Office of Readings
psalm Psalm 18:2-7
I will love thee, O Lord, my strength: The 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. Praising, I will call upon the Lord: and I shall be saved from my enemies. The sorrows of death surrounded me: and the torrents of iniquity troubled me. The sorrows of hell encompassed me: and the snares of death prevented me. In 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.
psalm Psalm 18:8-20
The earth shook and trembled: the foundations of the mountains were troubled and were moved, because he was angry with them. There went up a smoke in his wrath: and a fire flamed from his face: coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens, and came down, and darkness was under his feet. And he ascended upon the cherubim, and he flew; he flew upon the wings of the winds. And he made darkness his covert, his pavilion round about him: dark waters in the clouds of the air. At the brightness that was before him the clouds passed, hail and coals of fire. And the Lord thundered from heaven, and the Highest gave his voice: hail and coals of fire. And he sent forth his arrows, and he scattered them: he multiplied lightnings, and troubled them. Then 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. He sent from on high, and took me: and received me out of many waters. He delivered me from my strongest enemies, and from them that hated me: for they were too strong for me. They prevented me in the day of my affliction: and the Lord became my protector. And he brought me forth into a large place: he saved me, because he was well pleased with me.
psalm Psalm 18:21-30
And the Lord will reward me according to my justice; and will repay me according to the cleanness of my hands: Because I have kept the ways of the Lord; and have not done wickedly against my God. For all his judgments are in my sight: and his justices I have not put away from me. And I shall be spotless with him: and shall keep myself from my iniquity. And the Lord will reward me according to my justice: and according to the cleanness of my hands before his eyes. With the holy thou wilt be holy; and with the innocent man thou wilt be innocent: And withe the elect thou wilt be elect: and with the perverse thou wilt be perverted. For thou wilt save the humble people; but wilt bring down the eyes of the proud. For thou lightest my lamp, O Lord: O my God, enlighten my darkness. For by thee I shall be delivered from temptation; and through my God I shall go over a wall.