The Lord is My Rock

(Psalm 27:1-14; Psalm 28:1-9)

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 hands of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. [2 Kings 22.] I will love thee, O Lord, my strength:

2The 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.

3Praising I will call upon the Lord: and I shall be saved from my enemies.

4The sorrows of death surrounded me: and the torrents of iniquity troubled me.

5The sorrows of hell encompassed me: and the snares of death prevented me.

6In 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.

7The earth shook and trembled: the foundations of the mountains were troubled and were moved, because he was angry with them.

8There went up a smoke in his wrath: and a fire flamed from his face: coals were kindled by it.

9He bowed the heavens, and came down: and darkness was under his feet.

10And he ascended upon the cherubim, and he flew; he flew upon the wings of the winds.

11And he made darkness his covert, his pavilion round about him: dark waters in the clouds of the air.

12At the brightness that was before him the clouds passed, hail and coals of fire.

13And the Lord thundered from heaven, and the highest gave his voice: hail and coals of fire.

14And he sent forth his arrows, and he scattered them: he multiplied lightnings, and troubled them.

15Then 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.

16He sent from on high, and took me: and received me out of many waters.

17He delivered me from my strongest enemies, and from them that hated me: for they were too strong for me.

18They prevented me in the day of my affliction: and the Lord became my protector.

19And he brought me forth into a large place: he saved me, because he was well pleased with me.

20And the Lord will reward me according to my justice; and will repay me according to the cleanness of my hands:

21Because I have kept the ways of the Lord; and have not done wickedly against my God.

22For till his judgments are in my sight: and his justices I have not put away from me.

23And I shall be spotless with him: and shall keep myself from my iniquity.

24And the Lord will reward me according to my justice; and according to the cleanness of my hands before his eyes.

25With the holy, thou wilt be holy; and with the innocent man thou wilt be innocent.

26And with the elect thou wilt be elect: and with the perverse thou wilt be perverted.

27For thou wilt save the humble people; but wilt bring down the eyes of the proud.

28For thou lightest my lamp, O Lord: O my God enlighten my darkness.

29For by thee I shall be delivered from temptation; and through my God I shall go over a wall.

30As 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.

31For who is God but the Lord? or who is God but our God?

32God who hath girt me with strength; and made my way blameless.

33Who hath made my feet like the feet of harts: and who setteth me upon high places.

34Who teacheth my hands to war: and thou hast made my arms like a brazen bow.

35And 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.

36Thou hast enlarged my steps under me; and my feet are not weakened.

37I will pursue after my enemies, and overtake them: and I will not turn again till they are consumed.

38I will break them, and they shall not be able to stand: they shall fall under my feet.

39And thou hast girded me with strength unto battle; and hast subdued under me them that rose up against me.

40And thou hast made my enemies turn their back upon me, and hast destroyed them that hated me.

41They cried, but there was none to save them, to the Lord: but he heard them not.

42And I shall beat them as small as the dust before the wind; I shall bring them to nought, like the dirt in the streets.

43Thou wilt deliver me from the contradictions of the people: thou wilt make me head of the Gentiles.

44A people, which I knew not, hath served me: at the hearing of the ear they have obeyed me.

45The children that are strangers have lied to me, strange children have faded away, and have halted from their paths.

46The Lord liveth, and blessed be my God, and let the God of my salvation be exalted :

47O God, who avengest me, and subduest the people under me, my deliverer from my enemies.

48And thou wilt lift me up above them that rise up against me: from the unjust man thou wilt deliver me.

49Therefore will I give glory to thee, O Lord, among the nations, and I will sing a psalm to thy name.

50Giving great deliverance to his king, and shewing mercy to David his anointed : and to his seed for ever.