11He made darkness His hiding place, His canopy around Him,
         Darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.

12From the brightness before Him passed His thick clouds,
         Hailstones and coals of fire.

13The LORD also thundered in the heavens,
         And the Most High uttered His voice,
         Hailstones and coals of fire.

14He sent out His arrows, and scattered them,
         And lightning flashes in abundance, and routed them.

15Then the channels of water appeared,
         And the foundations of the world were laid bare
         At Your rebuke, O LORD,
         At the blast of the breath of Your nostrils.

16He sent from on high, He took me;
         He drew me out of many waters.

17He delivered me from my strong enemy,
         And from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me.

18They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
         But the LORD was my stay.

19He brought me forth also into a broad place;
         He rescued me, because He delighted in me.

20The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness;
         According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me.

21For I have kept the ways of the LORD,
         And have not wickedly departed from my God.

22For all His ordinances were before me,
         And I did not put away His statutes from me.

23I was also blameless with Him,
         And I kept myself from my iniquity.

24Therefore the LORD has recompensed me according to my righteousness,
         According to the cleanness of my hands in His eyes.

25With the kind You show Yourself kind;
         With the blameless You show Yourself blameless;

26With the pure You show Yourself pure,
         And with the crooked You show Yourself astute.

27For You save an afflicted people,
         But haughty eyes You abase.

28For You light my lamp;
         The LORD my God illumines my darkness.

29For by You I can run upon a troop;
         And by my God I can leap over a wall.

30As for God, His way is blameless;
         The word of the LORD is tried;
         He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him.

31For who is God, but the LORD?
         And who is a rock, except our God,

32The God who girds me with strength
         And makes my way blameless?

33He makes my feet like hinds’ feet,
         And sets me upon my high places.

34He trains my hands for battle,
         So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

35You have also given me the shield of Your salvation,
         And Your right hand upholds me;
         And Your gentleness makes me great.

36You enlarge my steps under me,
         And my feet have not slipped.

37I pursued my enemies and overtook them,
         And I did not turn back until they were consumed.

38I shattered them, so that they were not able to rise;
         They fell under my feet.

39For You have girded me with strength for battle;
         You have subdued under me those who rose up against me.

40You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me,
         And I destroyed those who hated me.

41They cried for help, but there was none to save,
         Even to the LORD, but He did not answer them.

42Then I beat them fine as the dust before the wind;
         I emptied them out as the mire of the streets.

43You have delivered me from the contentions of the people;
         You have placed me as head of the nations;
         A people whom I have not known serve me.

44As soon as they hear, they obey me;
         Foreigners submit to me.

45Foreigners fade away,
         And come trembling out of their fortresses.

46The LORD lives, and blessed be my rock;
         And exalted be the God of my salvation,

47The God who executes vengeance for me,
         And subdues peoples under me.

48He delivers me from my enemies;
         Surely You lift me above those who rise up against me;
         You rescue me from the violent man.

49Therefore I will give thanks to You among the nations, O LORD,
         And I will sing praises to Your name.

50He gives great deliverance to His king,
         And shows lovingkindness to His anointed,
         To David and his descendants forever.

NASB ©1995

American Standard Version
He made darkness his hiding-place, his pavilion round about him, Darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And he made darkness his covert, his pavilion round about him: dark waters in the clouds of the air.

Darby Bible Translation
He made darkness his secret place, his tent round about him: darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.

English Revised Version
He made darkness his hiding place, his pavilion round about him; darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.

Webster's Bible Translation
He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion around him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.

World English Bible
He made darkness his hiding place, his pavilion around him, darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.

Young's Literal Translation
He maketh darkness His secret place, Round about Him His tabernacle, Darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.August 2. "Thy Gentleness Hath Made Me Great" (Ps. xviii. 35).
"Thy gentleness hath made me great" (Ps. xviii. 35). The blessed Comforter is gentle, tender, and full of patience and love. How gentle are God's dealings even with sinners! How patient His forbearance! How tender His discipline, with His own erring children! How He led Jacob, Joseph, Israel, David, Elijah, and all His ancient servants, until they could truly say, "Thy gentleness hath made me great." The heart in which the Holy Spirit dwells will always be characterized by gentleness, lowliness, …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

November the Eighteenth Exhilarant Spirits
"He maketh my feet like hinds' feet." --PSALM xviii. 31-39. I think of Wordsworth's lines, in which he describes a natural lady, made by Nature herself: "She shall be sportive as the fawn That wild with glee across the lawn Or up the mountain springs." And it is this buoyancy, this elasticity, this springiness that the Lord is waiting to impart to the souls of His children, so that they may move along the ways of life with the light steps of the fawn. Some of us move with very heavy feet. There …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

Conviction of Weakness.
The soul in the state of abandonment can abstain from justifying itself by word or deed. The divine action justifies it. This order of the divine will is the solid and firm rock on which the submissive soul reposes, sheltered from change and tempest. It is continually present under the veil of crosses, and of the most ordinary actions. Behind this veil the hand of God is hidden to sustain and to support those who abandon themselves entirely to Him. From the time that a soul becomes firmly established …
Jean-Pierre de Caussade—Abandonment to Divine Providence

Division of Actual Grace
Actual grace may be divided according to: (1) the difference existing between the faculties of the human soul, and (2) in reference to the freedom of the will. Considered in its relation to the different faculties of the soul, actual grace is either of the intellect, or of the will, or of the sensitive faculties. With regard to the free consent of the will, it is either (1) prevenient, also called cooeperating, or (2) efficacious or merely sufficient. 1. THE ILLUMINATING GRACE OF THE INTELLECT.--Actual …
Joseph Pohle—Grace, Actual and Habitual

He Explains and Refutes the Dogmas of Abaelard Respecting the Trinity.
He explains and refutes the dogmas of Abaelard respecting the Trinity. 1. We have in France an old teacher turned into a new theologian, who in his early days amused himself with dialectics, and now gives utterance to wild imaginations upon the Holy Scriptures. He is endeavouring again to quicken false opinions, long ago condemned and put to rest, not only his own, but those of others; and is adding fresh ones as well. I know not what there is in heaven above and in the earth beneath which he deigns …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux

The King --Continued.
In our last chapter we have seen that the key-note of "The Songs of the King" may be said to be struck in Psalm xviii. Its complete analysis would carry us far beyond our limits. We can but glance at some of the more prominent points of the psalm. The first clause strikes the key-note. "I love Thee, O Jehovah, my strength." That personal attachment to God, which is so characteristic of David's religion, can no longer be pent up in silence, but gushes forth like some imprisoned stream, broad and full …
Alexander Maclaren—The Life of David

Psalm 18:4. First Part. C. M. victory and Triumph Over Temporal Enemies.
1 We love thee, Lord, and we adore, Now is thine arm reveal'd; Thou art our strength, our heavenly tower, Our bulwark and our shield. 2 We fly to our eternal rock, And find a sure defence; His holy name our lips invoke, And draw salvation thence. 3 When God, our leader, shines in arms, What mortal heart can bear The thunder of his loud alarms? The lightning of his spear? 4 He rides upon the winged wind, And angels in array In millions wait to know his mind, And swift as flames obey. 5 He speaks, …
Isaac Watts—The Psalms of David

Where to Carry Troubles
And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up unto the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord.'--ISAIAH xxxvii. 14. When Hezekiah heard the threatenings of Sennacherib's servants, he rent his clothes and went into the house of the Lord, and sent to Isaiah entreating his prayers. When he received the menacing letter, his faith was greater, having been heartened by Isaiah's assurances. So he then himself appealed to Jehovah, spreading …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The victory of Unarmed Faith
'And David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine. 33. And Saul said to David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him: for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth. 34. And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock; 35. And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

David's Hymn of victory
'For Thou hast girded me with strength to battle: them that, rose up against me hast Thou subdued under me. 41. Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies, that I might destroy them that hate me. 42. They looked, but there was none to save; even unto the Lord, but He answered them not. 43. Then did I beat them as small as the dust of the earth, I did stamp them as the mire of the street, and did spread them abroad. 44. Thou also hast delivered me from the strivings of my people, Thou hast …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Prayer Out of the Deep.
Hear my prayer, O God; and hide not Thyself from my petition. Take heed unto me and hear me; how I mourn in my prayer and am vexed.--Psalm iv. 1, 2. In my trouble I will call upon the Lord, and complain unto my God; so shall He hear my voice out of His holy temple, and my complaint shall come before Him; it shall enter even into His ears.--Ps. xviii. 5, 6. The Lord is nigh unto them that call upon Him; He also will hear their cry, and will help them.--Psalm cxlv. 18, 19. In the day when I cried …
Charles Kingsley—Out of the Deep

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