For you are my lamp, Yahweh. Yahweh lights up my darkness. For by you I can run over a troop; by my God I can leap over a wall. As for God, his way is perfect. The word of Yahweh is pure. He is a shield to everyone who takes refuge in him. For who is God except Yahweh, and who is a rock except our God? God is my refuge, and he leads the blameless person on his path. He makes my feet swift like a deer and places me on the high hills. He trains my hands for war, and my arms to bend a bow of bronze. You have given me the shield of your salvation, and your favor has made me great. You have made a wide place for my feet beneath me, so my feet have not slipped. I pursued my enemies and destroyed them. I did not turn back until they were destroyed. I devoured them and smashed them; they cannot rise. They have fallen under my feet. You girded me with strength for battle; you put under me those who rise up against me. You gave me the back of my enemies' necks; I annihilated those who hated me. They cried for help, but no one saved them; they cried out to Yahweh, but he did not answer them. I beat them into fine pieces like dust on the ground, I trampled them like mud in the streets. You also have rescued me from the disputes of my own people. You have kept me as the head of nations. A people that I have not known serves me. Foreigners were forced to bow to me. As soon as they heard of me, they obeyed me. The foreigners came trembling out of their strongholds. Yahweh lives! May my rock be praised. May God be exalted, the rock of my salvation. This is the God who executes vengeance for me, the one who brings down peoples under me. He sets me free from my enemies. Indeed, you lifted me up above those who rose up against me. You rescue me from violent men. Therefore I will give thanks to you, Yahweh, among the nations; I will sing praises to your name. God gives great victory to his king, and he shows his covenant loyalty to his anointed one, to David and to his descendants forever.
