saves me from my enemies!
5A deadly flood surrounded me,
devilish torrents rushed at me;
6caught by the cords of the grave,
I was brought to the snares of death.
7But I called upon the Lord in my distress,
I cried to my God for help; and from his temple he heard my voice,
my cry of grief reached his ears.
8Then the earth reeled and rocked;
the foundations of the mountains shook;
they trembled at his fury.
9Smoke rose from his nostrils,
from his mouth a devouring fire
throwing off live embers.
10He bent the heavens and came down
with dark clouds under his feet.
11He rode on a cherub and flew,
borne on the swift wings of the wind.
12Veiled with darkness surrounding him,
he made misty rain clouds his tent.
13Then from the brightness of his presence
hail and fiery embers broke forth.
14From heaven the Lord thundered;
the voice of the Most High resounded.
15Sending out a hail of arrows, he scattered them;
flashing forth bolts of lightning, he routed them.
16The beds of the seas appeared,
the foundations of the world were laid bare
at the rebuke of the Lord,
at the blast of his breath.
17Reaching down from above,
he drew me out of the deep waters.
18Too strong for me were my enemies,
but he rescued me from my adversaries.
19They launched their attack on an opportune day,
but the Lord was my support.
20He has set me out in the open,
he saved me because he cares for me!
21The Lord rewarded me for my justice,
according to my righteousness.
22For I have been faithful to the Lord’s way
and have not departed from my God.
23All his ordinances are before me,
I have always followed his statutes.
24Before him I have done uprightly
and kept myself from iniquity.
25The Lord treats me according to my merits,
according to the cleanness of my hands.
26With the faithful you are faithful;
with the blameless you are blameless;
27with the pure you are pure but with the crooked you are astute.
28For you raise up the humble
and bring down the arrogant.
29Lord, you give light to my lamp.
O my God, you brighten my darkness.
30Yes, with you I charge the armed bands,
and by my God I leap over the wall.
31This God – his way is perfect;
the word of the Lord can stand fire.
He is a shield for those who seek refuge in him.
32There is no other God but Yahweh.
There is no other rock but our God.
33He is the God who girds me with strength
and prepares my ways.
34He makes my feet as swift as the deer’s;
he sets me securely on the heights.
35He trains my hands for war
and my arms to bend the bronze-bow.
36You give me your shield for protection,
your right hand upholds me,
and your help makes me great.
37You enlarge the space before me,
my step will not falter.
38I pursue my enemies and overtake them,
I do not turn back till I have destroyed them.
39Thrusting them through,
I do not give them time to rise;
they fall under my feet.
40You give me strength for the battle;
you subdue my adversaries beneath me;
41you put my enemies to flight
and destroy those who hate me.
42They cry for help, but no one comes.
They cry to the Lord; he does not answer them.
43I pulverize them as dust before the wind;
like mud in the streets I trample them.
44You delivered me from my people’s quarrels
and made me head over the nations.
They came to serve me – people I have not known.
45At the sound of my voice, they rose to obey,
foreigners fawned before me.
46Staggering out of their fortresses,
they came to me cringing and trembling.
47The Lord lives! Praised be my rock!
Exalted be my savior God –
48the God who grants me vengeance
and subdues the peoples for me.
49He delivers me from my foes;
he exalts me above my adversaries;
he rescues me from violent people.
50For this I extol you, O Lord, among the nations;
I will sing praise to your name, saying:
51“He has given victories to his king;
he has shown his love to his anointed ones,
to David, and to his descendants forever.”
- We find in 2 Samuel 22 a version only slightly different from this psalm attributed to David. The author thanks God who has given him the victory, he recognizes with gratitude his intervention. This intervention is expressed in a poetic way like a glorious appearance of God in the heights of the heaven (see Hab 3). 18:3. My powerful Savior: literally: my triumphant horn. 18:10. He bent the heavens and came down. It is what he did when his own Son came among us to deliver humanity from its enemies. 18:11. In the traditions of the Middle East, the cherubs were the winged monsters charged to escort the gods. For the Israelites they drew God's chariot or carried his throne. Ps 18,29 Jesus said: I am the light of the world, and we repeat with the psalmist: You give light to my lamp.
