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My God, my rock, in Him I take refuge;

My shield, and my horn of salvation, my high tower.

⁴Praised, I cry, is the Lord,

And I am saved from mine enemies.

 

⁵The cords of Death compassed me,

And the floods of ^[1]Belial assailed me.

⁶The cords of ^[1]Sheol surrounded me;

The snares of Death confronted me.

⁷In my distress I called upon the Lord,

And cried unto my God;

Out of His temple He heard my voice,

And my cry came before Him unto His ears.

 

⁸Then the earth did shake and quake,

The foundations also of the mountains did tremble;

They were shaken, because He was wroth.

⁹Smoke arose up in His nostrils,

And fire out of His mouth did devour;

Coals flamed forth from Him.

¹⁰He bowed the heavens also, and came down;

And thick darkness was under His feet.

¹¹And He rode upon a cherub, and did fly;

Yea, He did swoop down upon the wings of the wind.

¹²He made darkness His hiding-place, His pavilion round about Him;

Darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.

¹³At the brightness before Him, there passed through His thick clouds

Hailstones and coals of fire.

¹⁴The Lord also thundered in the heavens,

And the Most High gave forth His voice;

Hailstones and coals of fire.

¹⁵And He sent out His arrows, and scattered them;

And He shot forth lightnings, and discomfited them.

¹⁶And the channels of waters appeared,

And the foundations of the world were laid bare,

At Thy rebuke, O Lord,

At the blast of the breath of Thy nostrils.

 

¹⁷He sent from on high, He took me;

He drew me out of many waters.

¹⁸He delivered me from mine enemy

most strong,

And from them that hated me, for they were too mighty for me.

¹⁹They confronted me in the day of my calamity;

But the Lord was a stay unto me.

²⁰He brought me forth also into a large place;

He delivered me, because He delighted in me.

²¹The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness;

According to the cleanness of my hands hath He recompensed me.

²²For I have kept the ways of the Lord,

And have not wickedly departed from my God.

²³For all His ordinances were before me,

And I put not away His statutes from me.

²⁴And I was single-hearted with Him,

And I kept myself from mine iniquity.

²⁵Therefore hath the Lord recompensed me according to my righteousness,

According to the cleanness of my hands in His eyes.

1. That is, the nether-world.

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