Psalm 18 Paraphrase

Ps.18  

1. I love the Lord, His strength is mine;

He is my God, I trust His grace.

My fortress high, my shield divine,

My Saviour and my hidingplace.

2. My prayer to God shall still be raised

When troubles thick around me close;

The Lord, most worthy to be praised,

Will rescue me from all my foes. 

3. When, floods of evil raging near,

Down nigh to death my soul was brought,

I cried to God in all my fear;

He heard and great deliverance wrought. 

4. He came: the earth's foundations quake,

The hills are shaken from their place,

Thick smoke and fire devouring break

In anger dread before His face. 

5. Descending through the bending skies,

With gloom and darkness under Him,

Forth through the storm Jehovah flies

As on the wings of cherubim. 

6. Thick darkness hides Him from the view,

And swelling clouds His presence veil,

Until His glorious light breaks through

In lightning flash and glistening hail. 

7. Jehovah's thunders fill the heaven,

The dreadful voice of God Most High;

With shafts of light the clouds are riven,

His foes, dismayed, in terror fly. 

8. The raging torrents overflow,

And sweep the world's foundations bare,

Because Thy blasts of anger blow,

O Lord of earth and sea and air. 

9. He took me from the whelming waves

Of bitter hate and sore distress;

The Lord, my stay and helper, saves,

Though mighty foes around me press. 

10. From direful straits He set me free,

He saved the man of His delight;

For good the Lord rewarded me,

Because I kept His ways aright.