Psalms 17

¹Unto the end, for David, the servant of the Lord, who spoke to the Lord the words of this canticle, in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul: and he said:

²I will love thee, O Lord, my strength:

³The Lord is my firmament, my refuge, and my deliverer. My God is my helper, and in him will I put my trust. My protector, and the horn of my salvation, and my support.

⁴Praising, I will call upon the Lord: and I shall be saved from my enemies.

⁵The sorrows of death surrounded me: and the torrents of iniquity troubled me.

⁶The sorrows of hell encompassed me: and the snares of death prevented me.

⁷In my affliction I called upon the Lord, and I cried to my God: And he heard my voice from his holy temple: and my cry before him came into his ears.

⁸The earth shook and trembled: the foundations of the mountains were troubled and were moved, because he was angry with them.

⁹There went up a smoke in his wrath: and a fire flamed from his face: coals were kindled by it.

¹⁰He bowed the heavens, and came down, and darkness was under his feet.

¹¹And he ascended upon the cherubim, and he flew; he flew upon the wings of the winds.

¹²And he made darkness his cover, his pavilion round about him: dark waters in the clouds of the air.

¹³At the brightness that was before him the clouds passed, hail and coals of fire.

¹⁴And the Lord thundered from heaven, and the Highest gave his voice: hail and coals of fire.

¹⁵And he sent forth his arrows, and he scattered them: he multiplied lightnings, and troubled them.

¹⁶Then the fountains of waters appeared, and the foundations of the world were discovered: At thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the spirit of thy wrath.

¹⁷He sent from on high, and took me: and received me out of many waters.

¹⁸He delivered me from my strongest enemies, and from them that hated me: for they were too strong for me.

¹⁹They prevented me in the day of my affliction: and the Lord became my protector.

²⁰And he brought me forth into a large place: he saved me, because he was well pleased with me.

²¹And the Lord will reward me according to my justice; and will repay me according to the cleanness of my hands:

²²Because I have kept the ways of the Lord; and have not done wickedly against my God.

²³For all his judgments are in my sight: and his justices I have not put away from me.

²⁴And I shall be spotless with him: and shall keep myself from my iniquity.

²⁵And the Lord will reward me according to my justice: and according to the cleanness of my hands before his eyes.

²⁶With the holy thou wilt be holy; and with the innocent man thou wilt be innocent:

²⁷And with the elect thou wilt be elect: and with the perverse thou wilt be perverted.

²⁸For thou wilt save the humble people; but wilt bring down the eyes of the proud.

²⁹For thou lightest my lamp, O Lord: O my God, enlighten my darkness.

³⁰For by thee I shall be delivered from temptation; and through my God I shall go over a wall.

³¹As for my God, his way is undefiled: the words of the Lord are fire-tried: he is the protector of all that trust in him.

³²For who is God but the Lord? or who is God but our God?

³³God, who hath girt me with strength; and made my way blameless.

³⁴Who hath made my feet like the feet of harts: and who setteth me upon high places.

³⁵Who teacheth my hands to war: and thou hast made my arms like a brazen bow.

³⁶And thou hast given me the protection of thy salvation: and thy right hand hath held me up: And thy discipline hath corrected me unto the end: and thy discipline, the same shall teach me.

³⁷Thou hast enlarged my steps under me; and my feet are not weakened.

³⁸I will pursue after my enemies, and overtake them: and I will not turn again till they are consumed.

³⁹I will break them, and they shall not be able to stand: they shall fall under my feet.

⁴⁰And thou hast girded me with strength unto battle; and hast subdued under me them that rose up against me.

⁴¹And thou hast made my enemies turn their back upon me, and hast destroyed them that hated me.

⁴²They cried, but there was none to save them, to the Lord: but he heard them not.

⁴³And I shall beat them as small as the dust before the wind; I shall bring them to nought, like the dirt in the streets.

⁴⁴Thou wilt deliver me from the contradictions of the people; thou wilt make me head of the Gentiles.

⁴⁵A people which I knew not, hath served me: at the hearing of the ear they have obeyed me.

⁴⁶The children that are strangers have lied to me, strange children have faded away, and have halted from their paths.

⁴⁷The Lord liveth, and blessed be my God, and let the God of my salvation be exalted.

⁴⁸O God, who avengest me, and subduest the people under me, my deliverer from my enraged enemies.

⁴⁹And thou wilt lift me up above them that rise up against me: from the unjust man thou wilt deliver me.

⁵⁰Therefore will I give glory to thee, O Lord, among the nations, and I will sing a psalm to thy name.

⁵¹Giving great deliverance to his king, and shewing mercy to David, his anointed: and to his seed for ever.

Psalms 17

¹Hear the right, O Lord, attend unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer, that goeth not out of feigned lips.

²Let my sentence come forth from thy presence; let thine eyes behold the things that are equal.

³Thou hast proved mine heart; thou hast visited me in the night; thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing; I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.

⁴Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer.

⁵Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not.

⁶I have called upon thee, for thou wilt hear me, O God: incline thine ear unto me, and hear my speech.

⁷Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them.

⁸Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings,

⁹From the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about.

¹⁰They are inclosed in their own fat: with their mouth they speak proudly.

¹¹They have now compassed us in our steps: they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth;

¹²Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.

¹³Arise, O Lord, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword:

¹⁴From men which are thy hand, O Lord, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure: they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes.

¹⁵As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.