David’s Song of Deliverance
1 And David spoke zto the Lord the words of this song on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. 2 aHe said,
b“The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
3 cmy1 God, my rock, din whom I take refuge,
emy shield, and fthe horn of my salvation,
gmy stronghold and hmy refuge,
my savior; you save me from violence.
4 I call upon the Lord, who is iworthy to be praised,
and I am saved from my enemies.
5 j“For the waves of death encompassed me,
the torrents of destruction assailed me;2
6 kthe cords of Sheol entangled me;
the snares of death confronted me.
7 l“In my distress I called upon the Lord;
to my God I called.
From his temple he heard my voice,
and my cry mcame to his ears.
8 “Then nthe earth reeled and rocked;
othe foundations of the heavens trembled
and quaked, because he was angry.
9 Smoke went up from his nostrils,3
and devouring fire from his mouth;
pglowing coals flamed forth from him.
10 qHe bowed the heavens and rcame down;
sthick darkness was under his feet.
11 He rode on a cherub and flew;
he was seen on tthe wings of the wind.
12 He made sdarkness around him uhis canopy,
thick clouds, a gathering of water.
13 Out of the brightness before him
vcoals of fire flamed forth.
14 wThe Lord thundered from heaven,
and the Most High uttered his voice.
15 And he sent out xarrows and scattered them;
lightning, and routed them.
16 Then the channels of the sea were seen;
the foundations of the world were laid bare,
at the rebuke of the Lord,
at the yblast of the breath of his nostrils.
17 z“He sent from on high, he took me;
he drew me out of many waters.
18 He rescued me from my strong enemy,
from those who hated me,
for they were too mighty for me.
19 They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
but the Lord was my support.
20 aHe brought me out into a broad place;
he rescued me, because bhe delighted in me.
21 “The Lord cdealt with me according to my righteousness;
according to the dcleanness of my hands he rewarded me.
22 eFor I have kept the ways of the Lord
and have not wickedly departed from my God.
23 fFor all his rules were before me,
and from his statutes I did not turn aside.
24 I was gblameless before him,
and I kept myself from guilt.
25 dAnd the Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness,
according to my cleanness in his sight.
26 h“With the merciful you show yourself merciful;
with the gblameless man you show yourself blameless;
27 with the purified you deal purely,
and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous.
28 iYou save a humble people,
jbut your eyes are on the haughty to bring them down.
29 kFor you are my lamp, O Lord,
and my God lightens my darkness.
30 For by you I can run against a troop,
and by my God I can leap over a wall.
31 This God—lhis way is perfect;
the mword of the Lord proves true;
he is na shield for all those who take refuge in him.
32 “For who is God, but the Lord?
oAnd who is a rock, except our God?
33 This God is my pstrong refuge
and has made my4 way blameless.5
34 qHe made my feet like the feet of a deer
and set me secure ron the heights.
35 sHe trains my hands for war,
so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
36 You have given me the shield of your salvation,
and your gentleness made me great.
37 tYou gave a wide place for my steps under me,
and my feet6 did not slip;
38 I pursued my enemies and destroyed them,
and did not turn back until they were consumed.
39 I consumed them; I thrust them through, so that they did not rise;
they fell uunder my feet.
40 For you equipped me with strength for the battle;
you made vthose who rise against me sink under me.
41 You wmade my enemies turn their backs to me,7
those who hated me, and I destroyed them.
42 They looked, but there was none to save;
they cried to the Lord, but xhe did not answer them.
43 I beat them fine yas the dust of the earth;
I crushed them and stamped them down zlike the mire of the streets.
44 “You delivered me from strife with my people;8
you kept me as the head of athe nations;
bpeople whom I had not known served me.
45 Foreigners came cringing to me;
as soon as they heard of me, they obeyed me.
46 Foreigners lost heart
47 “The Lord lives, and blessed be my rock,
and exalted be dmy God, ethe rock of my salvation,
48 the God who gave me vengeance
and fbrought down peoples under me,
49 who brought me out from my enemies;
you exalted me above vthose who rose against me;
you delivered me from gmen of violence.
50 h“For this I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations,
and sing praises to your name.
51 iGreat salvation he brings10 to his king,
and shows steadfast love to jhis anointed,
to David and his offspring kforever.”
My Rock and My Fortress
Of David.
1 Blessed be the Lord, my grock,
hwho trains my hands for war,
and my fingers for battle;
2 he is my isteadfast love and my jfortress,
my kstronghold and my deliverer,
my lshield and he in whom I take refuge,
3 O Lord, nwhat is man that you oregard him,
or the son of man that you think of him?
4 pMan is like a breath;
5 sBow your heavens, O Lord, and come down!
tTouch the mountains so that they smoke!
6 uFlash forth the lightning and scatter them;
usend out your arrows and rout them!
7 vStretch out your hand from on high;
wrescue me and deliver me from the many waters,
from the hand xof foreigners,
8 whose mouths speak ylies
and whose right hand is za right hand of falsehood.
9 I will sing aa new song to you, O God;
upon aa ten-stringed harp I will play to you,
10 who gives victory to kings,
who brescues David his servant from the cruel sword.
11 Rescue me and deliver me
from the hand xof foreigners,
whose mouths speak ylies
and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
12 May our sons in their youth
be like cplants full grown,
our daughters like dcorner pillars
cut for the structure of a palace;
13 emay our granaries be full,
fproviding all kinds of produce;
may our sheep bring forth thousands
and ten thousands in our fields;
14 may our cattle be heavy with young,
suffering no mishap or failure in bearing;2
may there be no gcry of distress in our streets!
15 hBlessed are the people to whom such blessings fall!
iBlessed are the people whose God is the Lord!
Proclaiming Christ Crucified
1 And I, when I came to you, brothers,1 xdid not come proclaiming to you ythe testimony2 of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except zJesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And aI was with you bin weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of cthe Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men3 but din the power of God.
Wisdom from the Spirit
6 Yet among ethe mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not fa wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, gwho are doomed to pass away. 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, hwhich God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of ithe rulers of this age understood this, for jif they had, they would not have crucified kthe Lord of glory. 9 But, as it is written,
l“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
10 these things oGod has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even pthe depths of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts qexcept the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now rwe have received not sthe spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this tin words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, uinterpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.4
14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are vfolly to him, and whe is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The xspiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 y“For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But zwe have the mind of Christ.