THE BOOK OF PSALMS
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
16:9. From the face of the wicked who have afflicted me. My enemies have surrounded my soul:
16:10. They have shut up their fat: their mouth hath spoken proudly.
Their fat... That is, their bowels of compassion: for they have none for me.
16:11. They have cast me forth, and now they have surrounded me: they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth.
16:12. They have taken me, as a lion prepared for the prey; and as a young lion dwelling in secret places.
16:13. Arise, O Lord, disappoint him and supplant him; deliver my soul from the wicked one; thy sword
16:14. From the enemies of thy hand. O Lord, divide them from the few of the earth in their life: their belly is filled from thy hidden stores. They are full of children: and they have left to their little ones the rest of their substance.
Divide them from the few, etc... That is, cut them off from the earth, and the few trifling things thereof; which they are so proud of, or divide them from the few; that is, from thy elect, who are but few; that they may no longer have it in their power to oppress them. It is not meant by way of a curse or imprecation; but, as many other the like passages in the psalms, by way of a prediction, or prophecy of what should come upon them, in punishment of their wickedness. Ibid. Thy hidden stores... Thy secret treasures, out of which thou furnishest those earthly goods, which, with a bountiful hand thou hast distributed both to the good and the bad.
16:15. But as for me, I will appear before thy sight in justice: I shall be satisfied when thy glory shall appear.
Psalms Chapter 17
Diligam te, Domine.
David's thanks to God for his delivery from all his enemies.
17:1. Unto 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 hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul: and he said:
17:2. I will love thee, O Lord, my strength:
17:3. 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.
17:4. Praising, I will call upon the Lord: and I shall be saved from my enemies.
17:5. The sorrows of death surrounded me: and the torrents of iniquity troubled me.
17:6. The sorrows of hell encompassed me: and the snares of death prevented me.
17:7. 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.
17:8. The earth shook and trembled: the foundations of the mountains were troubled and were moved, because he was angry with them.
17:9. There went up a smoke in his wrath: and a fire flamed from his face: coals were kindled by it.
17:10. He bowed the heavens, and came down, and darkness was under his feet.
17:11. And he ascended upon the cherubim, and he flew; he flew upon the wings of the winds.
17:12. And he made darkness his covert, his pavilion round about him: dark waters in the clouds of the air.
17:13. At the brightness that was before him the clouds passed, hail and coals of fire.
17:14. And the Lord thundered from heaven, and the Highest gave his voice: hail and coals of fire.
17:15. And he sent forth his arrows, and he scattered them: he multiplied lightnings, and troubled them.
17:16. 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.
17:17. He sent from on high, and took me: and received me out of many waters.
17:18. He delivered me from my strongest enemies, and from them that hated me: for they were too strong for me.
17:19. They prevented me in the day of my affliction: and the Lord became my rotector.
17:20. And he brought me forth into a large place: he saved me, because he was well pleased with me.
17:21. And the Lord will reward me according to my justice; and will repay me according to the cleanness of my hands:
17:22. Because I have kept the ways of the Lord; and have not done wickedly against my God.
17:23. For all his judgments are in my sight: and his justices I have not put away from me.
17:24. And I shall be spotless with him: and shall keep myself from my iniquity.
17:25. And the Lord will reward me according to my justice: and according to the cleanness of my hands before his eyes.
17:26. With the holy thou wilt be holy; and with the innocent man thou wilt be innocent:
17:27. And withe the elect thou wilt be elect: and with the perverse thou wilt be perverted.
17:28. For thou wilt save the humble people; but wilt bring down the eyes of the proud.