The Reign of David

ADONAI rewarded me for my uprightness, he repaid me because my hands were clean.

"For I have kept the ways of ADONAI, I have not done evil by leaving my God;

for all his rulings were before me, I did not depart from his regulations.

I was pure-hearted toward him and kept myself from my sin.

"Hence ADONAI repaid me for my uprightness, according to my purity in his view.

With the merciful, you are merciful; with the champion of purity, you are pure;

with the honest, you are honest; but with the crooked you are cunning.

People afflicted, you save; but when your eyes are on the haughty, you humble them.

"For you, ADONAI, are my lamp; ADONAI lights up my darkness.

With you I can run through a whole troop of men, with my God I can leap a wall.

"As for God, his way is perfect, the word of ADONAI has been tested by fire; he shields all who take refuge in him.

For who is God but ADONAI, and who is a Rock but our God?

"God is my strength and protection; he makes my way go straight.

He makes me swift and sure-footed as a deer and enables me to stand on my high places.

He trains my hands for war until my arms can bend a bow of bronze;

You give me your shield, which is salvation; your answers make me great.

You lengthen the steps I can take, yet my ankles do not turn.

"I pursued my enemies and wiped them out, without turning back until they were destroyed.

I destroyed them, crushed them; they can't get up; they have fallen under my feet.

"For you braced me with strength for the battle and bent down my adversaries beneath me.

You made my enemies turn their backs in flight, so that I could destroy those who hate me.

"They looked, but there was no one to help, even to ADONAI, but he didn't answer.

I pulverized them like dust on the ground, pounded and stamped on them like mud in the streets.

"You also freed me from the quarrels of my people. You kept me to be the head of the nations; a people I did not know now serve me.

Foreigners come cringing to me; the moment they hear of me, they obey me.